From Mobility Intensity to Market Infrastructure: A Spatial AI Framework for Recovering Hidden Spatial Regimes and Multiscale Variation
August 19, 2026 11:00 am (Central Time)
Abstract
3rd Place Winner in I-GUIDE's 2025-26 Spatial AI Challenge!
The GeoSocial Downscaling Model (GSDM), a Spatial AI framework, reconstructs fine-scale (~500 m) accessibility patterns from coarse human mobility data. Tested in São Paulo, GSDM uses a physics-guided U-Net architecture to downscale aggregated mobility flows while enforcing macro-micro consistency via physical constraints. It integrates national mobility metrics with socioeconomic and built-environment covariates, without relying on social media or behavioral traces. Validation includes aggregate consistency, distributional fidelity, and spatial error analysis. Outputs include high-resolution accessibility surfaces, containerized workflows, pre-trained models, and a Spatial AI Model Card with documentation and ethical guidance. All workflows are executed on the I-GUIDE Platform using Jetstream2 GPUs. GSDM provides actionable insights for resilience planning, environmental justice, and equitable service provision, addressing a critical gap in micro-scale urban accessibility modeling and directly advancing I-GUIDE’s mission of reproducible, spatially informed AI for social good.
Speakers
Rafael Albuquerque
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Jessica Miranda
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Vinicius Andrade Brei
School of Management, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Siqin (Sisi) Wang
Spatial Sciences Institute, University of Southern California