30 November 2020: Open-Access Monitor of Urban Mobility Changes During Pandemic

Almaty city Department of Digitalization in cooperation with International Financial Corporation (IFC) and Habidatum launch a public interface map showcasing mobility changes of Almaty citizens during COVID-19 pandemic.   

In May 2020 Almaty city initiated a project to build comparative analytics based on GPS data, in order to assess citizens’ mobility before and during the pandemic. Outputs of six-month project implementation became identification of new "points of attraction" for development of small and medium-size businesses, which appeared since spring of 2020, development of a typology for city parks and "green corridors".

Strong contribution was made to future Almaty Cycling Strategy. A joint work of the project team with Almaty cycling society resulted in modelling most popular bike routes of Almaty Bike users, that will provide a solid ground for development of bike paths/lanes network.  

To stimulate usage of GSP data by citizens, project partners launch Mobility Monitoring Public Interface that reflects changes in urban mobility during COVID-19 period, when relationship of citizens with public spaces changed dramatically. It is a useful tool to analyse aggregated historical data about citizens’ movement, which can be taken by municipality and businesses as the baseline for data-driven decisions on urban infrastructure development. 

The project was led by Almaty municipality together with IFC’s Cities Initiative (IFC Cities) that is implemented in partnership with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The initiative aims to help implement climate-smart infrastructure projects, in order to improve quality of municipal services in public transport, water supply, waste management and ‘smart city’ technologies. 

The project was implemented by Habidatum company.

Brief information about the project can be found here. A presentation on project milestones and results is accessible at 'Useful Information'.