Making cities and human settlements safe is an integral part of social and economic development. CEM research topics within this theme explore the intersection of safety across key sectors: mobility, transport of goods, energy and flood safety. It aims to identify vulnerabilities within these systems and develop strategies to enhance safety and sustainability.
Research
The Department of Civil Engineering and Management is committed to finding solutions and doing impactful research to address the challenges posed by the energy transition. We focus our interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research related to carbon neutrality and net-zero policies, the energy infrastructure, and the transport sector. Transport represents almost a quarter of Europe's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is one of the EU's only remaining economic sectors where emissions are still above 1990 levels. The energy transition has major implications on our infrastructure, how our society and our cities are organised and how we travel. The European SUM project contributes to the mobility transformation in European Cities examining the integration of new shared mobility modes integrated with PT, which are innovative and greener and safer. In CONDUCTOR we optimise traffic flow along a logistics corridor in Almelo to reduce the number of heavy duty vehicles stopping at traffic lights and reduce carbon emissions. In the European project DREAMS we examine how the 15 minute city, a new emerging urban planning concepts aiming to make basic urban amenities and services reachable within 15 minutes by foot or by bike, can help to reduce car dependency and reduce inequalities in urban outskirts. In the TRIAS project we examine strategies to deliver more local and digital healthcare, aiming to reduce travel and carbon emissions and at the same time improving healthcare accessibility and quality of healthcare.
Education
Recognising the urgent need for mitigating climate change, this theme has become an integral part of our educational programmes. In our MSc Civil Engineering & Management the Master Track Sustainability and Resilience comprises courses such as Sustainable Transport, Sustainable Engineering, Transitions in Civil Engineering.
Collaboration
To find transdisciplinary solutions to mitigate climate change, we collaborate with other Faculties in the University of Twente Climate Center. In European projects we collaborate with many research partners and governments in the Netherlands and across Europe, and in national projects with partners such as the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.