Successful PhD at FST: Modeling and Analysis of Urban Informal Settlements
2021/06/11 by JF
In May 2021, Dr.-Ing. John Friesen successfully defended his doctoral thesis on “Modeling and Analysis of Informal Urban Settlements for Infrastructural Planning”.
The core of his research at the Chair of Fluid Systems (FST) is the study of urban informal settlements, often referred to as “slums”.
On the one hand, a model was designed and investigated that describes the emergence of these informal settlements as a result of the interaction and different migration behavior of two social groups. The model is inspired by approaches from mathematical biology.
On the other hand, satellite data of more than 7000 informal settlements in different parts of the world were studied in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center. The performed analyses show that most informal settlements have a size of about 10-2 km2 which is about the size of a soccer field.
The results show the relevance of small informal settlements and can be used as a basis for planning infrastructures both for water supply and as a minimum resolution for epidemiological studies in urban areas.
