An Improved ResNet50 Model for Predicting Pavement Condition Index (PCI) Directly from Pavement Images

Accurately predicting the Pavement Condition Index (PCI), a measure of roadway conditions, from pavement images is crucial for infrastructure maintenance. This study proposes an enhanced version of the Residual Network (ResNet50) architecture, integrated with a Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM), to predict PCI directly from pavement images without additional annotations. By incorporating CBAM, the model autonomously prioritizes critical features within the images, improving prediction accuracy. Compared to the original baseline ResNet50 and DenseNet161 architectures, the enhanced ResNet50-CBAM model achieved a significantly lower mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 58.16%, compared to the baseline models that achieved 70.76% and 65.48% respectively. These results highlight the potential of using attention mechanisms to refine feature extraction, ultimately enabling more accurate and efficient assessments of pavement conditions. This study emphasizes the importance of targeted feature refinement in advancing automated pavement analysis through attention mechanisms.

Integrating Travel Behavior Forecasting and Generative Modeling for Predicting Future Urban Mobility and Spatial Transformations

Transportation planning plays a critical role in shaping urban development, economic mobility, and infrastructure sustainability. However, traditional planning methods often struggle to accurately predict long-term urban growth and transportation demands. This may sometimes result in infrastructure demolition to make room for current transportation planning demands. This study integrates a Temporal Fusion Transformer to predict travel patterns from demographic data with a Generative Adversarial Network to predict future urban settings through satellite imagery. The framework achieved a 0.76 R-square score in travel behavior prediction and generated high-fidelity satellite images with a Structural Similarity Index of 0.81. The results demonstrate that integrating predictive analytics and spatial visualization can significantly improve the decision-making process, fostering more sustainable and efficient urban development. This research highlights the importance of data-driven methodologies in modern transportation planning and presents a step toward optimizing infrastructure placement, capacity, and long-term viability.