Abstract
ABSTRACT It is surprising difficult to define where a city center lies, yet its location has a profound effect on a city’s structure and function. We examine whether city center typicality points can be consistently located on historical maps such that their centroid identifies a meaningful central location over a 500-year period in Southampton, UK. We compare movements of this city center centroid against changes in the geographical center of the city as defined by its boundary. Southampton’s historical maps were georectified with a mean accuracy of 21 m (range 9.9 to 47 m), and 18 to 102 typicality points were identified per map, enough to chart changes in the city center centroid through time. Over nearly 500 years, Southampton’s center has moved just 343 m, often corresponding with the key retail attractants of the time, while its population has increased 80-fold, its administrative area 60-fold and its geographical center moved 1985 m. This inertia to change in the city center presents environmental challenges for the present-day, made worse by the geography of Southampton, bounded by the sea, rivers and major roads. Geographical context, coupled with planning decisions in the past that maintain a city center in its historical location, place limits on the current sustainability of a city.
Highlights
Even in the present day, it is surprisingly difficult to define what is meant by a city or town center and pre cisely where it lies (Cheshire et al, 2018)
The aims of this paper were to assess whether historical maps can provide consistent information on the loca tion of the city center over time, whether the city center shows inertia to change and to consider the implications of this inertia for present-day city zoning
Our analysis reaffirms the value of using georefer enced historical maps as a way to understand how a city has grown and developed through time (Lafreniere & Rivet, 2010; Liu et al, 2018; Maio et al, 2013; Pindozzi et al, 2015)
Summary
Even in the present day, it is surprisingly difficult to define what is meant by a city or town center and pre cisely where it lies (Cheshire et al, 2018). Attempts to find logical ways to define and measure the city center have led to the development of a wide range of analytical methods (Lüscher & Weibel, 2013). Lüscher and Weibel (2013) conducted an online participant experiment using questionnaires, including a list of points of attraction, to develop a procedure for automatic delineation of city centers. Cheshire et al (2018) have shown that town centers may be defined system atically across the whole of Britain using multiple sources of micro-geographic data. None of these approaches is applicable across a wide span of years because, clearly, no photographs, business data or public opinions are widely available for the early years. The challenge remains: how can the location of a city center be tracked over long periods of time?
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