urban knowledge discovery engine

Urbanixm gives a worldwide view of the environmental, social and economic impact of urban policy and infrastructure interventions

impact evidence summary

  • How does street pedestrianization impact retail?
  • Do lower speed limits reduce traffic casualties?

inspiration to reach an outcome

  • What have cities done to improve air quality?
  • Is green gentrification avoidable?

We apply an AI content pipeline

Our crawlers traverse the web in search of potentially relevant urbanism content. Special attention is given to web-sites dedicated to cities or other urban topics.

All web-pages encountered by our crawlers are passed through a series of content classifiers that determine if they cover any of the multiple urban topics covered by our system.

The relevant web-pages are analyzed further, and we extract quotes that discuss urban interventions, their impact, other useful statistical information, as well the places to which the information refers.

Urbanixm helps those who make our cities a better place

LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Seek inspiration into ways to reach desired outcomes.

Find appropriate support examples for disseminating policy decisions.

  • What have other cities done to achieve Vision Zero?
  • What has been the impact of comparable cycling network investments in other cities?

URBAN CONSULTANTS

Explore designs that have been tried and tested.

Find good impact examples to communicate design choices.

  • Which cities are investing in blue-green infrastructure?
  • Where have road-diets resulted in increased economic activity?

CITY THINK-TANKS and NGOs

Access up-to-date research on a specific urbanism topic.

Strengthen their position as though leaders in their area.

  • What has been the impact of e-scooters?
  • How does decentralization of workplaces impact commute demand?

Urbanixm carries out literature and data research on any urban topic

Literature research

Urbanixm delivers desk research on a custom urban topic, incorporating insights from around the globe. We provide overview of urban policy implementation, such as the speed limits for e-scooter. We summarize existing evidence about the impact of urban interventions, such as super-blocks or other types of low traffic neighborhoods.

The literature research is useful when seeking inspiration for urban policy or interventions, and for providing real impact examples to support a policy or intervention decision.

Data research

Urbanixm carries out spatial data processing where we analyse urban datasets and draw insights tailored to the clients' information needs. The final deliverable is can either be an interactive data exploration application or a static pdf report.

The data research is useful when insights from data are needed but the technical know-how is not present.

A literature and data research project is composed of 5-7 stages and is expected to last 6-8 weeks. The 5 key stages are shown below, and for 7 stage projects an additional intermediate deliverable and review meeting is added before the final delverable.

The Urbanixm consultancy project process from a scoping kick-off to final deliverable and presentation.

Team

Börkur Sigurbjörnsson

Founder

Information scientist with competence in software development, search engines, data mining and natural language processing.

20+ years of experience working in startups, academia, commercial research organizations and innovation accelerators.

7+ years working on urban information systems for urban planning and real estate.

   

Advisors and collaborators

We have assembled a strong international team of advisors and collaborators.

They come from the public and private sector with experience in shaping cities around the globe.

They bring in expertise in urban planning, transport engineering, economics, service design, and more.

Urbanixm has received support from the Icelandic Technology Development Fund