AI-Assisted Dynamic Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Service Perception and Actual Benefits

Zhaoman Huo; Gengyuan Liu; Weiceng Chang; Menghan Guo; Shaobin Li; Ying Long; Wen Zhang; Feni Agostinho; Cecilia M.V.B. Almeida; Biagio F. Giannetti

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2026.07.021

Engineering ›› :202607021 DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2026.07.021

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AI-Assisted Dynamic Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Service Perception and Actual Benefits

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Abstract

In the pursuit of building sustainable and healthy cities, a critical disconnect persists between macro-scale urban greening assessments and the micro-scale experiences of pedestrians. This study addresses this gap by establishing an artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered dynamic exposure assessment framework. By integrating deep learning-based semantic segmentation of street-view imagery with multi-source dynamic environmental data, we quantified the disparity between pedestrian-perceived greenness and the actual supply of two key ecosystem services: green-space cooling and atmospheric purification. Using the area within Beijing’s Fifth Ring Road as a case study, we developed the Ecological Integration Score to unify these diverse benefits into a standardized dynamic metric. The AI-assisted analysis revealed two critical phenomena: ① a stark green-visibility deficit, where pedestrian-visible greenness is substantially lower than macro-scale vegetation coverage, and crucially, ② a profound perception–function decoupling. Specifically, high visual greenness often creates a resilience illusion that does not guarantee functional protection against heat or pollution. These findings highlight the limitations of static planning and demonstrate the transformative potential of AI analytics in diagnosing hidden urban vulnerabilities. Theoretically, this study enriches the human–environment coupling framework; practically, it has a forward-looking impact on refined urban governance, offering conceptual guidance to better align green infrastructure with public health objectives.

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Artificial intelligence / Perception–function decoupling / Ecological integration sore / Healthy cities / Street view imagery

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Zhaoman Huo, Gengyuan Liu, Weiceng Chang, Menghan Guo, Shaobin Li, Ying Long, Wen Zhang, Feni Agostinho, Cecilia M.V.B. Almeida, Biagio F. Giannetti. AI-Assisted Dynamic Assessment of Urban Ecosystem Service Perception and Actual Benefits. Engineering 202607021 DOI:10.1016/j.eng.2026.07.021

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