A rectangular floorplan can always be found to satisfy area requirements for each room and adjacencies between rooms represented by a given tree, <i>T</i>. The branching index and embedding index of a tree are defined. If, further, each room is required to be external, then the existence of a...

The location of n new facilities on a network when the objective function is a sum of weighted distances between new and existing facilities, plus a sum of weighted distances between new facilities is studied. Interdistance constraints which impose upper bounds on distances between facilities...

A formalism for modelling stylistic change in design is expanded by showing how comparisons and transformations of different styles, or languages, of designs can be used as the basis for comparisons and transformations of the different designs in those languages. The designs in a language are...

The issue of assessing the compound socioeconomic and historicocultural values of monuments is addressed. Monuments are part of the historical and cultural heritage of a country, region, or city. They are a potential source of economic development (for example, by means of tourism), but they...

By discerning a gap existing in urban design/planning theories and methodologies, this paper develops a synthetic approach which sets out to link "functional" analysis on the one side and multivalented "normative" analysis of community design on the other. Saaty's Analytic Hierarchy Process...

Expert systems are computer programs that use knowledge and expertise in a particular field to solve complex problems. As such, they are a way of organising, formalising, and disseminating context-specific knowledge and problem-solving techniques. In contrast, planning and urban design seem at...

Earlier formulations of models for locating a firm's production facilities while simultaneously determining production levels at these facilities so as to maximize the firm's profit are reviewed. In these formulations, existing firms, as well as new entrants, are assumed to act in accordance...

Effective urban and regional planning is heavily dependent upon the efficient manipulation of large quantities of spatial data. Over the past two decades the computer-based geographic information system (GIS) has developed as the primary technology for spatial data handling. Recent improvements...

The publication in May 1987 of the Chorley Report on Handling Geographic Information must be regarded as a milestone in the discussion of geographic information systems (GIS) in Britain. The basic arguments underlying the Report are reviewed in relation to the events leading up to the...

The microcomputer is an important technological innovation that is having a big impact on urban planning. With the appropriate hardware and software, microcomputers can satisfy most of the word processing, data-base management, computation, graphics, statistical analysis, and modelling needs of...