MAP: Mapping Accessibility for Ethically Informed Urban Planning
About #
MAP (Mapping Accessibility for Ethically Informed Urban Planning) is an open-source software package developed as part of my ongoing research into incorporating justice and equity considerations into accessibility analysis. The package supports:
- Urban Network Modelling — building a large-scale graph model from open-access data that links land use, transport, and street networks.
- Neighbourhood Reach Centrality — a cumulative accessibility metric that counts the number of opportunities reachable from a neighbourhood within different time thresholds.
- Spatial Justice Evaluation — assessing accessibility through three comparative metrics of spatial justice, visualised through maps.
While the package can be adapted to any context, it is illustrated here using open data from the City of Cape Town, South Africa, provided as a ready-to-use dataset via the 4TU data repository.
MAP supports the integration of justice considerations into deliberations among diverse stakeholders in urban and transport planning, and aims to support new research, particularly in data-limited contexts.
Feedback and suggestions for improvement are welcome — this, like most research, remains a work in progress.