An Integrated Modeling Approach Combining Multifractal Urban Planning with a Space Syntax Perspective

Claudia Yamu,Akkelies Van Nes

doi:10.3390/urbansci1040037

Abstract

The United Nations Paris agreement of 2015 highlighted the need for urban planning to prevent and contain urban sprawl so as to reduce trip lengths through an efficient distribution of agglomerations and a well-balanced urban pattern distribution, all while considering travel behavior and accessibility to green areas, services, and facilities on different temporal scales. For the Vienna-Bratislava metropolitan region, our integrated modeling approach uses a combination of multifractal spatial modeling along with a space syntax perspective. Multifractal strategies are intrinsically multiscalar and adhere to five planning principles: hierarchical (polycentric) urban development to manage urban sprawl; sustainable transit-oriented development; locally well-balanced urban pattern and functions distribution to enhance vital urban systems, local centers, and neighborhoods; penetration of green areas into built-up areas; and the preservation of large interconnected networks of green areas to conserve biodiversity. Adding space syntax modeling to a multifractal strategy integrates how space relates to functional patterns based on centrality, thus applying a socio-spatial perspective. In this paper, we used the following workflow for an integrated modeling approach: (1) Space syntax to identify the urban systems’ hierarchy and so determine a spatial strategy regionally; (2) Fractalopolis to create a multifractal development plan for potential urbanization; and (3) Space syntax to design a strategic urban master plan for locating new housing and facilities vis-à-vis socioeconomic factors.

Highlights

In many countries worldwide, urban planning is confronted with the challenge and consequences of urban sprawl
We set out to answer the research question: How can we find a solution for managing urban sprawl across scales, which incorporates an efficient distribution of spatial agglomerations, and generates an optimal pattern and functions distribution to resolve the contradiction between compact urban form and urban sprawl? To this research question, we added the premise that sustainable means of transportation have to be included in the solution-finding process
In order to answer this question and show a potential approach, we turned to an integrated modeling approach that combines the multifractal planning model Fractalopolis with the geometric accessibility model space syntax

Summary

Introduction

Urban planning is confronted with the challenge and consequences of urban sprawl. For decades in Western Europe and North America, the phenomenon of urban sprawl has arisen due to a combination of more affordable housing in peri-urban areas and the desirability of residential areas close to green areas, which has resulted in an increase in trip length to jobs and other facilities [1,2,3,4]. In Latin America, Africa, or Asia, urban sprawl is caused by the pressure of population growth and informal settlements [5,6]. Urban sprawl results in social costs such as social segregation and long travel distances to reach jobs for low-income inhabitants, in economic costs due to increasing gasoline prices, and in environmental costs due to an increase in energy use, which contributes to global warming and environmental pollution.

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