PEDESTRIAN VOLUME MODELING

We construct pedestrian volume models by using street network' centrality measures and geographic information on the urban environment. The models are used for understanding the relations between movement and urban environments that were established according to different planning approaches and as tools for Mobility and Transportation Planning.

Selected papers:

• Ma, D., Omer, I., Osaragi, T., Sandberg, M., & Jiang, B. (2018). Why topology matters in predicting human activities.

• Omer, I., & Goldblatt, R. (2016). Using space syntax and Q-analysis for investigating movement patterns in buildings: The case of shopping malls.

• Omer, I., Rofè, Y., & Lerman, Y. (2015). The impact of planning on pedestrian movement: contrasting pedestrian movement models in pre-modern and modern neighborhoods in Israel

• Lerman, Y., Rofè, Y. and Omer, I. (2014), Using Space Syntax to Model Pedestrian Movement in Urban Transportation Planning

MOVEMENT SIMULATION

We developed an Agent Based (AB) model  for simulating movement in urban environments. The model was constructed by transforming the various street network centrality measures and land-use variables used in space syntax modeling into agents' spatial behavior parameters. The advantage of our AB model lies in its ability to simulate the combined effect of the street network structure and land-use pattern on movement flows in urban street networks.

Selected papers:

• Wolpert L., and Omer I. (2025). Comparative analysis of pedestrian volume models: Agent-based models, machine learning methods and multiple regression analysis

• Omer, I. and Kaplan, N. (2019). Structural properties of the angular and metric street network’s centralities and their implications for movement flows

• Omer, I., & Goldblatt, R. (2017). Using space syntax and agent-based approaches for modeling pedestrian volume at the urban scale

• Omer, I., Kaplan, N., (2016). An agent-based pedestrian model considering spatial behavior parameters

EVALUATING CRASH RISK

We developed a method for evaluating the spatial distribution of vehicle and pedestrian traffic crashes relative to the volume of vehicle and pedestrian movement in urban areas.

Selected papers:

• Omer, Gitelman, Rofè, Lerman, Kaplan and Doveh (2017). Evaluating Crash Risk in Urban Areas Based onVehicle and Pedestrian Modeling

SPATIAL CONFIGURATION AND LAND USE PATTERN

Street patterns, spatial integration and land use patterns of Israeli city types with respect to planning approaches.

Selected papers:

• Omer, I. and Kaplan, N. (2019). Structural properties of the angular and metric street network’s centralities and their implications for movement flows

• Kaplan, N., Burg, D. and Omer, I. (2019). The spatial organization of accessibility and functional hierarchy at the local, regional and national scales - the case of Israel

• Kaplan, N., Omer, I. and Burg, D. (2019). How is multiscale accessibility related to population, functional and socio-economic characteristics of settlements: the case of Israel

• Omer, I., & Goldblatt, R. (2016). Spatial patterns of retail activity and street network structure in new and traditional Israeli cities

• Omer, I., & Zafrir-Reuven, O. (2015). The development of street pattern in Israeli cities

• Omer, I., & Rofe, Y. (2014). How urban grids generate urbanism-examples from Israel

• Upcoming book - Soon to be published:  The Israeli City: Structure, morphology, sustainability.   Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Technion − Israel Institute of Technology,

THE FORMATION OF SOCIO- ECONOMIC AREAS

The effect of urban morphology - city's spatial configuration and land use patterns - on the formation of socio-economic areas.

Selected papers:

• Casellas, A. and Omer, I. (2019). Modelling the city in dialogue with new social media and modes of travel behavior

• Omer, I., Roman, M., Goldblatt, R. (2013). Geographical Scale of Tolerance in the Urban Area

• Goldblatt, R. & Omer, I., (2012). The association between land-use distribution and residential patterns: the case of mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel

• Omer, I., & Goldblatt, R. (2012). Urban spatial configuration and socio-economic residential differentiation: The case of Tel Aviv

• Magen, R. Omer, I. and Rofe, Y. (2024). The impact of global and local integration on the social functioning of neighborhood green public open spaces (GPOS)

SPATIAL COGNITION

We study how cognitive maps are affected by the conditions of the environments (e.g., regional categories), and specifically how a city’s form and its internal socio-spatial divisions affect cognitive representation of an urban environment.

Selected papers:

• Sagi, S., Omer, I. and Carbon, C.C. (2019). Political and ethnic-national spatial entities, tolerance and geographical judgment

• Omer, I. (2018). How are geographical judgments and a geographical entity’s shape connected in cognitive mapping?

• Omer, I., (2018). Effect of city form and sociospatial divisions on cognitive representation of an urban environment

SPATIAL behavior

We concentrate on the individuals' spatial cognition during urban movement: how perception and cognitive presentation of distances affect the selection of movement routes in the urban street network.

Selected papers:

• Birenboim, A., P. Ben-Nun Bloom, H. Levit, and I. Omer (2021). The Study of Walking, Walkability and Wellbeing in Immersive Virtual Environments

• Omer, I. and Kaplan, N. (2018). Structural properties of the angular and metric street network's centralities and their implications for movement flows

• Omer, I., Jiang, B.,  (2015). Can cognitive inferences be made from aggregate traffic flow data?