This repository contains documentation of the model produced within the framework of the project: “Scientific support for the refinement of the concept of the “10-minute city” that in the context of the municipal plan for sustainable development of the City of Brussels.” The tutorial guides the user through the implementation and the execution of the model to construct maps indicating the levels of accessibility within the Administration of the City of Brussels. 

The scope of the methodology

The City of Brussels wishes to become a city, where all basic amenities are located within a maximum of 10 minutes on foot or by bicycle for the city’s inhabitants and users. The city’s public infrastructure must therefore be spread across the region in an efficient and well-thought-out manner. To this end, the administration is developing a specific mapping tool as a decision-making aid for political leaders and the municipal administration, to identify imbalances in the supply and demand of public infrastructure and to be able to remedy them as soon as possible. The objective is also to combat inequalities between neighborhoods, to rebuild links in a diverse socio-cultural context, to reduce the need to travel in the city (for citizens who do not wish to do so) and the carbon footprint linked to transport. `The mapping tool is being developed by the local administration. 

The basic elements include: 

• Places where citizens can interact: schools, crèches, sports facilities, cultural venues, health institutions, senior citizens’ residences, social services, etc.
• Services of the residential economy: specialized or general food stores, non-food shops (pharmacies, post offices, cash machines, etc.)
• Places that improve the environment and the living environment: publicly accessible green spaces, playgrounds, communal gardens and allotments, recycling centers, glass recycling points, etc.
• Mobility infrastructures: railway stations, public transport stations, car or bicycle sharing stations, bicycle parking, etc. 

Key methods

To measure the spatial-temporal accessibility for different (sub)themes, heatmaps were created. The user can specify the mode of transport (by bike or by foot) and the (sub)theme(s) for which the model should run heatmaps.  

Examples of use and results

This new concept of proximity aims to ensure that a range of services and community facilities essential to urban life are accessible within a few minutes of one’s home. While the measure of proximity to services has changed from a distance (in meters) to a time (in minutes), this temporal threshold is determined by the territorial context (surface area, population density, urban morphology, or transportation network). For the City of Brussels, this proximity threshold has been set at 10 minutes. 

The “10-minute city” was modeled in two stages: first, the thematic identification and organization of local services, then the construction of heatmaps quantifying – by means of a score the availability of local services within 10 minutes of any point in the city. 

The model encompasses about 60 local services essential for neighborhood functioning, categorized into four themes: 

1. Residential Economy: Includes food and non-food shops. 

1. Environment and Quality of Life: Covers green spaces, playgrounds, pedestrian walkways, and recycling facilities (e.g., glass bubbles, composts). 

1. Mobility: Involves public transport stops, shared mobility (Cambio, Villo), and bicycle parking. 

1. Urban Amenities: Focuses on diverse facilities such as childcare, schools, senior centers, cultural and sports facilities, health services (hospitals, clinics), and spaces for social cohesion. 

Based on the geolocation of all these services on a regional scale, geostatistical processing is carried out by superimposing the areas accessible, on foot (4.3 km/h) or by bike (11km/h), in less than 10 minutes (isochrones) for each of the services at destination. The result is a total score for the provision of local services at every point in the City of Brussels. Mapping these scores (heatmaps) shows the intensity of local service provision. These heatmaps can be applied to all local services, or to a thematic group of services. In this way, this model of local service provision enables a synthetic comparison of the quality of local service provision and accessibility between the city’s neighborhoods. 

The various thematic heatmaps could be integrated into the City’s GISweb , providing summary information on provision and accessibility in addition to the current raw data (location of services at address).