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How visual perception shapes our cities: a cognitive model of ageing population

Objective

Two mega-trends – the rapid urbanisation of the world’s population and the ageing of that same population – will soon collide. Adapting to the challenges of elderly citizens (many of whom no longer drive), urban designers need appropriate tools to support planning for walking, the most environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable transport mode. Cities’ walkability depends not only on physical settings, but also on processes of human spatial cognition, in particular visual perception. However, current state of art methods in modelling and forecasting urban systems are based mainly on economic and transportation demands and ignore pedestrians’ spatial cognition. This research discovers how visuo-spatial cognition contributes to the generation of new urban uses and activities based on the age profile of the user population. It constructs a novel urban-behavioural paradigm that links built environment and the way people use it, by addressing three fundamental questions: (1) What are the most important visuo-spatial properties influencing pedestrian cognition? (2) How urban visibility could be encoded and analysed as an abstracted spatial representation (visibility network)? (3) What mechanisms allow cities to be generated through feedback reflected in pedestrian movement and urban visibility? These questions are answered using an interdisciplinary approach: It combines quantitative techniques for spatial modelling with qualitative strategies for tracing of pedestrian behaviour in Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR). The research findings will set a framework for the evidence-based tool to assist planners, architects and stakeholders in the design and evaluation of urban projects in view of the changing needs of urban population.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2016

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 195 454,80
Address
GOWER STREET
WC1E 6BT London
United Kingdom

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Region
London Inner London — West Camden and City of London
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 195 454,80
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