An Intelligent Assistant for Public Transport Management

This paper describes the architecture of a computer system conceived as an intelligent assistant for public transport management. The goal of the system is to help operators of a control center in making strategic decisions about how to solve problems of a fleet of buses in an urban network. The system uses artificial intelligence techniques to simulate the decision processes. In particular, a complex knowledge model has been designed by using advanced knowledge engineering methods that integrates three main tasks: diagnosis, prediction and planning. Finally, the paper describes two particular applications developed following this architecture for the cities of Torino (Italy) and Vitoria (Spain).

Estudio de rehabilitación acústica de los edificios del barrio de Lavapiés

Los tejidos urbanos, los barrios y los edificios en proceso de degradación física, social o ambiental requieren acciones de rehabilitación urbana que garanticen el bienestar de las personas. La sociedad demanda, cada vez más, el derecho al descanso y a una vida sin ruidos, como signo de desarrollo y progreso. Es por ello, que se debe conducir el comportamiento de la edificación y del metabolismo urbano hacia unos mínimos de calidad acústica que permitan mejorar las deficiencias de aislamiento acústico que presentan los edificios existentes de gran parte de las ciudades y sus centros históricos. En este sentido, el objetivo de este Trabajo de Fin de Máster es el de contribuir al estudio de las acciones de rehabilitación y las soluciones técnicas que permitan desarrollar edificios acústicamente eficientes en el barrio de Lavapiés. Como punto de partida se realizará la caracterización urbanística del barrio, analizando la calidad de la edificación, la geometría de las calles, los principales viarios, para posteriormente estudiar la cartografía acústica de Lavapiés a través de los Mapas Estratégicos de Ruido. Porque el ruido tiene una importante componente subjetiva, se realizará además una encuesta de calidad acústica para conocer la opinión del ciudadano de Lavapiés, tratando de comprender la problemática de ruido en el barrio y cómo afecta ésta a sus vecinos. Por último se desarrollarán unas directrices generales para la rehabilitación acústica de los edificios existentes, y se llevarán a la práctica realizando una propuesta de rehabilitación acústica de un edificio del siglo XIX situado en la Calle Ave María de Lavapiés. Cada obra de rehabilitación es una oportunidad de mejorar las deficientes condiciones acústicas de los edificios dentro de lo viable técnica y económicamente, a pesar de que puede que no se lleguen a alcanzar los niveles exigidos en el DB HR. SUMMARY. The urban network, the neighborhoods and the buildings in progress of physical, social and environmental degradation require actions of urban restoration to guarantee people’s welfare. Society demands, more every time, the right to rest and to life without noise, as an evidence of development and progress. That is why, the behavior of building and the urban metabolism must be lead to the best acoustic quality allowing to improve the acoustic sound proofing deficiencies that now a days some of the existing buildings present in most of the cities and its historical downtowns. In this direction, the goal of this “Trabajo de Fin de Master” is to contribute to the study of the rehabilitation actions and the technical solutions that will make possible to develop acoustically efficient buildings in Lavapies area. To begin a urbanistic classification of the neighborhood will be done, analyzing the quality of construction, the geometry of the streets, the main road routes to study, afterwards,the acoustic cartography of Lavapies through the Strategic Maps of Noise. Also because noise has an important subjective component, a survey about acoustic quality will be made to know the opinion of Lavapies citizens, trying to understand the problems of noise in the neighborhood and how this may affect its neighbors. Finally some general guidelines of the acoustic rehabilitation of the buildings will be shown and materialized in a proposal of an acoustic rehabilitation of a XIX century building placed in Ave María Street in Lavapies. Each rehabilitation work is a chance to improve the insufficient acoustic conditions of the buildings within technical and economical possibilities, despite of the fact that it might not be possible to reach the levels demand by the DB HR anyway.

Ventilation and FFFS fire tests for “Calle 30” road tunnels

Between 2003 and 2007 an urban network or road tunnels with a total constructed tubes length of 45 km was built in the city of Madrid. This amazing engineering work, known as "Calle 30 Project" counted with different kinds of tunnel typologies and ventilation systems. Due to the length of the tunnels and the impact of the work itself, the tunnels were endowed with a great variety of installations to provide the maximum levels of safety both for users and the infrastructure includieng, in some parts of the tunnel, fixed fire fighting system based on water mist. Whithin this framework a large-scale programme of fire tests was planned to study different aspects related to fire safety in the tunnels including the phenomena of the interaction between ventilation and extinguishing system. In addition, these large scale fire tests allowed fire brigades of the city of Madrid an opportunity to define operational procedures for specific fire fighting in tunnels and evaluate the possibilities of fixed fire fighting systems. The tests were carried out in the Center of Experimentation "San pedro of Anes" which includes a 600 m tunnel with a removable false ceiling for reproducing different ceiling heights and ventilation conditions (transverse and longitudinal ones). Interesting conclusions on the interaction of ventilation and water mist systems were obtained but also on other aspects including performance of water mist system in terms of reduction of gas temperatures or visibility conditions. This paper presents a description of the test's programme carried out and some previous results obtained.

Large Scale Fire Tests for the “Calle 30 Project"

Between 2003 and 2007 an urban network of road tunnels with a total constructed tubes length of 45 km was built in the city of Madrid. This amazing engineering work, known as “Calle30 Project” counted with different kinds of tunnel typologies and ventilation systems. Due to the length of the tunnels and the impact of the work itself, the tunnels were endowed with a great variety of installations to provide the maximum levels of safety both for users and the infrastructure including,in some parts of the tunnel, fixed fire fighting system based on water mist. Within this framework a large-scale campaign of fire tests were planned to study different aspects related to fire safety in the tunnels including the phenomena of the interaction between ventilation and extinction system. In addition, this large scale fire tests allowed fire brigades of the city of Madrid an opportunity to define operational procedures for specific fire fighting in tunnels and evaluate the possibilities of fixed fire fighting systems. The tests were carried out in the Center of Experimentation "San Pedro of Anes" which counts with a 600 m tunnel with a removable false ceiling for reproducing different ceiling heights and ventilation conditions (transverse and longitudinal ones). Interesting conclusions on the interaction of ventilation and water mist systems were obtained but also on other aspects including performance of water mist system in terms of reduction of gas temperatures or visibility conditions. This paper presents a description of the test’s campaign carried out and some previous results obtained.

El vacío entre infraestructuras lineales y ciudad: espacios anómalos como oportunidad para lo colectivo

Partiendo del estudio del vacío del muro de Berlín en el Laboratorio de Paisaje como infraestructura lineal y espacio anómalo, se pretende profundizar la investigación de los vacíos generados por las infraestructuras lineales que atraviesan nuestras ciudades, espacios marginales, olvidados o apartados de la trama urbana pero llenos de identidad y significado donde se pueden generar nuevas oportunidades para el espacio público. A través de un estudio de casos se intentará analizar la potencialidad de este tipo de espacios intermedios como nuevos espacios para la colectividad a través de su re-significación y de su conexión con la red de espacios publicos urbanos. ABSTRACT. Based on the study of the void within the Berlin Wall at the Lab in the first semester as linear infrastructure and anomalous space, this research aims to study the gaps generated by linear infrastructures that pass through our cities, marginal spaces, forgotten or disconnected from the urban network but full of identity and meaning where new opportunities can be created for the public space. Through a case study will analyze the potential of such gaps as new spaces for the community through its re-signification and its connection with the network of urban public spaces.

Metodología para el análisis de los efectos de la rotura de un depósito en entorno urbano y clasificación de su riesgo potencial

El riesgo asociado a la rotura de un depósito de agua en entorno urbano (como la ocurrida, por ejemplo, en la Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla en Noviembre de 1997) y los potenciales daños que puede causar, pone en duda la seguridad de este tipo de infraestructuras que, por necesidades del servicio de abastecimiento de agua, se construyen habitualmente en puntos altos y cercanos a los núcleos de población a los que sirven. Sin embargo, la baja probabilidad de que se produzca una rotura suele rebajar los niveles de alerta asociados a los depósitos, haciéndose hincapié en la mejora de los métodos constructivos sin elaborar metodologías que, como en el caso de las presas y las balsas de riego, establezcan la necesidad de clasificar el riesgo potencial de estas infraestructuras en función de su emplazamiento y de estudiar la posible construcción de medidas mitigadoras de una posible rotura. Por otro lado, para establecer los daños que pueden derivarse de una rotura de este tipo, se hace imprescindible la modelización bidimensional de la ola de rotura por cuanto la malla urbana a la que afectaran no es susceptible de simulaciones unidimensionales, dado que no hay un cauce que ofrezca un camino preferente al agua. Este tipo de simulación requiere de una inversión económica que no siempre está disponible en la construcción de depósitos de pequeño y mediano tamaño. Esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo el diseño de una metodología simplificada que, por medio de graficas y atendiendo a las variables principales del fenómeno, pueda estimar un valor para el riesgo asociado a una posible rotura y sirva como guía para establecer si un deposito (existente o de nueva implantación) requiere de un modelo de detalle para estimar el riesgo y si es conveniente implantar alguna medida mitigadora de la energía producida en una rotura de este tipo. Con carácter previo se ha establecido que las variables que intervienen en la definición de riesgo asociado a la rotura, son el calado y la velocidad máxima en cada punto sensible de sufrir daños (daños asociados al vuelco y arrastre de personas principalmente), por lo que se ha procedido a estudiar las ecuaciones que rigen el problema de la rotura del depósito y de la transmisión de la onda de rotura por la malla urbana adyacente al mismo, así como los posibles métodos de resolución de las mismas y el desarrollo informático necesario para una primera aproximación a los resultados. Para poder analizar las condiciones de contorno que influyen en los valores resultantes de velocidad y calado, se ha diseñado una batería de escenarios simplificados que, tras una modelización en detalle y un análisis adimensional, han dado como resultado que las variables que influyen en los valores de calado y velocidad máximos en cada punto son: la altura de la lamina de agua del depósito, la pendiente del terreno, la rugosidad, la forma del terreno (en términos de concavidad) y la distancia del punto de estudio al deposito. Una vez definidas las variables que influyen en los resultados, se ha llevado a cabo una segunda batería de simulaciones de escenarios simplificados que ha servido para la discusión y desarrollo de las curvas que se presentan como producto principal de la metodología simplificada. Con esta metodología, que solamente necesita de unos cálculos simples para su empleo, se obtiene un primer valor de calado y velocidad introduciendo la altura de la lámina de agua máxima de servicio del depósito cuyo riesgo se quiere evaluar. Posteriormente, y utilizando el ábaco propuesto, se obtienen coeficientes correctores de los valores obtenidos para la rugosidad y pendiente media del terreno que se esta evaluando, así como para el grado de concavidad del mismo (a través de la pendiente transversal). Con los valores obtenidos con las curvas anteriores se obtienen los valores de calado y velocidad en el punto de estudio y, aplicando la formulación propuesta, se obtiene una estimación del riesgo asociado a la rotura de la infraestructura. Como corolario a la metodología mencionada, se propone una segunda serie de gráficos para evaluar, también de forma simplificada, la reducción del riesgo que se obtendría con la construcción de alguna medida mitigadora como puede ser un dique o murete perimetral al depósito. Este método de evaluación de posible medidas mitigadoras, aporta una guía para analizar la posibilidad de disminuir el riesgo con la construcción de estos elementos, o la necesidad de buscar otro emplazamiento que, si bien pueda ser no tan favorable desde el punto de vista de la explotación del depósito, presente un menor riesgo asociado a su rotura. Como complemento a la metodología simplificada propuesta, y además de llevar a cabo la calibración de la misma con los datos obtenidos tras la rotura del depósito de agua de Melilla, se ha realizado una serie de ejemplos de utilización de la metodología para, además de servir de guía de uso de la misma, poder analizar la diferencia entre los resultados que se obtendrían con una simulación bidimensional detallada de cada uno de los casos y el método simplificado aplicado a los mismos. The potential risk of a catastrophic collapse of a water supply reservoir in an urban area (such as the one occurred in Melilla in November 1997) and the damages that can cause, make question the security in this kind of infrastructures, which, by operational needs, are frequently built in high elevations and close to the urban areas they serve to. Since the likelihood of breakage is quite low, the alert levels associated to those infrastructures have also been downgraded focussing on the improvement of the constructive methods without developing methodologies (like the ones used in the case of dams or irrigation ponds) where there is a need of classifying the potential risk of those tanks and also of installing mitigating measures. Furthermore, to establish the damages related to a breakage of this kind, a twodimensional modelling of the breakage wave becomes imperative given that the urban layout does not provide a preferential way to the water. This kind of simulation requires financial investment that is not always available in the construction of small and medium sized water tanks. The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to design a simplified methodology, by means of charts and attending to the main variables of the phenomenon, that could estimate a value to the risk associated to a possible breakage. It can also be used as a guidance to establish if a reservoir (existing or a new one) requires a detailed model to estimate the risk of a breakage and the benefits of installing measures to mitigate the breakage wave effects. Previously, it has been established that the variables involved in the risk associated to a breakage are the draft and the maximum speed in every point susceptible to damages (mainly damages related to people). Bellow, the equations ruling the problem of the reservoir breakage have been studied as well as the transmission of the breakage wave through the urban network of the city and the possible methods to solve the equations and the computer development needed to a first approach to the results. In order to be able to analyse the boundary conditions affecting the values resulting (speed and draft), a set of scenarios have been designed. After a detailed modelling and a dimensionless analysis it has been proved that the variables that influence the operational draughts and the maximum speed in every point are the water level in the tank, the slope, the roughness and form (in terms of concavity) of the terrain and the distance between the tank and the control point. Having defined the involving variables, a second set of simulations of the simplified scenarios has been carried out and has helped to discuss and develop the curves that are here presented as the final product of the simplified methodology. This methodology only needs some simple calculations and gives a first value of draft and speed by introducing the maximum water level of the tank being evaluated. Subsequently, using the suggested charts, the method gives correction coefficients of the measured values for roughness and average slope of the assessed terrain as well as the degree of concavity (through transverse gradient).With the values from the previous curves (operational draughts and speed at the point of survey) and applying the proposed formulation, an estimation of the risk associated to the breakage of the infrastructure is finally obtained. As a corollary of the mentioned methodology, another set of diagrams is proposed in order to evaluate, in a simplified manner also, the risk reduction that could be gained with the construction of some mitigating measures such as dikes or retaining walls around the reservoir. This evaluating method provides a guide to analyse the possibility to reduce the risk, constructing those elements or even looking for a different site that could be worse in terms of exploitation of the tank but much safer. As a complement to the simplified methodology here proposed, and apart from completing its calibration with the obtained data after the reservoir breakage in Melilla, a number of examples of the use of the methodology have been made to be used as a user guide of the methodology itself, as well as giving the possibility of analysing the different results that can be obtained from a thorough two-dimensional simulation or from the simplified method applied to the examples.

Citizens Interactive Behaviour in the Performance of the Urban Space of Cohabitacion. Interactive Atlas of Urban Habitability

The article shows a range of contemporary phenomena linked with urban space and the increasing citizens? interactivity in the network. The sources for theory and reflection are related to the ongoing research project ?Interactive Atlas of urban habitability" which is based on citizen participation in the sensitive description of the urban environment. It addresses a classification of variables related to the desires of urban habitability.

Behavior of Ad Hoc routing protocols, analyzed for emergency and rescue scenarios, on a real urban area

A mobile Ad Hoc network (MANET) is a collection of wireless mobile nodes that can dynamically configure a network without a fixed infrastructure or central administration. This makes it ideal for emergency and rescue scenarios, where sharing information is essential and should occur as soon as possible. This article discusses which of the routing strategies for mobile MANETs: proactive, reactive or hierarchical, has a better performance in such scenarios. By selecting a real urban area for the emergency and rescue scenario, we calculated the density of nodes and the mobility model needed for the validation study of AODV, DSDV and CBRP in the routing model. The NS2 simulator has been used for our study. We also show that the hierarchical routing strategies are better suited for this type of scenarios.

Assessment methodology to make urban transport interchanges attractive for users

En las ciudades europeas, los patrones de movilidad son cada vez más complejos debido fundamentalmente a un crecimiento sostenido de la población así como a la tendencia de dispersión de los núcleos urbanos. En consecuencia, muchos de los usuarios del transporte público se ven obligados a combinar varios modos o servicios de transporte para completar sus viajes diarios. Por tanto, el mayor reto de las ciudades es conseguir una mejora e incremento en la movilidad mientras que al mismo tiempo se reducen problemas como la congestión, los accidentes y la contaminación (COM, 2006). Un principio básico para lograr una movilidad sostenible es reducir los inconvenientes y molestias derivados de la transferencia o ruptura del viaje. En este sentido, los intercambiadores de transporte público juegan un papel fundamental como nodos de la red urbana de transporte y la calidad del servicio prestado en ellos tiene una influencia directa sobre la experiencia diaria de los viajeros. Como señaló Terzis and Last (2002), un intercambiador de transportes urbano eficiente debe ser competitivo y al mismo tiempo, debe ser atractivo para los usuarios dado que sus experiencias físicas y sus reacciones psicológicas se ven influenciadas de manera significativa por el diseño y operación del intercambiador. Sin embargo, todavía no existen standards o normativas a nivel europeo que especifiquen como deberían ser estos intercambiadores. Esta tesis doctoral proporciona conocimientos y herramientas de análisis dirigidas a planificadores y gestores de los propios intercambiadores con el fin de entender mejor el funcionamiento de los intercambiadores y gestionar así los recursos disponibles. Así mismo, esta tesis identifica los factores clave en el diseño y operación de intercambiadores urbanos de transporte y proporciona algunas guías generales de planificación en base a ellos. Dado que las percepciones de los usuarios son particularmente importantes para definir políticas adecuadas para intercambiadores, se diseñó y se llevó a cabo en 2013 una encuesta de satisfacción al viajero en tres intercambiadores de transporte urbano europeos: Moncloa (Madrid, España), Kamppi (Helsinki, Finlandia) e Ilford Railway Station ( Londres, Reino Unido). En resumen, esta tesis pone de relieve la naturaleza ambivalente de los intercambiadores urbanos de transporte, es decir, como nodos de la red de transporte y como lugares en sí mismos donde los usuarios pasan tiempo dentro de ellos y propone algunas recomendaciones para hacer más atractivos los intercambiadores a los usuarios. Travel patterns in European urban areas are becoming increasingly complex due to a sustained increase in the urban population and the trend towards urban sprawl. Consequently, many public transport users need to combine several modes or transport services to complete their daily trips. Therefore, the challenge facing all major cities is how to increase mobility while at the same time reducing congestion, accididents and pollution (COM, 2006). Reducing the inconvenience inherent in transferring between modes is a basic principle for achieving sustainable mobility. In this regard, transport interchanges play a key role as urban transport network nodes, and the quality of the service provided in them has a direct influence on travellers' daily experience. As noted by Terzis and Last (2000), an efficient urban transport interchange must be competitive and, at the same time, be attractive for users given that their physical experiences and psychological reactions are significantly influenced by the design and operation of the interchange. However, yet there are no standards or regulations specifying the form these interchanges should take in Europe. This doctoral thesis provides knowledge and analysis tools addressed to developers and managers in order to understand better the performance of an urban transport interchange and manage the available resources properly. Likewise, key factors of the design and operation of urban transport interchanges are identified and some 'Planning guidelines' are proposed on the basis on them. Since the users' perceptions of their experience are particularly important for achieving the most appropriate policy measures for interchanges, an ad‐hoc travellers' satisfaction survey was designed and carried out in 2013 at three European transport interchanges: Moncloa (Madrid, Spain), Kamppi (Helsinki, Finland) and Ilford Railway Station (London, United Kingdom) In summary, this thesis highlights the ambivalent nature of the urban transport interchanges, i.e. as nodes within the transport network and as places where users spending time and proposes some policy recommendations in order to make urban transport interchanges attractive for users.

The anatomy of urban social networks and its implications in the searchability problem

The appearance of large geolocated communication datasets has recently increased our understanding of how social networks relate to their physical space. However, many recurrently reported properties, such as the spatial clustering of network communities, have not yet been systematically tested at different scales. In this work we analyze the social network structure of over 25 million phone users from three countries at three different scales: country, provinces and cities. We consistently find that this last urban scenario presents significant differences to common knowledge about social networks. First, the emergence of a giant component in the network seems to be controlled by whether or not the network spans over the entire urban border, almost independently of the population or geographic extension of the city. Second, urban communities are much less geographically clustered than expected. These two findings shed new light on the widely-studied searchability in self-organized networks. By exhaustive simulation of decentralized search strategies we conclude that urban networks are searchable not through geographical proximity as their country-wide counterparts, but through an homophily-driven community structure.