Funded PhD project: Modeling and simulation of urban transport electrification through digital twins
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- Category: Job
The energy transition necessitates a rapid electrification of urban transport systems. This PhD project aims to design and experiment with an innovative digital modeling of electrified transport networks, leveraging digital twin technologies.
The project fits within a large-scale prospective simulation perspective, using 3D spatial data, territorial indicators, and multi-agent or geosimulation approaches.
The objective is to propose operational electrification scenarios adapted to the territories of the Bourgogne Franche-Comté region.
Research laboratories involved are ThéMA, Femto-st and CRESE. The thesis will begin in October 2025. The call for application is open until the 15th of September 2025. Please send the following by email to
All information here
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- Category: Diffusion
A survey is launched to gather accounts from a large panel of Besançon's inhabitants. This survey is part of the research project CAPBIOMET carried out by Manon Kohler and supported by the regional council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and the local agency Grand Besançon Métropole.
Accounts gathered via the survey will enable a better understanding of local practices to adapt to summer heat.
Access to the survey registration form: https://thema.univ-fcomte.fr/enquete2/index.php/785683?lang=fr
Contact:
Manon Kohler is researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and member of ThéMA research lab,
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- Category: Diffusion
Bahija Hani has begun a doctoral research under the co-supervision of Prof. Thomas Buhler. The title of her research is: Discursive strategies and spatial development in Fès (Morocco): critical and textual data analysis of planning documents related to the emerging local centres of Ouled Tayeb and Ain Bida.
Bahija Hani is architect and urban designer. Her PhD thesis at ThéMA laboratory is under the joint administrative supervision of the University Ibn Tofail (Kénitra, Morocco) and the University Marie et Louis Pasteur (Besançon, France). The aim of her research is to understand how planning documents and speeches influence the evolution of two neighbourhoods in the city of Fès (namely Ouled Tayeb and Ain Bida) that are currently being dramatically transformed.
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- Category: Conference
The 17th Théo Quant Meetings will take place in Besançon, from the 4th to the 6th of February 2026
The spirit of the Meetings
"Theo Quant" Meetings take place in France every two years. They are intended to be an intermediary between big symposia, where only completed work is presented, and conferences dedicated to specific themes.
The "Theo Quant" Meetings aim to further methodological and theoretical investigation in the field of theoretical and quatitative geography. One of their main interests is to allow the exchange of points of view and ideas between researchers of different generations (confirmed researchers and PhD students).
Web site : https://theoquant2026.sciencesconf.org/.
Contact :
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- Category: Publication and Output
Landsklim allows you to make spatial interpolations from quantitative data, from the reading of the initial data to the statistical analyses and the spatial interpolation. The program has been developed at ThéMA Laboratory in Besançon and integrates the features of the LISDQS interpolation software written by Daniel Joly.
The Lansklim plugin is available for download as a QGIS plugin. For further details: https://thema.univ-fcomte.fr/productions/software/landsklim
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- Category: Diffusion
This one-day workshop is dedicated to the analysis of documents of territorial planning. It will give the opportunity to analyse planning politics at several scales. Participants will explore several interpretative frameworks that were previously applied to different types of planning documents. Participants will also think about benefits and limits of qualitative and quantitative approaches.
In the morning, a round-table discussion will enable researchers to share their methodologies to analyse planning documents: local urban design plans, local mobility plans, regional schemes for economic development, etc. Topics of the documents will be diverse: urban logistics (Laetitia Dablanc), mobility (Thomas Buhler, Jean Debrie), economic sector strategies (Thibaud Bages).
In the afternoon, Nicolas Lépy (Research Officer, ThéMA, Besançon) will present two sessions dedicated to the practical initiation to the use of TXM (a tool for automatic textual analysis of documents) and Yolo (an image analysis tool).
ThéMA's contact : Thomas Buhler
Register : https://evento.renater.fr/survey/28-01-25_decrypter-l…-3u5bv1c3
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- Category: Dissertation Defence
Yohan Sahraoui will defend his accreditation to supervise research entitled: Hybrid landscapes. A critical and participatory modelling. The defence will take place on the 9th of January 2025 at University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Centre Panthéon, 12 Place du Panthéon, 75231 Paris.
The jury comprises:
- Xavier Arnauld de Sartre, Research director CNRS – Recorder
- Thierry Joliveau, Emeritus professor, University Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne – Examiner
- Yves-François Le Lay, Professor, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon – Recorder
- Nathalie Long, Research director CNRS – Examiner
- Pascal Marty, Professor, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CNRS (MFO) delegation – Guarantor
- Cécile Tannier, Research director CNRS – Examiner
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- Category: Award and distinction
The award has been attributed by the International Simulation and Gaming Association in October 12-13 2024. For the award president Paola Rizzi (DICEEA, Université of Aquila, and DADU University of Sassari, Italy) and her colleague Heide Lukosch (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) Solutré is “the “more accomplished game for urban and regional planning”.
All details about the award are available at: https://isaga.com/our-activities/isaga-simulation-and-gaming-competition-isgc/
The serious game Solutré is available on the web site of the Presses universitaires de Franche-Comté: https://lnkd.in/eZsrM4t5
Videos and Print & Play are on the website of the University of Burgundy: https://lnkd.in/e-h289bg
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- Category: Diffusion
After a Ph.D. in population biology and ecology in the ThéMA laboratory (2017-2021), Paul Savary has been a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Biology of Concordia University in Montreal (Canada) from 2022 to 2024, under two different fellowships.
He is starting a new position as an Assistant professor (Chaire de Professeur Junior) in ecology and spatial modelling at ThéMA. His research mainly focuses on species movements within spatial ecological networks. Lately, he has been using citizen science data to investigate biodiversity dynamics within urban ecosystems, a research line central to the research he will carry out at ThéMA in the coming years.
The so-called Chaires de Professeur Junior (CPJ) are dedicated to early-career researchers, offering them the opportunity to lead their own research team and participate in national, european, and international projects.
See his personal page
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- Category: Diffusion
Louis Kalisky is taken on at ThéMA for seven months in the frame of the research project « rétroplanning » supervised by Thomas Buhler. Louis has received a master degree ADAUR in 2024 at the University of Franche-Comté.
Hugo Dalle also holds a master degree ADAUR. He is taken on for eight months in the frame of the research project FOREST’ADN funded by the regional council Bourgogne Franche-Comté and the Graduate School Transbio (research laboratories ThéMA and Chrono-Environnement). Hugo will map and identify forest cover that perishes because of the presence of bark beetles.