Bikes in Delft

Not a lot of data analysis or research been done on my part recently. That's because I've been on the road a bit, including attending the Regional Studies Association international conference in Delft. While I was in Delft I was not only amazed by the sheer volume of bikes but also by the way in which bikes are given their own space. I knew about this in advance but it was quite amazing to see it in action, as the short video shows. The video, by the way, was taken on my phone on a slightly windy day at the lovely TU Delft campus.

The number of bikes at Delft station was also staggering, though you can't really even begin to get the scale of it from the picture below...

While I was in Delft I gave a paper on housing market search, based on some Rightmove data. It seemed to go down quite well so hopefully during the summer I'll have time to finish the work and submit it for publication...

How did I manage to do a post without a map? I'm sure I'll rectify this next time.

City Futures '09 in Madrid

I'm off to Madrid on Wednesday for the City Futures '09 conference, hosted by the European Urban Research Association (EURA) and the US-based Urban Affairs Association (UAA). I'm looking forward to the event and to seeing Madrid (but not the heat), pero mi español es no bueno! The variety of papers and presenters is quite an exciting prospect, and the conference is organised according to several themes, as below:

Climate change, resource use, and urban adaptation. How sustainable are modern cities? What policies are being introduced to tackle climate change

Knowledge and technology in urban development. How are cities harnessing knowledge and technology to increase the quality of life for their citizens? Whither local economic development in a rapidly changing world?

Community development, migration and integration in urban areas. How are cities coping with rapid population movements – both into and out of cities? What are the implications for housing, urban regeneration and community building of international population shifts?

Urban governance and city planning in an international era. Sound city governance and urban planning†are critical to urban success. What are the implications of current trends for political and managerial leadership? How should cities position themselves internationally? [I'm doing a paper here]

Architecture and the design of the public realm. The quality of architecture and urban design affects the quality of life in cities. What innovations are taking place in urban design and planning at street level? Are cities redesigning themselves to cope with new challenges relating to, for example, public safety?

View Larger Map

I didn't manage to make the 2008 conference in Milan, but did go to the 2007 version in Glasgow where I presented work on migration and neighbourhood change with Kitty Lymperopoulou. In Madrid, I'm talking about area-based urban policies and the complications of this kind of spatial targeting. For more on Spanish urban policy, as opposed to urban policy being discussed in Spain, the European Urban Knowledge Network is a good place to start.

Euro blogging...

Things have been quieter on the blog front recently because I've been in Lille from 1-5 April and then Leuven from 5-9 April at the Regional Studies Association International Conference 2009. The event brings together key thinkers (not that I think I'm amongst them!) in regional studies from across Europe and the wider world, though it tends to be mostly European. Papers given at the conference were varied and reflect the broad constituency of the field of regional studies itself. So, we find economists mixing with geographers, planners and those who transcend disciplinary boundaries.

Of particular interest for me here was the special session centred on DCLG (a government department in the UK, with responsibilities in England) and the establishment of the new spatial analysis unit, headed by David Wood (economist by training). There were three pleasing aspects about this for me. First, the fact that David Wood and Verity Morgan from DCLG were in attendance in the first place - very good. Second, the fact that there is a new unit within DCLG dedicated to spatial analysis - this is right down my street, as previous posts have shown. Finally, the fact that senior people in the Department are enthusiastic about this kind of work, and particularly work which I had a key role in - I've blogged on it before.

Finally, some visuals on the route from Sheffield to Leuven. I'm taking the Eurostar back...



View Larger Map

Writings from Chicago

There hasn't been much blogging activity here lately but that's because I've been preparing for the ACSP-AESOP Joint Congress in Chicago. It's a big planning conference held every 4 or 5 years by the US and European planning organisations ACSP and AESOP respectively. I am now at the conference. There are over 1,000 delegates and so far it's been very interesting (currently it is Tuesday 8th July here and the conference runs to Friday).

I am giving my paper on Wedensday the 9th of July in the 8am session so hopefully lots of early birds there. I decided to screencast it and make it available online. I think this will be a useful tool for anyone who wants to revisit what I've said because it can often be quite a difficult thing to digest so many presentations at conferences. The paper is on geovisualisation and spatial structure using an example from UK migration data from the 2001 Census.

About to sign off for now, but I've added a photo on the left showing the view of downtown Chicago from my window.