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Cycling safety policy and research have mostly focused on cycling infrastructure, cyclists' behavior, and safety equipment in the past decades. However, the role ofbuilt environment characteristics (BECs) in the safety of cyclists has not yet been fully examined. For the Netherlands, this is rather surprising given the significant modal share of bicycles in daily trips, the importance attributed to urban spatial planning, and it being one of the most planned countries in the world. Despite the considerable improvements that have ta1cen place in traffic safety over the decades, the ( actual) number of cyclist deaths between 2011 and 2020 increased by on average 2% per year; the cyclists bad a major portion oftraffic death (followed by passenger cars); also, almost onethird of traffic death happened in built-up a.reas (about 25% of fatalities occurred on 50km/h roads in urban areas) in this period. Considering the aim of construction of on average 75,000 new homes per year until 2025, as weil as promoting bicycle use in as a healthy and sustainable mode of transport in the N etherlands, underst.anding the relationships between the BECs and cycling safety is invaluable for improving the safety of cyclists.

The building industry is one of the most polluting industry in the world as buildings are responsible for 30% of greenhouse gas emission in the world (IAE, 2010) and have very low replacement rates. Measuring the environmental impacts of construction is now a major concern.The main objective of this thesis was to give an overview of the current status of building certifications, discuss the expected roles and limitations of building certifications, and analyze the impact of building certification tools during the conception of a building or an urban project.For the following thesis, qualitative research was used the most since the purpose is to have a better understanding of the role of building certifications among building and real estate professionals. An empirical study was made consisting of 9 semi-structured interviews and a survey designed for building professionals such as architects, constructors, environmental building consultants, and property developers.This paper shows that certification tools are becoming very common among building professionals especially in metropolitan areas such as Paris. The main drivers for developing certified buildings are client demand, marketing advantage and an overall high quality building. The main obstacle remains the initial cost. Building professionals from the interview and the survey almost all agree that certifications are a good guide and assessment tool to build high quality buildings. However, building professionals are quite insure on the impact of certification tools on sustainability on the conception of a building or urban project as many factors are to take into account.

The study area for this dissertation is Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. / The general theme of this dissertation is understanding and enabling safe walking routes to school for children. We restrict our focus to safety issues related to the motorized-transportation environment, thereby defining safety as a function of factors that determine whether or not a child will be struck by a motor-vehicle on their journey to or from school. Our analysis is unique because it is at a small geographical scale but is representative of an entire urban environment. Working at a small geographic scale allows us to evaluate the variability in safe routes for children within our study area and apply our findings to develop a decision support tool that could be used to plan individualized routes for children in other similar urban environments. Our study area for this dissertation is Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The findings in this dissertation contribute ideas about how features of the local road environment may and may not influence risk of collisions between child pedestrians and motor-vehicles. It also offers methodological insight for future research on pedestrian safety at small geographic scales. This dissertation demonstrates the potential reduction in the risk of child pedestrian injuries by planning safer routes to school and also introduces methods that can be used to plan safer routes for children. Our results are a reminder of the importance of understanding the interaction between environment and behaviour in research on traffic safety and offer some caution to the notion of a universal 'safe route' to school. Whether or not a particular route to school is safe will very likely be dependent both on the environment and the child's behaviour in that environment. / Dissertation / Doctor of Social Science

Einhergehend mit schnellem Bevölkerungs- und Wirtschaftswachstum erlebt die Welt innerhalb der letzten Jahrzehnte eine schnelle Akkumulation langlebiger Ressourcen in Gebäuden und Infrastruktur, auch gesellschaftlicher Materialbestand genannt. Im 21. Jahrhundert wird die Fortsetzung dieser Entwicklung zur großen Herausforderung für den sozioökonomischen Stoffwechsel der Erde und zum Erreichen biophysikalischer Grenzen führen. Siedlungen sind von besonderem Interesse, da Menschen dort Nachfrage nach Leistungen wie Nahrung oder Mobilität generieren und mit ihnen interagieren. Zukünftig wird neben einer globalen Entwicklungsperspektive auf Materialbestände und Bevölkerung auch ein räumlich explizites, hochauflösendes Verständnis lokaler Muster und Prozesse von Relevanz für eine datenbasierte Antwort auf Herausforderungen des globalen Wandels sein. Diese Arbeit präsentiert einen Workflow zur Kartierung und Quantifizierung von Materialbeständen und Bevölkerungsverteilung und -dynamik mittels hochaufgelöster mehrdimensionaler Siedlungskartierung mit Multisensor-Erdbeobachtungsdaten auf nationaler Ebene. Der erste Abschnitt demonstriert das Potenzial der Verwendung von Sentinel-1 und -2 Zeitreihendaten mit Methoden des maschinellen Lernens für die Kartierung von Siedlungsstrukturen, d.h. Subpixel-Landbedeckung, Gebäudehöhe und Gebäudetyp. Der zweite Abschnitt quantifiziert Schlüsselparameter des sozioökonomischen Metabolismus, d. h. Bevölkerung und Materialbestand, anhand zuvor generierter Datensätze zur Siedlungsstruktur. Der dritte Abschnitt nutzt das Landsat-Datenarchiv und Zeitreihenanalyse, um räumliche Muster und Dynamiken von Bevölkerung und Materialbeständen in Deutschland seit 1985 zu quantifizieren. Frei verfügbare und global konsistente Erdbeobachtungsdaten und Techniken des maschinellen Lernens haben großes Potenzial, das räumlich explizite hochaufgelöste Verständnis sozioökologischer Variablen basierend auf mehrdimensionaler Siedlungskartierung zu verbessern. / During the recent decades of the Anthropocene, the world has experienced rapid growth of population and economic activity. This went along with a considerable accumulation of long-lived resources, for example in buildings and infrastructure, i.e., societal material stock. In the 21st century, a continuation of this development will be a major challenge to the Earth’s socio-economic metabolism, as some limitations of the Earth’s biophysical basis might be reached. Settlements are of particular interest, because they are the places where people generate demand for, and interact with services. Both an overarching perspective on the global long-term development of material stock and population as well as a spatially explicit, high-resolution understanding of local patterns and processes will be of particular relevance for a more data-informed response to challenges of global change. This dissertation presents a workflow to map and quantify material stocks and population distribution and dynamics by means of multi-dimensional settlement mapping with decameter resolution multi-source Earth Observation data on a national scale. The first part demonstrates the potential of using Sentinel-1 and -2 time series imagery with machine learning regression and classification for settlement structure mapping, including sub-pixel land cover, building height and building type mapping. The second part quantifies key parameters of the socio-economic metabolism, i.e., population and material stock, using previously generated datasets on settlement structure. The third part uses the Landsat data archive and Change-Aftereffect-Trend analysis to quantify spatial-temporal patterns and dynamics of population and material stock development in Germany since 1985. Findings demonstrate that freely available and globally consistent Earth Observation data and machine learning techniques have great potential to improve the spatially explicit high-resolution understanding of socio-metabolic variables based on multi-dimensional settlement mapping in a seamless workflow.

Digital twins have found increased interest in the recent years with articles being published at an increased rate in the years 2018-2020. with digital twins it is possible to achieve an efficient and responsive planning and control over of facility management. A digital twin by JTH has been implemented for some of the rooms in a corridor, a structured literature study is performed to bridge the knowledge gap, the aim is to review scientific literature regarding digital twins’ in facilities management and assess different concepts dig-ital twins in facility management. The method used is a mixed qualitative-quantitative systematic review that follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA). The systematic review defines digital twins in facility management and identifies categories as well as digital twins applications in facility management and how digital twins can be used to evaluate building performance and room experience.

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<p>Arson has economic, structural and psychological repercussions. As a crime with such wide- ranging consequences, it has received little academic attention. Our goal in this research is to highlight how arson can be understood from two perspectives: the anthropogenic environment and the physical environment. Study one employs a generalized linear mixed regression model to explore the relationship between street network permeability and the incidence of deliberately- set fire events in the City of Toronto. This research aims to highlight the important influence that navigation of the built environment has on crime, specifically arson, in addition to the social characteristics of place that support criminal behaviour. We hypothesize that neighbourhoods with more permeable (less complex) street networks are more likely to be affected by deliberately-set fire events in the case of Toronto. Also using a multivariate regression model, study two aims to highlight the role of heat aggression on the incidence of fire-setting behaviour in the same study region. We consider fire events occurring between the months of May through September, and particularly those occurring during extended heat-wave conditions. We hypothesize that prolonged episodes of high temperatures will have a positive relationship with arson events. This research highlights that two conceivably different forms of geography (anthropogenic and physical) can impact that same phenomena: criminal fire-setting behaviour.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The purpose of this thesis was to explore how health units servicing large rural populations in Ontario are integrating the built environment into public health interventions related to physical activity for the purpose of fostering healthy and sustainable communities. Additionally, this research sought to identify barriers and/or enabling structures that rural health units face in addressing the built environment within physical activity programming.</p> <p>This exploratory research study employed a descriptive qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of public health practitioners and managers identified by participating health units (n=12) as those most knowledgeable about program planning, implementation, and policy development in relation to physical activity and the built environment. Key themes were identified using qualitative content analysis and an inductive approach.</p> <p>The types of interventions were: engagement with policy work at a county or municipal level; building and working with community partners; gathering and providing evidence; hosting knowledge sharing opportunities; program development and implementation; social marketing, information sharing and awareness raising; and resource development and dissemination. Barriers and enabling processes and structures were identified at an organizational, community, and systemic level. Specific rural contextual enablers and barriers were also identified.</p> <p>This was the first study to the researchers’ knowledge that has examined current practices of Ontario’s rural health units related to built environment initiatives. In-depth perspectives elicited from public health practitioners and managers address gaps in the literature and contributes to new knowledge regarding built environment interventions to enhance physical activity in rural settings.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

Mobility within the community is a necessary part of urban life for enhancing personal well-being and happiness. However, autistic individuals may not be the natural players in this context and have risks of using public transport, including getting disoriented, meltdown or shutdown, and being discriminated against in motion. This can be attributed to their difficulties in social communication and cognitive abilities brought about by autism. However, autistic individuals’ lived experience is rarely explored in the field. Thus, this study aims to examine their personal experiences and pay attention to how autism is enacted in public transport settings, and various encounters in a material environment. A two-month ethnographic study was used from the perspective of a micro-lens of a specific autistic adult individual. Through a narrative analysis of “key events” happening in the process of movements, the materiality of mobility by taking public transport for autistic individuals’ ordinary life was presented.  The findings and analysis are unfolding from three oriented dimensions. Firstly, I point out that as a material practical form of moving, encounters of the autistic participant with other passengers in a public moving space are merely a temporary gathering, shaping a relationship that avoids communication. Additionally, risks exist including information overload and being disoriented that show how autism is enacted in public transportation settings. Secondly, I suggest that as the material basis of the movements of taking public transport, the outside landscape presents the materialistic appearance of the modern city, bringing a sense of security as well as a channel for the autistic participant to learn new things, but at the same time the de-naturalization and modernity exacerbates the autistic one’s negative relation to the urban environment. Last, I demonstrate how the coercive nature of the technological objects intervenes in the originally pure tension between autistic individual and moving services, thus indirectly exposing the loss of discursive power and resources experienced by the participant.  Based on these findings, I draw on the discussions of the strategies and the built environment. From the standpoint of the former, it shows that prioritizing fast mobility has led to the neglect of actual needs for a higher standard of moving experience. This also indicates that the autistic one's resistance to movement often manifests as an attachment to the fixed and secure space of the home, forming the strategies of responsiveness and resistance. The latter suggests the ‘perspective turn’ to the social model of disability, realizing that being disabled might be a universal experience of a person, and everyone could be in a state of disability either permanently or temporarily. Therefore, optimizing the built environment of public transport not only benefits autistic individuals but also represents an investment in broader social well-being.