Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Computational Approaches for Urban
Environments: An Editorial
Marco Helbich, Jamal Jokar Arsanjani, and Michael Leitner
Abstract
Cities are under continuous pressure due to an increasing urbanization
which will have far-reaching consequences for housing, transportation, retail, etc. To
cope with these challenges, methodological advances in quantitative modeling cou-
pled with growing amounts of spatial and spatiotemporal data can add significantly
to our understanding of how cities function. Because the added value of data-driven
approaches to analyze urban environments is promising but still in its infancy,
the present volume aims to promote the application of advanced computational
methodologies to achieve a better understanding of our cities and the underlying
mechanisms.
Keywords
Urban
environments
Geographic
information
science
Spatial
statistics New science of cities
1.1
Prologue
Today's cities are highly complex, dynamic, and vibrant environments subject to
frequent changes. The impacts of globalization, information economies, as well
as social and demographic changes, among others, have given cities a distinct
appearance (e.g., Hall
1993
; Batty and Longley
1994
;Anasetal.
1998
; Batty
2013
; Fujita and Thisse
2013
). Urban environments are places where most of the
people in our contemporary society live. In addition, the United Nations (
2014
)
