A different perspective towards urban planning based on GIS and VGI techniques

Abstract

Urban planning is considered one of the most critical topics in the design and development strategies of cities. There are a vast number of urban planning rule sets that focus on dominating the geometrical perspective over other approaches when it comes to planning decisions. In this paper, a different point of view towards urban planning is suggested, concentrating on the topological analysis and relations between city elements. The streets of cities are chosen to reflect this topological relation and to investigate the topological relations to the limits; six different-sized cities were selected for analysis: three large cities and three relatively small ones. The results of the study uncovered the hierarchical pattern underlying the street structure of cities; analyses showed that street networks in large cities have a higher degree of hierarchical level than in relatively small cities. Urban planners can benefit from the results of the analyses in this study to make better planning decisions in large or small cities. The paper provides analysis results towards achieving the optimum goals of urban planning to make cities more living and more efficient.