Taming the road: a GIS-based visualisation and spatial analysis methodology towards retrofitting the intermediate urban mosaic
- Autores: Josep Mercadé-Aloy
- Directores de la Tesis: Francesc Magrinyà (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2016
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Mateu Turro Calvet (presid.), Francesc Manuel Muñoz Ramírez (secret.), Reinhard Koenig (voc.), Pere Vall Casas (voc.), Massimo Angrilli (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería e Infraestructuras del Transporte
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The contemporary networks of towns and cities continue to emancipate themselves by embracing ever larger territories while shaping their interstices in heterogeneous mosaics of settlements and open spaces of variable intensity. The equilibrium of the urban system depends largely on the recognition of the importance of these unavoidable settings, in which the urban form is less sustainable and lacks structure. Although there is extensive literature and debate on this environment, there are fewer instruments of analysis addressed to reading and retrofitting it. This dissertation develops a series of GIS-based spatial analysis tools based on the topology of the road network, taking as the basic component the segment between intersections weighted by the portion of land it supports. In this way, the relationship between settlement/activity spreading and road network is modelled. These precepts underpin the proposed measures which have been named ¿upstream and downstream visualisation.¿ The former accounts for neighbourhood relationships, prioritising those places which have high concentrations of activity in their proximities, even if their spatial configuration is scattered. This reading is combined with the use of complementary centrality measures. The latter makes it possible to load the areas of activity onto the roads which support them. The Vallès Oriental district, included in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, is taken as a case study. The results reveal the intensities of the groupings of settlements and their relative weight in the territory, and at the same time they define the regional vertebrating skeleton on which the gateways of access to the activity are manifested. They also reveal the relational structure of proximity of the city-territory. Moreover, their endogenic potentials are identified, converted into vocations at the moment of directing strategies of urban transformation. A selective activation of these aptitudes is suggested for approaching the retrofitting of the intermediate urban mosaic.
