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Disasters are happening all around the world on multiple scales and intensities. Some countries are more vulnerable than others and they are forced to be resilient in this scenario. Nowadays, it has been proven the importance of digital tools for risk prevention. BIM and GIS are digital tools that have been used for diverse purposes. The aim of this research is to understand how BIM and GIS can be integrated for disaster-prone environment prevention and post-earthquake reconstruction. Earthquakes are natural disasters that can be deadly, with BIM and GIS integration it is possible to prevent disaster-prone scenarios and assure urban reconstruction post-earthquake. Mexico City was chosen as the case study. Besides being considered one of the most seismic cities in the world, it has experienced throughout decades fatal post-earthquake destruction. Within the BIM and GIS integration, it is possible to comprehend the territory during an earthquake for prevention of disaster-prone environments and post-earthquake reconstruction. The Special Program for Urban Regeneration and Inclusive Housing in Mexico City is the starting point to analyze the feasibility of this integration in a real-life case scenario. Through the literature review results, it was possible to develop two frameworks based on the aim of this research. In the discussion the frameworks were evaluated by two Mexican specialists to validate the research results. The conclusion focuses on the research final outputs which demonstrates how BIM and GIS can be integrated for urban reconstruction purposes in Mexico City.

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Urban settlements located in subarctic regions have particular characteristics due to their climate. Climate and weather conditions influence people’s attendance in public spaces, their travel habits and recreational activities. In the subarctic regions, this influence is more visible due to greater seasonal differences. Urban design that deals with the generation and change of urban form can influence the impact of climate factors. Such interventions can be especially influential in the subarctic regions.This thesis focuses on addressing climate factors in urban design and transportation in the subarctic regions of Sweden. On one hand, it focuses on problems of incorporating climate factors into urban design, and on the other hand, it investigates travel patterns in relation to subarctic climate. The problems of urban design in subarctic regions were investigated by conducting a literature review and interviews with the planners from some of the Swedish northern municipalities. To study travel patterns in relation to cold climate, two travel surveys were conducted in Kiruna, a town located in the Northern Sweden. These issues are analysed and discussed in a covering essay and three attached papers. The interviews with planners show that climate considerations have a low impact on urban planning practices in these regions. The absence of a positive attitude towards cold climate, lack of knowledge and analytical techniques to be used in design, and weak relation between knowledge of climate factors and urban design practice are some of the major problems. Further, the interviews highlighted that dealing with snow in urban spaces (snow removal, better use of snow) is a crucial issue for these municipalities. The travel surveys in Kiruna demonstrated that car trips made a large proportion of all trips made in Kiruna while a very small part of trips were made by bicycle and public transport. The proportions of trips made by different transport modes (modal share) did not vary significantly in accordance to seasonal change, except in the share of bicycle trips, which dropped sharply during winter. Slipperiness, very low temperature, and wind have been the most negatively perceived climate factors when walking and cycling. Sunlight has been perceived positively. The distance travelled was shown to be correlated with the distance to the work place, but independent of the distance of the neighbourhood to the centre of Kiruna. Based on the analyses, improvements are suggested in three areas: institutions, design, and research. Institutional issues focus on how climate factors are handled in the municipal planning system. There is need for attitude shift, legitimacy and defining clearer goals in comprehensive plans. Design calls for active using of climate analysis and considering winter maintenance in developing design schemes. Research refers to collaborations between urban designers and experts from other fields, e.g. urban climatology, to develop knowledge applicable in planning and design.The potential of urban form in improving conditions for walking and cycling is significant. However, urban form seems to have limited potential for reducing the number of car trips in Kiruna with respect to long severe winters and current work distribution. The limitations of physical measures in affecting travel patterns can be partly improved by soft policy measures.

Manifested in form is an investigation of the current states of both the product and the processes of digital design in architecture. This licentiate thesis is a part of an ongoing PhD research study started in December 2009.The subject of this licentiate thesis is in the field of experimental digital design and production of architecture. As this field has grown and matured, architectural discipline has been confronted with radical shifts in the processes of formation and the appearance of products. The formal aspects of architecture have been pushed to incorporate utilitarian aspects. This research highlights and investigates the tension between processes and formal appearance, utility and the aesthetic. It states that intensification of these relationships is not due solely to the advent of digital technology: it has also originated from ontological shifts within the discourses of form and formation. It identifies which changes in these relationships result from the shift caused by advances in technology and which are due to ontological shifts. Within this field, it identifies certain ontological shifts which are aligned with digital techniques and describes the methods of design.The investigation uses ornament as an agent of the formal aspect, structure and construction as agents of utilitarian aspects and prototype as an agent of processes and product. This research unveils the ornament of the twenty-first century as a result of either methods of formal response to utility and/or methods of the digital construction of form. Thus, the ornament of the twenty-first century is an important part of the process rather than a non-essential element applied to a building. Ornament is manifested as a by-product of the processes.

Transport plays essential roles in almost all economic activities and our daily lives. Transport flows are often agglomerated in soͲcalled transport corridors linking urban and/or commercially important areas.Clearly, it is desirable for transport to be efficient and sustainable, thus there are several onͲgoing initiatives to develop major, often transnational, transport corridors.Diverse stakeholders are affected by and/or involved in the development of these corridors, including travellers, transport buyers,transport service providers and transport authorities (local, regional, national and transnational). Governance of the corridors can be regarded as the interactive involvement of these stakeholders in their development and subsequent management.This is a licentiate by publications based on a covering essay that summarises and synthetises four articles. The topic focuses on the development of a framework for designing governance structures formajor transport corridors, by examining the variables that should be considered, the structural and procedural organisational possibilities, and both stakeholders’ participation and interactions. A qualitative research approach has been applied, as deeper understanding of the underlying issues is needed. Several studies have been performed, in conjunction with the Bothnian green logistic corridorproject, to illustrate key concerns. These studies have included literature reviews, studies of documents describing governance of major European transport initiatives, and interviews with key individualsinvolved in the development of European transport corridors. An international study has been established and supervised to gather experiences from other research projects, including an open workshop for discussion between representatives of various stakeholder groups. In addition, a casestudy of the Bothnian corridor has been performed, including focus group discussions with principal stakeholders.Main findings from the literature studies concern both the design of governance structures and their socioͲpolitical integration. The findings show that there is no universal solution for governance structuresas they have to be adapted to the social, economic and political context, and should have a sufficient flexibility to meet changing requirements. They also show that collaboration between public, private and other stakeholders to address issues earlier handled by a single authority is becoming increasinglycommon, also within the field of transport, particularly when public investment budgets are restricted. Another main finding is that broad stakeholder inclusion is advantageous and engaged leadership crucial for a successful outcome. Both structural and procedural aspects of a governance structure influence theoutcome and need to be considered when designing one. The international study and the workshop confirmed most of these literature findings and additionally highlighted the need for clear goals, objectives and rules for collaboration. Stakeholders´ diverse needs of connecting to a governancestructure were discussed in the workshop. The document studies and the interviews enhanced knowledge of European transport corridor establishment and management practices.

This licentiate thesis is part of a larger case study that examines the built cultural heritage in Kiruna’s urban transformation. The research study presupposes it is necessary to address cultural significance of the built environment in urban planning practice. In Sweden, a conservation planning strategy emerged during the 1980s, in response to the extensive urban renewals that took place in many towns over the decades before. In spite of this, there are many examples of how demands for urban renewal challenge urban conservation.The aim of the thesis is to explore how the concept of built cultural heritage is understood in contemporary urban planning and how urban planning practice affects the built cultural heritage. The main research question is: how are buildings and built environments transformed into cultural heritage?The analysis draws on concepts such as ‘heritagisation’, ‘heritage’ and ‘authorised heritage discourse’. Heritagisation is defined as a process in which something, such as a built environment, turns into heritage. Heritage is perceived as a social and cultural construction in which values and meanings are attributed to, for instance, built environments. There is a distinction between official heritage that is authorised by legislation and unofficial heritage, which is not formally recognised. The authorised heritage discourse is characterised as a hegemonic heritage discourse favouring the monumental and aesthetically appealing, being a concern for heritage specialists.The research is performed as a qualitative, interpretative intrinsic case study of Kiruna’s contemporary urban transformation. The case study is triangulated using multiple methods and a variety of data. The main methods used are text analysis of records, planning documents and media coverage as well as semistructured interviews and observations.Kiruna was established in 1900, with the mining company LKAB as the main stakeholder, in order to provide housing for the large number of workers required in the iron ore industry. The hopes were very high for the design of the new town and some of Sweden’s most famous architects, planners and artists at the time were hired. From the 1980s until 2005, the town’s built environments were recognised as built cultural heritage. Local, regional and national authorities collaborated in protecting designated buildings. In 2004, it became publicly known that subsidence caused by mining activities would affect the settlement; the town would, therefore, be relocated. This has caused controversies around the management of the built cultural heritage in the urban transformation processes. The case of Kiruna illustrates the impact of legislation in defining built cultural heritage and the influence of the authorised heritage discourse on urban planning practice. There are, however, difficulties in implementing the notion of cultural heritage as socially and culturally constructed into urban planning processes; rather, the heritage is perceived as a fixed entity. It is suggested that also unofficial heritage should be recognised in the urban planning processes, in order to manage the long-term urban transformation process.

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