Random walk-based accessibility to urban services: An analysis using mobile phone data and through the lens of age, gender, and migration

Yongping Zhang, Hongzeng Zhang and Weiwen Zhang

Environment and Planning B, 2026, vol. 53, issue 5, 1031-1046

Abstract: Accessibility to urban services is an essential element to people’s quality of life and urban sustainable development. Existing literature often focused on investigating accessibility to a type-specific urban service using simple measures and relying on traditional surveys. This paper proposes a random walk-based approach to calculating accessibility to various types of urban services and then presents a data-driven analysis to measure accessibility and its spatial equity in Hangzhou, China. Massive mobile phone data is used to identify residents’ spatial distribution and vulnerable populations through the lens of age, gender and migration. Results show that as the distance from the city centre increases, the accessibility of urban services tends to decrease. The Gini index is 0.543, showing that the overall spatial distribution of accessibility exhibits relative inequality. By adjusting the parameters, the results show significant differences in the equity of accessibility of different urban services. The study further finds that urban service accessibility is higher in areas with a higher proportion of youth, females, and migrants, while vertical equity for the elderly still needs to be strengthened further. Our study can inform relevant urban planning and policy interventions to improve urban accessibility and address the social exclusion issue for a sustainable society.

Keywords: accessibility; urban services; mobile phone data; random walks; big data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:53:y:2026:i:5:p:1031-1046

DOI: 10.1177/23998083251360053

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