Description
Residential floorspace per capita has increased substantially across Europe, creating major challenges for sustainable housing transitions through higher material use, energy consumption, and land requirements. One potential driver is the decline of accessible "third spaces" (Ray Oldenburg): cafes, pubs, libraries, parks, and community centers where people socialize and spend time outside home and work. If people compensate for limited access to these spaces by demanding larger private dwellings (to entertain guests, pursue hobbies, or simply have room to spread out), then declining third space provision may fuel unsustainable housing expansion.
Using high-resolution spatial data for Europe (EUBUCCO), you will analyze the relationship between residential floorspace per capita (1km grid) and third space accessibility (derived from OpenStreetMap/Overture data). The analysis controls for density, income, climate, and building vintage while testing whether patterns consistent with private/third space substitution are detectable after accounting for confounding factors.
The project involves spatial analysis in R, working with OpenStreetMap/GIS data to identify and map third spaces (cafes, pubs, libraries, parks, community centers), developing accessibility measures using spatial smoothing techniques, and interpreting results in the context of urban planning and housing sustainability. Key challenges include defining which spaces count as "third spaces," operationalizing accessibility at appropriate scales, and separating constraint-driven patterns from preference-driven compensation effects.
Outcomes
A descriptive analysis of European urban space allocation patterns, potentially publishable if results reveal systematic relationships. Findings could inform housing sustainability policies and urban planning priorities around community space provision.
Required skills
- Spatial analysis
- regression modeling
- R/tidyverse
- comfort with messy real-world data
- willingness to wrangle OpenStreetMap data
Contact
If you are interested in working on this topic during an internship or as your master's thesis, please get in touch with Karo Born (team assistant): karoline.born [at] pik-potsdam.de
