NSL Forum & Cycling Research Board

Digital Twins for Europe’s Future Mobility 4 – 6 September 2024 | ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL E3 and HIT. Today’s design reflects the car-oriented consensus, which was formulated between the 1930’s and 1950’s and adopted around the world since then. The climate crisis challenges this orientation and asks More

Virtualizing Urban Transition

At a time of global anthropogenic paroxysms, initiatives for urban transition are multiplying to ensure quality and resilience of life in cities. In particular, public open space holds immense potential for rapid adaptation to mitigate the severe risks to human health arising from global warming, pollution and pandemics. More

Planungstools zur besseren Integration von Biodiversität und Ökosystemleistungen in raumrelevante Entscheidungen

Der Aktionsplan Biodiversität soll den Zustand der Biodiversität in der Schweiz verbessern. Ein wichtiger Faktor ist der Einbezug von Ökosystemleistungen/Biodiversität in Raumentscheidungen. In einem Bundesmandat wurde eine Übersicht zu Planungstools erstellt, die dabei helfen können. Es wurden planungsinvolvierte Personen interviewt, um Hindernisse und Nachfrage nach Planungstools zu identifizieren.

Adaptive Planning for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Although a transition to electric vehicles (EVs) has potential to greatly reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions, it faces significant challenges, including range anxiety and limitations in battery capacity. Effective long-term planning for EV charging infrastructure can overcome these barriers and increase the chances of widespread adoption.

«Die Raumplanung kann mit ihren Instrumenten einen wichtigen Beitrag zu mehr Wohnraum und lebenswerten Räumen beitragen.»

Damian Jerjen ist neu – nebst seinem Engagement am EspaceSuisse – als Professor of Practice beim NSL, ETH Zürich, in der Grundausbildung für die Raumplaner:innen tätig. Im Interview spricht er über die besten Strategien gegen die Wohnraumknappheit, das Gesetz über eine sichere Stromversorgung, das im Juni zur Abstimmung More

Drive Forward: Revolutionizing Traffic with Advanced Vehicle Trajectory Reconstruction

Understanding how vehicles move is crucial for safer, more coordinated, and smarter transportation systems. However, directly observing vehicle trajectories is impractical, posing a challenge to obtaining accurate trajectory data with limited sensing capabilities. We explore our innovative approach to vehicle trajectory reconstruction, reshaping the future of traffic management.

Creating inequality in access to public transit? Densification, gentrification, and displacement

Densification is a key concept in contemporary urban planning. Yet, there are widespread concerns about densification causing displacement and gentrification. This paper examines densification around train stations—a prevalent form of transit-oriented development (TOD) in cities with established public transit systems—in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland.

What can cities do to promote acceptance of densification?

Swiss cities are more likely to accept densification when densification projects provide affordable housing and green spaces compared to densification that is implemented through reduced regulations for housing construction. By prioritizing a socio-​ecological densification, extensive planning procedures and delays might be minimized. Read the article on ETH News.

Hybrid Summer School Synergic Urban Systems

6 – 27 July 2024 | Deadline extended to 15 April.

Public Participation in Urban Planning

Public participation has become a widely used concept in the rhetoric and practice of planning, and an accepted approach in the formulation and implementation of spatial plans, urban policies, or development projects. Despite the widespread use of the concept in both theory and practice, there is however no More

Globale Modellierung des ländlichen Strassenverkehrs ausserhalb der Städte

Der Verkehr auf ländlichen Strassen ausserhalb der Städte kann erhebliche negative Auswirkungen auf die Ökologie und Umwelt von Natur- und Agrarlandschaften haben. Der Umfang dieser Auswirkungen kann jedoch nicht bestimmt werden, da in vielen Ländern keine Daten zum Verkehrsvolumen auf ländlichen Strassen verfügbar sind. Deshalb haben wir einen More

NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Frühjahrssemester 2024

Das neue NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Frühjahrssemester 2024 ist da!

Developing and Extending Status Prediction Models for Railway Tracks Based on On-Board Monitoring Data

Assigning inspection trains to monitor track quality is a standard procedure for maintaining railway system safety. The main challenges lie in lacking time and resources to perform the inspections because of the increasing traffic nowadays.

Explainable Train Delay Propagation: A Graph Attention Network Approach

Explaining train delay propagation using influence factors (to find the determinants) is essential for transport planning and train operation management.

Time-to-Green Predictions for Fully-Actuated Signal Control Systems With Supervised Learning

Recently, efforts have been made to standardize signal phase and timing (SPaT) messages. These messages contain signal phase timings of all signalized intersection approaches.

Maintenance and Advanced Analytics in Railways

On-Board Monitoring techniques, defined as using commercial trains to monitor the track status, have garnered much attention recently. While data come in relatively low quality, OBM is a low-cost and efficient alternative to traditional monitoring methods. Thus, funded by the ETH Mobility Initiative project OMISM, this study checks More

Public Support for Participation in Local Development

Public participation in local development is an integral part of democratic agendas across the world. Yet not much research specifically focuses on people’s perspectives of participation, especially among underprivileged populations.

Damian Jerjen named «Professor of Practice»

Damian Jerjen is currently Director of the Swiss association for spatial planning EspaceSuisse and Lecturer at ETH Zurich and other Swiss universities. He is an economist and spatial planner. He serves on various bodies, including the Council for Spatial Planning (ROR). At EspaceSuisse, he supports and brings together More

News from Regenerative Materials at ETH

How will the railway look like in 2050? A survey of experts on technologies, challenges and opportunities for the railway system

The railway system can fulfil society’s current and future transportation goals; compared to other transport modes, it does that with high energy, space and resource efficiency. It can deliver high-quality transport services, superior speed, safety and comfort to most competing modes. Nevertheless, its share of the total traffic More

How Will the Railway Look Like in 2050?

Many aspects contribute to the further development of the technologies, but no single game changer could be identified. Developments are expected in automation; revolutionary changes are perceived as unlikely.

Envisioning a Cycling-centric Future: Urban Traffic Modeling and Management for a Bi-modal Network

Allocating dedicated road space to slow modes is considered an effective way toward a radical modal shift. By exploiting traffic flow theoretical knowledge, convenient models can be developed to help evaluate the influence of such a large-scale transformation on network traffic performance. Novel strategies for bi-modal urban traffic More

Stress Testing Transport Systems

Transportation systems are vital for economic and social development, yet are susceptible to disruptions caused by natural hazards, especially considering the adverse impacts of climate change on increasing the intensity of frequency of climatic hazards. To manage these risks effectively, stress testing, as a diagnostic tool, has shown More

CAS ETH in Zukunft der Raumentwicklung

Bewerbung bis 15. Juli 2024 | Start: Herbst, Dauer: 6 Monate. Das CAS «Zukunft der Raumentwicklung» vermittelt zeitgemässe Themen und Werkzeuge für den Umgang mit Unsicherheiten und Komplexität.

Neue Ansätze in der Modellierung: «The German experiment with low flat rates for public transport. An economic and political evaluation»

New date will be announced asap | Seminar | ETH Zürich, Zentrum, ML F38.

Nachfragegetriebene ÖV-Systeme: «Lessons from the design of integrated on-demand transit systems in two cities»

20 March 2024, 14:00–15:15 | Seminar | ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL F36.1.

Neue Ansätze in der Modellierung: «Best of both worlds: data driven models with behavioural realism and flexibility»

DATE WILL CHANGE! (previously: 20 March 2024, 10:30 – 12:00) | Seminar | ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL F36.

In Gedenken an Willy A. Schmid

Willy A. Schmid war von 1978 bis 2008 Professor für Landschafts-​ und Umweltplanung am Institut für Raum-​ und Landschaftsentwicklung (IRL), der heutigen Professur für Planung von Landschaft und Urbanen Systemen (PLUS) und Mitbegründer des Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft (NSL) an der ETH Zürich. Er hat Generationen von Raum-​ und Landschaftsplaner:innen More

MAS ETH in Regenerative Systems

CAS#2 Beyond Systems Thinking. Applications: 11 March to 7 April 2024, Duration: May-September 2024. The new MAS in Regenerative Systems (DRRS) is a systemic programme for designerly enacting complex systems in a highly innovative didactic setting.

Identifying levers of urban neighbourhood transformation using serious games

Growing urban population and contemporary urban systems lock-in unsustainable urban development pathways, deteriorating the living quality of urban dwellers. The systemic complexity of these challenges renders it difficult to find solutions using existing planning processes.

NSL Forum & Cycling Research Board

4 – 6 September 2024 | ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL E3 and HIT. Today’s design reflects the car-oriented consensus, which was formulated between the 1930’s and 1950’s and adopted around the world since then. The climate crisis challenges this orientation and asks for designs which emphasize the micro-mobility. More

NSL Forum & Cycling Research Board

4 – 6 September 2024 | ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL E3 and HIT. VIDEO NOW ONLINE! Today’s design reflects a car-oriented consensus, which was formulated between the 1930’s and 1950’s and adopted around the world since then. The climate crisis challenges this orientation and asks for designs that More

CAS ETH in Regenerative Materials – Essentials: Public Lectures

4.3.2024 | Online.

Humanitarian Planning Hub

The Humanitarian Planning Hub is a research and policy hub for co-creating knowledge between academia and practice to serve the housing needs of displaced populations worldwide through environmentally and socially sustainable humanitarian planning. The first project of the humanitarian planning hub is a cooperation with the Geneva Technical More

disP 59/3, September 2023

disP – The Planning Review, Volume 59, Issue 3, September 2023 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

CSFM Seminar: New Regulations on Autonomous Vehicles for Switzerland

11 January 2024, 15:00 | ETH Zürich.

Prof. Dr. Eva Heinen appointed as Full Professor of Transportation and Mobility Planning

Professor Eva Heinen (*1981), currently Full Professor at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, was appointed as Full Professor of Transportation and Mobility Planning in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. Eva Heinen’s interdisciplinary research looks at mobility and transportation at the intersection of sustainable development, More

Designing anti-fragile large-scale traffic frameworks

Traffic optimisation Goals Design and develop a framework to fuse physics knowledge in the design of the large-​scale system optimisation by means of machine learning, control theory, and simulation in order to achieve antifragile behaviour at scale. Provide an instantiation of the framework for traffic optimisation. Provide a More

Antifragile Urban Mobility: Traffic Control Beyond Resilience

Explore the future of urban mobility with ETH Zürich’s Antigones project. Pioneering antifragility in traffic control, it transcends resilience, adapting to disruptions for efficient and disruption-resistant road networks. Antifragile frameworks can recognize early disruptions and mitigate the negative impact on users and society.

Wie verändert sich das Verkehrsgleichgewicht durch Home office?

Während der COVID-Pandemie haben die Menschen ihr Verkehrsverhalten fundamental angepasst mit Verlagerungen vom öffentlichen Verkehr hin zu Individualverkehr. Insbesondere das Fahrrad erlebte einen regelrechten Boom während dem ersten Lockdown. Home office wurde zum ersten Mal global getestet und dies äusserst erfolgreich: die Pandemie hat die Home office Verbreitung More

disP 59/2, June 2023

disP – The Planning Review, Volume 59, Issue 2 (2023) is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

Settlement Relationships and their Morphological Homogeneity Across Time and Scale

Homogeneous settlement morphologies negatively impact urban vibrancy, the environment, and emotions. Mainly resulting from the separation of functions such as work and living, homogeneous settlements have often been found around large cities.

Adaptive Urban Planning for an Uncertain Future: Infrastructure Interventions for the Technological Shift in Transportation

Planning cities to adapt to the future is challenging due to complex interactions between mobility, infrastructure, and land use. This challenge is exacerbated by the need to study future uncertainties such as ever-shifting demographics and industrial landscape, increased environmental and climatic changes, disruptive and unpredictable technological development, and More

Escape Determinism – Unlocking Desirable Urban Development Pathways

Look around you – what do you see? Unique urban landscapes with specific characteristics, identities, and landmarks? Or homogenous urban landscapes repeating similar shapes, materials, colours, and functions? Currently, homogeneity dominates the day-to-day realities of the European population, of which 74% already lives in urban landscapes. Homogeneity is More

Zwischen Wolkenkratzern und Zustimmung? Über Akzeptanz für urbane Verdichtung aus raumplanerischer Perspektive

Seit in Kraft treten des revidierten Raumplanungsgesetzes (RPG) auf 1. Mai 2014 sind alle 26 Schweizer Kantone und über 2130 Gemeinden dazu verpflichtet, ihre «Siedlungsentwicklung nach innen» zu lenken. Politik und Behörden müssen folglich ihre bestehenden Siedlungen verdichten, um Zersiedlung zu verhindern und den Flächenverbrauch pro Kopf zu More

Adrienne Grêt-Regamey ist Dandelion Award Winner 2023

17 Professor:innen für Start-​up-Förderung geehrt.

Die Zentren der Zürcher Agglo und die Transformation der Rückseiten

Die Zukunft einer Stadt entscheidet sich in ihrer Agglomeration. Aber wie kann die Zentrumsentwicklung in der Agglomeration gelingen? Das zeigt der disP-Autor Simon Grimm am Beispiel der Stadt und Agglomeration Zürich auf. Dieser Artikel erschien in der disP – The Planning Review und ist über diesen Link bis More

Urban Research Seminar

29.11.2023, 12:00 – 17:30 | ETH Zürich, Hönggerberg, HIL H 35.1. Urban Research Seminar is a new initiative hosted by D-BAUG with the aim of building a bottom-up network that brings together early career researchers and their ongoing urban research projects across ETH Zürich.

More Than Human Cinema

7.11. | ETH Zürich Hönggerberg and L200, Zürich. Featuring innovative experimental documentaries reflecting on various aspects of the built environment, this film series will take place over three dates across the Autumn 2023 Semester.

Glossary of Spatial Planning Terms. An Overview of Instruments and Terminology in Switzerland

As a resource for understanding and translating Swiss spatial planning terms, this glossary aims to promote consistency and coherence for education and applied research in English about Swiss spatial planning at the ETH Institute for Spatial and Landscape Development and beyond.