Scope & Objectives

The Spatial Planning and Environment (SPE) group brings together researchers with a wide breadth of expertise to explore how advances in planning theory and research can improve our knowledge and action on cities, communities, and natural environment.

Planning Theory and Practice: Decision-making processes, systems planning, planning evaluation, urban analytics and simulation are at the core of the SPE approach to the planning field.

Communities, Urban Culture and Built Environment: Addressing fundamental socio-economic dynamics, heritage values, inequalities, segregation types, well-being, justice and inclusivity, exploring the key influence of urban form and structure (street, plots and building systems) and technological advances (digital transition), as well as mobility and accessibility patterns, relating infrastructures, land uses and movement.

Natural Environment and the City: Focusing on the interaction between the natural and built environment includes research on climate change and environmental planning, urban metabolism and energy transitions, environmentally conscious design and sustainability assessment.

Research Team

• Integrated Researchers with PhD - Fernando Brandão Alves (Coordinator), Anabela Ribeiro, Anastássios Perdicoúlis, António Ferreira, Catarina Cadima, Cecília Silva, Miguel Lopes, Paulo Pinho, Rúben Fernandes, Sara Santos Cruz, Silvia Spolaor, Sofia Valente, Vinicius Netto, Vítor Oliveira
• PhD Students - Ana Dias, Ana Proença, Ana Sousa, Carla Gonçalves, Cauê Rios, Daniel Maia, Eduardo Palheta, Hasan Mansour, Hazrat Salamagy, João Corgo, João Monteiro, Joaquim Txifunga, Lais Bertolino, Lara Bomfim, Mariana Diniz, Mehrnaz Zargarzadeh, Mónica Cruz, Nuno Gomes, Olivia Lewis, Paulo Silvestre
• Collaborating Researchers - Ana Cláudia Monteiro, Brais Eiroa, Franklin Gaspar, Kim Von Schönfeld, Miguel Serra, Paulo Seixas

Main Contributions

Current Research Projects

• 1.67 - Knowledge Alliance for Evidence Based Urban Practices
• 1.90 - A Cross-Cultural Exploration around the Future of the City and Urban Life in the PostCOVID Era
• 1.81 - CAOP - CLIMATE ADAPTATION FOR OLDER PEOPLE LIVING IN VULNERABLE URBAN AREAS. Designing a climate-responsive and community-based methodology
• 1.93 - Cost Action CA21166 Social Sciences and Humanities for Transformation and Climate Resilience (SHiFT)
• 1.100 - Just Streets 
• 1.101 - School Walkability Improvement Tool: Bridging the Portuguese planning gap (SWIT)
• 1.102 - Information systems for urban sustainability (CNPq)
• 1.103- Managing entropy in cities and societies: A cooperation approach to sustainable development (FCT CEECIND23)
• 1.105 - Immersive technologies for more resilient, fair and sustainable cities (FAPERJ)

Previous Research Projects

• 1.1 - Urban Regeneration in the Metropolitan Area of Oporto
• 1.2 - Urban Planning and Port Management: The Changing Nature of City-Port Interactions
• 1.5 - Urban Planning for Immigrant Integration
• 1.6 - Management Models, Institutional and Financial Solutions for Historic Cities. ATLANTE - Enhance the UNESCO'S World Heritage Atlantic Cities Project
• 1.7 - (IMP)³ - Improving the Implementation of Environmental Impact Assessment
• 1.8 - Spatial Structuring for Metropolitan Planning Purposes: The Case of the Metropolitan Area of Oporto
• 1.14 - ICON - The Impact of Closed Condominiums in the Urban Form
• 1.17 - MOPUS - Mobility Patterns and Urban Structures
• 1.19 - SUME - Sustainable Urban Metabolism for Europe
• 1.20 - SUPER-CITIES - Sustainable Land Use Policies for Resilient Cities
• 1.21 - EVIDENCE - Re-Inventing Analysis, Design and Decision Support Systems for Planning
• 1.22 - TIA for EC, National and Regional Policies
• 1.32 - COST Action TU0803 - Cities Regrowing Smaller (CIRES)
• 1.33 - COST Action TU1002 - Accessibility Instruments for Planning Practice in Europe
• 1.34 - COST Action TU1203 - Crime Prevention through Urban Design and Planning
• 1.35 - COST Action TU1204 – People Friendly Cities in a Data Rich World
• 1.36 - Paths of Population and Housing Development in Portugal: Divergences and Convergences in Space and Planning (Post-doc Project)
• 1.40 - MIA - Metabolic Impact Assessment: From Concept to Practice
• 1.41 - COST Action TU 1104 - Smart Energy Regions
• 1.42 - COST Action C23 – Strategies for a Low Carbon Built Environments
• 1.43 - 3S RECIPE – Smart Shrinkage Solutions – Fostering Resilient Cities in Inner Peripheries of Europe
• 1.45 - Unravelling the Spatial Morphology of European Metropolitan Regions
• 1.46 - Generation.Mobi – Social Network of Interactive Devices For a New Generation of Urban Mobility
• 1.48 - Citizen Sensing – Urban Climate Resilience through Participatory Risk Management Systems
• 1.49 - Accessibility at the Neighbourhood Scale for Pedestrians
• 1.50 - SPLACH - Spatial Planning for Change
• 1.51 - BooST – Boosting Starter Cycling Cities
• 1.52 - MOBI-AGE - Promoting urban mobility in ageing populations
• 1.53 - Cost Action CA17125 Public Value Capture of Increasing Property Values
• 1.54 - Emerging Perspectives on Urban Morphology (EPUM)
• 1.59 - URBY.SENSE - Urban mobility analysis and prediction for non-routine scenarios using digital footprints
• 1.66 - IPTC: Public transport and urban development: Improving public transport competitiveness versus the private car
• 1.88 - SoMoMUT: Soft Mode Modeling in Urban Trips
• 1.89 - INNOVSHARE - Viability analysis of different car-sharing system configurations through an innovative agent based simulation model
• 1.91 - PORTAL: Promotion of Results in Transport Research and Learning
• 1.92 - Momentum – Mobility Management for the Urban Environment

Current PhD Projects

• 1.58 - Mobility and urbanity. The role of spatial planning in the promotion of a sustainable urban mobility
• 1.71 - The Role of Urban Design in Breaking Car-Oriented Mindsets
• 1.73 - Form & Function: Benchmarking real and ideal cities
• 1.74 - Towards a quantitative approach to Morphological Regions in GIS
• 1.76 - Sustainable Neighborhoods- Accessibility to Activities versus Personal Mobility Alternatives
• 1.77 - Urban quality indicators for informal settlements. The case of the municipality of the city of Nampula, Mozambique
• 1.78 - The assessment of urban identity: The case of Damascus
• 1.79 - Evaluation of Indoor Environmental Quality (Ieq) of Transport Cabins in Developing Countries with Tropical Climate
• 1.80 - Towards Coastal Landscape Governance
• 1.82 - Comparative Analysis of Insular Urban Management Systems and the Case of Tourism: Portugal – Cape Verde
• 1.94 - Plots as structural elements of planning practice 
• 1.95 - Monitoring and evaluation of nature-based solutions effectiveness in addressing climate adaptation
  
• 1.96 - Urban Metabolism on University Campuses in the Northeast Region of Brazil
• 1.97 - Nourishing Urban Resilience Through City-region Food System Approach
• 1.98 - Urban Morphology and spatial planning - Building bridges between research and practice 
• 1.99 - Boosting the Transformative Capacity of Urban Climate Adaptation Strategies – The Role of Policy Articulation

Previous PhD Projects

• 1.3 - Real Estate Market and Urban Change
• 1.4 - Utopic Fragments in the Chaotic City: Closed Condominiums in Greater Oporto
• 1.10 - Environmental Policies and Planning Systems
• 1.12 - Evaluation in Urban Planning
• 1.13 - Urban Mobility Policy: a Framework for the Integration of Land Use and Transport Policies for Sustainable Urban Travel
• 1.15 - The Urban Design as a Potential Tool for a Bioclimatic Architecture
• 1.16 - Planning for Shrinking Cities in Portugal
• 1.18 - Thermal Retrofitting of Public Spaces in Compact Urban Areas. A Bioclimatic Approach
• 1.23 - The Impact of Commercial Activity on the Form and Structure of the City: the Case of Portuguese Medium-sized Cities
• 1.24 - Social Impact Assessment (SIA) in Portugal
• 1.25 - The Nature of Spatial Planning Policies in Small Islands
• 1.26 - Resilient Territories: The Case of Ave Valley Region
• 1.27 - Anatomy of an Emerging Metropolitan Territory - Towards an Unified Analytical Framework for Metropolitan Morphology
• 1.28 - Public Housing: (In)extensive Renovation?
• 1.29 - Urban Design and Active Ageing, the Public Space of Residential Areas
• 1.30 - Accessibility Measures in the Portuguese Urban Planning System
• 1.31 - The Publicness of Urban Spaces
• 1.37 - The Requalification of Public Spaces in Social Housing in Porto: Design as a Social Instrument / A Requalificação dos Espaços Públicos nos Conjuntos de Habitação Económica no Porto: o Desenho como Instrumento Social
• 1.38 – Public Space and Active Ageing / O Espaço Público e o Envelhecimento Ativo
• 1.39 - Territory Risk Units as a Means to Understand Territory Risk Scenarios
• 1.44 - Spatial Analysis on Collective Transport Equity: A study in the City of Recife Brazil
• 1.47 - Uncovering Trends and Determinants of the Commuting Patterns in academia, the Case of FEUP’ Students, 2006, 2012 & 2017
• 1.55 - From research in urban morphology to professional planning practice
• 1.56 - Business diversification on public transport
• 1.57 - Adaptive Planning for coastal climate adaptation in port-cities: integrating Adaptation Pathways into planning instruments
• 1.60 - Tourism activity in the process of urbanization of Mozambican cities
• 1.61 - Community Development in Urban Regeneration Projects: The Contribution of Participatory Processes
• 1.62 - Arquitectura Termal em Portugal. Em busca do Balneário Ideal
• 1.63 - Segurança Urbana. A Arquitetura ao Serviço da Diversidade. Olhares Paralelos entre Portugal e o Brasil
• 1.64 - Proposta Metodológica para o Desenvolvimento do Projeto Integrado de Habitação Evolutiva em Portugal
• 1.65 - A influência das atividades económicas no traçado e na forma da cidade brasileira entre 1741 e 1912 - O caso das Cidades de Ouro Preto, Santos e Manaus
• 1.68 - The Potential of Bike Sharing in Increasing Sustainable Mobility in Cities
• 1.69 - Community Development in Urban Regeneration Projects: The Contribution of Participatory Processes
• 1.70 -Bicycle Accessibility Planning: towards an Equitable Approach
• 1.72 - Mapping informality: the urban forms of ordinary cities
• 1.75 - Bike-Sharing Systems - Demand, Location and Impacts
• 1.85 - The Energy Impact of an Urban Form Shaped by Topography