InLUT: Integration of land use and transport in medium-sized cities

The main focus of this research project was the understanding of land use and transport interaction and their integration in medium-sized cities, and their consequences for travel behaviour and travel patterns. We assumed that medium-sized cities have specific features that distinguish them from large cities, causing therefore specific mobility patterns in these cities. Therefore, our objective was to deeply understand these research questions within these cities’ specificities, and to find guidelines and orientations for land use and transport policies integration to promote sustainable mobility patterns in these realities.

Four medium-sized cities were used as case studies (Castelo Branco, Santarém, Vila Real and Faro), in order to find specificities from our cities that may support or challenge previous research results. In addition, we also wanted to further develop and test the concept of accessibility (from a multimodal perspective) as a tool to evaluate the integration of land use and transport.

The project, funded by FCT (PTDC/AUR-URB/111013/2009), was coordinated by Rui Alves (IPCB) and David Vale (FA-ULisboa), and involved researchers from four universities: IPCB, FA-ULisboa, UTAD, and UAlg.
One major output of the project was the creation of ArcGIS toolboxes to calculate 35 built environment indicators, grouped into 6 distinct categories (Density, Diversity, Design, Connectivity, Accessibility, and Topography), available to

download for free here.
More info can be found at the project dedicated website.