Projets
Current research projects funded by the UR
Playing the Transition: practices and potential of serious games in UR Spheres in land use planning and environment
Serious games are proving to be an effective tool for engaging and raising awareness among non-academic audiences about the challenges of the Transition, particularly in terms of land use planning and environment. Several initiatives have been launched in recent years within ULiège itself, but without any real networking, monitoring, promotion, or systematic application of these tools. The project team, composed of members of
LEPUR and DSGE, proposes to organize a diagnostic and testing of the serious games developed within UR Sphères to understand their potential for use and dissemination to a non-academic audience. Through the creation of a comprehensive catalogue and two days of presentations and trials, both internally at ULiège and externally with an audience of students and public officials, this research could promote the existing work of UR researchers by offering new perspectives for implementation.
Partenaires
Jean-Marc Lambotte (coordinator), Stefano Gariglio, Kevin Thibaut, Nadège Duvivier et Hélène Rouchet
Advanced calibration of low-cost air quality sensors across contrasting environments
Low-cost air quality sensors (LCS) are increasingly deployed to expand monitoring capacity, yet their reliability remains limited by calibration challenges. Sensor responses are strongly affected by temperature, humidity, cross-sensitivities, gas matrix variability, and long-term drift, causing calibration models developed at one site to perform poorly when transferred to other environments. These limitations currently constrain air quality monitoring campaigns at the Arlon and Sart-Tilman campuses, as well as the deployment of SAIGA instruments in Kinshasa.
This project aims to develop, validate, and transfer robust calibration models for low-cost sensors through systematic co-location and intercomparison experiments between reference instruments at the SAM laboratory, SAM and GIRPAS sensor systems deployed in Arlon, Liège, and Kinshasa. A shared reference calibration platform at the Arlon campus will be developed. The expected outcomes include optimized and transferable calibration models, quantification of environmental operating limits, and enhanced reliability of low-cost sensor networks. Together, these results will strengthen the capacity of UR SPHERES to deploy calibrated air quality monitoring systems in Belgium and in high-pollution urban environments worldwide as in Kinshasa.
Partenaires
Anne-Claude Romain (coordinator), Emmanuel Mahieu (coordinator), Roland Billen, Muhamad Bailor Jalloh, Yombo Phaka Rodriguez, Simon Liégeois et Claudia Falzone
Designing happiness corridors on campus using an urban gigital twin
Urban corridor planning has traditionally focused on biodiversity preservation and ecological connectivity through green and blue infrastructure. However, contemporary cities increasingly require spatial frameworks that also support human well-being, perceived comfort, everyday mobility, and equity. This project introduces the concept of “happiness corridors”: spatial networks designed to enhance quality of life by integrating environmental, perceptual, and social dimensions. The project develops and validates a human-perception-centred corridor modelling framework embedded in an urban digital twin of the Sart-Tilman campus, used as a living laboratory. A transparent indicator toolkit will be constructed at street-segment level, combining blue, green and dark infrastructure, accessibility, environmental comfort, and perceptual qualities, and aggregated into corridor networks. Scenario-based analyses will allow exploration of trade-offs and synergies. Crucially, the framework will be validated through structured human-feedback protocols supported by interactive 3D visualisation, enabling calibration of indicators and testing of counterfactual designs, including inherently three-dimensional effects such as shading, enclosure, visibility, and night-time lighting. Deliverables include mapped happiness corridors, a reusable methodological workflow, and a validation report, providing a solid foundation for doctoral research and future national and European funding.
Partenaires
Roland Billen (coordinator), Serge Schmitz (coordinator), Imane Jeddoub, Géant Basimine Chuma et Julien Wynants
Multidisciplinary analysis of the impacts of beaver dams on fluvial systems: Hydrology, Sedimentology, and Topoclimatology
The rapid increase in the beaver population in Wallonia raises numerous questions about their influence on river hydrology. Beaver dams modify river flow, affecting both the frequency and magnitude of floods as well as low-flow periods, with significant implications for river management and aquatic habitats.
As part of Charlotte Gilon’s master’s thesis (2025), an Ardennes stream, the Chavanne, was equipped with two pressure sensors installed in dam ponds and a water-level sensor upstream. These instruments made it possible to quantify the role of beaver dams in attenuating relatively moderate flood events. Sediment impacts were also analysed.
The present project aims to deepen this understanding. On the one hand, the collection of meteorological data using a weather station will allow a better characterisation of discharge responses to precipitation and an assessment of the impact of evaporation on the hydrological balance. On the other hand, the hydrological monitoring network will be expanded, with reinforced measurements in the Chavanne catchment and the instrumentation of at least one additional river in a different hydromorphological context. The study will integrate drone-based remote sensing methods and sedimentological analyses at the study sites.
Partenaires
Geoffrey Houbrechts (coordinator), François Jonard, Sébastien Doutreloup, Nicolas Ghilain, Jean Van Campenhout et Robin Pétrossians
