Urban systems analysis and urban policy

1982 ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
E. S. Savas
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Systems

Streetscape skeleton measurement and classification

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 668-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chester Harvey ◽  
Lisa Aultman-Hall ◽  
Austin Troy ◽  
Stephanie E Hurley
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Design Patterns ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Functional Class ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Systems Research

The scale and proportions of “streetscape skeletons,” the three-dimensional spaces of streets defined by the massing and arrangement of surrounding buildings, are theoretically relevant to the way human users perceive and behave. Nonetheless, the dominant ways of measuring and identifying streets emphasize vehicular service and functionality. Moreover, existing built environment-based classifications have focused on recommended forms rather than characterizing the full range of existing conditions that must be accounted for in policy and understanding of human–environment interactions. To work toward a better streetscape measurement and classification scheme, this study investigated how large numbers of streetscapes could be efficiently measured to evaluate design patterns across and between multiple cities. Using a novel GIS-based method, 12 streetscape skeleton variables were measured on more than 120,000 block-length streetscapes in three northeastern U.S. cities: Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Baltimore, MD. Logistic regression models based on these variables were unsuccessful at distinguishing between cities, confirming that the variables were similarly applicable to each city and that the cities had comparable streetscape skeleton identities. Cluster analyses were then used to identify four streetscape skeleton classes that were also consistent between cities: upright, compact, porous, and open. These classes were distinct from the widely used highway functional class system, reinforcing the distinction between streetscape design and roadway functionality and thus the importance of accounting for them separately. The streetscape skeleton classes provide a digestible yet objective system for identifying prevalent streetscape designs that are appropriate for urban policy design, advocacy, and urban systems research.

Urban Systems Theory and Urban Policy: A Four-Nation Comparison

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Aiken ◽  
Kenneth Newton ◽  
Roger Fried Land ◽  
Guido Martinotti
Keyword(s):  
Systems Theory ◽  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Urban Systems ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Powerful Means ◽  
System Of Cities ◽  
Cross National

There are few systematically comparative cross-national studies of urban policy or service provision, partly because there is little in the way of empirical testable theory that might guide research and partly because the variety of institutional methods of providing and financing urban services in different nation states makes it difficult to carry out such comparisons. Urban systems theory, however, applies to all levels of urban society from local collections of towns and villages right up to the world system of cities. It also enables the development of empirically testable hypotheses linking the hierarchical system of cities with the level of expenditure on public services in metropolitan areas. An examination of data for seventy-six metropolitan regions in France, eighty-three in Italy, seventy-four in West Germany, and sixty-three in England and Wales supports the hypothesis. The article concludes that urban systems theory offers a theoretically well-developed and empirically powerful means of carrying out systematic cross-national comparative urban research.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document