Quantification of Land Use Diversity in The Context of Mixed Land Use

Abstract

Mixed land use is one of the major factors affecting the non-motorized and public transport based trips, specifically for work purpose. Same is evident from various past studies on the interaction between land use mix and the travel behavior. Mixed Land use patterns are commonly observed in urban areas of developing countries like India. In the context of land use mix observed in Indian cities there were no studies on how the change in land use mix influences the travel pattern. The existing indices, used for quantifying the land use mix, were found to have limitations in capturing the characteristics of land use mix observed in the smaller Indian cities. The present study analyzed the drawbacks and limitations of the existing indices. An attempt has also been made to use dissimilarity and entropy indices in a more relevant manner as well as to formulate new indices, suitable to measure the mixed land use. Effect of land use mix and socioeconomic characteristics on the travel related parameters has been analyzed to know their respective relevance. Non-motorized and public transport mode choices as well as the trip length have been analyzed. It was observed that a slightly modified approach for calculating dissimilarity and entropy indices characterize the mix land use in a better way. The newly proposed parameters, such as the Area Index, calculated separately for different trip purposes, and Mix type Index were found to be significantly influencing the trip length, transit choice, and the non-motorized mode choice. From the elasticity analysis it has been observed that a slight change in the land use mix significantly affects the above trip related parameters.