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Simulation Analysis of the Spatial Distribution of Market Stalls in the Public

Open Space

Conference Paper · September 2020

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 T.MITROVIĆ AND V.STOJAKOVIĆ: SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS
SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE

SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF

MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
Tanja Mitrović
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia
Research Assistant, mitrovict@uns.ac.rs

Vesna Stojaković
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia
PhD, Associate professor, vesna100@uns.ac.rs
ABSTRACT
The design of public open spaces affects the movement of people, their behaviour and
interaction. For temporary settings in public spaces, there are generally no defined rules that dictate
their spatial distribution. In this study we intend to improve functionality of public open space during
the events by proposing a multi-agent simulation-based model as a decision-making support tool.
Simulation analysis is based on a model in which agents in the pedestrian flow represent visitors
of the event and passers-by. The results presented in this paper show that the distribution of market
stalls affects the retention time of both groups of agents in the analysed public open space. The case
study was conducted for a real space, the main square in Novi Sad, where we compared different
spatial distributions of the same number of market stalls based on agents' spent time. The aim of the
research is to contribute to better decision making and to point out the impact of things that are often
overlooked in the design process.

Keywords: agent-based modelling; spatial simulation; urbanism; decision-making

support

1. INTRODUCTION

The inter-relationship between the built environment and human spatial behaviour is one of the focal point
of architectural and urban design (Haklay et al., 2001; Loscos, et al., 2003; Turner et al., 2002). Urban and
architectural design practitioners design the physical environment in a way that is best adapted to human spatial
behaviour as much as possible considering the planned use of space. This process often relies on existing
knowledge of how people have used space in similar situations, anticipating users' activity in advance. When it
comes to temporary settings, such as market stalls during events in public space, they are often overlooked in the
planning process.

The approach that proves to be promising in overcoming these problems is computational simulations,
allowing us to test hypotheses and phenomena that have proven complex in the real world (Gilbert, 2008). A
specific tool in computational simulations which is extremely relevant to this field is agent-based modelling
(ABM) (Karbovskii et al., 2018; Ligtenberg et al., 2001). Agent-based modelling by capturing the use of public
space can help provide a controlled environment for a better understanding of human spatial activities as they
manifest in the real world. ABM allows us to explore the dynamics and processes that take place in interactions
between individuals, as well as interactions between individuals and the environment (Benenson, 1998;
Trakulpipat et al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2008). For this reason, the ABM approach was used for the purposes of this
research.

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SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE

The purpose of such simulations is to enable the evaluation of multiple design iterations and optimize
performance criteria, such as urban space functionality and quality, as well comfort of its users (Ewing et al.,
2009). The simulated pedestrian's activities in the survey area can provide adequate feedback for urban planners,
predicting pedestrian flow and examining potential scenarios. This can contribute to better decision-making during
the planning process and therefore to the sustainability of the urban environment. It is reflected in the optimization
of the urban planning process and the adoption of responsive design solutions.

The aim of the paper is to examine the impact of the spatial distribution of market stalls on the retention time
of urban space users in order to select the layout that is most favourable to minimize the walking duration of
people who pass through this area daily. To this end, the model is created with two groups of agents, visitors and
passers-by, with assigned behaviour patterns. The possible layouts for a spatial distribution of market stalls for a
specific real space - the main square in the Novi Sad, were selected. Simulations were performed for all spatial
layouts and time analysis was carried out. The model proposed in this paper is generated in Grasshopper, linking
the personal templates of PedSim, an agent-based simulator, to the geometry from Rhinoceros.

2. METHODOLOGY

For the purpose of this research, PedSim was employed since it is an agent-based simplified pedestrian
simulator adapted for use by urban planners (PedSim, 2019). It is a Grasshopper add-on which working principle
is based on a multiple force model. In other words, for agent’s movement are used: target force, person repulsion,
obstacle repulsion and anticipatory collision avoidance force. The direction of agent's movement in PedSim is
defined by the starting point and the end point. Agents follow the best route that will led them to the end point. It
also includes rerouting to avoid obstacles and collisions. PedSim also provides an introduction of targets that are
of interest to the agents, and which they will visit if they see them on their way from the starting point to the end
point. In order to perform the simulation with this tool it is necessary to enter the required input data. Person
templates, targets and obstacles are the main input data and they are defined below in accordance with the needs
of this research.

Since the Square is located at the meeting of six pedestrian streams (Kralja Aleksandra Street, Modene Street,
Zmaj Jovina Street, Katolička porta, Njegoševa Street and Pozorišni trg), we introduced six points which represent
starting and end gates for agents. One point is set up in each street. The relationship of points is defined so that
each of them represents the starting gate for agents in corresponding street, but also the end gate for agents who
start moving from other points. In this way, 15 intermediate routes were established. However, it was also
necessary to define their movement directions and person templates so that further analyses can be made. The
movement in both directions was introduced, so 30 directions of motion were obtained. The first 15 directions are
determined by connecting all points to each other and for these directions are assigned person templates with
identifications (ID) 1 and 3. An ID 1 represents passers-by, that is, agents moving from one point to another
without delay and an ID 3 is a tag of visitors, that is, agents who will turn to one of the stalls and linger for a while
and then continue to move to the end point. The other 15 directions represent opposite directions to the first ones,
with agents labelled as ID 2 and ID 4. These marks represent passers-by and visitors, respectively. The pattern of
their movement is the same as in the first case. In other words, we have two types of agents in the model: passers-
by that include agents labelled with ID 1 and ID 3 and visitors, that is, agents labelled with ID 2 and ID 4. ID tags
are necessary for further analysis of time spent. Figure 1 shows the directions of movement with corresponding
person templates.

For simulation purposes four layouts of spatial distribution of market stalls are proposed. They were selected
based on the closest resemblance to the most commonly used arrangement of market stalls during events in the
Square. The module with a rectangular 3x4 m base was used to represent each market stall individually. All four
layouts have 20 pieces of these identical modules that are arranged in different ways. They are recognized in
PedSim as targets for visitors. Layouts are shown in Figure 2.

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 T.MITROVIĆ AND V.STOJAKOVIĆ: SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS
SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE

(a) (b)
Figure. 1: Directions of movements with corresponding person templates: (a) Initially established directions of movements, and
(b) Opposite directions of movement (Source: Authors)

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure. 2: Selected layouts of spatial disposition of market stalls to be analysed: (a) Layout 1: Stalls are placed along the rim of the Square,
(b) Layout 2: Stalls are grouped into two equal clusters on the northeast side of the Square (c) Layout 3: Stalls are placed in a way which
represents one of the possible combinations of the first two layouts, and (d) Layout 4: Stalls are organized into smaller groups with denser
positioning on the southwest side of the Square (Source: Authors)

Stalls, along with surrounding buildings and existing fixed urban furniture, are obstacles to the movement of
pedestrians. As such, they affect the movement patterns of agents and the duration of movement. All these

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SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE

elements of the built environment are defined in Rhinoceros by polylines, in order to be recognized in PedSim as
obstacles. One of PedSim's outputs is a record of the start time and end time of agent's movement. Not all agents
are generated from the starting point at the same time, but go one after another, and therefore there are differences
between start times and end times. They follow different routes, which also affects the diversity of end times.
Because of that it was necessary to sort agents by using IDs in defining person templates, as shown earlier. This
time records were used to calculate the duration of movement of each agent and further to calculate the total
movement time of both groups of agents.

3. INPUTS

In order to run the simulation, the additional setup of following parameters was implemented: target force,
body radius, population, generation time, visiting time and probability. Target force is a component that affects
the speed of movement of agents and it is set for all agents to the same value. An equal body radius of 0.35 m was
used for all agents. Each simulation was performed with a total of 300 agents with the same time of their
generating. Visiting time for all stalls is also same. In determining the visitors’ interest targets, it was also
necessary to specify the exposed sides of the stalls so that each stall is assigned a point on the side from which
visitors can access. Probability is defined as the proportion of people and a 60/40 ratio for the benefit of passers-
by is adopted. Simulations were stopped when the total number of agents arriving at the end points was 300, where
the ratio of passers-by and visitors who reached their destination may be different from 60/40 at that moment.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Four simulations were performed for selected and already presented spatial distributions of market stalls in
the main square in Novi Sad. Figure 3 shows traces of simulated movements of all agents. It is noticeable that
collective movement patterns change depending on the stall layout applied.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure. 3: Traces of the movement of agents in the Square shown by a heat map for the following spatial distributions of market stalls:
(a) Layout 1, (b) Layout 2, (c) Layout 3, and (d) Layout 4 (Source: Authors)

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SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE

Results given in Figure 4 show that the spatial distribution of the market stalls has a significant impact on
the duration of movement for both group of agents. The graph shows the total score for all four person templates,
with the results of the agents labelled with ID 1 and ID 2 having been summed up and displayed under the name
of passers-by. Likewise, the results of the time duration for agents labelled with ID 2 and ID 3 are shown under
the name visitors. The obtained results point out that the distribution of stalls with Layout 2 is convenient to saving
visitors time. On the other hand, stalls arranged according to Layout 4 are well-favourable to save time for passers-
by who are the focus of this paper.

Figure. 4: The total time that all agents together spent in all four simulations.
The minimum values of time spent for both visitors and passers-by are marked. (Source: Authors)

Figure. 5: Comparative representation of the average times that one agent spend crossing the Square without crowds and one passer-by
spend within all four layouts (Source: Authors)

For the sake of comparison, as shown in Figure 5, a simulation of the same number of agents without market
stalls was also performed and it was found that it took an average of 108 seconds for one agent to cross the Square
without the crowds. The average time that one passer-by spent in the simulation of the Layout 4 (with a total of
190 passers-by) is 165 seconds, which is 12 seconds less than Layout 2 (with a total of 192 passers-by). This
difference is not large, but it represents 11% of the time that one passer-by spends on average when crossing the
Square without the crowds. Since this paper is tasked with finding a spatial distribution of mark stalls that reduces
the duration of movement of passers-by, Layout 4 is chosen as the most appropriate solution.

5. ASSUMPTIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

The method described in this paper cannot be applied to urban areas with dynamic terrain configuration since
PedSim only handles 2D scenarios. It also does not take into account the spontaneous stopping of the movement
of people in the Square when meeting or taking pictures, forming smaller or larger groups. The number of agents
emerging from the starting point cannot be randomly generated, but can only be set as one at a time, or two at a
time, and so on. In these aspects, the limitations of PedSim can affect the accuracy of the final conclusion.

A subsequent study could be concerned with manipulating parameter values and features such as visiting
time and target of interest, which would make it possible to prioritize the attractiveness of the market stalls.

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SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARKET STALLS IN THE PUBLIC OPEN SPACE

Another possible direction for future developments is a more complete and sophisticated approach to social
variables. This aspect is of special importance considering the use of pedestrian models in event planning. It is
clear that future work will move on multiple fronts, which is made possible by the flexibility of the ABM
paradigm.

6. CONCLUSION

Results obtained in this research proved that the significance of the spatial distribution of the market stalls
in urban space is greater than it is believed since it is generally neglected in the design process. It is shown that
the agent-based modelling approach is highly applicable to this field and the ability of the multi-agent based tool
to examine urban form and to assist in decision-making is justified. The presented method supports the use of
simulation based models for estimating walkability parameters, specifically duration of movement, which is an
important component of urban quality. By defining person templates, this work presents a generalized model of
collective human spatial behaviour, designed so that it may be more easily incorporated to specific layouts of
spatial distribution of market stalls. The model was designed and implemented in two-dimensional space using
simplified geometry. Future studies are encouraged to examine the use of an agent-based model as a tool to
contribute to the creation of sustainable urban environment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research (paper) has been supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological
Development through the project no. 451-03-68/2020-14/200156: “Innovative scientific and artistic research from
the FTS (activity) domain”.

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