Search by tag «Urban Science» 30 results
What Future Does Climate Change Spell for St. Petersburg?
Climate change, global warming, and other environmental issues remain constant hot topics all around the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recently published its latest assessment report, calling for immediate action against global warming. An increase of global temperature, even by a mere 1.5 degree Celsius, could have disastrous and irreversible consequences. Experts from Russia and Germany met at ITMO University to participate in a roundtable on climate change. One of the event’s speakers was Viktor Gorny, a researcher at the Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety at the Russian Academy of Sciences (SRCES RAS), who reported how climate change would affect the citizens of St. Petersburg.
01.11.2018
ITMO Student Talks Urban Development in Northern Cities
In Russia, there are many cities above the Arctic Circle that aren’t very comfortable to live in, to say the least. In such cities, paved roads are already enough to make people happy. Artem Nikolaev, a student at ITMO’s Institute of Design & Urban Studies, wants to change the situation in small Russian cities for the better. He shared his ideas with ITMO.NEWS.
30.10.2018
Smart City VS Smart Citizens: Сoen Bergman on Conducting Efficient Public Research
How can city dwellers use modern technologies in order to monitor the quality of air and water? What is the work of civic activists and volunteers really about? And how citizen science helped make scientists participate in volunteer projects? WAAG’s Smart City laboratory in Amsterdam, which unites citizens, scientists and designers in their desire to solve the problems related to air and water quality, has been working for several years already. At an open lecture for the Institute of Design & Urban Studies, Coen Bergman, its representative and project lead, spoke about modern citizen science projects and whether it’s possible to replicate this experience in different countries. ITMO.NEWS put down the bullet points.
01.10.2018
ITMO Researchers Receive Grant to Create Urban Development Centers in Russia and Finland
Staff of ITMO’s Modern Communication Technologies Lab have developed a project that aims to integrate the latest information technologies into the day-to-day life of large cities. Centers for promotion of novel initiatives will open in Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Lappeenranta.
27.09.2018
Do It Yourself: Citizen-Led City Planning
Thanks to social media, people can easily discuss problems, organize events, and even influence the political decision-making process. Citizens don’t want to be silent anymore, as they start seeing their cities as platforms for communication, creative work, and business. Urbanist and popular blogger Timo Hämäläinen, whose blog ‘From Rurban to Urban’ was rated among the best in its category by The Guardian, talked about urban development in Finland during the Geography for Everyone summer school that took place at ITMO University.
22.08.2018
Urban Scientist Steve Kuddins on Overfencing in St. Petersburg: Causes and Solutions
City officials and representatives of the General Administration for Traffic Safety claim that placing fences improves road safety and protects the city's lawns. Still, the citizens of St. Petersburg are becoming more and more concerned with the "overfencing" problem. Do fences really decrease the number of traffic accidents? How can regular people influence the current situation? And why is involving the citizens the only way to solve this problem? Steve Kuddins, expert for ITMO's Institute of Design & Urban Studies, expanded on these questions during an open interview at the Campus Festival.
13.07.2018
Campus Festival: How Studying Emotions Helps Urban Developers
What are the rules and methods of creating the optimal urban environment? What is it that specialists from the Quality of Life laboratory do? And how can the citizens’ emotions help to develop new projects and urban development concepts? Aleksandra Nenko, head of the laboratory and Associate Professor at the Institute of Design & Urban Studies, expanded on the importance of art development and the collaboration of business and creative teams during an open interview at the Campus festival, while ITMO.NEWS put down the main ideas.
11.07.2018
St. Petersburg 2103: Building the City of the Future
The “St. Petersburg 2103” exhibition about the past, present and future of the city has recently started in the Manege Central Exhibition Hall. Why did Catherine II want to make the city smaller, while Alexander I wanted to extend it? What does modern St. Petersburg look like? And what will it look like in the future, for example, when it turns 400 years old? The exhibitions give you an opportunity to think about the development of the city and try your hand as a developer with the help of an interactive game designed by scientists from ITMO University.
22.06.2018
Saddest Park and Happiest Street: Urban Scientists From ITMO Study St. Petersburg’s Emotions
Imprecity is an interactive website about St. Petersburg’s parks, streets, squares, courtyards and other public spaces, created by experts from the Quality of Urban Life Lab at ITMO University’s Institute of Design & Urban Studies. The website is currently in testing phase, which everyone can join. You just need to point out the emotions that you feel in different locations of St. Petersburg and leave a comment. Imprecity’s experts compile emotion maps of the city and plan “emotional routes”. Users can find out which places make people happiest and which ones are the most depressing, as well as find out where to go to improve their mood.
21.05.2018
SimCity IRL: How Citizens Help Urban Developers by Playing Board Games
City dwellers often don’t have the chance to express their support or opposition to various urban development initiatives. And it’s not because there’s a lack of ways to do that, but that people may find it difficult to express their ideas. One way to solve this problem is to use a game-based approach, suggests Milena Ivkovic, an architect, game designer and head of Rotterdam-based company Blok74. She offers urban residents to play games as a way of showing the environment they’d like to inhabit in a simple, informal setting. Ms. Ivkovic explained her game-making process during a recent workshop at ITMO’s Institute of Design and Urban Science.
25.04.2018