Abstract

In South Africa, most travel occurs via the road network. The road network is however historically inequitable, which has led to unequal access to jobs, healthcare facilities, services and other utilities.

Aligning with UN SDG 9, my PhD developed spatial statistical approaches to model road-based accessibility according to these research objectives:

  1. Develop a statistical model for accessibility.
  2. Determine a statistical test for the homogeneity of road networks.
  3. Design an algorithm to automatically cluster road networks into homogeneous sub-regions.
  4. Explore possible effects of road network homogeneity on inter-regional accessibility.
  5. In this seminar I will present an overview of my PhD research, including:
  • Methodological contributions to spatial statistics.
  • Coding techniques in R, using sf and sfnetworks.
  • Main findings in the real-world road network of the City of Tshwane.
  • The way forward.

Speaker

  • Renate Thiede (University of Pretoria)

    Renate Thiede

    University of Pretoria

Renate Thiede is a recent PhD graduate and a lecturer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Pretoria. Her PhD focused on estimating accessibility between regions in South Africa based on the road network. Her research interests include spatial statistics, linear network modelling, transport infrastructure and sustainable development.