Postdoctoral Researcher Walkability and Bikeability (Vitality Data Centre) (1.0 FTE)

The Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning (SGPL) has developed the challenging research programme "Urban Futures: Transitions Towards Economic and Social Sustainability for Cities". In this programme faculty members from different sub disciplines of Human Geography and Spatial Planning work closely together on topics like governance of urban transitions, smart urban governance, urban infrastructures, healthy urban living, urban inequalities and diversities, transnational mobilities, economic resilience and networks and flows in and between urban regions. The Department is responsible for the undergraduate programme in Human Geography and Spatial Planning and for a number of graduate programmes like Spatial Planning, Human Geography (Urban and Economic Geography), International Development Studies and Geographical Information Management and Applications (GIMA).

SGPL is involved in The Vitality Alliance (VA), a collaboration between Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology, aimed at developing interdisciplinary research in order to improve the vitality of citizens. One focus of the VA is on how urban environments influence sports and physical activity in public space. To investigate this issue, the VA has received funding to set up a Vitality Data Centre (VDC), which is hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences (UU) and the Faculty of Industrial Design (TU/e).

The VDC will process data about urban environments and individual behavior from a variety of sources and develop analytical tools to identify relationships between the urban environment, sports and physical activity. In the first stage of the project, we will focus on the walkability, bikeabilaty and runnability of urban environments. We are recruiting two Postdoc Researchers for this project: one at UU and one at TU/e.

As a Postdoc Researcher in this project you will set up a conceptual model for the relationship between urban environment, walking, cycling and running, develop the architecture of the VDC based on available data sources, and work on the implementation of the VDC. In collaboration with data scientist and developers of the VA, you will develop data science applications for accessing and integrating walking, cycling, running and land use data, and answer substantive questions in this area that support theoretical development regarding physical activity in urban settings. The focus in this project will be on the relationship between the built environment on one hand, and walking, running and cycling on the other hand.