In this project we want to understand in more detail how physical activity of city dwellers can be increased by using personalized app technology.
Project subsidised by:
Video PAUL Project HvA
Check the article about PAUL featured in our online magazine 'Smart Stories':
In large cities, the health and life expectancy of individuals are worse than in rural environments, partly due to a lower physical activity of citizens. In this project we want to understand in more detail how physical activity of city dwellers can be increased by using personalized app technology.
Until now the existing health and exercise apps in app stores lack a scientific base. Different apps use different ways to stimulate people to be physically active (e.g. feedback about physical activity, motivational messages, games). Some researchers argue that what type of app works, is highly individual. This means that the right type of app may depend on e.g. your current physical activity level, health, personality and residential context. However, how to make the optimal match between app and user is still unclear.
This project aims to develop an exercise app with different forms of feedback. We will also develop a method to find the optimal match between app and user. We will use the app to collect data about the physical activity and location of the users. Since these data is collected every 5 seconds, this will give us very large data sets (big data). We will use ‘data mining’ techniques (automated search programmes on a computer) to find out which app works best for different types of users. We will then give each person his or her optimal app, and measure if the physical activity further increases. Based on the data, we can determine what the effect is of different types of exercise apps, and what app is most suitable for a particular person.
Project initiators: dr. Marije Baart de la Faille-Deutekom (AUAS), prof. dr. Ben Kröse (AUAS), dr. Monique Simons (Utrecht University), prof. dr. Victor Zuniga Dourado (UNIFESP, Sao Paolo)
Team members: Joey van der Bie, Monique Schaule-Jullens, Nicky Nibbeling, Marije Baart de la Faille-Deutekom (all AUAS), Monique Simons (Utrecht University) Prof. Dr. Victor Zuniga Dourado (UNIFESP, Sao Paolo).
Project partners:
UvA - University of Amsterdam
UNIFESP- Federal University of Sao Paulo
HvA - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
UU - Utrecht University
UFSCar - Federal University of São Carlos
info.nl
Glimworm
ZappYou
Municipality of Amsterdam
Amsterdam Smart City
This project is a collaboration between research institutes in both the Netherlands and Brasil and the research will be performed in the Amsterdam region as well as in the Sao Paolo region.
Urbanisation in the US is undergoing major changes. The image of a central city surrounded by sprawling suburbs therefore needs to be updated. The question is what place does the 15-minute city have in it? That is what this somewhat longer post is about
From the 1950s, residents of US cities began moving en masse to the suburbs. A detached house in the green came within reach for the middle and upper classes, and the car made it possible to commute daily to factories and offices. These were initially still located in and around the cities. The government stimulated this development by investing billions in the road network.
From the 1980s, offices also started to move away from the big cities. They moved to attractive locations, often near motorway junctions. Sometimes large shopping and entertainment centres also settled there, and flats were built on a small scale for supporting staff. Garreau called such cities 'edge cities'.
Investors built new suburbs called 'urban villages' in the vicinity of the new office locations, significantly reducing the distance to the offices. This did not reduce congestion on congested highways.
However, more and more younger workers had no desire to live in suburbs. The progressive board of Arlington, near Washington DC, took the decision in the 1980s to develop a total of seven walkable, inclusive, attractive and densely built-up cores in circles of up to 800 metres around metro stations. In each was a wide range of employment, flats, shops and other amenities . In the process, the Rosslyn-Balston Corridor emerged and experienced rapid growth. The population of the seven cores now stands at 71,000 out of a total of 136,000 jobs. 36% of all residents use the metro or bus for commuting, which is unprecedentedly high for the US. The Rosslyn-Balston Corridor is a model for many other medium-sized cities in the US, such as New Rochelle near new York.
Moreover, to meet the desire to live within walking distance of all daily amenities, there is a strong movement to also regenerate the suburbs themselves. This is done by building new centres in the suburbs and densifying part of the suburbs.
The new centres have a wide range of flats, shopping facilities, restaurants and entertainment centres. Dublin Bridge Park, 30 minutes from Columbus (Ohio) is one of many examples.
It is a walkable residential and commercial area and an easily accessible centre for residents from the surrounding suburbs. It is located on the site of a former mall.
Densification of the suburbs is necessary because of the high demand for (affordable) housing, but also to create sufficient support for the new centres.
Space is plentiful. In the suburbs, there are thousands of (semi-)detached houses that are too large for the mostly older couples who occupy them. An obvious solution is to split the houses, make them energy-positive and turn them into two or three starter homes. There are many examples how this can be done in a way that does not affect the identity of the suburbs (image).
New construction in suburbs
This kind of solution is difficult to realise because the municipal authorities concerned are bound by decades-old zoning plans, which prescribe in detail what can be built somewhere. Some of the residents fiercely oppose changing the laws. Especially in California, the NIMBYs (not in my backyard) and the YIMBYs (yes in my backyard) have a stranglehold on each other and housing construction is completely stalled.
But even without changing zoning laws, there are incremental changes. Here and there, for instance, garages, usually intended for two or three cars, are being converted into 'assessor flats' for grandma and grandpa or for children who cannot buy a house of their own. But garden houses are also being added and souterrains constructed. Along the path of gradualness, this adds thousands of housing units, without causing much fuss.
It is also worth noting that small, sometimes sleepy towns seem to be at the beginning of a period of boom. They are particularly popular with millennials. These towns are eminently 'walkable' , the houses are not expensive and there is a wide range of amenities. The distance to the city is long, but you can work well from home and that is increasingly the pattern. The pandemic and the homeworking it has initiated has greatly increased the popularity of this kind of residential location.
All in all, urbanisation in the US can be typified by the creation of giant metropolitan areas, across old municipal boundaries. These areas are a conglomeration of new cities, rivalling the old mostly shrinking and poverty-stricken cities in terms of amenities, and where much of employment is in offices and laboratories. In between are the suburbs, with a growing variety of housing. The aim is to create higher densities around railway stations. Besides the older suburbs, 'urban villages' have emerged in attractive locations. More and more suburbs are getting their own walkable centres, with a wide range of flats and facilities. Green space has been severely restricted by these developments.
According to Christopher Leinberger, professor of real estate and urban analysis at George Washington University, there is no doubt that in the US, walkable, attractive cores with a mixed population and a varied housing supply following the example of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor are the future. In addition, walkable car-free neighbourhoods, with attractive housing and ample amenities are in high demand in the US. Some of the 'urban villages' are developing as such. The objection is that these are 'walkable islands', rising in an environment that is anything but walkable. So residents always have one or two cars in the car park for when they leave the neighbourhood, as good metro or train connections are scarce. Nor are these kinds of neighbourhoods paragons of a mixed population; rents tend to be well above the already unaffordable average.
The answer of the question in the header therefore is: locally and slowly
Get ready for an exciting experience at the 7th Annual Placemaking Week Europe (PWE) in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from September 24-27, 2024! 🚀
Join us as we co-create an unforgettable programme! Do you have a game-changing project, research, or workshop to share? We want to hear from you!
This year’s festival revolves around four compelling themes:
1. Creating Place & Making It Last
2. Climate Adaptation: Together Towards Change
3. Living with Water: The Flow of the City
4. Local Power & The Battle for Space
Submit your proposals by May 19, 2024, and shape the future of urban spaces with us! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make a difference! Join us in Rotterdam and let’s build better cities, one idea at a time! ✨
You can find all the open call info and application instructions here.
More information about PWE'24 on our official website.
From March 4 to April 5, Amsterdam Smart City (ASC) collaborated with international peers from 77 cities across Europe in a series of online knowledge and inspiration sessions during the Intelligent Cities Challenge (ICC) Implementation Lab. The focus was on sharing best practices and building knowledge for implementing Local Green Deals (LGDs) to accelerate the transformation towards sustainability based on the principles of good governance, policy integration, partnership with local stakeholders.
Colleagues, partners, and experts from the Amsterdam Smart City network shared insights in several thematic and training sessions, including:
• Mobility & Transport Thematic Session: Pelle Menke shared the approach and lessons from ASC's Mobility Justice Challenge, while Diederik Basta introduced the City of Amsterdam's participation in the Gemini project, supporting residents in starting local, shared mobility cooperatives through a "Mobility as a Commons" (MaaC) approach.
• Local Green Deals Training Session: Egon van Wees presented Amsterdam's experience in setting up nine Impact Deals with social enterprises under the CLIMAA Local Green Deals project. The evaluation indicates that these deals have resulted in the creation of 105 jobs for people with barriers to the labor market and a reduction of 92 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Amsterdam, in collaboration with Aalborg (Denmark), also developed a framework now utilized by other cities in setting up similar Impact Deals.
• Social Economy Thematic Session: Frits Verhoef shared lessons from his involvement in two local energy cooperatives, including the pioneering work of NDSM-Energie in developing a 15MW wind park in the NoorderIJplas area, highlighting various financial and political barriers yet to be overcome. Frits also his work with MeerEnergie, a cooperative aiming to establish a heating network owned by local residents in the Watergraafsmeer district of Amsterdam, utilizing waste heat from nearby data centers.
What's Next?
Amsterdam Smart City is excited to host the ICC network in Amsterdam for a Mobility Field Visit in May, showcasing best practices for public-private collaboration in sustainable and smart mobility. We also look forward to connecting with ICC peers in person during the upcoming ICC conference in Porto in June.
More Information
For further details about the Implementation Lab and upcoming ICC activities, visit the ICC website: https://www.intelligentcitieschallenge.eu/events/icc-implementation-lab-1
Stakeholders in the Amsterdam Region interested in more information or wishing to connect to the ICC network during upcoming labs or other similar sessions can reach out to ASC International Liaison via cornelia@amsterdamsmartcity.com
