Pedestrian activity is a cornerstone for urban sustainability, with key implications for the environment, public health, social cohesion, and the local economy. Therefore, city planners, urban designers, and decision-makers require tools to predict pedestrian mobility and assess the walkability of existing or planned urban environments. For this purpose, diverse approaches have been used to analyze different inputs such as the street network configuration, density, land use mix, and the location of certain amenities. This paper focuses on the location of urban amenities as key elements for pedestrian flow prediction, and, therefore, for the success of public spaces in terms of the social life of city neighborhoods. Using agent-based modeling (ABM) and land use floor space data, this study builds a pedestrian flow model, which is applied to both existing and planned areas in the inner city of Hamburg, Germany. The pedestrian flows predicted in the planned area inform the ongoing design and planning process. The flows simulated in the existing area are compared against real-world pedestrian activity data for external validation to report the model accuracy. The results show that pedestrian flow intensity correlates to the density and diversity of amenities, among other KPIs. These correlations validate our approach and also quantify it with measurable indicators.

Land use mix is one of the cornerstones for urban sustainability, in opposition to functional segregation and zoning policies. Land use mix is a prerequisite for urban proximity dynamics, healthier lifestyles and public space vitality. However, methodological shortcomings to its measurement remain and are responsible for the unexpected weak association with pedestrian activity. This study puts forward a novel method to reframe, measure and map land use mix as ‘walkable trips’, a closer approach to its benefits based on functional and spatial complementarity. The method draws on newly available cadastral microdata at the parcel-level that, combined with trip generation rates and network analysis tools, enable a detailed assessment and mapping of potential for walkable trips, as well as a proxy to the spatial patterns of urban vitality, in line with the principle of the 15-minute city. The method is applied to the case of the Madrid metropolitan area.

While gender mainstreaming has become a key principle for fostering equality across all fields of policy, actual implementation in the field of urban planning is still underdeveloped. We posit that Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and open data sources can and should be useful tools that effectively contribute to devising more effective ways of implementing a gender-sensitive agenda in urban planning. We take the case of Madrid to illustrate how these tools can contribute to gender mainstreaming in planning by building a methodology based on the concepts of infrastructures for everyday life and the perception of safety.

Direct experience of social difference is crucial if lower levels of prejudice and greater social cohesion are to be achieved in our cities. Despite their key role of connecting places and people, transport infrastructures have scarcely been assessed as facilitators of encounters with social difference. Furthermore, urban contexts are progressively more complex due to the increasing relevance of transport multimodality along with the unequal degree of access to different transport modes. Building upon network analysis and consolidated accessibility measures, this study presents multi-accessibility as a concept and quantitative instrument to evaluate the potential encounter of difference in city spaces opened up by multimodal transport infrastructures. Multi-accessibility is also presented as a relevant and complementary policy avenue to enhancing social cohesion through transport planning and land use policies in the future. Two planning scenarios for the case of the Madrid metropolitan area illustrate the application, utility and interpretability of the instrument.