Understanding Pedestrian Movement in Urban Environments Through GeoAI, Urban Form, and Mobility Analytics

Dear Colleagues,

Walking behavior is influenced by a complex interaction between the built environment, street network structure, land use patterns, accessibility to destinations, and individual-level constraints and preferences, hence understanding pedestrian movement is essential for designing healthier, safer, and more inclusive cities. In recent years, the growing availability of open geospatial datasets, sensor-based pedestrian observations, and large-scale urban mobility records has enabled researchers to explore pedestrian dynamics with unprecedented spatial and temporal detail. At the same time, advances in GeoAI and machine learning provide powerful opportunities to model, predict, and explain pedestrian movement patterns across diverse urban contexts.

This Special Issue aims to advance research on pedestrian movement in urban environments by integrating GeoAI, urban form analysis, and mobility analytics. It welcomes contributions that examine how street network characteristics, urban design features, and environmental conditions shape walking behavior, as well as studies that develop new computational and data-driven approaches for measuring walkability, accessibility, and pedestrian exposure. The Special Issue encourages interdisciplinary work bridging urban design, transportation planning, GIScience, and spatial data science, with an emphasis on practical insights for improving walkability and equitable access to public space.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome, and areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• GeoAI-based pedestrian movement modeling and prediction;
• Street network and route choice analytics;
• Urban form and land use influences on walking patterns;
• Spatiotemporal pedestrian sensing and mobility data fusion;
• Walkability and accessibility indicators;
• Inclusive and equity-oriented pedestrian planning;
• Decision-support tools for walkable urban interventions.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Achituv Cohen
Prof. Dr. Pnina Plaut
Guest Editors

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