Network space analysis–based identification of road traffic accident hotspots: a case study

An urban, commercial central district is often regarded as the heart of a city. Therefore, quantitative research on commercial central districts plays an important role when studying the development and evaluation of urban spatial layouts. However, conventional planar kernel density estimation (KDE) and network kernel density estimation (network KDE) do not reflect the fact that the road network density is high in urban, commercial central districts. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a new method (commercial-intersection KDE), which combines road intersections with KDE to identify commercial central districts based on point of interest (POI) data. First, we extracted commercial POIs from Amap (a Chinese commercial, navigation electronic map) based on existing classification standards for urban development land. Second, we calculated the commercial kernel density in the road intersection neighborhoods and used those values as parameters to build a commercial intersection density surface. Finally, we used the three standard deviations method and the commercial center area indicator to differentiate commercial central districts from areas with only commercial intersection density. Testing the method using Nanjing City as a case study, we show that our new method can identify seven municipal, commercial central districts and 26 nonmunicipal, commercial central districts. Furthermore, we compare the results of the traditional planar KDE with those of our commercial-intersection KDE to demonstrate our method’s higher accuracy and practicability for identifying urban commercial central districts and evaluating urban planning.

This study applied GIS-based statistical analytic techniques to investigate the influence of accident Severity Index (SI) on temporal-spatial patterns of accident hotspots related to the specific time intervals of day and seasons. Road Traffic Accident (RTA) data in 3 years (2015 − 2017) in Hanoi, Vietnam were used to analyze and test this approach. Firstly, the RTA data were divided into four seasons in accordance with Hanoi’s weather conditions and the time intervals such as the daytime, nighttime, or peak hours. Then, the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) method was applied to analyze hotspots according to the time intervals and seasons. Finally, the results were presented by using the comap technique. This study considered both analyses with and without SI. The accident SI measures the seriousness of an accident. The approach method is to give higher weights to the more serious accidents, but not with the extremely high values calculated on a direct rate to the accident expenditures. The results showed that both analyses determined the relatively similar hotspots, but the rankings of some hotspots were quite different due to the integration of SI. It is better to take into account SI in determining RTA hotspots because the gained results are more precise and the rankings of hotspots are more accurate. From there, the traffic authorities can easily understand the causes behind each accident and provide reasonable solutions to solve the most dangerous hotspots in case of limited budget and resources appropriately. This is also the first study about this issue in Vietnam, so the contribution of the article will help the traffic authorities easily solve this problem not only in Hanoi but also in other cities.

Kernel density estimation (KDE) is a widely used method in geography to study concentration of point pattern data. Geographical networks are 1.5 dimensional spaces with specific characteristics, analyzing events occurring on networks (accidents on roads, leakages of pipes, species along rivers, etc.). In the last decade, they required the extension of spatial KDE. Several versions of Network KDE (NKDE) have been proposed, each with their particular advantages and disadvantages, and are now used on a regular basis. However, scant attention has been given to the temporal extension of NKDE (TNKDE). In practice, when the studied events happen at specific time points and are constrained on a network, the methodologies used by geographers tend to overlook either the network or the temporal dimension. Here we propose a TNKDE based on the recent development of NKDE and the product of kernels. We also adapt classical methods of KDE (Diggle's correction, Abramson's adaptive bandwidth and bandwidth selection by leave‐one‐out maximum likelihood). We also illustrate the method with Montreal road crashes involving a pedestrian between 2016 and 2019.

Identifying the (Hot Spots) for traffic accidents in Erbil City A study of the problems of the Urban Environment

The improvement of pedestrian safety plays a crucial role in developing a safe and friendly walking environments, which can contribute to urban sustainability. A preliminary step in improving pedestrian safety is to identify hazardous road locations for pedestrians. This study proposes a framework for the identification of vehicle-pedestrian collision hot spots by integrating the information about both the likelihood of the occurrence of vehicle-pedestrian collisions and the potential for the reduction in vehicle-pedestrian crashes. First, a vehicle-pedestrian collision density surface was produced via network kernel density estimation. By assigning a threshold value, possible vehicle-pedestrian hot spots were identified. To obtain the potential for vehicle-pedestrian collision reduction, random forests was employed to model the density with a set of variables describing vehicle and pedestrian flows. The potential for crash reduction was then measured as the difference between the observed vehicle-pedestrian crash density and the prediction produced by the random forests models. The final hotspots were determined by excluding those with a crash reduction value of no more than zero. The method was applied to the identification of hazardous road locations for pedestrians in a district in Shanghai, China. The result indicates that the method is useful for decision-making support.

Road safety issues are drawing major attention of local Serbian authorities who seek the reduction of the volume of Road Traffic Accidents. The study starts with a review of the problem with a focus on the situation in the European Union member countries and the Western Balkan (WB) countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia. It then interprets traffic accident data using network K-function and Network Kernel Density Estimation. Unlike the conventional planar methods, the network methods analyze the spatial patterns of accident locations within the network space and are therefore not affected by the configuration of the street network or its distance. The Network K-function helped authors to investigate the presence of clusters, whereas the Network Kernel Density method helped identify the actual cluster locations. Multiple linear regression analysis was also used to find the most significant variables related to the road conditions, time and the main cause which have likely contributed to high rates of accidents. The empirical analysis was carried out using traffic data from the City of Belgrade. Implications for further research were discussed, suggesting that the findings can be used for more in-depth studies aimed at identifying the most significant cause of road accidents in any given area and that they could be extended and applied in other countries of the region.

There has been a growing concern in traffic road accident rates in recent years. Thailand's average death rate of 24,326 people per year is the second highest globally. It is now down to 32.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, with 22,491 deaths per year and an average of 60 deaths per day. While Thailand has the third-highest proportion of motorcycle-related deaths globally at 74.4%, it has a population of over 66 million with a fatality rate of 24.3 motorcyclists per 100,000 people. In addition, when considering the report of the leading presumptive causes of road accidents, it was found that the leading causes of the crash can be classified by general characteristics of collisions and their contributing factors collisions (human factors, vehicle factors and road and environment factors). This paper focuses on the case of the suburban area by applying the spatial-statistical analysis to identify the risk locations of motorcycle traffic accidents (known as “hot spots”). Kernel Density Estimation (KDE), data plots and space and time pattern mining tools are used to describe spatial hotspots. The finding can help in the measurement of motorcycle traffic accidents reduction and effectively improve road safety situation, which is crucial to investigate the root cause of road traffic accidents with an in-depth understanding of spatial patterns of this problematic.

The main aim of the present study was to investigate the spatiotemporal trends of urban traffic accident hotspots during the COVID-19 pandemic. The severity index was used to determine high-risk areas, and the kernel density estimation method was used to identify risk of traffic accident hotspots. Accident data for the time period of April 2018 to November 2020 were obtained from the traffic police of Tabriz (Iran) and analyzed using GIS spatial and network analysis procedures. To evaluate the impacts of COVID-19, we used the seasonal variation in car accidents to analyze the change in the total number or urban traffic accidents. Eventually, the sustainability of urban transport was analyzed based on the demographic and land use data to identify the areas with a high number of accidents and its respective impacts for the local residences. Based on the results, the lockdown measures in response to the pandemic have led to significant reductions in road traffic accidents. From the perspective of urban planning, the spatiotemporal urban traffic accident analysis indicated that areas with high numbers of elderly people and children were most affected by car accidents. As we identified the hotspots of urban traffic accidents and evaluated their spatiotemporal correlation with land use and demography characteristics, we conclude that the results of this study can be used by urban managers and support decision making to improve the situation, so that fewer accidents will happen in the future.

Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in dogs and cats in Zhenjiang City, Eastern China

The Strait of Malacca faces persistent maritime safety challenges due to high vessel density and complex navigational conditions. Current risk assessment methods often lean towards treating static accident analysis and dynamic traffic modeling separately, although some nascent hybrid approaches exist. However, these hybrids frequently lack the capacity for comprehensive, real-time factor integration. This study proposes an integrated framework coupling accident hotspot identification with vessel traffic network analysis. The framework combines trajectory clustering using improved DBSCAN with directional filters, Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) for accident hotspots, and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) for multi-factor risk evaluation, acknowledging its subjective and region-specific nature. The model was trained and tuned exclusively on the 2023 dataset (47 incidents), reserving the 2024 incidents (24 incidents) exclusively for independent, zero-information-leakage validation. Results demonstrate superior performance: Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) improved by 0.14 (0.78 vs. 0.64; +22% relative to KDE-only), and Precision–Recall AUC (PR-AUC) improved by 0.16 (0.65 vs. 0.49); both p < 0.001. Crucially, all model tuning and parameter finalization (including DBSCAN/Fréchet, FAHP weights, and adaptive thresholds) relied solely on 2023 data, with the 2024 incidents reserved exclusively for independent temporal validation. The model captures 75.2% of reported incidents within 20% of the study area. Cross-validation confirms stability across all folds. The framework reveals accidents concentrate at network bottlenecks where traffic centrality exceeds 0.15 and accident density surpasses 0.6. Model-based associations suggest amplification through three pathways: environmental-mediated (34%), traffic convergence (34%), and historical persistence (23%). The integrated approach enables identification of both where and why maritime accidents cluster, providing practical applications for vessel traffic services, risk-aware navigation, and evidence-based safety regulation in congested waterways.

Road fatalities are among the major causes of mortality for Strigiformes species and may affect the population's survival. The use of mitigation strategies must be considered to overcome this problem. However, because mitigation along the total length of all roads is not financially feasible, the locations where Strigiformes roadkills are more frequent (i.e., road fatality hotspots) must be identified. In addition to hotspot identification, factors that influence the occurrence of such fatalities should be recognized to allow mitigation measures to be delineated. We used road fatality data collected from 311 km of southern Portugal roads over a 2‐year period to compare the performance of five hotspot identification methods: binary logistic regression (BLR), ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA), Kernel density estimation, nearest neighbor hierarchical clustering (NNHC), and Malo's method. BLR and ENFA modelling were also used for recognizing roadkill deterministic factors. Our results suggest that Malo's method should be preferred for hotspot identification. The main factors driving owl roadkillings are those associated with good habitat conditions for species occurrence and specific conditions that promote hunting behavior near roads. Based on these factors, several mitigation measures are recommended.

Traffic accidents, which continue to increase from year to year in Turkey and in the world, have become a huge problem that can result in serious traumas, injuries, and deaths, as well as their material and moral consequences. Many studies have been carried out in the world and in Turkey to reduce the number of traffic accidents, but these studies have not been very effective in reducing accidents. In this study, 3105 fatal or injured traffic accidents between 2010–2017 in Sarıyer district of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city in terms of population, were discussed. We analyzed the statistical information on the subject in detail within the framework of geographic information systems. It has been tried to determine the sections where traffic accidents are concentrated in this region with studies based on spatial methods. Thematic accident map was created according to the accident types. In this context, the advantages and disadvantages of these methods were compared using Point Density, Kernel Density, Getis Ord Gi*, and Anselin Local Moran’s I (LISA) Spatial Autocorrelation. In addition, in order to observe the change in accidents, thematic accident and Kernel Density maps were created separately according to accident occurrence types in the beginning and last year. From this point of view, the changes that occurred in the accidents were interpreted. The current study determined that the most accidents were on some streets and these streets divided into regions in a plan. The cases were examined with statistical analyses according to accident types and using the Kernel Density method. In addition, it has been observed that Kernel Density method gives better visual results than other spatial methods. In this study, spatial analysis and statistical analysis methods were used to evaluate traffic accidents more realistically. The day of the week effect and month of the year effect on traffic accidents was investigated for the first time. In addition, it is proposed to bring a new approach to the prevention of traffic accidents by using hotspot, accident type, and day of the week effect.

Autonomous learning not only requires students to self-monitor and adjust their cognition, emotions, motivation, behavior, and environment, but also requires the creation of external environments and the provision and support of teaching strategies. Protocol-guided learning is a localized teaching strategy in the mainland of China. This study sampled students from two municipal middle schools in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province as research subjects, and used education experiments to find out the role of students’ autonomous learning in improving student performance, and observed how to promote students’ autonomous learning through protocol-guided learning as well. A total of 612 students from the first grade of two schools in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, China were selected as the subjects. After excluding extreme values, a total of 196 experimental samples and 201 control samples were obtained. By analyzing the experimental data of the experimental group and the control group, it is concluded that a well-designed protocol-guided learning teaching can become an effective carrier for students’ autonomous learning. By promoting students’ autonomous learning, students’ performance can be effectively improved. At the same time, we further found that in the three subjects of Chinese, Mathematics, and English, students’ autonomous learning has the most obvious effect on Chinese learning.

This study attempts to analyze the spatial clustering and spatial-temporal distribution characteristics of hepatitis E (HE) at the county (city and district) level in Jiangsu province to provide a scientific basis for the prevention and control of HE. The information on HE cases reported in the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Information System from 2005 to 2020 was collected for spatial autocorrelation analysis and spatial-temporal clustering analysis. From 2005 to 2020, 48,456 HE cases were reported in Jiangsu province, with an average annual incidence rate of 3.87/100,000. Male cases outnumbered female cases (2.46:1), and the incidence was highest in the 30-70 years of age group (80.50%). Farmers accounted for more than half of all cases (59.86%), and in terms of the average annual incidence, the top three cities were all in Zhenjiang city. Spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that Global Moran's I of HE incidence varied from 0.232 to 0.513 for the years. From 2005 to 2020, 31 counties (cities and districts) had high and statistically significant HE incidence, and two clustering areas were detected by spatial-temporal scanning. HE incidence in Jiangsu province from 2005 to 2020 was stable, with age and gender differences, regional clustering, and spatial-temporal clustering. Further investigation of HE clustering areas is necessary to formulate corresponding targeted prevention and control measures.

GIS-based Economic Cost Estimation of Traffic Accidents in St. Louis, Missouri