image credit: Yuhao Lu
FAUM researchers release new open data sets for data-driven urban design
The Future Elements Studio, led by Dr. Yuhao Lu at the Faculty of Architecture, has released two new open data sets as part of its ongoing efforts to advance urban digital twin models for Canadian communities. Beginning with the City of Winnipeg, these datasets serve as data-rich and reproducible representations of two critical urban elements: trees and buildings.
credit: Steven Kim
The first dataset includes over 1.4 million urban canopies, and the second datasets provides over 240,000 building footprints in Winnipeg. Both datasets are publicly available, complete with detailed descriptions and methodologies.
“These releases embody our commitment to democratizing access to data and facilitate evidence-based urban design and governance,” said Dr. Lu. “We’re excited to see how these resources will empower students, researchers, designers, planners, and community stakeholders to tackle pressing urban challenges. Our lab also stands behind open science and research transparency. All our scripts and methods are shared openly on our research website. We hope this can also inspire and enable youth and future scholars to develop critical thinking skills and data literacy in the age of AI.”
The open data initiative aligns with the University of Manitoba’s vision to lead in transformative research and knowledge sharing.
The project is funded by the university’s URGP program and the Faculty of Architecture’s start-up fund for Dr. Lu.
Please visit festudio.ca to explore the data and learn more.