Environment and Planning B-planning & Design 

About: Environment and Planning B-planning & Design is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Urban planning & Population. Over the lifetime, 2112 publications have been published receiving 82937 citations.

How Good is Volunteered Geographical Information? A Comparative Study of OpenStreetMap and Ordnance Survey Datasets:

Abstract: Within the framework of Web 2.0 mapping applications, the most striking example of a geographical application is the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. OSM aims to create a free digital map of the world and is implemented through the engagement of participants in a mode similar to software development in Open Source projects. The information is collected by many participants, collated on a central database, and distributed in multiple digital formats through the World Wide Web. This type of information was termed 'Volunteered Geographical Information' (VG!) by Goodchild, 2007. However, to date there has been no systematic analysis of the quality of VGI. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing OSM information. The examination focuses on analysis of its quality through a comparison with Ordnance Survey (OS) datasets. The analysis focuses on London and England, since OSM started in London in August 2004 and therefore the study of these geographies provides the best understanding of the achievements and difficulties of VGI. The analysis shows that OSM information can be fairly accurate: on average within about 6 m of the position recorded by the OS, and with approximately 80% overlap of motorway objects between the two datasets. In the space of four years, OSM has captured about 29% of the area of England, of which approximately 24% are digitised lines without a complete set of attributes. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings to the study of VGI as well as suggesting future research directions.

A Self-Modifying Cellular Automaton Model of Historical Urbanization in the San Francisco Bay Area

Abstract: In this paper we describe a cellular automaton (CA) simulation model developed to predict urban growth as part of a project for estimating the regional and broader impact of urbanization on the San Francisco Bay area's climate. The rules of the model are more complex than those of a typical CA and involve the use of multiple data sources, including topography, road networks, and existing settlement distributions, and their modification over time. In addition, the control parameters of the model are allowed to self-modify: that is, the CA adapts itself to the circumstances it generates, in particular, during periods of rapid growth or stagnation. In addition, the model was written to allow the accumulation of probabilistic estimates based on Monte Carlo methods. Calibration of the model has been accomplished by the use of historical maps to compare model predictions of urbanization, based solely upon the distribution in year 1900, with observed data for years 1940, 1954, 1962, 1974, and 1990. The complexity of this model has made calibration a particularly demanding step. Lessons learned about the methods, measures, and strategies developed to calibrate the model may be of use in other environmental modeling contexts. With the calibration complete, the model is being used to generate a set of future scenarios for the San Francisco Bay area along with their probabilities based on the Monte Carlo version of the model. Animated dynamic mapping of the simulations will be used to allow visualization of the impact of future urban growth.

Natural Movement: Or, Configuration and Attraction in Urban Pedestrian Movement:

Abstract: Existing theories relating patterns of pedestrian and vehicular movement to urban form characterise the problem in terms of flows to and from 'attractor' land uses. This paper contains evidence in support of a new 'configurational' paradigm in which a primary property of the form of the urban grid is to privilege certain spaces over others for through movement In this way it is suggested that the configuration of the urban grid itself is the main generator of patterns of movement. Retail land uses are then located to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the passing trade and may well act as multipliers on the basic pattern of 'natural movement' generated by the grid configuration. The configurational correlates of movement patterns are found to be measures of global properties of the grid with the 'space syntax' measure of 'integration' consistently found to be the most important. This has clear implications for urban design suggesting that if we wish to design for well used urban space, then it is not the local properties of a space that are important in the main but its configurational relations to the larger urban system.

Measures of Spatial Accessibility to Health Care in a GIS Environment: Synthesis and a Case Study in the Chicago Region:

Abstract: This article synthesizes two GIS-based accessibility measures into one framework, and applies the methods to examining spatial accessibility to primary healthcare in the Chicago 10-county region. The floating catchment area method defines the service area of physicians by a threshold travel time while accounting for the availability of physicians by their surrounded demands. The gravity-based method considers a nearby physician more accessible than a remote one and discounts a physician's availability by a gravity-based potential. The former is a special case of the latter. Based on the 2000 Census and primary care physician data, this research assesses the variation of spatial accessibility to primary care in the Chicago region, and analyzes the sensitivity of results by experimenting with ranges of threshold travel times in the floating catchment area method and travel friction coefficients in the gravity model. The methods may be used to help the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state Health Departments improve health professional shortage areas designation.

Introduction to Shape and Shape Grammars

Abstract: The definitions pertaining to the shape grammar formalism are developed in detail.In this paper, we take a whirlwind tour through the shape grammar formalism, and the definitions and ideas on which it is based. The formal machinery for the algorithmic definition of languages of two- and three-dimensional spatial designs is thus established.