Dr Demet Yesiltepe
PhD
School of Architecture
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Full contact details
School of Architecture
Arts Tower
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
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Demet is an urban planner and designer whose research focuses on the built environment and active travel. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in Istanbul, Turkey, before completing her PhD in Newcastle in 2021. In her PhD thesis, she investigated the relationship between wayfinding and environmental factors. During her studies in Newcastle and Turkey, Demet participated in research projects investigating the relationship between health, active travel and the environment, including contributing to a REF Impact Case Study-2021. She also engaged in teaching activities and organised workshops, such as an introductory session to the Space Syntax. Before coming to Sheffield, Demet worked as a postgraduate researcher with the Beyond Imagination group at Lancaster University. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield on the EPSRC-funded SATURN project (Supporting Active Travel Using Road-lighting at Night), led by Prof Steve Fotios and Dr Jim Uttley in collaboration with the University of Leeds. Their work involves the quantitative analysis of cycling traffic flows and requires the analysis of extensive data sets and night-time lighting measurements.
- Qualifications
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- PhD (Architecture)
- MSc (Urban Design)
- BSc (Urban Planning-Hons)
- Research interests
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Active travel, wayfinding, landmarks, health
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Entropy and a sub-group of geometric measures of paths predict the navigability of an environment. Cognition, 236(2023).
- Entropy of city street networks linked to future spatial navigation ability. Nature, 604(7904), 104-110.
- Landmarks in wayfinding: a review of the existing literature. Cognitive Processing, 22(3), 369-410.
- Computer models of saliency alone fail to predict subjective visual attention to landmarks during observed navigation. Spatial Cognition & Computation, 21(1), 39-66.
- Home and school environmental correlates of childhood BMI. Journal of Transport & Health, 16, 100823-100823.
- Understanding the role of urban form in explaining transportation and recreational walking among children in a logistic GWR model: A spatial analysis in Istanbul, Turkey. Journal of Transport Geography, 82, 102617-102617.
- Pedestrian route choice by elementary school students: the role of street network configuration and pedestrian quality attributes in walking to school. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 4(2), 67-84.
- Walking alone or walking together: A spatial evaluation of children’s travel behavior to school. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 239980832311616-239980832311616.
- A Tale of Two Cities: Understanding Children's Cycling Behavior From the Socio-Ecological Perspective. Frontiers in Public Health, 10.
- Walking Alone or Walking Together: Spatially Evaluating Children’S Travel Behavior to School. SSRN Electronic Journal.
- Children’s Active School Travel: Examining the Combined Perceived and Objective Built-Environment Factors from Space Syntax. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(1), 286-286.
- Measuring the relationship between spatial configuration, diversity and user behavior: A Post Occupancy Evaluation study in Istanbul’s peripheral districts. Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 1(1), 84-102.
- Comparative Associations of Street Network Design, Streetscape Attributes and Land-Use Characteristics on Pedestrian Flows in Peripheral Neighbourhoods. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(10), 1846-1846.
Chapters
- Health and Well-Being, Future Home (pp. 101-109). Routledge
- Understanding Cognitive Saliency by Using an Online Game, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 76-87). Springer International Publishing
Conference proceedings papers
- Darkness is a greater deterrent to cycling in suburban than in city centre locations. Proceedings of the 30th Session of the CIE
- Using a case-control method to explore the impact of lighting on cycle rates: Investigating the choice of case and control time periods.. Proceedings of the 30th Session of the CIE
- Redefining Global and Local Landmarks: When Does a Landmark Stop Being Local and Become a Global One? (pp 111-121)
- A Study on Visual and Structural Characteristics of Landmarks and Experts’ and Non-experts’ Evaluations (pp 95-107)
- Usage of landmarks in virtual environments for wayfinding: Research on the influence of global landmarks. 12th International Space Syntax Symposium, SSS 2019
- Characterizing the activity-friendly built environment using space syntax: Associations of space syntax measures, street-design attributes and land-use characteristics on pedestrian flows. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY & HEALTH, Vol. 15(10) (pp S164-S164)
- Impact of Bridges on Spatial Transformation of Urban Pattern: The case of Golden Horn, Istanbul. Proceedings 24th ISUF 2017 - City and Territory in the Globalization Age, 27 September 2017 - 29 September 2017.
Preprints
- Motivational Factors for Participating in Citizen Science Games, Center for Open Science.
- Entropy of city street networks linked to future spatial navigation ability, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
- Entropy and a sub-group of geometric measures of paths predict the navigability of an environment. Cognition, 236(2023).
- Research group
- Teaching activities
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In addition to her research, Demet gives lectures and workshops at the Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, including the Behaviour in the Built Environment module (ARC61001) and Dissertation (TRP6406) modules.
She supervises the Sustainable Design Thesis Projects (ARC6990) of two Masters students and leads their research on wayfinding and landmarks in outdoor urban environments.
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of Determinants of Physical Activities in Settings (De-Pass).
- Member of CIE technical committee DR4-54: Lighting for cyclists.
- Member of several mailing groups, including the Space Syntax and the Urban-Geography Forum.