Tutorial 4: Creating scenarios

Learn how to implement policy measures, configure scenarios, and explore their impacts across mobility, air quality and noise indicators.

Time required: about 20 minutes
Prerequisites: An approved account and knowledge of how to operate the Portal and the Webinterface

Learning objectives

How to operate the controls panel
How to set the state of a control to active or inactive
Understand that control state is specific to each scenario
How to show the data elements affected by a control
How to view and change the properties of a control
How to create and remove a control, such as a road closure
How to activate the calculation modules needed to see a control's effect
How to evaluate the effect of a control on mobility, air quality, and noise
How to save your work by copying a scenario, and compare scenarios

Step 1: Log in and open a project

With an approved account, log in and open a project in the portal, as covered in Tutorial 1: Account and Tutorial 2: The Portal. You should now see the Webinterface.

Step 2: Watch the tour

The video below walks through creating, adjusting, and evaluating a control from start to finish.

If you prefere to read, the video and steps 3 to 10 cover the same ground. Watch the video for a guided overview, or use the steps as a reference to look something up later.

Step 3: The controls panel

Interventions in Urban Strategy are called Controls. Moreover, a control is a temporary change to the properties of its linked data elements.

Controls are managed from the controls panel, located at the bottom right of the screen.

The controls panel contain tiles with icons such as Zone and Road. Select a tile to reveal its controls on the map. Close the panel with the cross, or by clicking outside the panel elsewhere on the screen.

Step 4: Control status

Each control has a status, shown by its color on the map:

dark means the control is active.
light means the control is inactive.

A control can be (de)activated in the following ways:

Right-click on a control in the map, and choose enable/disable control.
Open the controls panel, and select the controls in the list . Then click Apply changes in the bottom of the controls panel.

Controls not visible?

Check if the controltypes are made visible in the controls panel. A control can be active without appearing on the map if the tile it belongs to is switched off. Select the tile to make its controls visible.

Step 5: Control properties

Right-click a control in the map and select Properties of control to view and edit the control properties. The available fields depend on the control's type, for example a network control exposes fields such as speed and capacity, while a housing control exposes the number of persons.

To adjust a property, change the relevant field and select Apply.

Controls can also be edited from the controls panel using the icon next to a control.

Some controls apply per dimension

A dimension is a combination of travel modality, motive, time of day, and so on. Some controls, such as speed and capacity, can be set for specific dimensions such as closing a road for freight traffic only.

Step 6: Control objects

Controls are connected to data elements, such as roads. Right-click a control and select Select objects of control to highlight the data elements it affects. Note that these objects of control can't be changed, therefore a new control should be created.

The location of a control on the map is purely visual

A control's position on the map can be adjusted by dragging it, but this only changes where its icon is displayed. The underlying data elements it affects remain in their original location.

Step 7: Creating a new control

Open the relevant data layer, such as roads, from the data layer panel.
In the map, select every elements the new control should affect. In the example of roads, select each link that should be affected by the control. Selected data elements are highlighted in pink.
When all data elements are selected, choose Add in the bottom right corner or right-click in the map and choose Add control. The available control types depend on the properties of the selected elements, choose the control-type relevant for your intervention.
This opens up a new form. Always enter a recognisable control name, fill in the form and choose and select Apply to create the control. If the control type is active in the controls panel, your newly created control should directly appear in the map.

Leaving a field empty keeps the original value

If a field is left empty, the element's original value is used instead of being overridden. To check what that original value is, inspect the element's object properties.

Step 8: Removing a control

Right-click a control and select Remove control, or use the icon next to it in the controls panel.

Step 9: Activating calculation modules to see the effect

To see the impact of active controls, relevant calculation models should be active. For example, to see the impact of a road closure on traffic flow, its essential to activate the Traffic Assignment model from the modules panel.

Then open the results panel to load relevant map layers to evaluate the effects.

Note that controls change specific data elements, and only calculation modules that are subscribed to those data elements respond to them. For example, changing a road into a tunnel with a control is picked up immediately by the air quality and noise models (since tunnel geometry affects dispersion) but does not trigger a recalculation in traffic assignment (since the road's speed, capacity, and demand remain unchanged).

Missing results after control activation?

A control with no visible effect on the map usually means the relevant calculation module is not active in the current scenario. Check the modules panel. If the models are active and results are still missing, inspect the controls properties.

Step 10: Saving scenario results

Its not required to save scenario results, as a given set of active controls will always lead to the same result. However, to compare against a scenario with a certain set of measures, it's required to make a copy.

Open the scenario panel and select Copy on the active scenario, then give it a recognisable name and select Apply. The copy can then be used as an active or reference scenario to compare results.

Summary

At this point, you should be able to:

Understand the concept of controls, and that their status is specific to each scenario
Create, adjust, and remove a control, such as a road closure
Activate the calculation modules needed to see a control's effect
Create a scenario copy to compare results.