‘Bridging the Implementation Gap of Accessibility Instruments and Planning Support Systems’– is the topic of the next conference organized by http://citta-conference.fe.up.pt/link_icon.gif); background-position: 0px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">CITTA - Research Center for Territory, Transport and Environment, held at the Faculty of Engineering, Porto University on the 24th of October 2014.
This year's edition will be joined with the Final Conference of the COST Action TU1002 on ‘Accessibility Instruments for Planning Practice in Europe’, sharing the second day of this event (for more information click http://citta-conference.fe.up.pt/link_icon.gif); background-position: 0px 1px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">here).
Theme of the conference
Although the development of instruments for planning support dates back much further, the concept of Planning Support Systems (PSS) appeared in the planning literature in the mid-1980s. In the last decades, planning research and literature has witnessed a significant proliferation of PSS. Regardless of this, very few of the developed PSS are actually used in practice. Literature suggests that a fundamental dichotomy between supply and demand of information and models to support planning practice could be the main reason for this phenomenon. On the one hand, planning practitioners – the potential users of these instruments – are generally unaware of and inexperienced in the use of them. On the other hand, the authors of these instruments have, in general, little awareness of the related demand requirements in the complex planning context in which these instruments have to be applied.
This conference aims to bring together a wide range of Planning Support Systems (PSS) in an embracing debate on their implementation gap in planning practice. In addition to collecting a number of PSS, the conference aims to discuss the usefulness of PSS in planning practice from a dual perspective – author/practitioner – looking for recommendations to support the design of more useful PSS in the future.
Being joined with the Final Conference of the COST Action on Accessibility Instruments in Planning Practice, the CITTA conference will gain from the presentation of the outcomes and findings of European and Australian wide research on usability of accessibility instruments, opening, at the same time, the debate to other (non-accessibility-based) PSS, such as those dealing with environmental, land use and transport planning issues.
Keynote speakers
on the 24th of October (2nd day of the joint event; day of the 7th CITTA conference)
Marco te Brömmelstroet - University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Marco te Brömmelstroet holds the position of Assistant Professor in urban planning at the University of Amsterdam. His teaching and research focuses on the relation between land use and mobility. Recent research focussed on the usability of planning support systems for integrated urban strategy making processes. The role of transport models, accessibility instruments and cost benefit analyses in decision-making are central in his research interests.
Paulo Pinho - University of Porto, Portugal
Paulo Pinho is Full Professor of Spatial Planning at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, founder and Director of CITTA, the Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, and Director of the PhD Programme in Spatial Planning, a joint initiative of the Universities of Porto and Coimbra. His recent research focuses on urban metabolism and low carbon cities, urban morphology and metropolitan dynamics, shrinking cities and new forms of urban space production.
Cecília Silva - University of Porto, Portugal
Cecília Silva is Assistant Professor at the University of Oporto. Her main research activities are focussed on Mobility Management, Accessibility Planning and Planning Support Instruments. She has developed a decision support tool for mobility management based on the concept of structural accessibility. She is the chair of a COST Action on Accessibility Instruments in Planning Practice. Her research activities have led to books, book chapters and a number of papers in international journals and conferences.
Stan Geertman - University of Utrecht, The Netherlands to be confirmed
Additional Keynote Speakers
on the 23rd of October (1st day of the joint event)
Susan Handy - University of California, Davis, USA
Susan Handy is Chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and the Director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation at the University of California, Davis. Her research interests center on the relationships between transportation and land use, particularly the impact of neighborhood design on travel behavior. She is a member of the Committee on Women’s Issues in Transportation of the Transportation Research Board and is an associate editor of the newly launched Journal of Transport and Health.
Karst Geurs - University of Twente, the Netherlands
Karst Geurs is Full Professor of Transport Planning at the Centre for Transport Studies, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Twente, The Netherlands. His research focuses on accessibility analysis and modelling, land-use and transport interactions, transport policy evaluation and sustainable transport. He has over 20 journal publications and many other publications. He is the current president of NECTAR (Network of European Communications and Transport Activities Research).
Angela Hull - Heriot Watt University, United Kingdom
Angela Hull holds the Chair in Spatial Planning at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh UK. In her early career she worked as a local government town planner followed by a period in consultancy. She has worked in academia for the last 25 years teaching town planning and urban management. Her research spans across governance and organisational behaviour in sustainable urban management particularly examining the institutional triggers to changed approaches in transport, energy, and housing.
Carey Curtis - Curtin University, Australia to be confirmed
Organizing Committee
Cecília Silva (Chair), Paulo Pinho, Anabela Ribeiro, Paulo Conceição, Ana Amante, Miguel Lopes, Tiago Patatas, Ana Sousa
Scientific Committee
Álvaro Seco, António Pais Antunes, Cecília Silva, Isabel Vazquez, Luca Bertolini, Marco te Brömmelstroet, Nuno Pinto, Paulo Pinho
More info at: http://citta-conference.fe.up.pt/