Principal Investigator Andres Sevtsuk
The Green Mobility City: Tools for Modeling Built Environments at the Pedestrian Scale Andres Sevtsuk Head, City Design and Development Group Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP)
The global climate-change crisis, along with public health and economic competitiveness challenges faced by cities worldwide, underscores the urgent need for analytical tools and models to explore the relationship between city design and sustainable mobility. In this presentation, Andres Sevtsuk will introduce the Urban Network Analysis framework, a tool for modeling land-use and transportation interactions at the pedestrian scale. This framework enables planners and policymakers to assess pedestrian access to urban destinations and evaluate the effects of land-use and infrastructure changes on pedestrian mobility. Such analyses empower planners, designers, and policymakers to prioritize projects that enhance sustainable mobility outcomes.
Although street commerce is deeply intertwined with myriad contemporary urban visions and planning goals—walkability, quality of life, inclusion, equity, and economic resilience—it has rarely been the focus of systematic research and informed practice. Drawing on economic theory, urban design principles, regulatory policies, and merchant organization models, Andres Sevtsuk conceptualizes key problems and offers innovative solutions. Prof. Sevtsuk’s work on street commerce provides a range of examples from around the world to detail how different cities and communities have bolstered and reinvigorated their street commerce. According to Sevtsuk, successful street commerce can only be achieved when the private sector, urban policy makers, planners, and the public are equipped with the relevant knowledge and tools to plan and regulate it.