The Aalborg Survey / Part 1 - Web Based Survey: Diverse Urban Spaces (DUS)

Background and purpose
The Aalborg Survey consists of four independent parts: a web, GPS and an interview based survey and a literature study, which together form a consistent investigation and research into use of urban space, and specifically into young people’s use of urban space: what young people do in urban spaces, where they are in the urban spaces and when the young people are in the urban spaces.
The answers to these questions form the framework and enable further academic discussions and conclusions in relation to the overall research project Diverse Urban Spaces (DUS). The primary aim of the DUS research project is to investigate why young people do what they do in the urban spaces, and how this knowledge can contribute to an increase in young people’s use of urban spaces.
It is the overall aim of the DUS research project to facilitate an increased and more diverse use of urban spaces, and consequently young people are used as target group, as they represent the future users of urban spaces. Moreover, it is easy to get in touch with young people through educational institutions and schools, which makes it possible to carry out the investigations in a fairly simple way, economically and logistically, and further enables eventual reproduction of similar empirical data.
The DUS research project is related to the general research focus found within the Urban Design section at Institute of Architecture, Design and Media Technology (AD:MT), Aalborg University (AAU) and the research focus within the cluster of Mobility and Tracking Technologies (MoTT), AAU.

Summary / Part 1 Web Base Survey
The 1st part of the research project Diverse Urban Spaces (DUS) has been carried out during the period from December 1st 2007 to February 1st 2008 as a Web Based Survey of the 27.040 gross [statistikbanken.dk, a] young people aged 14-23 living in Aalborg Municipality in 2008. The web based questionnaire has been distributed among the group of young people studying at upper secondary schools in Aalborg, i.e. 7.680 young people [statistikbanken.dk, b].
The resulting data from those respondents who have answered all questions and who live within Aalborg municipality (734 respondents) have been analysed. These data have been documented and visualised in terms of characteristics of the respondents, their activities and preferences in public urban spaces and their transportation and mobility. Hence, these data contribute with knowledge on the young people who use the urban spaces of Aalborg, and how they use these spaces, as basis for the further investigations in The Aalborg Survey / part 2, 3 and 4.