Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change Archives - Ascend Magazine

Moving safely through traffic chaos

sandramc — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:24:51 +0000

Toronto's traffic has been called the worst in North America, worse even than New 91��ɫ City and Los Angeles. As a pedestrian or cyclist, it is a tricky, sometimes deadly, maze to navigate. For someone with a disability, perhaps in a wheelchair, the challenges are compounded. Even robots have a tough time of it. The job of monitoring traffic flows, coordinating traffic signals, and ensuring the millions of vehicles and people on our city streets are moving freely and safely is highly complex.

Anyone stuck in a jam would agree, and as chunks of the Gardiner Expressway are removed or reconstructed the jam-ups in some spots seem to be getting worse.

Researchers at 91��ɫ are working on various tools to make moving through and about cities easier, regardless of mode of transportation. “We need reliable, sustainable, fully automatic traffic analytics systems that continuously provide accurate traffic metrics,” says Professor James Elder, director of 91��ɫ’s Centre for AI & Society (CAIS), and a member of 91��ɫ’s Centre for Vision Research, Vision: Science to Applications and Connected Minds research programs.

He also led the (ISSUM) project from 2017 to 2023, working with colleagues at 91��ɫ, the University of Waterloo and partners, including the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Esri Canada, Trans-Plan, Peel Region, and 91��ɫ Region, with close to $4 million in funding through an Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence award. This project has led to several new initiatives to translate foundational research into prototypes and commercial products that have real-world impact.

“We are researching and developing AI [artificial intelligence] technologies for better, real-time understanding of mobility in urban environments and metropolitan areas, for sensing, analysis, simulation and 3D visualization primarily using computer vision to understand traffic flow,” says Elder of 91��ɫ’s Lassonde School of Engineering and the Faculty of Health, and 91��ɫ Research Chair in Human and Computer Vision.

Technologies developed in Elder’s lab use video data to derive accurate 3D geopositioning and classification of road users, including cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians and cyclists. From the raw data, critical mobility intelligence is extracted in the moment, including traffic density, speed and volume, used to optimize traffic signaling and planning, and identify traffic incidents.

Traditionally, traffic cameras are hardwired to the internet to transmit high-bandwidth raw video data to central traffic offices. In contrast, Elder’s team has developed specialized computing technologies that process the video data “on the edge” so only derived anonymized mobility intelligence is transmitted. He explains that this has the dual benefit of only requiring inexpensive and flexible low-bandwidth cellular transmission and preserving the privacy of road users.

This edge-computing approach also allows flexible deployment of traffic analytics systems using temporary camera installations, and increasingly, drone platforms, which have a privileged bird’s-eye view of complex traffic interactions.

“Processing the data in real time allows us to understand traffic flows and disruptions as they’re happening,” says Elder. These disruptions are often the result of major construction projects or sporting events.

“If you're running a FIFA World Cup event, you need to know within seconds or minutes how traffic is changing, so you can adapt – divert this road, open that gate, and so forth.”

His research aligns with CAIS’s mission to collaborate with domain experts and public policy leaders in seeking equitable technological solutions to priority societal challenges while respecting privacy and data ownership concerns.

“What we're working on now is a universal mobility platform that can integrate all three of these different modalities – hardwired and temporary terrestrial cameras and drones – to give a more complete picture toward mitigating congestion and emissions. If we can make traffic more efficient through better traffic analytics, then we can contribute to the economy by making the transit times of people and goods shorter. The big wins for society are more efficient commuting, lower costs, lower emissions and hopefully better safety, especially for vulnerable road users,” says Elder.

“Working with public sector agencies like the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and innovative Canadian transportation engineering companies, such as Trans-Plan, our goal is to translate this research into real products that improve quality of life for Canadians.”

Making the built urban environment accessible for wheelchair users is something Assistant Professor Mahtot Gebresselassie of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change is working on. She received a Connected Minds seed grant for her AI and Disability Accessibility in Toronto project as well as a Connected Minds travel grant to work with researchers at Mekelle University in Ethiopia.

Mahtot Gebresselassie

She hopes to pilot the project in the Jane and Finch area of Toronto and at 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus.

“If you're a wheelchair user or a person with other types of disability, the built environment is not made for you, unfortunately.”

Planners, urban designers and architects don't always think about the user, she adds, and when they do, it is not usually a person with a disability. She should know as an architect and urban planner herself.

“Because wheelchairs require space, it’s really difficult for wheelchair users to maneuver the built environment if it is not made with their needs in mind,” says Gebresselassie.

That’s particularly true for pedestrian sidewalks and intersections where things like electric poles, potholes, or a slope that’s too steep, can become barriers. “Wheelchair users should be able to use pedestrian infrastructure like everybody else, but such barriers make it challenging for them.”

Just how accessible sidewalks are for wheelchair users is one of the main questions of her research. “The ultimate goal is to be able to scale this out where it can be used for different neighbourhoods or entire cities.” Using AI provides a quicker, more consistent and less expensive way to audit different areas of the city than potentially hundreds of human auditors doing it manually.

“We used the City of Toronto’s accessibility guidelines, extracting the information for wheelchair accessibility and any other pertinent data to develop an AI model combining it with an aerial map of the Jane and Finch area to see which sidewalks are compliant,” says Gebresselassie, who received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant for some of her research. The model would also rank streets based on their accessibility.

“Because wheelchairs require space, it’s really difficult for wheelchair users to maneuver the built environment if it is not made with their needs in mind.”

The next step is to develop a smartphone app for wheelchair users that suggests the best routes for a particular destination based on the model’s ranking system. She is doing similar work in the city of Mekelle in Tigray, Ethiopia where she discovered most sidewalks are inaccessible.

Solving mobility challenges and building transportation systems that are safe, inclusive and sustainable are at the core of Professor Gunho Sohn’s research. He is Chair of the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering at 91��ɫ’s Lassonde School of Engineering and the founding director of the , which brings together researchers, industry partners and public agencies to shape the future of smart mobility.

As director of the , Sohn led the creation of a 3D digital twin of 91��ɫ’s Keele Campus, developed in partnership with Esri Canada and the ISSUM team. As a dynamic virtual environment, it enables researchers to simulate the interactions between pedestrians, cyclists and sidewalk delivery robots in shared spaces. “We know our cities will soon include autonomous systems alongside humans,” says Sohn. “Digital Twin allows us to design for safety, accessibility and community benefit before deployment.”

Gunho Sohn

His work also extends to large-scale, real-world transit systems. As a lead researcher in the Ontario Train Autonomy Collaboration with Thales Canada, he helped develop AI-based perception systems to support safer autonomous rail operations. Sohn also leads the 3D Mobile Mapping AI program – a $2.6-million collaboration with Teledyne Optech – focused on helping autonomous systems understand and navigate their surroundings without relying on GPS.

His team has developed mapping techniques that combine camera and laser sensing to allow vehicles to “see” and move safely through roads, pathways and public spaces. This work provides the spatial awareness that autonomous mobility systems need to operate reliably and safely in real-world environments.

Sohn’s newest project, Smart Mobility Advanced Research & Training (SMART), recently received $1.65 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Collaborative Research and Training Experience program to train the next generation of experts in AI-driven, connected and sustainable mobility systems.

AI, digital infrastructure, mobility policy and community health experts will collaborate with the Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) and the Opaskwayak Health Authority in Manitoba to co-create mobility solutions tailored to community priorities.

“We’re tackling urgent challenges in health, transportation and accessibility – including the smart delivery of fresh food from OCN’s vertical farm to households, supporting wellness and food security,” says Sohn.

The SMART program builds on Sohn’s previous work with digital twin systems and includes real-time simulation and testing, AI-driven traffic optimization, sustainable mobility using electrification, data governance, and autonomous driving and navigation.

As more roads and highways are built or expanded, navigating the chaos whether a person, robot or vehicle, can be complicated. Sohn, Elder and Gebresselassie are working on solutions to ensure people will be moving seamlessly and safely.

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91��ɫ researcher traverses tick-infested terrain to beat back insect apocalypse

sylvestc — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:41:19 +0000

“I joke that my PhD defence will include a graph that shows the number of cuts and bruises I’ve had to endure for my research,” says the budding entomologist, who is in the fourth year of her PhD in the Department of Biology.

Jokes aside, Elsayed’s research into the effects of climate change on insects is no laughing matter. In fact, her work is adding to an increasing number of studies that reveal insects are disappearing. It’s a troubling phenomenon dubbed “the insect apocalypse.”

Current scientific evidence suggests insects across various species and regions are in global decline and are decreasing in terms of population, biomass and diversity. This has serious consequences for the health of our ecosystems, as insects are crucial for pest control, soil quality and pollination, or plant reproduction. Insects travel between different plants, helping them grow by leaving behind pollen grains. These plants can then be harvested as an energy source for humans and other living organisms, including birds that depend on insects for food.

Left: Hadil Elsayed in the field. Middle: Elsayed collects a sample from a malaise trap. Right: An example of one of Elsayed’s malaise traps
PHOTO CREDIT: Briann Dorin

“Many of these decline studies are coming out of Europe, so my research explores to what extent we are seeing this same trend here in Canada,” says Elsayed, whose work is supervised by leading conservation scientist Sheila Colla, an associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change. “As far as I know, research into biodiversity loss within protected areas at this level has not yet taken place in this country or in North America.”

Elsayed’s research spans 13 sites, primarily in the Long Point Biosphere Reserve three hours southwest from Toronto, off the shores of Lake Erie. It’s an ecologically significant area, made up of several distinct natural habitats including woodlands, marshes, beaches, meadows and sand dunes, among others. Protected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization, the area is home to a wide range of plants and animals, including many aquatic birds and species at risk.

To collect all the insect specimens for study, Elsayed used malaise traps, tent-like structures that are set up in the direction of the wind to catch insects flying upwards into jars of ethanol. Elsayed collected hundreds of samples biweekly, or sometimes weekly, in the summery months of May through August.

Setting up all the traps in the right places and monitoring them means Elsayed often had to brave the wilderness and all its elements, including tick-infested terrain.

“I would have to stop every two minutes to pick ticks off me or shoo away all the mosquitoes,” she says. “I complained a lot while I was out there, but it’ll be worth it if it means I can help protect biodiversity and make a meaningful contribution to the field of entomology.”

With help from a guide from the Long Point Bird Observatory, Elsayed travelled to some sites that are only accessible by going off-trail – by ATV, by boat or by bushwhacking. The demanding task of collecting samples also entailed a month-long stint living alone in a cabin, where the only visitors Elsayed entertained were some rather unwelcome cockroaches.

Back at the lab, Elsayed processes her samples and sorts, weighs and analyzes hundreds of insects. Her research specifically focuses on the insects that live in protected areas, like Long Point, which should be safer from environmental stressors than insects found in urban ecosystems or cities – in theory.

But some of Elsayed’s early findings show these protected areas are also suffering, experiencing a decline of up to 200 grams in biomass. This translates to a loss of hundreds of thousands of insects. These findings are possible because Elsayed can compare data collected from the same sites in the early 1990s by the Canadian Wildlife Service against the data she has gathered 30 years later.

“Preliminary results indicate that climate change is a factor in insect decline, even in protected areas, and various climate stressors are behind their disappearance,” explains Elsayed. “For one group of insects, the main driver for their decline appears to be a decrease in rainfall. For another, it’s linked to an increase in temperature.”

In late 2023, Elsayed presented parts of her work at an annual conference held by the Entomological Society of America, with over 3,600 attendees. She was awarded first place in the Student Competition for the President’s Prize, recognizing her efforts to advance climate change research.

With her strenuous field work completed, Elsayed is currently working on writing her dissertation, with a projected PhD completion date in early 2025.

Her work is funded by 91��ɫ, the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Entomological Society of Canada.

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New book by 91��ɫ geographer rethinks concept of land claims in B.C.

sylvestc — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:11:41 +0000

The book, titled Unstable Properties: Aboriginal Title and the Claim of British Columbia, was co-written with 91��ɫ alumnus David Rossiter, a professor at Western Washington University.

Wood and Rossiter’s book reframes the issue of land claims as historical attempts by the Crown in B.C. to acquire Indigenous territory.

In a Q&A with graduate student researcher Danielle Legault, Wood talks about her new book.

Patricia Wilson, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

Q: How does this book build on your previous research work, and what inspired you to write it?

A: David Rossiter and I have been researching the historical, political and legal geography of Indigenous title in B.C. for about 20 years. It started with a project on the referendum that the provincial government, under (former) Premier Gordon Campbell, held in 2002 about the “principles” of treaty negotiations. That became our first published article together, in The Canadian Geographer, in 2005. Several more articles, presentations and op-ed pieces followed on specific aspects, but there was a larger story that we wanted to tell that needed a book-length manuscript to
do properly.

Q: What inspired your choice of British Columbia as the site of exploration in this book?

A: British Columbia is an important site of Indigenous-settler relations because the vast majority of the territory the Crown claimed was never “conquered” nor ceded by treaty. The Crown’s claim, even according to its own law, is without solid moral or legal foundation. It is thus inherently unstable.

Q: Can you discuss the unique approach of Unstable Properties in reframing the topic of Aboriginal claims to Crown land?

A: We would emphasize that the question is one of Crown claims on Indigenous land, not the other way around. This is at the heart of our approach. It has always been the Indigenous claim that is subjected to scrutiny, as a “burden” on the Crown claim. This is backwards; it is the legitimacy of the Crown’s claim that needs to be examined. It is Canada that needs to reconcile its actual history and present with its alleged principles of democracy and justice.

We also want to emphasize that what progress has been made on resolving these questions and moving forward towards a more just relationship should be credited to Indigenous individuals and organizations who did the political and legal work to compel the Canadian state to – start to – recognize the hypocrisy, injustice and violence of settler-colonial land claims.

Our argument about the instability of the settler claim to Indigenous land in British Columbia isn’t intended to suggest British Columbia is exceptional and everywhere else is fine, but rather that it exposes the problems of settler-colonial claims across Canada, and should lead us to question what existing treaties mean, under what circumstances they were established, and what kind of relationship we want to pursue from here.

Research is not politically neutral, and a lot of talk about “reconciliation” can be pretty superficial. We’re trying to contribute to a path that is more meaningful and material, where Indigenous sovereignty and land rights are part of the plan. Facing our history and decolonizing our thinking is not just in our publications; bringing this to the curriculum and the classroom is just as important.

Q: Having completed this book, how do you see your work moving forward in the future?

A: We know we still have miles to go, and Dave and I plan to continue to pay attention to specific cases that Indigenous organizations raise to see where we can help with research that exposes the instability of the settler claim, in hopes that it helps pressure settler governments to come to the table and negotiate honestly and fairly.

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