AgenticCity-Bench: Longitudinal Multimodal Observations of Urban Dynamics with Agentic Reasoning
Organizations: Renmin University of China · Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, MIT · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Nanyang Technological University ·
Abstract
City systems are shaped by interactions among infrastructure, human activity, and environmental conditions. Existing earth observation and urban benchmarks are limited in unified modeling and in capturing their joint dynamics. We introduce AgenticCity-Bench, a longitudinal multimodal benchmark for multi-layer unified state modeling and agentic city task reasoning. The benchmark covers 16 cities in 12 countries across six continents from 2000 to 2025, and includes 18 modalities spanning urban function, activity, and environmental state. It organizes heterogeneous data sources around a common spatial reference and calendar index while preserving spatial and temporal coverage, provenance and tile-level availability. On this foundation, AgenticCity-Bench supports urban cross-modal translation together with diverse agentic city tasks involving forecasting, planning and resource analysis. This study provides a unified benchmark for studying the transition from multimodal urban and earth observation to joint understanding and agentic city decision-making. The dataset is available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/AgenticCity-Bench.
Figures & tables
| Family | Semantic modality | SN7 | MME | PAN | CB | URB | CL | Ours |
| Function | Built volume (BV) | – | – | – | – | |||
| Road network (RD) | – | – | – | – | – | |||
| Land cover (LC) | – | – | – | |||||
| Land use (LU) | – | – | – | – | – | |||
| Building height & footprint (H&F) | – | – | ||||||
| Points of interest (POI) | – | – | – | – | – |
| (a) Visual target modalities | |||||||||
| OPT | DEM | NDVI | H&F | BV | LC | LU | RD | ||
| Input | MSE | LPIPS | NMAE (%) | NMAE (%) | NMAE (%) | log1p NMAE (%) | macro mIoU | macro mIoU | clDice |
| OPT | – | – | 8.147 | 13.009 | 24.976 | 33.548 | 0.213 | 0.580 | 0.288 |
| DEM | 0.115 | 0.614 | – | 8.127 | 27.111 | 36.542 | 0.187 | 0.451 | 0.257 |
| NDVI | 0.115 | 0.643 | 23.084 | – | 28.336 | 41.056 | 0.212 | 0.507 | 0.258 |
| H&F | 0.120 | 0.477 | 12.681 | 12.947 | – | 31.675 | 0.200 | 0.508 | 0.266 |
| Models | NDVI WTH macro NMSE (%) | POI ELEC NMSE (%) | H&F POP NMSE (%) | WTH OPT MSE | OPT RD clDice |
| ML-4M-3B ( Mizrahi et al., 2023 ) | 77.800 | 32.300 | 106.100 | 0.063 | 0.139 |
| Show-O2-1.5B ( Xie et al., 2025 ) | 53.500 | 3.324 | 164.200 | 0.299 | 0.024 |
| UniGen-1.5B ( Tian et al., 2026 ) | 19.000 | 96.900 | 87.9 | 0.036 | – |
| MODUS-7B ( Ye et al., 2026 ) | 12.397 | 37.500 | 20.229 | 0.126 | 0.288 |
| Method | LST MAE ( ∘ C) | Carbon MAE (tonnes C/tile/year) | Property MAPE (%) |
| Earth Agent (GPT Luna) | 1.436 | 548.58 | 9.47 |
| Earth Agent (DeepSeek) | 1.400 | 511.62 | 8.64 |
| Codex (DeepSeek) | 1.350 | 485.78 | 8.21 |
| Codex (GPT-5.5) | 1.341 | 542.21 | 8.47 |
| OpenCode (GPT Luna) | 1.354 | 534.51 | 9.43 |
| OpenCode (Gemini Flash Lite) | 1.470 | 584.56 | 9.59 |
| EV charging | School capacity | |||
| Method | Accuracy (%) | Macro-F1 | Balance rate (%) | Mean balance |
| Constant-class baseline | 25.3 | 0.101 | – | – |
| Three-year-mean baseline | – | – | 84.0 | 96.60 |
| Earth Agent (GPT Terra) | 35.3 | 0.339 | 81.0 | 96.91 |
| Earth Agent (DeepSeek) | 42.0 | 0.382 | 88.0 | 97.50 |
| Codex (DeepSeek) | 38.0 | 0.366 | 89.0 | 97.61 |
| Method | Cell acc. (%) | Macro-F1 | Exact-case acc. (%) |
| Majority-class baseline | 49.67 | 0.221 | 32.0 |
| Earth Agent (GPT Terra) | 50.00 | 0.385 | 33.3 |
| Earth Agent (DeepSeek) | 51.33 | 0.385 | 14.7 |
| Codex (DeepSeek) | 55.33 | 0.498 | 18.7 |
| Codex (GPT-5.5) | 53.83 | 0.475 | 37.3 |
| OpenCode (GPT Terra) | 53.67 | 0.429 | 35.3 |
Appendix figures & tables26 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| City | Continent | CRS | grid (cells) | grid (cells) |
| Amsterdam | Europe | EPSG:32631 | (140) | (12) |
| Boston | North America | EPSG:32619 | (169) | (16) |
| Busan | Asia | EPSG:32652 | (208) | (25) |
| Cape Town | Africa | EPSG:32734 | (182) | (20) |
| Christchurch | Oceania | EPSG:32759 | (960) | (132) |
| Washington, D.C. | North America | EPSG:32618 | (143) | (20) |
| Modality | Dataset name | Source website |
| Optical Imagery | Landsat Collection 2 Level-2 | https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/landsat-collection-2-level-2-science-products |
| Optical Imagery | Planet RapidEye(2009–2015) and Mosaics (2016–2025) | https://docs.planet.com/data/imagery/basemaps/ |
| Roads | Open Street Map | https://planet.openstreetmap.org/planet/full-history/ |
| POI | Open Street Map | https://www.openstreetmap.org/ |
| GPS | Open Street Map | https://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/trackpoints |
| Height & Footprint | 3D-GloBFP global building-footprint height | https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/5357/2024/ |
| Semantic modality | Spatial granularity | Temporal coverage |
| Built volume | 100 m | 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025 (5-year epochs) |
| Road network | Vector geometry / rasterized grid | Source-specific historical snapshots |
| Land cover | 30 m | 2000–2025 |
| Land use | Source raster grid | 2000–2025 |
| Building height & footprint | Building / raster grid | Static |
| Points of interest | Point / building-level raster | Source-specific historical snapshots |
| Modality | Available combinations. | Availability |
| Optical imagery | 416 / 416 | 100.000% |
| Terrain | 416 / 416 | 100.000% |
| Vegetation | 416 / 416 | 100.000% |
| Footprint & height | 364 / 416 | 87.500% |
| Built volume | 416 / 416 | 100.000% |
| Land cover | 416 / 416 | 100.000% |
| City | Availability | City | Availability |
| Amsterdam | 392 / 468 (83.761%) | Boston | 413 / 468 (88.248%) |
| Busan | 403 / 468 (86.111%) | Cape Town | 395 / 468 (84.402%) |
| Christchurch | 353 / 468 (75.427%) | Washington, D.C. | 415 / 468 (88.675%) |
| London | 420 / 468 (89.744%) | Lyon | 390 / 468 (83.333%) |
| New York City | 411 / 468 (87.821%) | San Francisco | 411 / 468 (87.821%) |
| Santiago | 379 / 468 (80.983%) | Shanghai | 316 / 468 (67.521%) |
| Modality | Source field(s) | MODUS representation and processing | Unit |
| Landsat optical imagery | B1=red, B2=green, B3=blue | Native RGB | |
| Planet optical imagery | B1=red, B2=green, B3=blue | Native RGB | - |
| Road network | B1=major-road raster | Fixed white-background/red-road image | - |
| Height& footprint | B1= height_m | Fixed-range grayscale PNG: black is zero/background; brighter gray indicates taller buildings. Zero is a valid height. | m |
| DEM | B1= elevation_m | Train-global linear grayscale dem.png . Zero is valid elevation. | m |
| NDVI | B1= NDVI | Fixed-range grayscale PNG: darker values indicate lower NDVI and brighter values indicate higher NDVI | 1 |
| Modality | JSON field(s) | Tile-level processing | Unit |
| Population_GHSL | population_density | Area-weighted mean of the population-density display field. | persons/km 2 |
| Air quality NO2 | annual_mean_no2 | Area-weighted mean of annual surface NO 2 . | ppb |
| Air quality PM25 | annual_mean_pm25 | Area-weighted mean of annual PM 2.5 . | g/m 3 |
| Temperature_LandsatST | mean_celsius ; median_celsius | Area-weighted means of source B1 (mean) and B2 (median), converted to Celsius. Source p90, p95, and standard-deviation bands are excluded in V1. | ∘ C |
| Weather | tmin_c ; tmax_c ; tmean_c ; prcp_mm ; srad_w_m2 ; rh_fraction | The six shared fields are area-weighted over valid source cells. | tmin_c , tmax_c , tmean_c : ∘ C; prcp_mm : mm; srad_w_m2 : W/m 2 ; rh_fraction : % |
| Property value | property_mean_2017ppp | Area-weighted mean property value, expressed in 2017 PPP international dollars | 2017 PPP international dollars per property observation |
| Source / Target | OPT | DEM | NDVI | H&F | BV | LC | LU | POI | RD |
| OPT | – | 193,379 | 203,199 | 178,798 | 207,654 | 167,984 | 119,315 | 166,579 | 159,147 |
| DEM | 193,379 | – | 120,028 | 104,078 | 123,578 | 102,304 | 72,408 | 85,554 | 88,844 |
| NDVI | 203,199 | 120,028 | – | 111,913 | 133,144 | 110,430 | 77,667 | 92,491 | 86,312 |
| H&F | 178,798 | 104,078 | 111,913 | – | 114,894 | 94,346 | 70,077 | 80,046 | 74,822 |
| BV | 207,654 | 123,578 | 133,144 | 114,894 | – | 113,390 | 79,632 | 94,950 | 89,072 |
| LC | 167,984 | 102,304 | 110,430 | 94,346 | 113,390 | – | 72,492 | 74,370 | 69,897 |
| City | A | B | C | D |
| Boston | – | – | ||
| New York City | – | – | ||
| San Francisco | – | – |
| Task |
| Predict period- annual tile-mean land-surface temperature from ten historical periods and available urban modalities. |
| Case and reference outcome |
| Case ID: Boston_2KM_r7_c8__lst__2022 |
| City: Boston. Forecast period: ; calendar year withheld. |
| Reference: 19.910 ∘ C. Last year: 21.990. Ten-year mean: 21.310. |
| Submitted answer and evaluated error |
| Task |
| Predict period- annual carbon emissions summed over the four complete 1 km support cells in a 2 km tile, using ten historical periods and available urban modalities. |
| Case and reference outcome |
| Case ID: London_2KM_r20_c14__carbon__2022 |
| City: London. Forecast period: ; calendar year withheld. |
| Reference: 1,980.968 tonnes C/tile/year. Last year: 2,053.225. Ten-year mean: 2,430.620. |
| Submitted answer and evaluated error |
| Task |
| Predict period- annual carbon emissions summed over the four complete 1 km support cells in a 2 km tile, using ten historical periods and available urban modalities. |
| Case and reference outcome |
| Case ID: Amsterdam_2KM_r7_c11__carbon__2021 |
| City: Amsterdam. Forecast period: ; calendar year withheld. |
| Reference: 1,759.693 tonnes C/tile/year. Last year: 1,772.050. Ten-year mean: 1,963.619. |
| Submitted answer and evaluated error |
| Task |
| Predict the period- property value of a 2 km London tile: the median of valid 500 m cell-level property-value medians, using ten historical periods and available urban modalities. |
| Case and reference outcome |
| Case ID: London_2KM_r16_c26__property__2021 |
| City: London. Forecast period: ; calendar year withheld. |
| Reference: 390,000.000 GBP. Last year: 347,500.000. Ten-year mean: 303,337.375. |
| Submitted answer and evaluated error |
| Task and case |
| Forecast the net change in public charging ports over two years and select a city-specific growth range. |
| Case ID: evport_494be8490c9337a6 . Tile: Boston_2KM_r6_c3 . |
| Options: A: ; B: 1–5; C: 6–10; D: additional ports. |
| Submitted answer and observed outcome |
| Codex (GPT-5.5): B (1–5 ports), confidence 0.38. |
| Reference: D; the observed count rises from 21 to 39 ports, a net increase of 18. |
| Task and case |
| Forecast next-period enrollment and choose nonnegative additional seats to achieve enrollment-to-capacity utilization of 95–105%. |
| Case ID: school_plan_d2d749da062a . Tile: London_2KM_r10_c20 . |
| Historical enrollment is 637, 724, and 753; existing capacity is 600 seats. |
| Submitted answer and observed outcome |
| Earth Agent (DeepSeek): forecast 782 pupils; add 145 seats; planned capacity 745. Forecast utilization is 104.966%. |
| Reference enrollment: 788 pupils. Forecast error is 6 pupils; observed utilization is 105.772%, exceeding the upper threshold. |
| Task and case |
| Classify the four 1 km cells of a 2 km tile by food access and low-income status. |
| Case ID: fa_full_221fd43d1213 . Tile: DC_2KM_r8_c8 . |
| Labels: NLA: not low access; LA: low access; LILA: low income and low access. Reference labels are transferred from USDA census-tract indicators to the assessment cells. |
| Submitted answer and reference labels |
| Earth Agent (DeepSeek): NLA for NW, NE, SW, and SE. |
| Reference: NW, SW, and SE are LILA; NE is NLA. One of four labels is correct. |
| Group | Earth–Luna | Earth–DS | OC–Luna | OC–Gemini | Codex–GPT | Codex–DS | OC–GLM | Last year | Mean10 | |
| By city | ||||||||||
| Amsterdam | 15 | 1.264 | 1.156 | 1.403 | 1.349 | 1.177 | 1.302 | 1.322 | 1.705 | 1.198 |
| Boston | 15 | 1.269 | 1.403 | 1.309 | 1.290 | 1.223 | 1.326 | 1.341 | 2.063 | 1.216 |
| Busan | 15 | 0.723 | 0.675 | 0.825 | 0.759 | 0.674 | 0.663 | 0.803 | 0.836 | 0.561 |
| Cape Town | 15 | 1.264 | 1.209 | 1.291 | 1.193 | 1.154 | 1.235 | 1.374 | 1.049 | 1.602 |
| Christchurch | 15 | 1.387 | 1.207 | 1.220 | 1.428 | 1.173 | 1.254 | 1.370 | 1.355 | 1.270 |
| Group | Earth–Luna | Earth–DS | OC–Luna | OC–Gemini | Codex–GPT | Codex–DS | OC–GLM | Last year | Mean10 | |
| By city | ||||||||||
| Amsterdam | 15 | 276.613 | 226.749 | 288.957 | 281.078 | 295.122 | 287.385 | 305.042 | 297.730 | 1,006.523 |
| Boston | 10 | 114.388 | 132.012 | 121.332 | 107.740 | 93.660 | 36.772 | 84.891 | 123.812 | 180.381 |
| Busan | 15 | 514.681 | 488.062 | 581.498 | 517.622 | 473.480 | 287.836 | 453.674 | 304.751 | 403.713 |
| Cape Town | 15 | 331.489 | 331.532 | 281.313 | 288.556 | 380.377 | 324.304 | 318.488 | 256.331 | 385.654 |
| Christchurch | 15 | 0.084 | 0.073 | 0.074 | 0.064 | 0.068 | 0.047 | 0.088 | 0.061 | 0.073 |
| Group | Earth–Luna | Earth–DS | OC–Luna | OC–Gemini | Codex–GPT | Codex–DS | OC–GLM | Last year | Mean10 | |
| By city | ||||||||||
| Boston | 20 | 3.120 | 2.897 | 3.137 | 3.768 | 2.887 | 3.278 | 4.152 | 4.460 | 28.308 |
| Busan | 20 | 15.627 | 17.512 | 19.443 | 15.539 | 17.520 | 19.124 | 15.304 | 17.269 | 18.847 |
| DC | 20 | 5.112 | 5.548 | 5.996 | 6.237 | 4.577 | 4.699 | 5.370 | 4.803 | 27.320 |
| London | 20 | 14.454 | 11.929 | 12.367 | 12.114 | 12.240 | 12.274 | 12.143 | 10.916 | 18.306 |
| New York City | 20 | 6.237 | 5.645 | 6.221 | 8.055 | 5.286 | 5.265 | 5.916 | 3.987 | 16.074 |
| Agent | Reference | A | B | C | D | Recall (%) |
| Earth–Terra | A | 19 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 50.000 |
| B | 13 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 52.632 | |
| C | 12 | 17 | 5 | 3 | 13.514 | |
| D | 4 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 24.324 | |
| Earth–DeepSeek | A | 27 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 71.053 |
| B | 8 | 23 | 5 | 2 | 60.526 |
| Agent | Added seats: median [IQR] | Zero addition (%) | Balanced (%) | Shortage (%) | Surplus (%) |
| Earth–Terra | 0.000 [0.000, 38.250] | 57.000 | 81.000 | 16.000 | 3.000 |
| Earth–DeepSeek | 20.000 [0.000, 75.750] | 35.000 | 88.000 | 7.000 | 5.000 |
| Codex–GPT-5.5 | 0.000 [0.000, 46.500] | 57.000 | 84.000 | 13.000 | 3.000 |
| OpenCode–Terra | 0.000 [0.000, 33.750] | 53.000 | 80.000 | 17.000 | 3.000 |
| OpenCode–Gemini | 16.500 [0.000, 61.500] | 38.000 | 84.000 | 10.000 | 6.000 |
| Codex–DeepSeek | 11.000 [0.000, 67.000] | 45.000 | 89.000 | 8.000 | 3.000 |
| Agent | Reference | NLA | LA | LILA | Recall (%) |
| Earth–Terra | NLA | 242 | 22 | 34 | 81.208 |
| LA | 188 | 43 | 9 | 17.917 | |
| LILA | 38 | 9 | 15 | 24.194 | |
| Earth–DeepSeek | NLA | 224 | 68 | 6 | 75.168 |
| LA | 146 | 78 | 16 | 32.500 | |
| LILA | 45 | 11 | 6 | 9.677 |
| Agent | Uniform: cell (%) | Uniform: exact tile (%) | Mixed: cell (%) | Mixed: exact tile (%) |
| Earth–Terra | 56.183 | 53.763 | 39.912 | 0.000 |
| Earth–DeepSeek | 52.957 | 21.505 | 48.684 | 3.509 |
| Codex–GPT-5.5 | 61.559 | 58.065 | 41.228 | 3.509 |
| OpenCode–Terra | 57.527 | 53.763 | 47.368 | 5.263 |
| OpenCode–Gemini | 68.548 | 61.290 | 38.158 | 1.754 |
| Codex–DeepSeek | 57.796 | 25.806 | 51.316 | 7.018 |
| Task | Image/raster access | MAE | ||
| LST | Yes | 198 | 1.359 | 0.9022 |
| LST | No | 22 | 1.268 | 0.9391 |
| Carbon | Yes | 203 | 486.841 | 0.9989 |
| Carbon | No | 17 | 473.070 | 0.9977 |
| Property: image/raster access, | MAPE = 8.472% | |||
| Property: no image/raster access, | MAPE = 5.282% | |||