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Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2023) | Viewed by 15590

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zihan Kan

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Guest Editor

Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: geospatial data analytics; urban mobility and accessibility; environmental exposure; health geography; GIScience

Prof. Dr. Mei-Po Kwan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Space and Earth Information Science & Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Sha Tin, Hong Kong
Interests: environmental health; human mobility; healthy cities; social justice; GIScience
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Modern society is facing the challenge of sustainable mobility. Accessibility and sustainable mobility are central to smart and healthy city development, which not only requires clean travel modes but also involves equitable, healthful, and highly accessible resources and facilities. In recent years, the application and development of new geospatial datasets and methods have provided new possibilities for studying urban mobility and accessibility to support sustainable mobility planning. Our main area of interest is the development and application of geospatial technologies and methods in addressing key issues related to the sustainable mobility and accessibility of urban spaces.

This Special Issue calls for theoretical, methodological, policy, and empirical contributions on the topic of geospatial data and methods for sustainable accessibility and urban mobility. Relevant themes include but are not limited to: geospatial data analysis in transport geography; urban mobility and urban sustainability; and the development and application of new methods, approaches, and analytical frameworks for improving urban sustainability and urban infrastructure accessibility.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Sustainable mobility;
Analyzing travel behavior using geospatial data;
Geospatial data analytics in mobility research;
Development and adoption of active travel modes;
Environmental impacts of motorized travel;
Urban infrastructure accessibility;
Transportation equalities;
Intelligent transport systems;
Human mobility;
Transport geography;
Transport planning and policy;
The recent COVID pandemic and spatial inequalities in mobility and accessibility.

Dr. Zihan Kan
Prof. Dr. Mei-Po Kwan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

sustainable cities
urban mobility
accessibility
geospatial analysis
big data

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 10119 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Road Accessibility by Residents and Tourists to Public Hospitals in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain)

by Alexandre Moragues, Joana Maria Seguí-Pons, Antoni Colom Fernández and Maurici Ruiz-Pérez

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 8182; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15108182 - 17 May 2023

Viewed by 1772

Abstract

Accessibility to public hospital services is crucial for healthcare provision, particularly in regions characterized by high tourist presence, such as the Mediterranean islands. This study aims to assess the accessibility of public hospital services in Mallorca, considering access time, the geographic distribution of the resident population, and tourist accommodations. A GIS-based analysis using optimal routing algorithms and the Gini index was conducted to examine the equity in the distribution of regional and reference hospitals across four Health Sectors: Ponent, Migjorn, Tramuntana, and Llevant. The findings reveal that accessibility to regional hospitals is generally favorable, with average access times of 18, 16, 15, and 26 min, respectively, without surpassing 60 min. Accessibility to referral hospitals is comparatively lower, with 31,499 individuals located more than 1 h away. Moreover, 56% of the population is within 10 min from the referral hospital, and only 1.6% require more than 50 min to reach the hospital. Accessibility differs among Health Sectors, with Llevant experiencing the most significant impact. The hospital distribution in Mallorca is deemed to be adequate to serve residents, tourists, and the road network. Although limited in comparisons to other studies conducted in Spain, accessibility in Mallorca is fairly similar to Andalusia, Extremadura, and Catalonia. The study underscores the necessity for health infrastructure planning in order to account for the distribution of resident and tourist populations to ensure efficient and equitable services, particularly in Mediterranean island environments with a substantial tourist presence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility)

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17 pages, 39123 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Transit Travel Community Detection and Evolutionary Analysis: A Case Study of Shenzhen

by Jingjing Yan, Zhengdong Huang, Tianhong Zhao, Ying Zhang and Fei Chang

Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5900; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075900 - 28 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1549

Abstract

Community detection can reveal specific urban spatial structures related to human activities, and is achieved using mobility data from various sources. In the existing research, less attention has been devoted to communities related to urban transit travel. As public transit is a key component of the urban transport system, it is important to understand how transit communities are organized and how they evolve. This research proposes an approach to urban transit travel community detection using transit travel data and examines how the communities have evolved over time. The results in Shenzhen from 2015 to 2017 showed that the transit travel network had an obvious community structure, and the components (TAZs in this case) of the communities changed over time. During the three years, the western part of Shenzhen experienced more component changes on weekdays, and the central part of the city underwent more component changes on weekdays. In addition, the transit travel communities had a significant coupling relationship with urban administrative divisions. Exploring transit travel communities provides insight for improving public transit systems and enriches the research genealogy of urban spatial structure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility)

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25 pages, 19081 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Non-Stationarity Effects of Unhealthy Food Environments and Green Spaces for Type-2 Diabetes in Toronto

by Haoxuan Ge and Jue Wang

Sustainability 2023, 15(3), 1762; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15031762 - 17 Jan 2023

Viewed by 2578

Abstract

Environmental factors may operate differently when relations are measured across different geographical locations, a phenomenon known as spatial non-stationarity. This study investigates the spatial non-stationarity effect of unhealthy food environments and green spaces on the T2DM prevalence rate at the neighborhood level in Toronto. This study also compares how the results vary between age groups, classified as all adults (20 and above), young adults (from 20 to 44), middle adulthood (from 45 to 64), and seniors (65 and above). The geographically weighted regression model is utilized to explore the impacts of spatial non-stationarity effects on the research results, which may lead to biased conclusions, which have often been ignored in past studies. The results from this study reveal that environmental variables dissimilarly affect T2DM prevalence rates among different age groups and neighborhoods in Toronto after controlling for socioeconomic factors. For example, the green space density yields positive associations with diabetes prevalence rates for elder generations but negative relationships for younger age groups in twenty-two and four neighborhoods, respectively, around Toronto East. The observed associations will provide beneficial suggestions to support government and public health authorities in designing education, prevention, and intervention programs targeting different neighborhoods to control the burden of diabetes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility)

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12 pages, 2225 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward a Healthy Urban Living Environment: Assessing 15-Minute Green-Blue Space Accessibility

by Dong Liu, Mei-Po Kwan, Zihan Kan and Jianying Wang

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16914; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416914 - 16 Dec 2022

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3651

Abstract

Exposure to green-blue space has been shown to be associated with better physical and mental health outcomes. The advent of COVID-19 has underlined the importance for people to have access to green-blue spaces in proximity to their residences due to pandemic-related restrictions on activity space. The implementation of the 15-min concept, which advocates that people should be able to reach locations of essential functions like green-blue spaces within 15 min of active travel, can bring green-blue spaces nearer to where people live. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of understanding of the social and spatial (in)equality in 15-min green-blue space accessibility by active travel in cities seeking to embrace the concept, such as Hong Kong. This study explores 15-min green-blue space accessibility by walking and cycling in Hong Kong to reveal the distribution of disadvantaged neighborhoods. The results show that neighborhoods in Kowloon’s districts are the most disadvantaged in accessing green-blue spaces within 15 min of active travel. Our study provides policymakers with valuable insights and knowledge conducive to formulating policies aimed at reducing inequality in 15-min accessibility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility)

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25 pages, 25173 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Uncovering Inequalities in Food Accessibility between Koreans and Japanese in 1930s Colonial Seoul Using GIS and Open-Source Transport Analytics Tools

by Hui Jeong Ha, Jinhyung Lee, Junghwan Kim and Youngjoon Kim

Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 11852; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141911852 - 20 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1783

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the disparities and inequalities in food accessibility in colonial Seoul (Keijo [京城] in Japanese, and Gyeongseong [경성] in Korean) in the 1930s, using a geographic information system (GIS) and open-source transport analytics tools. We specifically focused on the unique social standing of people in the colonial era, namely colonial rulers (Japanese) vs. subjects (Koreans) and examined whether neighborhoods with larger proportions of colonial rulers had more access to food opportunities. For a comprehensive evaluation, we computed food accessibility by multiple transport modes (e.g., public transit and walking), as well as by different time budgets (e.g., 15 min and 30 min) and considered various sets of food options—including rice, meat, seafood, general groceries, vegetables, and fruits—when measuring and comparing accessibility across neighborhoods in colonial Seoul. We took a novel digital humanities approach by synthesizing historical materials and modern, open-source transport analysis tools to compute cumulative opportunity-based accessibility measures in 1930s colonial Seoul. The results revealed that Japanese-dominant neighborhoods had higher accessibility by both public transit and walking than Korean-dominant neighborhoods. The results further suggest that inequality and disparity in food accessibility is observed not only in contemporary society but also in the 1930s, indicating a historically rooted issue. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility)

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16 pages, 2780 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatiotemporal Evolution of Travel Pattern Using Smart Card Data

by Mu Lin, Zhengdong Huang, Tianhong Zhao, Ying Zhang and Heyi Wei

Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9564; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159564 - 3 Aug 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2102

Abstract

Automated fare collection (AFC) systems can provide tap-in and tap-out records of passengers, allowing us to conduct a comprehensive analysis of spatiotemporal patterns for urban mobility. These temporal and spatial patterns, especially those observed over long periods, provide a better understanding of urban transportation planning and community historical development. In this paper, we explored spatiotemporal evolution of travel patterns using the smart card data of subway traveling from 2011 to 2017 in Shenzhen. To this end, a Gaussian mixture model with expectation–maximization (EM) algorithm clusters the travel patterns according to the frequency characteristics of passengers’ trips. In particular, we proposed the Pareto principle to negotiate diversified evaluation criteria on model parameters. Seven typical travel patterns are obtained using the proposed algorithm. Our findings highlighted that the proportion of each pattern remains relatively stable from 2011 to 2017, but the regular commuting passengers play an increasingly important position in the passenger flow. Additionally, focusing on the busiest commuting passengers, we depicted the spatial variations over years and identified the characters in different periods. Their cross-year usage of smart cards was finally examined to understand the migration of travel patterns over years. With reference to these methods and insights, transportation planners and policymakers can intuitively understand the historical variations of passengers’ travel patterns, which lays the foundation for improving the service of the subway system. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geospatial Data and Methods for Sustainable Mobility and Urban Accessibility)

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