Urban Geography
The research section Urban Geography addresses how accessibility of urban amenities, work places, health services and places of education and public spaces depends on urban form and characteristics of the transport system. It also addresses how accessibility develops with changes in urban structure and as a result of transport innovations such as shared mobility. Furthermore, this theme investigates how accessibility differs between groups depending on their socio-economic, lifestyle or locational characteristics, and how this facilitates or hampers the use of facilities and public spaces, social participation and health.
How do inhabitants and visitors use and experience the city in their daily life? How does this influence their health and well-being? For behaviours such as shopping and recreation, sports, social interaction and daily travel it is being investigated how inhabitants and visitors depend on the specific qualities of urban environments.
Specific attention is given to social interaction in public spaces in this respect. Outcomes of daily behaviours are studied in relation with the use and experience of amenities and public space. In the health domain, we study how engagement in physical activity is influenced by the presence of sports accommodations, parks and infrastructure that promotes active travel, how dietary behaviour depends on exposure to food outlets, and how mental health is affected by exposure to urban and green environments. In addition, the embodied experiences of exposures, daily activities and travel are studied.
Contact
For individual members of this research section, please see the staff listing
Showcases
The DEPICT project aims to determine which features of urban environments, local communities, and the governance of physical infrastructures influence walking and cycling and how these can be optimised to achieve sustainable urban mobility for all.
Dick EttemaUrban Geography
This research project provides a critical assessment of collaborations on mixed migration flows between Europe and migrant sending countries.
Ilse van LiemptUrban Geography
PEN aims to evaluate policy measures to promote a healthy diet and physical activity of the population in terms of their content, implementation and effectiveness.
Frank van LentheUrban Geography
The exposome concept is trying to capture everything to understand which, how, in what quantities, and in what circumstances environmental drivers have an effect on our health.
Mei-Po KwanUrban geography
The research project Calibrating Inclusive Sporting Encounters investigates the crucial role that organisation networks and first-line professionals, such as community sports coaches and social workers, play in guiding people in vulnerable positions to sporting encounters and how to organise them.
Dick EttemaUrban Geography
Utrecht University and the municipality of Eindhoven deploy apps to make people aware of the positive role public space plays for their health.
Monique SimonsHealthy Urban Living
How does an abundant availability of food in our immediate environment have influence on our eating habits?
Maartje PoelmanHealthy Urban Living
The aim of the research project is to get a better understanding of how recently arrived Syrians spent and experience their days at work, school, and in their leisure time and how they combine and prioritise all these activities in the process of settling-in in the Netherlands.
Ilse van LiemptUrban Geography
Moving around can have an effect on mental health. Dr Marco Helbich investigates the influence of mobility on depression and suicide.
Marco HelbichHealthy Urban Living
In this project we aim to explore the issue of refugee youth, public space and integration in Europe. We will answer important questions about the role that arts and cultural initiatives play in the lives of refugee youth and their engagements with public space.
Ilse van LiemptUrban Geography
Poor neighbourhoods often have a bad name. An international research group shows that its diversity has many positive effects.
Anouk TersteegDIVERCITIES
The aim of this project is to realize a seamless data driven spatial science using geographic information through question-based analysis, which is a novel way of interacting with geoanalytical resources via Question Answering (QA) technology.
Simon ScheiderUrban Geography
The PAUL project investigates if there are nice and easy ways to motivate people to exercise more. To stimulate this, the PAUL-app was developed: a personal coach to help you exercise more.
Dick EttemaUrban Geography