Analysis and Planning of Urban Networks

Synonyms

Accessibility; Centrality urban design; City planning; GIS; Spatial networks; Urban form

Glossary

Urban Form:

The physical pattern of urban infrastructure and buildings

Land Use Pattern:

The spatial distribution of human activities accommodated within urban form

Built Environment:

A combination of urban form and land-use mix of an area

Accessibility:

Property of a location that describes the ease with which the location can be accessed from surrounding urban form and land-use attractions

Centrality:

Refers to metrics that describe how centrally an event is located in a spatial network (see ▸ Centrality Measures)

Introduction

Network analysis concepts have been used in the design and planning of cities for several decades. Until recently, however, they were common in only highly specialized applications – disaster planning problems, critical facilities' location problems, and costly utility and transportation infrastructure design problems. Efforts to apply network analyses to...