Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1447377

A hybrid workflow connecting a network and an agent-based model for predictive pedestrian movement modelling

Provisionally accepted
Anita Ullrich Anita Ullrich 1*Franziska Hunger Franziska Hunger 1Ioanna Stavroulaki Ioanna Stavroulaki 2Adam Bilock Adam Bilock 3Klas Jareteg Klas Jareteg 3Yury Tarakanov Yury Tarakanov 4Alexander Gösta Alexander Gösta 5Johannes Quist Johannes Quist 1Meta Berghauser Pont Meta Berghauser Pont 2Fredrik Edelvik Fredrik Edelvik 1
  • 1 Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 2 Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Vastra Gotaland County, Sweden
  • 3 Industrial Path Solutions AB, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 4 Viscando AB, Gothenburg, Sweden
  • 5 Research Institutes of Sweden AB, Stockholm, Sweden

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Pedestrian movement has always been a main concern for urban planning and design, but has become more important within the sustainable development agenda, as walking is crucial to reduce urban emissions and foster livable cities. Therefore, urban planners need to be able to take pedestrian movement into consideration as part of the workflow of planning and designing cities. This study outlines a comprehensive workflow tailored for urban planners. It proposes a hybrid model that integrates an agent-based model, which simulates the micro-scale movement of pedestrians in outdoor urban environments, with a network model, which predicts the aggregated pedestrian flows on a macro-scale. The hybrid model has been applied to a pedestrian precinct in the city centre of Gothenburg, Sweden and has been compared to real-world measurements. The reasonable agreement between the simulation results and the real-world data supports the reliability of the proposed workflow, underscoring the model’s capability of predicting pedestrian movement statistically on a large scale and individually on a local scale. Furthermore, the model enables the analysis of flow distributions and movement restrictions and facilitates the analysis of different design scenarios as well as specific pedestrian behavior. This functionality is valuable for urban design and planning practice, contributing to the optimization of pedestrian flow dynamics.

    Keywords: agent-based modelling, network model, Sensor data, Validation, digitization, urban planning and design

    Received: 11 Jun 2024; Accepted: 13 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ullrich, Hunger, Stavroulaki, Bilock, Jareteg, Tarakanov, Gösta, Quist, Berghauser Pont and Edelvik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anita Ullrich, Fraunhofer Chalmers Centre, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.