Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution

Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design

The present study illustrates a multidimensional analysis of an indicator of urban land use efficiency (per-capita built-up area, LUE) in mainland Attica, a Mediterranean urban region, along different expansion waves (1960–2010): compaction and densification in the 1960s, dispersed growth along the coasts and on Athens’ fringe in the 1970s, fringe consolidation in the 1980s, moderate re-polarization and discontinuous expansion in the 1990s and sprawl in remote areas in the 2000s. The non-linear trend in LUE (a continuous increase up to the 1980s and a moderate decrease in 1990 and 2000 preceding the rise observed over the last decade) reflects Athens’ expansion waves. A total of 23 indicators were collected by decade for each municipality of the study area with the aim of identifying the drivers of land use efficiency. In 1960, municipalities with low efficiency in the use of land were concentrated on both coastal areas and Athens’ fringe, while in 2010, the lowest efficiency rate was observed in the most remote, rural areas. Typical urban functions (e.g., mixed land uses, multiple-use buildings, vertical profile) are the variables most associated with high efficiency in the use of land. Policies for sustainable land management should consider local and regional factors shaping land use efficiency promoting self-contained expansion and more tightly protecting rural and remote land from dispersed urbanization. LUE is a promising indicator reflecting the increased complexity of growth patterns and may anticipate future urban trends.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/3/3359/pdf

Long-Term Urban Growth and Land Use Efficiency in Southern Europe: Implications for Sustainable Land Management

The simulation and prediction of spatio-temporal urban growth trends using cellular automata models: A review

Street view imagery in urban analytics and GIS: A review

Modeling urban evolution using neural networks, fuzzy logic and GIS: The case of the Athens metropolitan area

Promotion of daily walking activity is the focal point of urban mobility in many cities, since it tackles issues that stem from the proliferation of auto-dependent lifestyles. The idea of walkability can be defined as the extent to which the built environment supports and encourages safe, comfortable and interesting urban walking trips. Thus, walkability is a relative composite measure, which can be geovisualized by assessing both built environment characteristics that affect people's travel behavior as well as information gathered through audits and surveys. To this end, our paper deals with the definition of a weighted GIS-based composite walkability index methodology. During the first phase the following parameters formulate the initial value of our index: population density, pathway network connectivity, land use mix and proximity to basic land uses. In the second phase, pathway characteristics such as its width, obstacles and condition, with problematic values negatively affect the index and reduce its value. Although the international debate in this scientific field has not yet concluded whether a walkability index should be weighted or not, we delve into the exploitation of the suitable index's parameters weights. In our study, weights ensued from a Pan-Hellenic electronic questionnaire survey constituting of a sample of 871 people mainly sought the hierarchical significance of each of the walkability index's parameters and sub-parameters according to the preferences of respondents which stated they basically choose walking/cycling to their daily destinations. Hierarchy analysis of results was carried out through the utilization of the Borda count election method, a consensus-based method instead of a majoritarian one. Results indicated that proximity to basic urban destinations is assigned the highest weight with a value of 38.3% and population density the lowest with a value of 13.8%. Finally, pathways with small or zero width reduced the index's initial value up to 41,1%.

What matters when it comes to “Walk and the city”? Defining a weighted GIS-based walkability index

Any analysis of health service problems facing the world today must consider that these problems exist in a geographic context. This fact has led to an increased need for accurate and current information to support emergency planning and decision making. In this article we combine geographic information systems (GIS) and neural networks for performing health emergency assessments and generating hazard maps that show areas that are potentially at high risk for emergencies. Through the use of neural networks we predict the location of future emergency events. On these events we use a kernel density estimator to create maps of areas that have a high risk for future emergencies. As a result, emergency services will know in advance where there is a high possibility of an emergency event occurring and can formulate a response, thus improving incident management and health planning. For example, the service can locate ambulances in places near the expected emergency cases, minimizing response time. The approach ...

Analyzing High-Risk Emergency Areas with GIS and Neural Networks: The Case of Athens, Greece

Migrants in cities are highly dependent on frequent and fast public transport services. Easy access to rapid transit stations, such as subways or suburban rails, plays a crucial role in shaping migrants’ daily lives and critically influences integration processes at the local level. Nevertheless, in Europe, little is known about migrants’ access to rapid transport facilities. This article is the first one that provides comparable local indicators of rapid transit accessibility and equity in the supply of transit services for various migrant and non-migrant groups across 17 European cities. Our analysis was based primarily on an innovative European spatial dataset about migrants’ concentration in cities as well as on several openly available general transit feed specification datasets. Methodologically, we used a classic gravity-based accessibility model, where the average frequency of daily departures was assumed as the attractiveness factor of the instrument. On the other hand, we performed Gini coefficient analysis and created Lorenz curve graphs to assess transit equity. The results allowed us to make interor intracity comparisons and to demonstrate some of the most transit disadvantaged migrant communities in Europe. Our findings suggest that Africans experience on average the worst access, while Americans, in the vast majority of cities, are located in high-access districts. Also, transit equity assessment demonstrated a high level of inequality across all population groups and cities, except Barcelona. A striking result was that 88% of African communities in Turin shared only 10% of rapid transit supply. However, it was confirmed that regardless of people’s nationality, in many cities around Europe, it is difficult for many dwellers to live in close proximity to subways. Therefore, better land-use and mobility policies are required to guide cities towards more inclusive and sustainable urban development.

/pdf/measuring-rapid-transit-accessibility-and-equity-in-migrant-4scqcuydf0.pdf

Measuring rapid transit accessibility and equity in migrant communities across 17 European cities

In this paper, we evaluate different elements of the urban micro-scale environment in eight European capitals’ downtown areas (i.e. Vienna, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Madrid, Brussels, Budapest, Athens and Sofia) to provide insight into inequalities in walkability benefits due to spatial distribution. To this end, we utilize MAPS-Mini, the brief version of Microscale Audit of Pedestrian Streetscapes to record and assess, at the street level, 15 walkability related items based on the Google Street View service. Our total sample consists of about 15.736 street segments/crossings, while for reliability analysis reasons, a second rater was employed to cross assess 10% of street segments per city. Results showed that Vienna and Athens had the highest (50.4%) and lowest (32.1%) overall walkability scores, respectively. Assessments were further combined with the population estimates of the European Urban Atlas 2012 dataset to perform equity analysis by estimating the distribution of average walkability scores among the population living downtown in the examined cities. In doing so, we used the Gini (G.) index and constructed Lorenz curve graphs. Our findings reveal a landscape of high inequality in downtown walkability distribution since all Gini coefficients were higher than 0.43. However, the inequality was greatest in Brussels (G. = 0.60) and lowest in Budapest (G. = 0.43). Additionally, we used spatial statistics tests (i.e. global and local Moran’s I) to identify global and local patterns of walkability and population. The results indicated a highly clustered pattern of walkability across all downtowns and designated several clusters of uneven walkability geographies. Our approach sheds light on the application of active mobility strategies in different European cities, highlighting at the same time the need for further research to provide a clearer assessment of the spatial distribution of inequalities in social benefits and impact when designing sustainable urban neighbourhoods.

/pdf/is-walkability-equally-distributed-among-downtowners-4znevah35c.pdf

Is walkability equally distributed among downtowners? Evaluating the pedestrian streetscapes of eight European capitals using a micro-scale audit approach

Yorgos N. Photis

Papers

Modeling urban evolution using neural networks, fuzzy logic and GIS: The case of the Athens metropolitan area

What matters when it comes to “Walk and the city”? Defining a weighted GIS-based walkability index

Analyzing High-Risk Emergency Areas with GIS and Neural Networks: The Case of Athens, Greece

Measuring rapid transit accessibility and equity in migrant communities across 17 European cities

Is walkability equally distributed among downtowners? Evaluating the pedestrian streetscapes of eight European capitals using a micro-scale audit approach