New perspectives for the diagnosis and planning of urban mobility after COVID-19: the case study of Cartagena

Abstract

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) are increasingly popular planning tools in cities with environmental issues where numerous actions are usually proposed to reduce pollution from urban transport. The impact of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 on urban pollution in our cities is a proven fact, although its mechanisms are not known in great detail. The change in urban mobility patterns due to the restrictions imposed on the population during lockdown is a phe-nomenon that can be parameterized and studied from the perspective of spatial analysis. This study proposes an analysis of the guiding parameters of these changes from the perspective of spatial analysis. To do so, the case study of the city of Cartagena, a medium-sized city in Spain, has been analyzed throughout the period of mobility restrictions due to COVID-19. By means of a geosta-tistical analysis, changes in urban mobility patterns and the modal distribution of transport have been correlated with the evolution of environmental air quality indicators in the city