Urban Time and Energy (UTE) - Time-Space-Energy Scenarios in Urban Areas

摘要

The temporal map of a city - its fast and slow speeds, working and opening hours, the location of its businesses and its mobility infrastructure - is of major importance for the quality of life in a city. Several policy measures such as changing public transport intervals, transition to flexible working times, changing opening hours of public services, and spatial planning have changed and will change urban patterns of time use and have an effect on both the economic performance (synergies, production and consumption patterns, income, etc.) and the natural environment (energy flows). Time-use structure of household members (phenomena such as "time squeeze" and synchronization of activities of different persons), the energy demand of households and the spatial organisation of cities entail each other. In the 1970s first concepts appeared to integrate time aspects in regional sciences (Hagerstrand 1970). The demand for equal opportunities for men and women and for a better work-life balance marks the beginning of time policy in the 1980s, a young interdisciplinary field aiming to integrate time aspects in urban development planning and decision-making processes. Spatial planning plays a significant role in the design of time structures. The currently starting project UTE (urban time and energy) aims to gain a better insight into the drivers of time-use patterns and energy use by focusing on time-policy measures that consequently impact on energy and material consuming activities of urban households and on the necessary urban infrastructure. The project will base its assumptions on the case study of Vienna. An integrated socioecological simulation model will be developed to study the inter-linkages between time-use patterns in differently structured areas of the city of Vienna. Time-space-energy scenarios will highlight the potential of time-use structures for energy-use reduction.