This project evaluates the "15-minute city" concept in Zurich City. Using Carlos Moreno's principle of "chrono-urbanism," the study analyzes whether residents can access essential urban functions (living, working, commerce, healthcare, education, leisure) within a 15-minute walk. The analysis utilizes geospatial data to identify well-served areas and "amenity deserts," incorporating persona-based scenarios for students and families.
Completed (2025). Academic research project.
"Is Zurich a 15-Minute City?" – A spatial analysis of amenity accessibility from residential buildings, measured by a 1000m walking radius (approx. 15 minutes).
- OpenStreetMap (via Overpass Turbo & QuickOSM): Points of Interest (POIs) for health, education, leisure and commerce; building geometries and land use.
- Statistik Stadt Zürich / Swisstopo: Administrative boundaries (Kreise) and official statistical quarters.
- Key Variables: POI categories (Supermarkets, Schools, Parks, Pharmacies, etc.), Building Centroids and District-level accessibility scores.
- Data Collection & Cleaning: Querying OSM data via Overpass Turbo API; cleaning attribute tables in QGIS; manually verifying and adding missing green spaces (parks).
- Spatial Transformation: Converting building polygons to centroids and reprojecting all layers to EPSG:2056 (Swiss Coordinate System).
- Accessibility Modeling: Generating 1000m buffers for various POI categories.
- Persona-Based Join: Using "Join attributes by location" to assign binary accessibility scores to each building based on specific needs (e.g., Student vs. Family).
- Visualization: Applying Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation to create continuous heatmaps of accessibility across Zurich's 12 districts.
- High General Coverage: Zurich performs exceptionally well in mobility and local supply, with most districts scoring near 1.0.
- District Variance: Central districts (Kreis 1, 4, 5) show maximum accessibility, while peripheral areas (Kreis 7, 10, 12) exhibit lower scores.
- Persona Gaps: Students face lower accessibility for specific nightlife and higher education POIs in outer areas, while family-oriented services are well-distributed but leisure (cinemas/theaters) remains a bottleneck.
The following maps visualize the accessibility levels in Zurich. While central districts show high density, peripheral areas vary significantly based on the chosen persona.
- Euclidean Distance: Analysis uses a 1000m radius (as the crow flies) rather than actual street network routing.
- Inclusion: The study does not yet account for terrain (slopes) or physical barriers (disability access).
No raw data is hosted in this repository. This project was conducted for academic purposes. All geospatial datasets used in the analysis are property of their respective providers (OpenStreetMap contributors, Swisstopo and the City of Zurich) and were accessed via public APIs.
The methodology and visualizations presented here are for educational and portfolio purposes. All rights to the project report and the conceptual framework developed during this course remain with the author.
Celina Breuer (part of a group project)