Spatial Signatures

Understanding (urban) spaces
through form and function
Dani Arribas-Bel
Martin Fleischmann
[@darribas]
[@martinfleis]

“The point”

How we arrange “stuff” in cities matters…

Source: A map of every building in America (New York Times)

… it matters a lot

Form

What does it look like?
“Physical structure and appearance of cities”

Qualitative, quant. case studies, morphometrics, remotely sensed

Function

What is it used for?
“Activities that take place within an environment”

Geography, Economics, Sociology, Environmental Sciences, Tansport studies…

Form & Function

  • Richer picture
  • Topography, history, technology, cultural values…
  • More robust representations

Opportunities

We don’t have good ways of measuring form & function in cities

Opportunities

Opportunities

  • Fragmented understanding

  • Physical classification - ??? - Geodemographics

Spatial Signatures

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban environments

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban environments

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban environments

A characterisation of space based on form and function designed to understand urban environments

Enclosed Tessellation
Embedding form & function
Spatial Signatures

Enclosed Tessellation
Embedding form & function
Spatial Signatures

Characters

Form
  • Building
  • ET cell
  • Street segment
  • Cell context
  • …
Function
  • Population
  • Land use/cover
  • Access to uses
  • Activity densities
  • …

Context

Every piece of information is considered within its spatial context

Enclosed Tessellation
Embedding form & function
Spatial Signatures

Benefits

  • Data-driven & (multidiscipline) theory-informed
  • Granular & scalable
  • Flexible deployment

Illustration

The Setup

Five different cities

  • Historical environments
  • Geography & culture
  • Data landscapes

The Cities

The Data

Form
  • Local open data
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Satellite-derived
Function
  • Local open data
  • Land use/cover
  • Global grids
  • Nightlights

    • Clustered with K-Means + clustergram

    The Signatures

    Barcelona

    Dar es Salaam

    Houston

    Medellin

    Singapore

    Barcelona

    Houston | Medellin

    Singapore | Dar es Salaam

    Roadmap

    Spatial Signatures for the Great Britain (spring 2021)

    AI model recognising signatures from satellite imagery (end of 2021)

    Temporal classification based on satellite imagery (2022)

    To take away

    1. Urban form and function matters
    2. Spatial Signatures: F&F for cities, in detail, at scale
    3. Good measurement → better understanding

    Spatial Signatures

    Understanding (urban) spaces
    through form and function
    Dani Arribas-Bel
    Martin Fleischmann
    [@darribas]
    [@martinfleis]