A knowledge-based diagnostic model which helps decisionmakers learn about hidden liabilities in their plan scenarios is developed in this paper. It offers critical opinions on plan deficiencies that may otherwise remain undetected. Decisionmakers preserve the freedom to explore solutions and...

In this paper we describe a cellular automaton (CA) simulation model developed to predict urban growth as part of a project for estimating the regional and broader impact of urbanization on the San Francisco Bay area's climate. The rules of the model are more complex than those of a typical CA...

Shapes and shape grammars use algebras of subshapes in the description and generation of designs. Different types of boundary, including element boundaries, closure boundaries, and specially defined boundary shapes, are defined in shape algebra descriptions. These are compared to boundaries in...

Spatial composition can be viewed as computation involving spatial changes each expressed as <nobr><i>s</i> - f(<i>a</i>)+f(<i>b</i>),</nobr> where <i>s </i>is a shape, and f(<i>a</i>) is a representation of the emergent part (shape) that is altered by replacing it with the shape f(<i>b </i>). We examine this formula in three distinct but related...

In this paper a study is presented of the morphological characteristics of nine Anatolian fortified towns, Antalya, Ankara, Bursa, Erzurum, Diyarbakir, Iznik, Nigde, Trabzon, and Urfa, all of which are located in Anatolia which makes up the greater part of present-day Turkey. This peninsula has...

The principle of minimizing boundary materials is applied to an analysi of the shapes of houses and rooms. It is shown that rooms are in general configured by several parts of circular arcs. The activity-based criterion to maximize freedom of movement in small activity area is introduced. This...

The role of visual stimuli in the route choices of pedestrians is compared with the impact of layout, stall content, and the presence of other people in a public market. Pedestrian counts and videotape were used to determine the stability of the distribution of persons over time and the...

In the Dutch system, only the local land-use plan is legally binding. This implies that, so far as regulation of land use is concerned, the effectiveness of the system as a whole is highly dependent on the effectiveness of this type of plan. There has been much debate on this issue and the 1985...