Stellenbosch University
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Seminar: Department of Logistics
Start: 30/10/2019, 13:00
End: 30/10/2019, 14:00
Contact:Linke Potgieter -
Location: Van der Sterr 3022

​​Presenter: Prof Stanislav Kraft (University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic)

Title: Daily rhythms in the city - what can we learn from intelligent transport systems?

Abstract: 

The recent rapid development of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) has brought substantial changes in the organization and management of all transport sectors. ITS deployment makes transport safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly. The secondary benefit of ITS deployment is the ability to continually collect huge volumes of traffic data that have been poorly available previously. In connection with the progressive deployment of ITS, researchers are provided with important information on a large number of transport processes, moreover in great detail and from different regions of the world. This is particularly true of cities where ITSs often operate in interconnected chains. Urban space shows high dynamics of traffic phenomena, mainly due to a significant concentration of urban functions (housing, business, work, leisure and other activities). The urban space is thus used for many reasons and by many groups of inhabitants. It is also crucial that this use of urban space has a distinct temporal component, as different activities are used at different times of the day, week and year. This suggests that people's movements in urban space exhibit different spatial and temporal patterns - collectively referred to as daily rhythms. The study of these daily rhythms is crucial to a number of scientific disciplines. Knowing the differences of daily rhythms in the city is important especially in the area of basic as well as applied research (especially urban and transport planning). Knowledge of the spatio-temporal routines of urban mobility is thus a key aspect to understanding the quality of urban life, its structure and its individual locations.

The lecture is aimed at the use of data from ITS to analyzing, visualizing and understanding the daily rhythms in the city. We will discuss the main advantages and disadvantages of this approach and its potential for transport planning.

More information about the presenter:

Stanislav Kraft is an associate professor of human geography at the Department of Geography, the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (Czech Republic) where he has been a faculty member since 2007. His main research area is transport geography, spatial mobility studies, spatial interactions modelling and settlement and regional systems. He is the member of two research teams - Transport Geography Research Center at the Charles University in Prague and Centre for Analysis of Regional Systems at the Palacký University in Olomouc. Since 2018 he is the Scientific Secretary of Czech Geographical Society.

Stanislav received his PhD in Regional Geography and Regional Development from the Institute of Geography, Faculty of Sciences, Masaryk University in 2012. His principal publications address the issues of post-socialist transformation of the transport system in the Czech Republic, delimitation of functional regions based on transport data, GIS in transport and the use of intelligent transport systems for spatial analysis.