Ben Croxford

Data visualization within urban models

Models of urban environments have many uses for town planning, previsualization of new building work and utility service planning. Many of these models are three-dimensional, and increasingly there is a move towards real-time presentation of such large models. We present an algorithm for generating consistent 3D models from a combination of data sources, including Ordnance Survey ground plans, aerial photography and laser height data. Although there have been several demonstrations of automatic generation of building models from 2D vector map data, we present a very robust solution that generates models that are suitable for real-time presentation. We then demonstrate a novel pollution visualization that uses these models

Urban Environmental Quality: Perceptions and Measures in Three UK cities

The recent promotion of city center living within United Kingdom (UK) policy has led to commensurate interest in the quality of the urban environment, particularly in the impact and influence that environmental quality has on quality of life and urban sustainability. This paper presents an overview of a study into environmental quality, looking at the environmental conditions and the opinions and experiences of people who live in three of the UK’s major cities; London, Sheffield and Manchester. Environmental quality is both subjective and objective in its nature, and it is this combination that is of particular interest to this study. An innovative multi-method approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, has been developed and employed. Environmental monitoring (indoor and outdoor air quality and noise levels) was undertaken alongside participant lead photo-surveys, sound-walks and semistructured interviews with city center residents. The case studies provide a detailed insight into the components that influence environmental quality; both perceived and measured. The collection and analysis of data has led to the production of ‘local environmental quality maps’ - spatial representations of local and expert knowledge on urban environmental factors. These maps offer a way to feed different perspectives on environmental issues to decision makers for future policy development. The findings of this study help to understand the influence environmental quality has on quality of life, this in turn can aid urban policy, planning and design. The wider implications of this study to the concept of urban sustainability are also discussed.

Chapter 8 Environmental quality, housing and city residents: a sensory urbanism approach

This chapter considers the role and potential of sensory urbanism as an approach to exploring peoples sensorial experiences and understandings of their local environments. Such an approach is warranted given the influential role of the senses in developing and affecting experience of the urban environment. Debate about the role of the senses in shaping urban experience has progressed in recent years and increasingly is taking place across disciplines (Adams & Guy, 2007). Pallasmaa (2005, p. 40) describes this sensory urban engagement when he says:I confront the city with my body … I experience myself in the city, and the city exists through my embodied experience. The city and my body supplement and define each other. I dwell in the city and the city dwells in me.