Doctoral student in Urban Morphology and Walking for Healthy Urban Planning and Design Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden

Chalmers University of Technology is offering a fully funded PhD position in Urban Morphology and Walking for Healthy Urban Planning and Design within the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Gothenburg, Sweden. The project is based in the Urban Design and Planning division and the Spatial Morphology Group (SMoG), an internationally oriented research environment working at the intersection of urban morphology, Space Syntax, GIS, urban analytics, pedestrian modelling, and Social-Ecological Urbanism.

The PhD project examines how the built environment shapes pedestrian movement and environmental exposure, with a strong focus on identifying where urban interventions can have the greatest impact and who would benefit most. The research considers both beneficial and adverse conditions, including urban nature, heat, air pollution, and noise. A central methodological aim is to further develop Pedestrian-Weighted Exposure (PWE), an approach that goes beyond mapping conditions in space to estimate where, how many, and which pedestrians are actually exposed.

The work combines empirical studies of pedestrian activity with high-resolution spatial measures of urban form and environmental conditions. You will distinguish between transport walking, leisure walking, and sojourning, using observational and mobility-based methods such as GPS tracking and PPGIS. You will also use GIS and urban morphological methods, including Space Syntax, to characterise urban form and model pedestrian movement, then integrate those findings with spatial data on environmental conditions. The project is explicitly interdisciplinary and links urban planning and design with environmental and health research.

Research outputs are expected to include peer-reviewed journal articles, conference presentations, and communication aimed at planning and design practitioners. The role may also include teaching corresponding to up to 20% of full-time employment, in line with Chalmers regulations.

Eligibility requires a Master’s degree in Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Planning, or a closely related field. Applicants should have strong knowledge of urban morphology, especially Space Syntax, proven GIS experience, spatial data processing and visualisation skills, and excellent English communication. Additional strengths include familiarity with urban health, human ecology, or environmental psychology; experience with mobility or behavioural data collection; programming in Python, R, SQL, or JavaScript; and statistical or spatial modelling experience.

The position is fully funded from the start, with a fixed-term appointment of four years that can be extended to five years if teaching duties are included. The starting salary is 35,725 SEK per month. Doctoral studies require physical presence throughout the entire study period, and a valid residence permit must be presented by the start date. The application deadline is 9 October 2026.

To apply, submit the required documents in English as PDF files via the university application portal. The application should include a CV, personal letter, brief introduction, motivation for the position, and bachelor’s and, if available, master’s thesis with transcripts. Incomplete applications and email submissions will not be considered.