Geospatial Techniques in Urban Planning

In planning practice, planners and policy makers frequently investigate urban forms, particularly urban growth boundaries (UGBs), using scenario analyses (SA) by regarding development policies as scenario conditions in urban simulations (i.e., Klosterman 1999; Landis 1994, 1995). Couclelis (2005), however, argued that routine land-use modeling has done little in the way of future-oriented research such as investigations of desirable or feared future conditions. This chapter uses planning alternatives, specifically UGBs, as scenarios to identify necessary spatial policies for planners. This is the inverse procedure of traditional urban growth SA. We propose the concept of “form scenario analysis” (FSA), which we employ to investigate relationships between planning alternatives and corresponding spatial policies. This chapter explains an FSA approach using constrained cellular automata (CA), a tool for matching planning alternatives with necessary spatial policies. We look in particular at form scenarios in order to present the institutional implications of different spatial land-use policy options. This novel exploration of FSA can identify necessary policies as well as policy variations required for different planning alternatives. This differs from traditional applications of constrained CA.

This century is marked by rapid urbanization. Some statistics predict that the world’s urban population will reach five billion by 2030 (United Nations 2007). This rapid urbanization not only has resulted in expanded land-use, but also has led to population increases in urban areas and development-related environmental impacts. Researchers, therefore, have begun to be concerned about the relationships between urbanization, population dynamics, and development-related environmental impacts (Lambin and Geist 2001; Fontaine and Rounsevell 2009). In this chapter, we introduce a simulation tool, spatial strategic plan support system (SSP-SS), to support local decision-making of urban development, which includes two separate parts for urban growth simulation and total amount of household energy consumption and waste discharge. To represent the process of urban growth, the constraint cellular automata (CA) approach is utilized, and an agent-based model is employed for calculating the total amount of household energy consumption and waste discharge.

Farmland conversion, i.e., converting farmland into non-agricultural uses, is an unavoidable trend in global economic development (Fazal 2001; Tan et al. 2005; Bugri 2008). China is facing a relative shortage of farmland resources in its accelerating urbanization. Farmland conversion is closely related to national food security and ecological security, as well as sustainable land use. Therefore, it is of great importance to allocate farmland conversion quotas in a rational manner conforming to the principle of maximal spatial-temporal allocation efficiency, in which the total revenue derived from farmland conversion is maximized in terms of spatial and temporal allocation of land resources.

In this chapter, we propose an approach for negotiation between planners and developers by identifying the required spatial policies for predefined alternative plans. Recently, the constrained cellular automata (CA) method has been extensively applied to simulate urban growth for predicting future urban forms (Wu 1998; Ward et al. 2000; Yeh and Li 2001; He et al. 2008). However, an alternative plan, which is prepared by planners during the plan compilation process, has been used in the decision-making process of the urban master plan worldwide. In China, practical urban growth often deviates from the planned urban form, resulting in the planned urban form being broken. Local planning authorities who lack policy guidance have little knowledge of the exact policies related to the planned form and their differences with current policies. Given this situation, urban policies required for the planned urban form are a governmental concern. If the simulated urban form using constrained CA can be accepted as a reasonable form by planners, then the simulated results can be possibly used for the deliberation in the local planning committee among planners, developers, and other stakeholders.

In this chapter, we present an agent-based model of household water consumption simulation (HWCSim) for the visualization of policy effectiveness of total amount control for household water consumption and as a guide for sustainable water resource management. Within this model the volume of household water consumption is regulated through a negotiation process regarding water price adjustment between household and government. Water consumption in an urban area is examined as a closed local water market, and a water price negotiation process between the supply side and the demand side is simulated. This process reflects how the supply side (government) and the demand side (households) reach a consensus on water price.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been applied in many fields since 1960s, such as research, education, manufacture, entertainment, medical, and urban planning. This chapter focuses on the current situation and progress of VR application in urban planning and managing, as well as on the future perspective oriented to digital urban planning and managing.

Cultural heritage is evidence of past human activity. Appropriate and correct documentation of cultural heritage is critical for the purposes of conservation, management, appraisal, assessment of the structural condition, archiving, publication and research. As the importance of cultural heritage documentation is well recognized, the necessity to document our heritage has been increasing globally (Patias 2006).

In this chapter, we analyze the effectiveness of multimedia in participation over the Internet through online deliberation for reviewing plans of the ecological network district in downtown Kanazawa City. In order to improve the understanding of stakeholders with respect to the planning concepts for reaching a consensus, we attempt to support planners in presenting their planning concepts during virtual meetings using web-based multimedia materials. In this case study, we focus on planning considerations for a natural environment and an urban environment in a green corridor, which incorporates a boulevard (Hirosaka Boulevard) and a traditional irrigation channel. This green corridor, which connects Kenroku Mountain and Central Park in Kanazawa City, is an important part of the ecological network in the city and contributes to the realization of the eco-city on the urban district level.

In the last decade of the twenty-first century, the rapid development of Internet and computer technology has enabled conduct cooperative design through the Internet. Al-Douri (2010) argued that conventional urban planning may lack adequate coverage of the essential design aspects of the built environment, which can be corrected by digital models and information technology tools that may help designers to visualize and interact with design alternatives and correct this problem. Following the work of Carmona and Punter (2002), Ai-Douri classified urban design aspects, such as urban form, townscape, public realm, conservation areas, land use, and landscape architecture. Under the multi-user architecture for team environments, the technical conditions for the implementation of cooperative design comprises both a visual representation and a semantic representation, as well as a shared workspace for shared understanding (Saad and Maher 1996). Meanwhile, research on online design tools has recently appeared in literature regarding coordination, collaboration, and communication in cooperative design (Klein 1995; Nurcan 1998; Okukuni et al. 2000; Wang et al. 2009) using virtual reality (VR). It is worthwhile to explore the prospect of online cooperative design as an application and extension of VR technology. In this chapter, we focus on a shared visual representation and computer-mediated communication (Miller and Brunner 2008) between participants for reaching a consensus on the design of a street park.

In recent years, local governments have gradually come to accept the use of various visualization technologies for enhancing public participation in urban planning and design processes (Warren-Kretzschmar and Tiedtke 2005). For instance, stakeholders such as local residents can deliberate in planning committees in the process of making decisions about townscape design guidelines by sharing images of ideas for the future represented in a virtual world (Shen and Kawakami 2010). In this chapter, to reach consensus on townscape design guidelines in a historical district, we propose using a visualization tool for stakeholders that will allow them to gain the knowledge they need about traditional Japanese-style merchant houses, or Machiya, in order that building owners can know how to more correctly and effectively keep these buildings in good repair with the help of administrative officers and consultants.

Google Earth has caught the attention of researchers from all countries around the world since it was released in 2005. In this chapter, we attempt to use Google technology to visualize the historical landscape in a traditional temple area in order to create design guidelines for repairs and landscape work around the temple buildings. The simulation reproduces the historical landscape not only as survey material, but also to provide an effective means of deepening residents’ understanding of the historical area. We use Google technology to grasp important points of the historical landscape in the temple area and verify the use of Google SketchUp and Google Earth to represent the historical landscape via a questionnaire.

In the past 10 years, although planners and designers used a lot of paper drawings and planning documents in local planning committee, they have started to use VR technology gradually to produce a virtual world for citizens understanding the content of planning and design. Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in Expo’ 2010 at Shanghai applied their unique VR system to show the stakeholders with the Urban Design Guideline in the city. Consequently, stakeholders can discuss with each other about the future of the city using the virtual 3D city model. On the one hand, designers and planners can get information feedback from the stakeholders to modify their designs; on the other hand, the stakeholders can better learn the content of the urban plan.

This chapter is a case study of a planning support system (PSS) for urban growth control, in which the Beijing Metropolitan Area is used as an example to demonstrate the implementation of the planning support system. Generally, encroachment on open space and natural resources caused by urban sprawl has drawn worldwide attention and posed enormous challenges to sustainable human development. The possible negative impacts of urban sprawl include increased land consumption, infrastructure construction costs, commuting distance, traffic congestion, energy consumption, and air pollution (Burchell 1998; Anas and Rhee 2006). However, little attention has been paid to urban growth control planning (UGCP), considering various control factors and their indicators, or the possible application of PSS to these problems.

Urban conservation has drastically changed in theory, in practice, and even its basic definition, over the past 50 years. The definition of urban conservation is not limited to the scope of human society, which has continued to evolve since the 1931 Athens Charter. Historical towns and urban areas, as well as their natural landscapes and residential environments, are also included as subjects of urban conservation. In China, urban conservation is currently of interest to urban designers and city administrators, who are concerned with providing a historical urban identity as well as an authentic urban identity. The historical conservation areas in Beijing have become the most congested areas due to the lack of effective planning control and management, and these areas have gradually became warrens, which have been settled by numerous migrant laborers.

This chapter explores methods of supporting ecological network planning at the district level (biotope) of local cities by obtaining the necessary information for environmental learning programs through public involvement. Recently, environmental learning activities among communities in Japan have become a useful way to improve residents’ awareness of the ecosystem around residential areas. However, ecological network database sources for the planning of such eco-city concepts are limited at the urban or regional levels of municipalities. Environmental learning programs are also a way for local governments to gather useful information on biotopes in urban districts. In order to gain consensus in the decision-making process of an ecological network plan, particularly in districts located on the edges of urban and suburban areas, some local governments collect information provided by residents via on-line investigation of possible biotopes around their residences.

This chapter focuses on visualizing the build-up process after the implementation of a land readjustment project in Japan. A prototype simulation tool, called CAUFN (cellular automata for urban form of neighborhoods), is developed on the ArcGIS platform for the simulation of land-use patterns and building types after land readjustment. This tool can be operated by planners to represent the build-up process at the urban district level to reveal the future forms of urban neighborhoods.

In the past years, Japanese cities have widely practiced inner-city regeneration plan by implementing diverse planning policies. However, it is proven difficult to evaluate the impact of these policies properly as a city is a complex system with integrated socioeconomic components. The remarkable phenomenon of downtown decline in local Japanese cities may be partly contributed by locating large-scale shopping malls in urban fringe where there is lack of urban planning control. Considering dynamic interactions in an urban system, many researchers advocate for modeling urban sprawl systems from spatial and temporal perspectives via simulation.