BCAM and Forschungszentrum Jülich study pedestrian movement in Bilbao's Old Town

How does awareness of a tourist environment affect people’s navigation?

The CFD-MS group at BCAM and the Civil Safety Research Division (IAS-7) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich have initiated a scientific collaboration through a pedestrian mobility experiment in Bilbao’s Old Town. The experiment, led by Dr. Ezel Üsten and Dr. Mohcine Chraibi, brought together psychology, physics, and mathematics to study how local residents and tourists navigate through the same urban environment. Using eye-tracking technology and retrospective interviews, the team obtained real data on their movement and behavioral patterns, with the aim of identifying differences between both groups and integrating them into pedestrian simulations.

This research is motivated by the growing challenges faced by cities such as Bilbao, where tourism has reached record levels in recent years and large-scale events are becoming increasingly frequent. Understanding how different groups move through urban environments can help develop new tools to simulate and anticipate pedestrian mobility scenarios to mitigate the effects of tourism on local flow patterns.

The experimental study supports the development DigiCasco: un Software para Siete Calles, a BCAM project led by Prof. Marco Ellero, together with BCAM postdoctoral researchers Bruno V. Guerrero and Ander García. The project aims to develop an innovative computational tool to realistically simulate pedestrian mobility in tourist environments such as Bilbao’s Old Town.

Thanks a lot to our collaborators from Forschungszentrum Jülich and to all the participants!