Monday, 4/30/2018
The School of Engineering of the University of
Minho (EEUM) is coordinating a European project to develop a navigation system
to improve pedestrian circulation in cities, aiming at stimulating new forms of
sustainable mobility.
The project is
called Smart Pedestrian Net - Smart Cities are Walkable and aims at developing an
analysis model of urban space to be adopted in navigation tools for pedestrians,
that can also be used by the entities responsible for the management of urban
spaces. The project also aims at achieving the definition of a model that
allows to be implemented at the territory management level, in this case, in
the management of cities. On the other hand, this model should also allow city
users to start developing a better perception of the city to walk on foot.
“We want that
people have a better perception that the city is prepared for them to move on
foot. This allows users to leave the car further and make the rest of the path
on foot, even if this route involves a longer distance”, Rui Ramos, coordinator
of the project and Associate Professor from the Department of Civil Engineering
of the EEUM, explained.
The new
navigation system is being developed by the Centre for Territory, Environment
and Construction (CTAC) from the EEUM and gathers the University of Minho, the
University of Bologna, the European University of Cyprus and the Association
for Sustainable and Innovative Development in Economics, Environment and
Society, in Austria. More than a service, the future application will aim at
creating the necessary tools to replace the walking on foot in a prominent
place, that can influence the policies of cities’ management.
The theme of
territorial management is still underdeveloped at the project level, so working
with the cities of Oporto and Bologna will allow the project to have greater
international visibility. “The SPN will also allow EEUM to have a set of
researchers who will be human resources that will allow us to consolidate and
leverage research capacity at the academy level”, Rui Ramos remembered.
The SPN has
two years of duration (2017 to 2019) and counts on a funding of 240 thousand
euros from the Foundation for Science and Technology.
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info: http://ctac.uminho.pt/
