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Mir Abolfazl Mostafavi is a full professor at the Department of
Geomatics Sciences at Université Laval and is a member of the Centre for
geospatial data and intelligence (CRDIG) as well as the Centre for
Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation and Social participation.
He holds a Canada Research Chair in Senseable Cities for Empowered
Mobility. His research interests focus on geospatial theories, methods
and technologies to study complex human environment-technology
interactions following an ecosystem approach. Hi research team in the
«Liveable Cities Lab» contributes to 1) the design and development of
smart and inclusive environments using advanced geospatial methods and
technologies (sensor networks, the Internet of Things (IoT), digital
twins and geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoIA), 2) the improved
understanding of human interactions with their environments in an
ecosystem approach (spatial cognition, interactional modeling), and 3)
the design and development of assistive navigation technologies.
Professor Mostafavi has led numerous interdisciplinary research projects
in national and international levels. He has served as Editor-in-Chief
of Geomatica, the journal of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics
(CIG/CIG) from 2017 to 2022, and as the President of the CIG from 2021
to 2023. He currently servs as a cochair of a working group on «Digital
Twins for Mobility and Navigation» of the International Society for
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).
Geographic Information for Inclusive Mobility in Liveable Cities
Improving social participation of people with disabilities (PWDs) and aging population is a major challenge for the international societies. According to the World Health Organization, there are over 1 billion PWD around the world. For the majority of these people, getting around independently is an essential condition for carrying out their daily activities (e.g., going to work, going to market, participating in community life, etc.). However, the mobility challenges faced by PWD are substantial in our cities. Unfortunately, traditional designs of urban environments, including infrastructure and services (pedestrian networks, subways, airports, stores, restaurants, etc.), are developed based largely on a standard perception of an independent, fully functional citizen without disability and still pose substantial accessibility problems. The majority of mobility aids are not adapted for the needs of PWD and rarely consider users’ profiles (impairments (physical, sensory, cognitive, or intellectual), preferences, etc.) or the characteristics of their physical and social. A comprehensive mobility solution for PWD needs to consider a broader range of human-environment-technology interactions. In this context, the design and development of innovative geospatial assistive navigation technologies adapted to the profiles of PWD would greatly facilitate their mobility and contribute to their health and social participation. This talk will present the latest advances of the research activities on the design, development and valorization of geospatial solutions within the «the Liveable City Lab» at Université Laval. Following a brief presentation of the Canada Research Chair in Senseable Cities for empowered mobility, the work on the MobiliSIG project, which aims to provide a navigation solution adapted to the needs of manual wheelchair users, will be presented. In addition, various challenges related to the acquisition, automatic processing and integration of multi-source geospatial data relevant to the analysis of accessibility and mobility for WPD will be presented and discussed.