Meta Berghauser Pont

Chalmers University of Technology · Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Recently, the European Union adopted a Nature restoration law that aims to stop the ongoing decline of biodiversity and even bring back nature to cities. This is challenging as urbanization is an ongoing process that thrives for more land and densification. In this paper we describe a new Open-Source GIS-tool that automates habitat network analyses...

Pedestrian movement has always been one of the main concerns for urban planning and design, but it has become more important within the sustainable development agenda, as walking is crucial to reducing urban emissions and fostering liveable cities. Therefore, urban planners need to take pedestrian movement into consideration as part of the workflow...

Documentation of PST_version 3.3.1 Main changes since last update: > Added functionality: Compare Results tool > Removed all radii options, except 'Axial steps' for Network Integration. PST is an open source tool for performing spatial analyses. It combines the space syntax description of the urban environment with conventional descriptions of...

The development of urban station communities along regional railways is judged to have significance for the reduction of energy use and climate impact. In this book the resultat from an application of an integrated working methodology for analysing the relationship between accessibility and density on local and regional level is presented. The basi...

Promoting sustainable mobility and urban development hinges on understanding and forecasting pedestrian movement. While empirical studies, not least in Space Syntax research, have used explanatory statistical models to identify spatial parameters influencing pedestrian movement, these models face limitations in forecasting pedestrian flows in futur...

Due to unsustainable land management and climate change, floods have become more frequent and severe over the past few decades and the problem is exacerbated in urban environments. In the context of climate-proofing cities, the importance of nature-based solutions (NBSs), obtaining relevant outcomes in the form of ecosystem services, has been highl...

Documentation of PST_version 3.2.5 Main changes since last update: > Changed PST licence to GNU Lesser General Public License > Added Appendix B with clarifications and tips on how to use the 'Create segment map' function > Minor text revisions. PST is an open source tool for performing spatial analyses. It combines the space syntax description...

The Crowd Movement Milestone Project, initiated by the Digital Twin City Centre, aims to develop a hybrid model, coupling a macroscopic network model of the built environment and a microscopic agent-based model of pedestrians, to simulate pedestrian movement.

The top two environmental factors adversely affecting human health in Europe are air and noise pollution, with road traffic being the largest source. Urban density plays an important role in reducing car traffic. However, the benefits of reduced emissions per capita can still mean higher emissions locally, because of the number of people in the are...

Documentation for PST (Place Syntax Tool) version, v.3.2.5 PST is an open source tool for performing spatial analyses. It combines the space syntax description of the urban environment with conventional descriptions of attraction into a combined accessibility analysis tool. It is currently available as a plugin for QGIS, an open source GIS software...

Spacematrix explores the potential of urban density as a tool for urban planning and design. This revised and extended edition of Meta Berghauser Pont and Per Haupt’s 2010 volume includes an extensive analysis of the relations between density, urban form and performance – a prerequisite for understanding and successfully predicting the effects of s...

The Designguide Smart Streets (Smarta Gator in Swedish) has formulated new demands and developed new design principles on future streets based on the four megatrends urbanization, digitalization, societal changes and environmental changes. The intention of the guide is to function as an inspiration and a basis for the renewal of Swedish street poli...

Det finns en vilja att förtäta i närheten av stationer för att öka användningen av kollektivtrafik och därmed minska klimatpåverkan kopplad till transpor- ter. Förtätning bidrar bland annat till att skapa levande stationssamhällen, med blandade funktioner, god tillgäng- lighet och miljöer som är trygga och vistelsevänliga där olika grupper och beho...

This paper describes a new approach in urban ecological design, referred to as social– ecological urbanism (SEU). It draws from research in resilience thinking and space syntax in the analysis of relationships between urban processes and urban form at the microlevel of cities, where social and ecological services are directly experienced by urban d...

The report presents the method developed within the research project ‘Stadsmiljöanalys- Analys av tätbebyggda miljöer i infrastrukturprojekt’, funded by Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Authority). This project sets up an integrated methodology for analysing and estimating the local impact of road and rail infrastructure projects in urban environmen...

The report (in Swedish) presents the method developed within the research project ‘Stadsmiljöanalys- Analys av tätbebyggda miljöer i infrastrukturprojekt’, funded by Trafikverket (Swedish Transport Authority). This project sets up an integrated methodology for analysing and estimating the local impact of road and rail infrastructure projects in urb...

Over the past years, cities have become more prone to extreme and frequent heatwaves. In this regard, urban form plays an important role and several typomorphological classifications have been developed to describe the urban form characteristics that can exacerbate heat stress and influence people's health and comfort negatively (i.e. the environme...

Exposure of both noise and air pollution due to road traffic in urban environments has been calculated and evaluated for multiple cases involving different building morphologies as well as additional effects of driving speed, electric vehicles and urban greening Calculated levels of noise exposure (Lden and Lnight at housing facades) and air pollut...

Urbanization effects on vegetation and the alteration in land use is likely to be the major driver of fragmentation and the loss of ecosystem services (ESS) and biodiversity. Understanding varying levels of biodiversity within cities is pivotal to protect ESS. However, due to the high complexity of urban systems, ecological connectivity assessment...

Rapid economic development and population growth has led to urban densification and massive land use changes, putting pressure on both ecosystems, and people. In this context, public health issues have become crucial for cities to address to ensure they remain livable and healthy for everyone. Since the health challenges of cities tend to manifest...

Noise exposure has been calculated and analysed for 31 different urban morphologies in an urban setting. For five of the urban morphologies also vegetation surfaces on facades and roofs were studied. Facade exposures were analysed for both smaller (single-sided) flats and larger (floor-through) flats, considering the direct exposure from the roads...

PST is an open source tool for performing spatial analyses. It combines the space syntax description of the urban environment with conventional descriptions of attraction into a combined accessibility analysis tool. It is currently available as a plugin for QGIS, an open source GIS software. Earlier PST versions are also available as a plugin for t...

To ensure and maintain ecosystem service delivery in cities undergoing densification, strategic tree planting is important. The effects of tree location on ecosystem service delivery have been emphasised. However, there is no integrated overview of the different aspects of tree location, here called spatial contextual factors, that mediate urban tr...

For a model set of 31 different building morphologies in an urban setting, road traffic noise exposure has been calculated and analysed. For five of the building morphologies also vegetation surfaces on facades and roofs were studied. Facade exposures were analysed for both smaller (single-sided) flats and larger (floor-through) flats, considering...

The Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification scheme, initially designed to distinguish between standard built (urban) and non-built (land cover) types in terms of screen-level air temperature relevant for urban heat island (UHI) studies, has been widely used for land surface temperature (LST) and surface urban heat island (SUHI) studies. However, so...

Do higher urban densities contribute to more sustainable cities and communities? This paper examines the effectiveness of higher density (as a means) for achieving sustainable urban development (the goal) following three lines of inquiry. First, a systematic review of scientific literature (229 empirical studies) is presented on the effects of urba...

A revised version of popular handbook Spacematrix is released, where the authors demystify the use of concepts such as ‘urbanity’, ‘compact city’ and ‘park city’ by challenging the reliability of such concepts and critically examining the possibility of redefining them through quantification using multiple density measures. What's new? Meta Berg...

The relation between pedestrian flows, the structure of the city and the street network is of central interest in urban research. However, studies of this have traditionally been based on small data sets and simplistic statistical methods. Because of a recent large‐scale cross‐country pedestrian survey, there is now enough data available to study t...

A state-of-the-art, quantitative systematic review of scientific literature on the theme of multifunctional streets was conducted, including scientific papers of the last 10 years, filtered from Web of Science and Scopus. The review is part of a 3-year research project (2019-2021) named: “Smart streets” (Smarta gator) led by Alexander Ståhle (KTH R...

One of the current dominant strategies proposed for sustainable urban development is densification. While some advocate the very reasonable benefits of density, others emphasize the potential drawbacks. The main goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of the claimed benefits of densification in Swedish practice and relate this to the...

One of the current dominant strategies proposed for sustainable urban development is densification. UN Habitat prescribes a density of over 150 inhabitants per hectare to realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals. While some authors advocate the very reasonable benefits of density, others emphasize the potential drawbacks. The main goal of this...

One of the current dominant strategies proposed for sustainable urban development is densification. UN Habitat prescribes a density of over 150 inhabitants per hectare to realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals. While some authors advocate the very reasonable benefits of density, others emphasize the potential drawbacks. The main goal of this...

One of the current dominant strategies proposed for sustainable urban development is densification. While some advocate the very reasonable benefits of density, others emphasize the potential drawbacks. The main goal of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of the claimed benefits of densification in Swedish practice and relate this to the...

Paper presentation at the Beyond 2020 conference: Cities consist of 20-30% streets, a gigantic infrastructure that must be maintained and developed. As such, they have the potential to contribute to tackling contemporary challenges as the increasing urbanization and climate change which place higher demands on urban environments, from quality of l...

Cities consist of 20-30% streets, a gigantic infrastructure that must be maintained and developed. As such, they have the potential to contribute to tackling contemporary challenges as the increasing urbanization and climate change which place higher demands on urban environments, from quality of life, health and safety to environmental sustainabil...

With a population of some 6 million inhabitants (as of 2020), Berlin-Brandenburg is set to become a model metropolitan region for the twenty-first century. Bringing together resilient response to climate change, regional circular economies and dense urban development, any proposal for the region's future needs to respect its identity while keeping...

The objective of this project is to provide a user-friendly software that allows for effective knowledge transfer. The software will support the evaluation of different urban scenario’s as well as mirror these against a references database. The project is expected to impact decision making in urban development projects, especially during the initia...

In this presentation, we present the results of a systematic review on the multifunctionality of streets. We focus on the empirical papers that help us identify the physical factors which have been proven to support and improve the different functions of streets, from the social and ecologic to the economic and technical.

Interest in the green infrastructure of cities has rapidly increased in recent years. The reasons are several but generally relate to the great increase of research and policy on sustainable urban development. Of particular importance here is the more recent shift in this field towards greater emphasis on biodiversity and urban ecosystems and not o...

The GIS-based Time model of Gothenburg aims to map the process of urban development in Gothenburg since 1960 and in particular document the changes in the spatial form of the city - streets, buildings and plots - through time. Major steps have in recent decades been taken when it comes to understanding how cities work. Essential is the change fro...

PST is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a program--to...

The importance of the plot (also referred to as ‘property’) as one of the fundamental elements of urban form is well recognized within the field of urban morphology. Despite the fact that it is often described as the basic element in the pattern of land divisions, which are essential as organizational frameworks for urban form, studies offering com...

Urban morphology, i.e. shape and position of buildings in relation to streets, affects the distribution of noise and air pollution and can thus, through urban planning and design, be used to improve urban areas. This is of interest in an ongoing project where both air quality and noise are in focus. The present paper concerns the prediction of nois...

A better understanding of the relationship between the built environment and urban processes is central in guiding urban processes in more sustainable trajectories. Of particular importance to this endeavour is the idea of urban types. However, on closer scrutiny, while such types may capture the symbolic dimension of urban form, they frequently do...

Typologies have always played an important role in urban planning and design practice and formal studies have been central to the field of urban morphology. These studies have predominantly been of a historical-qualitative nature and do not support quantitative comparisons between urban areas and between different cities, nor offer the precise and...

Plot systems (also referred to as "property", "parcel", or "lot") are generally recognised as the organisational framework of urban form that contributes to the economic performance of cities. However, studies that link the spatial form of plots to economic data are limited. The paper builds on the theory of Webster and Lai, which argues that the p...

This work follows a long line of studies and empirical investigations in Space Syntax research, that, in general, try to conceptualise, describe and quantify the relation between physical space and human agency. How many people share public space is known to affect many socioeconomic processes in cities, such as segregation, vitality and local comm...

PST is a spatial analysis software that combines the Space Syntax description of the urban environment with conventional descriptions of attraction into the combined accessibility analysis tool. The zip file contains Tutorials and training datasets. For the complete documentation, download PST Documentation. PST is free software: you can redistr...

Previous research suggests that community detection methods, which defines subgraph that maximises internal ties and minimise external ties, can be applied on the street network dual graph in identifying Street-based Local Area (Law et al 2016; Law 2017). The method was successful in identifying isolated local area but were unsuccessful in identify...

Urbanization effects on vegetation and the alteration in land use is likely to be the major driver of fragmentation and the loss of ecosystem services (ESS) and biodiversity. Understanding varying levels of biodiversity within cities is pivotal to protect ESS. However, due to the high complexity of urban systems, ecological connectivity assessment...

Keywords (3-5): noise exposure, air pollution, urban morphology, Spacematrix, density Conference topic: Methods 1: embedding different approaches into the study of urban morphology. Abstract According to the World Health Organization, the top two in disease burden are air pollution and environmental noise. In cities, road traffic is the largest con...

Typologies have always played an important role in urban planning and design practice and formal studies have been central to the field of urban morphology. These studies have predominantly been of a historical-qualitative nature and do not support quantitative comparisons between urban areas and between different cities, nor offer the precise and...

A better understanding of the relationship between the built environment and urban processes is central in guiding urban processes in more sustainable trajectories. Of particular importance to this endeavour is the idea of urban types. However, on closer scrutiny, while such types may capture the symbolic dimension of urban form, they frequently do...

The recent shift towards greater emphasis on biodiversity and urban ecosystems has increased the need for greater understanding of the green areas in cities as ecological environments. However, landscape ecology and urban morphology have yet to be integrated into a joint field. In this paper steps are taken towards developing an integrated socio-ec...

Accessibility is frequently used for measuring location in housing studies, but specifications of the measures differ greatly and its implications are hardly discussed. This paper sets out to systematically review accessibility measures that are used in hedonic price models (HPM), a method for estimating the implicit value of housing characteristic...

Accessibility is frequently used for measuring location in housing studies, but specifications of the measures differ greatly and its implications are hardly discussed. This paper sets out to systematically review accessibility measures that are used in hedonic price models (HPM), a method for estimating the implicit value of housing characteristic...

This article focuses on the development of a measure for frontage permeability, which we argue is needed to complement existing metrics used to describe urban environments and assess, amongst others, social performativity. Built density and street network centrality are two characteristics often discussed in relation to urban vitality. However, hig...

Smart growth (SG) is widely adopted by planners and policy makers as an environmentally friendly way of building cities. In this paper, we analyze the environmental validity of the SG-approach based on a review of the scientific literature. We found a lack of proof of environmental gains, in combination with a great inconsistency in the measurement...

We present the methodology and results of an international observational study on pedestrian movement, using innovative high-end technology of tracking anonymised Wi-Fi signals from mobile phones. The pedestrian survey was conducted during three weeks in October 2017 in 60 neighbourhoods across three cities in Europe - London, Amsterdam, Stockholm....

The focus of space-morphology, a specific branch in urban morphology, is to ‘uncover the fundamental characteristics of urban geometries’ (Moudon in Ordering space: types in architecture and design. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, p. 289–311, 1992) and ‘enrich the description of built form in ways that express aspects of performance and function’...

The importance of the plot (also referred to as 'parcel', 'lot' or 'property') as one of the fundamental elements of urban form is well recognized within the field of urban morphology. It has been described as a basic element in the pattern of land divisions that works as an organizational grid for urban form. A distinctive feature of the plot is i...

Typologies play a role in urban studies since a long time, but definitions are often rather abstract, ill-defined and at worst end in fixed stereotypes hiding underlying spatial complexity. Traditional typologies are focussing on separate elements, which allow for understanding crucial differences of one spatial feature in greater detail, but lack...

Since the publication of the book 'Spacematrix. Space, density and urban form' (Berghauser Pont and Haupt, 2010), the Spacematrix method has been linked back to its theoretical foundations by Steadman (2013), is further developed using the measure of accessible density to arrive at a density measure that more closely relates to the environment as e...

The central variables in any urban model are distance and attraction (Wilson 2000). Space syntax research has contributed to the development of new geometric descriptions and measures of distance that have proven successful when it comes to capturing pedestrian movement. However, the description and measurement of attractions has not been central t...

The importance of the parcel (also referred to as ‘plot’ or ‘lot’) as one of the fundamental elements of urban form is well recognized within the field of urban morphology. It has been described as a basic element in the pattern of land divisions that works as an organizational grid for urban form. One of the distinctive features of the parcel is i...

Urban diversity is a widely recognized concept used to describe vitality in cities and is often associated with cities that perform successfully both from an economic and social perspective. The concept of urban diversity was introduced to the broader public by Jane Jacobs, later inherited by the New Urbanism movement and has been extensively used...

It has been argued that different urban configurations-planned vs. organic, treelike vs. grid like-perform differently when it comes to the intensity and distribution of pedestrian flows, built density and land uses. However, definitions of urban configurations are often rather abstract, ill-defined and at worse end in fixed stereotypes hiding unde...

The shift from Axial to Line-segment maps is one of the most important developments in Space Syntax analysis, both theoretically and methodologically. It followed a long line of investigations and discussions within the field of Space Syntax, which addressed critical issues related to the Axial map representation (e.g. Hillier and Iida,2005; Hillie...

In cities manifold actors are continuously taking decisions and proposing interventions, which are driven by, but also change, spatial conditions and their performance on a variety of scales. Understanding how this interplay works is crucial for urban designers and planners. However, this complexity asks for new methods of analysis or combinations...

Interest in urban green areas has rapidly increased in recent years as the world becomes increasingly urbanized (see e.g., McDonald, 2008, UN-habitat, 2016). This brings new demands for a deeper understanding of the morphology of green areas in cities that provide us with a range of important ecosystem services (ESS) such as evaporative cooling, wa...

Increasing residential segregation in cities gives public spaces a more important role in solidarity processes, bringing people together, supporting movement, co-presence and co-awareness. Local squares thus have the greatest significance providing an arena for social interplay as people become co-present. Earlier studies showed that high spatial i...