Life in Urban space - GPS/GIS based analyses of human behavior – pitfalls and possibilities the Aalborg Case

Name, title and affiliation
Henrik Harder (hhar@aod.aau.dk)
associate professor
Department of Architecture and Design
Aalborg University, Denmark

Short Biography
Henrik Harder is an Associate Professor, Ph.D. in Architecture, Planning and Transport at The Institute of Architecture & Design of the Aalborg University (AAU). He completed his Ph.D. at AAU (2002) under supervision of Associate Professor Harry Lahrmann.  Henrik Harder worked as an architect in Copenhagen in Denmark (1990 – 1995) and at Aalborg University (AAU). from 1995. At the moment Henrik Harders research is based on analyses of humans behaviors and activities in physical and virtual environments in space and time in urban environments and he uses a cross-disciplinary research approach which will allow a broad discussion of relations and dynamics between humans, spaces, and flows.

Abstract
Taking a point of departure in a GPS based survey and registration of 243 (respondents) young people’s behavior and activities in a 7 days period in spring and autumn 2008 in Aalborg pitfalls and possibilities using GPS surveys in an urban environment is described in this paper. The paper also focus on some of the results connected to the young people’s actual use of urban spaces/areas and the results from an urban attractiveness survey where 145 (respondents) of the young people from the overall survey participated.  The questions in the attractiveness survey are focused on what parameters, in young people’s opinion, that makes an urban space attractive / unattractive.