Analyzing the Configuration of Multimodal Urban Networks

Abstract

This article proposes urban network models as instruments to measure urban form, structure, and function indicators for the assessment of the sustainable mobility of urban areas, thanks to their capacity to describe the detail of a local environment in the context of a wider city‐region. Drawing from the features of existing street network models that offer disaggregate, scalable, and relational analysis of the spatial configuration of urban areas, it presents a multimodal urban network (MMUN) model that describes an urban environment using three systems—private transport (i.e., car, bicycle, and pedestrian), public transport (i.e., rail, tram, metro, and bus), and land use. This model offers a unifying framework that allows the use of a range of analysis metrics and conceptions of distance (i.e., physical, topological, and cognitive), and aims to be simple and applicable in practice. An implementation of the MMUN is created for the Randstad city‐region in the Netherlands. This is analyzed with network centrality measures in a series of experiments, testing its performance against empirical data. The experiments yield conclusions regarding the use of different distance parameters, the choice of network centrality metrics, and the relevant combinations of multimodal layers to describe the structure and configuration of a city‐region.

Geospatial analysis requires a different way of thinking: the problem of spatial heterogeneity

“…In this regard, the topological representation to be introduced in the following text has enabled us to uncover the underlying scaling pattern of street networks. Four of the special issue papers (Gil 2014, Lerman et al 2014, Mohajeri and Gudmundsson 2014, Wei and Yao 2014) have adopted or are well connected to the topological representation, which is powerful for understanding street hierarchies or geographic forms and processes in general.Conventionally, geographic space is considered as a continuous Euclidian space that is divided or subdivided into different areas, which authorities often define and delineate administratively and legally. Data collected on geographic space are assigned into individual areas, and are therefore assumed to be homogenous in each area.…”

OpenStreetMap in GIScience

“…From the calculation of shortest paths and catchment areas we can derive a wide range of analysis metrics of proximity, density and accessibility of the different mobility networks, which support the comparative assessment of sustainable accessibility of urban neighborhoods in the city-region. This is further described and developed in work by Gil andRead (2012, 2014), and Gil (2014). Table 3 Difference between model A and models B and C, in terms of shortest route distance between pairs of points (Fig.…”

Measuring Relative Sustainability of Regions Using Regional Sustainability Assessment Methodology

“…In this article, we focuse on sustainability assessment at the regional (subnational) level, which provides connections between national and local levels in the areas of planning, governance and policy analysis (Graymore, Sipe, and Rickson 2008;Graymore, Sipe, and Rickson 2010;Coelho et al 2010;Gil 2014;Lein 2014). Subnational regional scale is recognized as the most appropriate scale for effective natural resource management allowing a combination of social demand and ability of ecological systems to provide resources (Boschma and Iammarino 2009;Graymore, Sipe, and Rickson 2010;Neffke, Henning, and Boschma 2011;Boschma, Minondo, and Navarro 2013).…”