<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Annals</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Annals</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9050</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-annals-X-4-W7-2025-113-2025</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Estimation of Future Vacant Housing Distribution Considering Road Environment: An Approach Using Digital Road Maps and Machine Learning</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shimizu</surname>
<given-names>Takahito</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mizutani</surname>
<given-names>Kotaro</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Akiyama</surname>
<given-names>Yuki</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Tokyo City University, 1-28-1, Tamazutsumi, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>19</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>X-4/W7-2025</volume>
<fpage>113</fpage>
<lpage>120</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2025 Takahito Shimizu et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-4-W7-2025/113/2025/isprs-annals-X-4-W7-2025-113-2025.html">This article is available from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-4-W7-2025/113/2025/isprs-annals-X-4-W7-2025-113-2025.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-4-W7-2025/113/2025/isprs-annals-X-4-W7-2025-113-2025.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/X-4-W7-2025/113/2025/isprs-annals-X-4-W7-2025-113-2025.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The increase in vacant houses has become a serious social issue in many developed countries, including Japan. Therefore, to support mid- to long-term policy planning, there is a growing need to understand future vacancy distributions. In this study, we develop a machine learning model to predict future municipal-level vacancy rates by incorporating not only demographic and building information, but also spatial indicators related to road development conditions. First, we constructed a road mesh dataset at the 500-meter grid level by aggregating physical road indicators, block rectangularity, and the proportion of buildings with front roads. We then combined these variables with data from the Population Census and the Housing and Land Survey and developed a vacancy prediction model using LightGBM. The results show that incorporating road-related indicators improves prediction accuracy. In particular, we found that municipalities with a higher density of narrow roads, more irregularly shaped blocks, and a larger proportion of buildings lacking direct road access tend to have higher vacancy rates. This study demonstrates the value of road development information, which has received limited attention in previous research, in improving vacancy prediction, suggesting that road environments can influence the spatial distribution of vacant houses. Moreover, the findings of this study contribute to the early identification of areas at risk of high vacancy and the planning of preventive measures, thereby supporting urban management through the use of smart data.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="8"/></counts>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>