In her master’s thesis titled “Constructing an Index to Assess Small-Scale Potential for Physical Activity in Urban Environments,” Pauline Scheunert addressed an important yet often underdiscussed topic in urban transformation: the shift toward making our cities healthier—or even health-promoting—places. The thesis develops an index to measure the small-scale potential for physical activity in urban environments. This index consists of a total of 22 variables and is tested using the example of downtown Dortmund neighborhoods. The thesis was supervised at TU Dortmund University by Assistant Professor Dr. René Westerholt and Professor Dr. Frank Othengrafen.
In addition, the thematic roundtables were facilitated by external moderators with experience in transformation processes.
Vanessa Hellwig has won the KoMet Dissertation Award for her dissertation, “Transformation, Digitization, and the Geography of Knowledge.” In it, she examines the spatial distribution of the digital economy using spatiotemporal data accurate to the square kilometer and analyzes this data using state-of-the-art panel methods. Ms. Hellwig’s work shows that digital startups are not only concentrated in metropolitan areas but also within a radius of just a few square kilometers. The findings provide evidence for digital neighborhood development and the spatial distribution of co-creation processes. The dissertation was supervised at TU Dortmund University by Prof. Dr. Christiane Hellmanzik and Prof. Dr. Stefan Siedentop.
We congratulate both of them on winning the KoMet Award for outstanding dissertations and master’s theses. Once again this year, the winners will be honored at KoMet Day 2023 (December 7, 2023, on the Essen campus) and will present their work there.
The KoMet Awards are funded by the Emschergenossenschaft. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for their cooperation and generous support!
