MSc Topics
Considering a Master’s thesis with UNA? Start with our guidance on developing your initial thesis concept.
We regularly announce potential Master’s thesis topics (see below). These are starting points that can be refined according to your interests, background and data availability. You are also welcome to propose your own idea and develop it together with a potential supervisor in our group.
We welcome theses developed with external partners, including industry, government, NGOs and planning agencies, as well as collaborations with other universities and research groups.
During term time, we hold weekly group supervision meetings for our Master’s students (Tuesday, 15:00–16:00), with individual meetings arranged as needed.
Urban Data Hub: Data-driven research on cities
Cities generate increasingly rich data on how people live, move, work, and interact with the built environment. Within the Urban Analytics group, we host and develop a growing collection of spatial and longitudinal datasets that can be used to investigate a wide range of questions about cities and urban change.
Master’s projects within this theme can be shaped around the interests of the student and the available data. Questions might examine, for example, inequalities in access to opportunities, changing residential patterns, housing affordability, neighbourhood change, mobility and accessibility, or relationships between the built environment and socioeconomic characteristics.
Depending on the research question, available datasets include:
- Accessibility: access to jobs, services, public transport, amenities, and other urban opportunities
- Employment and commuting: workplace locations, employment characteristics, commuting patterns, and labour-market accessibility
- Socioeconomic characteristics: income, education, occupation, demographic composition, household characteristics, and related area-level indicators
- Residential mobility: residential moves, migration between neighbourhoods and municipalities, and patterns of population change
- Housing: dwelling characteristics, building types, tenure, density, housing stock, and neighbourhood housing composition
- Rental prices: spatial and temporal variation in rents and housing-market conditions
- Street-level imagery: visual characteristics of streets, buildings, greenery, public space, and the urban environment derived from street images
- Mobility and activity data: selected datasets capturing population movements, visitation patterns, and urban activity
- Built and natural environment: land use, urban form, transport infrastructure, green space, elevation, and other spatial characteristics
- Car ownership and vehicle characteristics: car ownership levels, vehicle registrations, fleet composition, electric vehicle uptake, vehicle weight, and changes in the vehicle fleet over time
Projects can combine several of these datasets and may involve spatial analysis, GIS, statistical modelling, machine learning, image analysis, or longitudinal analysis. We particularly welcome projects that use these data to understand urban inequalities, neighbourhood change, housing and mobility, accessibility, sustainability, and the spatial structure of cities.
The precise research question and methodological approach can be developed together based on the student’s interests and the availability and suitability of the relevant datasets.
Increasing Walking to HGZZ (UZH Zentrum)
The HGZZ area — which hosts the main campuses of UZH, ETH, and the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) — generates significant mobility demand, particularly during morning and evening peak hours. Currently, most staff and students travel between Zurich HB and HGZZ by tram, putting pressure on the transport system. UZH, ETH, and USZ regularly conduct mobility surveys to better understand travel behaviour and to identify strategies such as constructing a staircase or outdoor escalator alongside the Polybahn, widening footpaths, improving signage, and implementing behavioural campaigns to promote walking.
One of the key goals of the UZH Mobility Strategy is to encourage a shift toward walking to ease peak-hour tram demand. This project will analyse survey results and assess the potential of various strategies to increase walking trips from HB to HGZZ. Depending on the student’s interests, the project may include: (1) analysis of HGZZ survey data to identify mobility patterns and barriers to walking, (2) literature review of behavioural interventions in similar contexts, (3) walkability modelling of route and infrastructure improvements, and (4) estimation of behaviour change under different scenarios.
Locations of social connections of Zurich residents
According to the latest Swiss national travel survey, 10% of regular trips and 15% of day trips are undertaken for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives. These trips are traditionally hard to model, owing to a lack of information on where people's social contacts are distributed. Older research established some typical distance ranges, however this has rarely been updated for the growth of working from home, social media, and the post-Covid era. There are also potential differences in the reachability of social contacts depending on city form (eg radial, sprawling, compact) and demographic factors (cities attracting greater in-migration, housing shortages, etc). which have not been investigated. The goal for a masters project would be to design and pilot a survey investigating the location, type, and perceived reachability of respondents' social contacts - both those they regularly visit in person and those they do not. In future work, the survey will be implemented across multiple cities. The implications of this work are not just improved transport planning, but understanding of how urban planning, transport networks and city form can contribute to increased social wellbeing and decreased loneliness.
Children’s school routes through street-level imagery
What makes a route to school feel safe, pleasant, and suitable for children? This project will evaluate children’s school routes using street-level imagery and spatial data.
Possible dimensions include perceived safety, greenery, traffic exposure, walkability, crossing infrastructure, and the overall quality of the street environment. The project could combine image-based assessments with GIS analysis and, potentially, perceptions from children or parents.
Heat exposure and everyday mobility
How does exposure to heat vary across people, places, and everyday travel patterns? This project will examine how mobility shapes people’s exposure to high temperatures, and how heat may in turn influence where, when, and how people travel.
Possible approaches include combining mobility data with temperature, land cover, green space, and other environmental or neighbourhood characteristics.
Automated detection of parking spaces using aerial and street-level imagery
This project will explore methods for automatically detecting and validating parking spaces in the City of Zurich using aerial and street-level imagery. The aim is to assess how image-based methods can support both the initial improvement and ongoing quality assurance of the city’s parking data.
The project is carried out in collaboration with the Traffic Management Division of the City of Zurich and the Geocomputation group.