Associate Professor Tan Yigitcanlar

Broad Area of Research: Infrastructure

Main Areas of Research

Within the broad field of urban development Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar and his research team have defined six main research areas:

• Knowledge-based urban development, knowledge cities, creative urban regions
• Global and local economic development, knowledge industries, knowledge community precincts
• Sustainable urban and transport development, urban and transport modelling, accessibility planning
• Climate change, water sensitive urban design, infrastructure planning
• Web-based decision support systems, public participatory planning, healthy city and communities
• Urban technology, ubiquitous eco cities, urban management

Grants

Funding

Dr Yigitcanlar has received over $2 million in research funding since 1996. His ongoing three research projects are funded by Australian Research Council and Korean Research Council.

Research

Within the broad field of urban and regional planning Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar and his research team have been granted funds to conduct following research projects:

2008- 2011

• $968,000 – Prof Kendall, A/Prof Baum, Dr Muenchberger, Ms Cowan, Coalitions for Community Health: A Community-based Response to Chronic Disease, ARC Linkage Project, Queensland Department of Health.

  In collaboration with Queensland Health, this research examines the effectiveness of a locally-based community health coalition to improve the management of chronic conditions within a particular community. It examines how health coalitions impact on health outcomes in a community and develop a method to facilitate informed decision-making. The project is significant because of the difficulties associated with managing the increasing burden of chronic disease. Partnership approaches to management have been espoused, but poorly evaluated to date. This project also undertakes a set of investigations on health service planning and addresses the lack of knowledge in this area.

2008 – 2010

• $375,000 – Prof Goonetilleke, Dr Ayoko, A/Prof Thomas, Ms Macintosh, Adaptation of Water Sensitive Urban Design to Climate Change, Changing Transport Patterns and Urban Form, ARC Linkage Project, Queensland Department of Transport, Gold Coast City Council.

  This project develops an adaptation methodology for future stormwater quality infrastructure by creating fundamental knowledge for predicting future pollutant loads in the context of climate change and changes to urban and transport systems due to population growth. Stormwater systems have considerable capital value with long design life. Premature obsolescence due to unplanned consequences imposes significant cost to community. Also, urban water environments are important community and ecosystem assets. Outcomes of this research will enable enlightened decision-making in planning infrastructure for future communities, provide crucial enhancements to ‘industry standard’ planning models, and safeguard effectiveness of ecologically sustainable development practices in urban environments.

2009

• $25,000 – Dr Han, U-City Convergence Technologies and Intelligent Urban Management Systems, Korean Research Council, Hanbat National University, Korea.

  During the past few years a new city type emerged. So called U-Eco Cities are vaguely defined as cities that provide environmentally friendly urban environments with advanced ubiquitous infrastructures and services for the residents and visitors. The broad aim of this research project is to conceptualise U-Eco Cities and shed light on their urban management requirements and processes of these new city type. The specific aims of the research are: defining U-Eco Cities and determine their characteristics; determining major urban management challenges of U-Eco Cities, and; identifying urban management systems and strategies suitable for U-Eco Cities.

2008 – 2009

• $137,000 – A/Prof Buys, Dr Summerville, Dr Miller, Mrs Miller, Ms Gane,  Successful Urban Village, Queensland Department of Housing.

The research consultancy project investigated the main contracts of a successful urban village. Following to the determination of the key elements of building a successful urban village, the study team scrutinised the master planning processes of an exemplar urban village development from  Brisbane, Australia – Kelvin Grove Urban Village. Benchmarked against the international best practices the research project explored the state of development of the Kelvin Grove Urban Village.

2005 – 2007

• $145,000 – Dr Sipe, Developing a Land Use and Public Transport Accessibility Index, Queensland Department of Transport, Gold Coast City Council.

The research developed a land use and public transport accessibility index for mapping levels of accessibility to public transport and basic community services within local government areas. This accessibility model aims to support the decision making process in the land use and transportation planning. The model determines levels of accessibility by utilising a destination-based approach. This accessibility indexing model measures accessibility based on both walking distances and public transit travel time. The accessibility model is applied to a number of pilot studies in the Gold Coast City to assess its practicality and effectiveness.

2006

• $44,000 – A/Prof Baum, Dr Horton, Dr Velibeyoglu, Prof Gleeson, The Role of Community and Lifestyle in the Making of a Knowledge City, Queensland Department of State Development.

Knowledge-based development strategies play an important role in supporting local economic development of cities in the knowledge era. This research investigates local knowledge-based urban development policies of Brisbane, Australia in its long journey to become a competitive knowledge city. The research examines Brisbane’s recent progress towards establishing knowledge community precincts that are critical creative urban environments to attract and retain global investment and talent. This research also discusses major challenges Brisbane is experiencing during the implementation of its state- and city-wide knowledge-based urban development strategies.

2006

• $20,000 – Managing Community Accessibility, Griffith University.

The arrangement of the transport infrastructure and services in relation to land-use activities and populations has a profound impact on the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of Australia’s cities. The accessibility of employment and services for local communities is rapidly becoming a major problem. The research aims to develop innovative concepts, methodologies and research techniques to identify and manage changing patterns of community accessibility to employment and services. This research applies these concepts, methods and techniques to specific community scales and contexts in relation to vulnerable urban communities, master-planned communities and transit-oriented communities.

2005 – 2006

• $24,000 – Prof Gleeson, Dr Sipe, Dr Dodson, Urban Travel Containment: Influence of Urban Form and Structure on Internal Trip Capture Rates, Griffith University, Delfin Lend Lease.

The study develops new approaches for assessing the containment of travel within planned development. The key aim of the research is to clarify and map the relationships between trip generation and urban form and structure. The conceptual framework of the research is developed in a review of literature related to urban form and travel behaviour. These concepts are tested empirically in a pilot study of suburban travel activity in six master planned estates across Australia. A geographical information systems methodology is used to determine regional journey-to-work patterns and travel containment rates. Factors that influence self-containment patterns are estimated with a regression model.

2001- 2002

• $15,000 – Prof Sakauchi, Computer Supported Collaborative Environmental Decision Making, University of Tokyo.

Geographic information technologies on the internet have tremendous potential to empower the public by providing information to them. Most of the existing information technology tools are accessible by a single user. This research develops a new public oriented interactive approach to decision making called ‘Community based Internet GIS Approach’. This approach is a web based collaborative decision making system, which enables various users, such as the public, technicians and decision makers to obtain and share information interactively on their environs at different levels. The approach is developed to support the urban planning process with community needs in mind. Since most urban planning problems have spatial and multi dimensional characteristics and tend to be increasingly complex, the inclusion of community oriented decision making through the provision of web based innovative applications are greatly beneficial.

• $20,000 – Dr Brett, Developing Online Platforms for Environmental Decision Support, United Nations University.

The computing tools and technologies are designed to enhance the planners’ capability to deal with complex urban environments and to plan for prosperous and liveable communities. This research examines the role of information technologies and particularly ‘web-based geographic information systems’ as spatial decision support systems to aid community based planning. The research also scrutinises advantages and challenges of these internet based mapping applications and tools for collaborative decision making. This research introduces a prototype Internet GIS model that aims to integrate a public oriented interactive decision support system for urban planning process. This model incorporates advanced information technologies, distance learning, sustainable urban development and community involvement in decision making processes in the web environment.

1996 – 2000

• $190,000 – Prof Arkon, A/Prof Ozdemir, A/Prof Serim, Dr Kaya, Planning for Sustainable Urban Development in Cesme, Turkey, Izmir Institute of Technology, Cesme Municipality, Turkey.

Rapid urban growth, in many cases in the form of sprawl, is making sustainability an issue of significant concern for cities as the growth threatens their scarce environmental resources. During the last two decades dealing with urban sprawl has become a major challenge in managing the sustainability of large urban regions effectively. This consultancy project developed a planning framework for sustainable urban development of large city-regions. The framework is adapted into the structural planning process of Cesme, Turkey.

1998– 1999

• $85,000 – Prof Suel, A/Prof Serim, A/Prof Ozdemir, Comprehensive Conservation Planning and Ecological Sustainability in Cigli, Turkey, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey.

Many cities around the globe are experiencing rapid urban growth. As a result of the growth, there is an increasing pressure to expand urban development towards the ecologically sensitive regions. An effective urban and environmental planning seeks to balance the development of a city-region with the protection of its natural resources. To accomplish this balance it is necessary to develop comprehensive conservation plans. The consultancy project developed a planning framework to be used in the comprehensive conservation planning process. The framework is particularly suitable for the settlement areas in ecologically significant environments. The framework is adapted into the comprehensive conservation planning process of Cigli, Turkey.

Awards and Recognitions

International Fellowship

2001- 2002

• United Nations University, Post Doctoral Fellowship
• University of Tokyo, Research Fellowship

1996 -2001

• Izmir Institute of Technology, PhD Fellowship

1993 – 1996

• Dokuz Eylul University, Research Higher Degree Fellowship

Awards for Personal Achievements

• 2010: Queensland University of Technology Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Recognition of Exceptional Sustained Performance and Outstanding Achievement in Research
• 2007: Queensland University of Technology Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering Excellence Award for Early Career Academic Research Achievement
• 2000: ESRI Europe, Mid-East and Africa Conference The Best Technical Geographic Information System Map Design Award

Awards for Supervised Student’s Achievements

2009

• Suharto Teriman, Outstanding Higher Degree Student Award, Queensland University of Technology, Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, September 2009
• Benson Au-Yeung, Best Paper Award, The 2nd Infrastructure Research Theme Postgraduate Student Conference, 26 Mar 2009, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
• Shinyi Lee, Queensland Government Minister’s Town Planning Award, Sustainable water provision: alternative strategy and sources in the era of climate change

2008

• Cara Westerman, Queensland Government Minister’s Town Planning Award, The making of knowledge cities: Melbourne, organic city growth or an emerging knowledge city?
• Entwistle et al. Planning Institute of Australia National Excellence Award in Tertiary Student Project Work, District Development Strategy: Brisbane’s Inner South East
• Entwistle et al. Planning Institute of Australia Queensland Excellence Award in Tertiary Student Project Work, District Development Strategy: Brisbane’s Inner South East

2007

• Wiley et al. Planning Institute of Australia Queensland Merit Award in the Open Social and Community-based Category, Culture, Heritage and Community Topic Report

Career History

2007 – present: Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane)

2005 – 2007: Lecturer and Research Fellow, Griffith University (Brisbane)

2004 – 2005: Lecturer, Izmir Institute of Technology (Izmir, Turkey)

2002 – 2004: Research Fellow and Lecturer, University of Queensland (Brisbane)

2001 – 2002: Post Doctoral Fellow, United Nations University (Tokyo, Japan)

Research Fellow, University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)

1996 – 2002: Assistant Professor, Izmir Institute of Technology (Izmir, Turkey)

1995 – 1996: Tan Yigitcanlar Planning Consultants (Izmir, Turkey)

1993 – 1995: Urban Planning and Engineering Consultants (Izmir, Turkey)

1993 – 1994: Intas Survey Engineering Consultants (Izmir, Turkey)

1991 – 1992: Izmir Metropolitan Municipality (Izmir, Turkey)

1991 – 1992: Ege Urban Planning Consultants (Izmir, Turkey)

1990 – 1991: Kalkan Municipality (Antalya, Turkey)