Perceptive Visual Urban Analytics is Not (Yet) Suitable for Municipalities

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Tim Alpherts, Sennay Ghebreab, Yen-Chia Hsu, Nanne van Noord

Published: 2024, Last Modified: 11 Dec 2025FAccT 2024EveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: The use of Computer Vision, through a Perceptive Visual Urban Analytics (VUA) paradigm, has been proposed as a way for municipalities to more easily monitor their cities. However, prior studies fall short of actually investigating whether Perceptive VUA is ready for municipal use. In this paper we take a critical look at this paradigm by comparing key methods and evaluating them on usability and trustworthiness with municipal experts as well as Responsible AI and Computer Vision researchers. Based on on this evaluation we find that Perceptive VUA is not (yet) ready for municipal use as they do not incorporate domain knowledge and overly rely on spurious correlations. We conclude by providing recommendations for how to progress Perceptive VUA such that it may actually contribute to improving the liveability and quality of urban environments.