Tallaght Commuting Stress Map

The first Irish day reconstruction stress mapping project took place during the month of June, 2008. During this time Tallaght residents who took part in the project wore a heart monitor while travelling to work and this was linked simultaneously and continuously to their geographic position via a wearable GPS monitor. This information was then merged to produce the images that are visible on this site.

Stress map: Heart rate spikes projecting upwards indicate moments of greater cardiovascular activity. Driver = Red tracks, Public transport user = Green.

Building a Behavioural Scientific 'Microscope' to Study Everyday Stress

Life can be stressful, but the question is how, where, in what way, for whom, to what extent are we aware of it? Pinpointing the contribution of daily events, intrusive environmental conditions, and psychological factors to stress patterns is a core goal of recent research at the UCD Geary Institute and Amarach Research. Together, in our research, headed by Dr. Liam Delaney and Michael Daly from the UCD Geary Institute and Gerard O'Neill of Amarach Research we are examining new methods for coherently linking geographic, physiological, subjective and behavioural information relating to day-to-day life. As an example, we use the illustration of the daily commute, an event that is intuitively highly loaded with the stresses and time-pressures of modern life.

We have combined survey and psychophysiological measures from the forefront of social science to form a platform which can facilitate a highly detailed account of the intricacies of daily life that may underlie feelings of stress, impatience, and irritation. This site details an overview of some of this work. We welcome collaboration and also those who volunteer to take part in future rounds of the project to help build this project with us.

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