If the size of a space is measured by counting the number of places available for a particular activity, rather than by using an absolute measure such as the square metre, then small people may find the world larger. Size measured by number of places becomes a function of the size of the user,...

In this paper I develop an exploratory method for analyzing changes in polygon distributions. Changes are deduced from a set of polygon distributions of different times, and represented by a directed graph. Three viewpoints for representing individual changes are proposed: topology, size, and...

Although pedestrians have individual preferences, aims, and destinations, the dynamics of pedestrian crowds is surprisingly predictable. Pedestrians can move freely only at small pedestrian densities. Otherwise their motion is affected by repulsive interactions with other pedestrians, giving...

Buttons or tabs are function keys on a computer screen that are designed to facilitate users' direct manipulations. One increasingly popular application of the button technique in a GIS environment is weighted map overlays for land suitability assessment. Here, buttons are coded with weighting...

An isovist, or viewshed, is the area in a spatial environment directly visible from a location within the space. Here we show how a set of isovists can be used to generate a graph of mutual visibility between locations. We demonstrate that this graph can also be constructed without reference to...

The recent rapid growth of the Internet has avoided scrutiny from urban planners as little information is available from which to assess its impacts on cities and regions. As a result, explanations of the relationship between telecommunications and urban growth are overly simplistic, forecasting...

In this paper I assess the current state of knowledge about quality-of-place (QOP) analysis. I find that there are persistent problems in measuring QOP, highly personal links between individual QOP perceptions and aggregate QOP measurements, mostly unintended impacts of public policy decisions...

A radiosity model has been developed for calculating the sound distribution in urban streets with diffusely reflecting boundaries. In this paper I present the results of a parametric study by using the computer model. A typical urban element consisting of a major street and two side streets is...

Local governments rarely use risk analysis, the most sophisticated level of hazard assessment, to inform their planning and development decisions. But new tools are rapidly becoming available to accomplish such analysis. In this paper we present an example of an earthquake risk analysis for Los...