Data on the shape of land lots are needed in urban planning analyses. However, large amounts of shape data are often unavailable. In this paper we develop a method of estimating the boundary lines of land lots. With the assumption that the vertices of lots are tentatively given and that their...

The majority of studies on Chinese urbanization have been focused on coastal areas, with little attention given to urban centers in the west. Western provinces, however, will unquestionably undergo significant urban change in the future as a result of the 'Go West' policy initiated in the 1990s....

A fractal environment can accommodate more small objects than expected because fresh small spaces come into play as the size of object diminishes. Could the built environment behave like this? To test this hypothesis the number of cars that could be parked in a street was estimated for different...

The aim of exploring and monitoring housing-market fundamentals (prices, dwelling features, area density, residents, and so on) on a macrolocational level relates to both public and private sector policymaking. Housing market segmentation (that is, the emergence of housing submarkets), a concept...

Cellular automata (CA) are individual-based models in which states, time, and space are discrete. Spatiotemporal dynamics emerge from the simple and local interactions of the cells. When using CA in a geographic context, nontrivial questions have to be answered about the choice of spatial scale,...

Discrepanices between perceived and actual distance may affect people’s spatial behavior. In a previous study Nasar, using self report of behavior, found that segmentation (measured through the number of buildings) along the route affected choice of parking garage and path from the parking...

The goal of the described research is an interactive computer system for the design of customized mass housing. Shape grammars are the formalism proposed to systematize the design rules required for such a system. A shape grammar for Alvaro Siza's patio houses at Malagueira, a 1200-unit...

This paper deals with the influence of the organization of an agent’s ethnic identities on ethnic residential patterns by extending the Schelling model to include a further hierarchical level; that is, the agents’ ethnic identities are organized in a two-level hierarchy (each agent belongs...