Green Gentrification in Vienna. On the interplay of environmental and social inequality.

Keywords: Environmental Inequality, Housing, Gentrification, Vienna, Climate Change Adaptation

Abstract: Cities are challenged by new development trends like growth in urban population, ageing societies, and economic disparities. On top of this, climate change poses new challenges to urban settlements. Nature-based solutions, like urban greening, are often seen as one of the main adaptation strategies to keep cities liveable. However, research has recently produced increasing indications that climate change adaptation can have unwanted consequences. Regarding housing, several studies (predominantly from the US) have shown that urban greening has triggered gentrification processes, a phenomenon often termed “green gentrification”. Vienna is in a particular position regarding housing and gentrification due to its high social- and affordable housing share. While there is this large, regulated sector, there is also a significant portion of the free rental market, making it possible to compare both housing models in the same city. Vienna is also an example of a city with little free space for more extensive new greening initiatives and, at the same time, significant housing pressure due to its growth, pitting social and environmental needs against each other.

In front of this background, the dissertation will take a closer look at the interaction between ecological burdens in the neighbourhood and housing costs, as well as the socio-demographic composition in Vienna. Vienna is selected as a case study due to its composition of the housing sector, and to the challenging situation typical of existing cities to solve climate change adaptation with the help of large nature-based solutions adaptation strategies.

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Franziska Sielker, öffnet in einem neuen Fenster

Changing Rhetoric and Realities – New perspectives on China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Western Economies (Cotutelle, Universität zu Köln)

Keywords: Belt and Road Initiative, Global production networks, Geopolitical Developments

Abstract: This research aims to critically examine the evolving discourse surrounding China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) within Western economies amidst the prevailing global geopolitical and economic turmoil, a decade following its inception. By leveraging empirical insights from Duisburg (Germany) and Darwin (Australia), this study seeks to offer new perspectives on the implications of the BRI in Western economies.

Betreuung: Prof. Dr. Peter Dannenberg, Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Franziska Sielker, öffnet in einem neuen Fenster

The Politics of Public Participation in Land Use Planning: An International Comparison

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Franziska Sielker, öffnet in einem neuen Fenster

Anchor Firms in Regional Industrial Transitions

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Franziska Sielker, öffnet in einem neuen Fenster

Digital Twins of Critical Infrastructure through Knowledge Graphs & GIS

Keywords: Digital Twins, Smart Cities, AI, GIS

Abstract: Digital twins are today a ubiquitous component of smart city discourse. As cities look for gains in operational efficiency, data integration and analytic capacity, digital twins offer a conceptual framework for how disparate agencies, stakeholders, datasets and infrastructures can complement each other within a unified virtual platform. The intended result is the improved holistic functionality of cities, leading to more robust and adaptable urban forms. The utility of digital twins is twofold: they facilitate analysis of complex systems, and they offer specific tangible tools for management, operationalization, and long-term strategic planning of cities.  

Assessment of digital twin potentials in cities requires a specific thematic focus and scale of analysis. Urban infrastructure networks provide a highly pertinent context for this, as their daily operation is among the highest priorities of government. Thus, there is a significant incentive to improve their operation and reduce associated costs. In this context digital twins make a compelling case. Yet fundamental challenges to implementation remain. Among urban infrastructures, water supply networks are a valuable case set to illuminate this complex dialectic. Water infrastructures are fundamental to urban viability. They are also largely underground, immobile, and usually among the oldest infrastructure in cities. This juxtaposition of critical daily operation and aging hard-to-access assets is further compounded by three of the major external pressures facing cities across the world: increasing populations resulting, growing consumption, and climate change resulting in irregular water supply.

By combining complex adaptive systems theory (CAS) as a conceptual framework for analysis, and knowledge graphs (KG) for a data driven operationalization, an agent-based model of a water supply network will be developed capable of simulating  the relation of individual system components to each other, and within the larger urban form. Multilayered relations, impacts of external pressures on individual components, and the ways in which these pressures engender new agents within the system and between each other are the goals of this research.

Betreuung: Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Franziska Sielker, öffnet in einem neuen Fenster