Giovanni Rabino

Urban sprawl: a case study for project gigalopolis using SLEUTH model

A brief approach through a CA-based model is perfect for modelling of different urban phenomena at different observation scales SLEUTH model, situated in Project Gigalopolis, is a powerful tool for description of urban agglomeration and spatial dynamics In this paper, new applications of this model, other methodological analyses, and sensitivity studies allow us to improve our comprehension of model parameters, taking advantage of this type of synthetic description of reality Many deductions are possible thanks to the comparison of our studies with other precious databases, already existent, about results of this model.

Urban Cellular Automata: an Evolutionary Prototype

The subject of the paper is a cellular automata with evolutionary transition functions, applied in urban context. Using a cellular automata to describe a phenomenon, the definition of the model consists in building the local transition rules; this process may be supported by a machine learning tool like a Learning Classifiers System. Because this formalism uses genetic algorithms to select and to find rules, the model is explicitly evolutionary.

Urban Cellular Automata: The Inverse Problem

The issues regarding complex systems and the validation of their models has recently come on the fore; as Cellular Automata do belong to this category, they are directly involved in this revision. A major issue arising from the debate regards the procedure adopted to test models of these systems: application of a priori ipotheses to one case study. This kind of procedure is seen as unreliable, and as a generator of misleading models, whose predictions do not have solid foundations. Analyzing the problem in a general perspective, it (that is, the choice of the family of models to use) could be formulated as an inverse problem, based on an inductive method, which tries to formulate rules gaining information from data and doing the least number of a priori ipotheses.

Searching for Ariadne’s thread. Some remarks on urban resilience and orientation

This paper concerns the methods of analysis of the configuration of the urban grids. More in details, it will focus on the configurational approach to the analysis of urban settlements, briefly presenting the different methods and techniques it has inspired, sketching their features, highlighting their actual utility and reminding their respective advantages and limits. Moreover, it will propose the use of some further configurational parameters, suitable for describing and reproducing interesting features of urban settlements; more in details, it will cast attention onto the richness and the variety of paths within a settlement, what makes it resilient, that is capable of sustaining changes and transformations without radically modifying its inner geography. Such parameters have been tested on the case studies of Pisa and Venice, which can easily be recognised as particularly relevant and significant, in that the results they provide are diametrically different. Those outputs will then be presented and discussed; the findings are suitable for suggesting resilience as a singular clue for urban orientation, so that the configurational techniques can be proposed as a tool for evaluating and predicting this spatial attitude, here finding an Ariadne’s thread for urban wayfinding.

Ontologies and Methods of Qualitative Research in Urban Planning

Qualitative research can produce vast amounts of data and uses analytical categories to describe and explain social phenomena; several software packages are designed for qualitative data analysis and enable a complex organization of data. The study tests the capacity of new technology to build a formal ontology from qualitative data, in urban planning.

Visualisation as a Model. Overview on Communication Techniques in Transport and Urban Planning

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) changed the way planners present and operate with their projects. New visualisation tools have changed the ways projects and plans are presented and disseminated. However, the opportunities given by visualisation are not completely exploited in the professional practice. This is due to several bottlenecks which occur in the daily carrying out of activities. The paper is organised in three sections. The first one explains how visualisation can be an added value to the planning practice if it is organised and designed as a framework of information; conceiving the visualisation as a model, data can be managed and represented in order to provide information at different levels of expertise, allowing city plans to be analysed and understood before their realisation. The second section resumes the changes caused by the introduction of ICT within the daily practice; a comparison between pre-digital and digital approaches highlights current opportunities for implementing the communication values of plans and projects. The third part illustrates some examples of innovative visualisations in the urban and transport planning practice, showing a number of uses of visualisation to fit different purposes. The paper concludes this insight formulating the necessity for integrating the studies on visualisation coming from different disciplines into a scientific method that can be proposed as a guideline in building the images of urban and transport plans. This would be particularly useful for obtaining a more scientific approach in the choices of representation and visualisation of urban aspects.

Agents in Housing Market. A Model for Siena Historical Centre

The goal of the research is to analyse the dynamics and the evolution of the real estate market of a highly competitive urban centre. An analysis has been conducted through the definition of a Multi Agents System implemented on a cellular automata ad hoc. The focus is on the study of the historical city centre of Siena and behaviours of the agents in this area, namely the students (six university faculties are located in the historical centre), the professional working class (the principal actors of the city’s tertiary sector) and the tourist industry (Siena is a well-known pole of international tourist attraction).