Exploring measures of urban form : a GIS-enabled case study in Halifax, Nova Scotia

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dc.contributor.advisor Millward, Hugh A.
dc.coverage.spatial Nova Scotia
dc.creator Xue, Guang
dc.date.accessioned 2011-05-09T12:31:46Z
dc.date.available 2011-05-09T12:31:46Z
dc.date.issued 2005
dc.identifier.other HT169 C22 H39 2005
dc.identifier.uri http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/handle/01/22273
dc.description 123 leaves : ill. , maps ; 28 cm.
dc.description Includes abstract and appendices.
dc.description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106).
dc.description.abstract It is critical to understand urban development in order to plan a healthy, affordable, and sustainable future. For researchers, planners and decision-makers, consistent and objective characterization of urban form provides an important means to monitor and evaluate urban development. This study attempts to characterize urban physical form at the micro level and to reveal historical trends in urban development using measures of urban morphological elements (streets, lots, and buildings). Incorporated with disaggregated data, GIS sampling techniques are able to provide an effective and efficient way to supply data for measure calculations in the study area, Halifax Regional Municipality. Using a variety of statistical methods, the author finds that: (1) Values of descriptive statistics reflect the changes of urban form precisely; (2) In terms of historical trends, land use intensity tends to decline through time; buildings become larger and further apart from each other over time, and they now occupy bigger lots than ever before; and (3) The similarities of urban form across sampling districts suggest impacts of time periods of development, land use, and planning policies. Overall, this study represents an exploratory exercise to quantitatively delineate urban development, and brings the power, speed, and precision of GIS software and detailed digital data into formal urban analysis regarding development trends.
dc.description.provenance Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-09T12:31:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 en
dc.language.iso en
dc.publisher Halifax, N.S. : Saint Mary's University
dc.subject.lcc HT169.C22
dc.subject.lcsh City planning -- Nova Scotia -- Halifax -- Mathematical models
dc.subject.lcsh Geographic information systems -- Nova Scotia -- Halifax
dc.title Exploring measures of urban form : a GIS-enabled case study in Halifax, Nova Scotia
dc.type Text
thesis.degree.name Master of Science in Applied Science
thesis.degree.level Masters
thesis.degree.discipline Geography
thesis.degree.grantor Saint Mary's University (Halifax, N.S.)
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