PhD student position in integrated urban and public transport planning

We invite applications for a post-doctoral position in the Division of Urban design and Planning at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. As the postdoctoral researcher you will be responsible for interdisciplinary research aiming to develop an original design-support tool promoting the integration of urban and transport design and planning in practice, towards sustainable urban development. This work will include developing integrated public transport network analysis and street network analysis, testing its performance, and exploring applications in collaboration with practitioners. You will be part of the Spatial Morphology Group (SMoG), a research group engaged in urban research within the fields of urban morphology, urban analytics, space syntax and design theory.

Information about the division
The division of Urban Design and Planning researches and educates in urban design and planning in all scales, from single urban spaces to larger urban landscape and entire regions, with its main focus on the built environment in relation to sustainable development. Cities and regions today are facing great challenges regarding sustainable development, with ongoing large scale urban development projects and a need to handle societal challenges such as climate change, urbanisation processes, increasing regional imbalance, segregation and gentrification processes. 

Information about the project
An important obstacle to achieve sustainable urban development is the current divide between urban planning and transport planning in both research and practice. To transform our cities towards sustainability, it is not enough to design walkable neighbourhoods, to increase public transport coverage and frequency, or to limit vehicular traffic and reduce emissions. These silo approaches run the risk of sub-optimising different transport systems separately, while not solving the conflicts created by their integration in real urban environments, nor taking advantage of their complementarity potentials, to promote more efficient, safe, inclusive, and sustainable multi- and intermodal mobility.

The project “Developing a design-support tool to integrate urban and public transport planning towards sustainable urban development” takes a step forward in facilitating the integration of urban and transport planning by developing a design-support tool integrating public transport network models with street network models. The tool will build on and extend the state-of-the-art, including multimodal centrality and accessibility analysis, for modelling sustainable mobility patterns (i.e. walking / cycling and public transport) at different scales of movement.

Major responsibilities
As the post-doctoral researcher, you will be the main researcher on the interdisciplinary research program. This includes developing a design-support tool integrating public transport network models with street network models. The tool will build on and extend the state-of-the-art, including multimodal centrality and accessibility analysis, for modelling sustainable mobility patterns (i.e. walking / cycling and public transport) at different scales of movement. It also includes the construction and adaption of GIS-models, testing of new measures, perform spatial and statistical analysis, interpret and present analytical results.

The post-doc position may also include teaching in relevant courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate program.

Contract terms
Full-time temporary employment that should not start later than June 1st 2022. The position is limited to a maximum of two years (1+1).

Qualifications
To qualify for the post-doctoral position you must have a PhD in Urban design and planning, Transport planning, Computer science, Data Science, Geomatics, Urban Analytics or a related field. The degree should generally not be older than 3 years.

You should have knowledge and experience of GIS for spatial analysis and mapping of urban environments, experience in transport network modelling and analysis and experience in data processing, statistical analysis and visualization. You have knowledge and experience in programming in one (or more) of Python, R, SQL. Sound oral and written skills in English is a requirement. 

Additional merits taken into account are:
- Knowledge of urban form and configuration metrics and indicators, including space-syntax metrics.
- Familiarity with GTFS data and/or other public transport data standards.
- Experience with multi-modal transport accessibility packages, such as OpenTripPlanner or R5R.
- Experience with open-source GIS software, geodatabases and/or geoweb development.
- Experience with Github or equivalent.
- Experience from research projects within the field of urban and/or transport planning
- Experience in tool development

Application procedure
Learn more and apply on Chalmers website: https://www.chalmers.se/sv/om-chalmers/Arbeta-pa-Chalmers/lediga-tjanster/Sidor/default.aspx?rmpage=job&rmjob=9847&rmlang=SE

Application deadline: 1 December, 2021

For questions, please contact:
Ioanna Stavroulaki, Docent-Senior researcher, Division of Urban Design and Planning
Email: gianna.stavroulaki@chalmers.se
Phone: +46 (0)729 62 68 30

*** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. ***