Project description
A closer look at green travel environments
Urban liveability is linked to the environment and how healthy it is. Greenery is a big part of the equation. While the benefits of urban green spaces (domestic gardens and parks) are well documented, little is known about greenery in everyday urban travel environments. Funded by the European Research Council, the GREENTRAVEL project will produce knowledge on how equitably green exposure during travel and related wellbeing impacts are available to urban populations. Using cutting-edge technologies to conduct virtual reality experimentations, the project will show where to add greenery to advance equity. Considering different modes of transportation, the findings will show if and why green travel environments matter for people and what greenery features are relevant.
Objective
Greenery is an integral part of healthy and liveable urban environments. Availability of greenery is a question of environmental justice and equity. The benefits of greenery have been clearly shown in the residential context, but exposure to greenery in everyday urban travel environments has been studied much less, if at all.
The project will produce a novel understanding of the quality, availability and wellbeing impacts of green urban travel environments. Furthermore, it will produce knowledge on how equitably green exposure during travel and related wellbeing impacts are available to urban populations. It provides approaches and analysis on where to add greenery to advance equity.
The project draws on the recent developments in urban informatics: It employs cutting edge technologies from immersive Virtual Reality to Big Data mining, but also critically evaluates it. Controlled VR experimentations and carry-on sensors will be used to reveal if and why green travel environments matter for people and what greenery features are relevant, also considering seasonal variations. The understanding will be backed up with more traditional surveys. Computer vision on street-view images and 3D models will be used to map relevant greenery features, from the human perspective and considering seasonalities. Mobile Big Data will be leveraged to study the mobility flows of the urban population and to reveal the equity of green exposure during these everyday trips, also considering different transportation modes. Finally, advanced spatial prioritization and green routing tools will identify the future potential for greener travel environments for everyone.
When successful, the project will produce transformational knowledge on the importance, availability and equity of green urban travel environments. It will produce completely new open methods and transferable procedures for analysing green travel environments in Europe and beyond.
Fields of science
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencebig data
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencecomputer vision
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata sciencedata mining
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwaresoftware applicationsvirtual reality
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Host institution
00014 Helsingin Yliopisto
Finland