3D GIS for EPlanning:

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3D GIS for E-Planning Urban land use, density
and sustainable development

CASE Award 3D GIS for E-Planning and
E-Democracy 1st Year Progress Presentation
14/02/07 Duncan Smith

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Talk Summary

• Introduction to Virtual London project
• London planning and policy context
• Land use mapping in 3D GIS, Isle of Dogs/Canary
  Wharf example
• Housing density analysis
• Office density and High Buildings Policy
• Conclusion

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Virtual London
Ongoing project developing 3D model of
London (Batty Hudson-Smith, 2005) Base of the
model uses building outlines from OS MM combined
with LIDAR height data, heights aggregated for
each polygon. Coverage across Greater
London. Aim of the research to improve
communication and public participation in
planning. Licensed for all London Boroughs to use
model through London Connects.
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Virtual London Applications

• Visualisation of planning data-
• provides sense of place, engaging for public
  communication.
• Example of pollution mapping, project with
  British Oxygen Foundation.
• Online visualisation allows widespread access via
  digital globe/web interface, potential for
  interactivity. Licensing issues.
• Base for detailed textured 3D models. Before and
  after visualisation of urban change using photo
  texturing and modelling techniques.
• Visual Impact Assessment- widespread practice in
  development control, need automated techniques
  improving geometric and photo texture detail.

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GIS Analysis and Virtual London

• Potential to use the model for GIS planning
  analysis, currently lacking attribute data and
  spatial analysis functionality.
• Attribute data-
• Fundamentally need land use data for planning.
  New datasets becoming available.
• Link to planning databases (London Development
  Database from GLA).
• Further socio-economic data useful e.g. census
  (at coarser scale).
• Physical urban form data e.g. energy efficiency
  of buildings (Steadman Bruhns, 2000).
• Spatial analysis-
• Density of population (dwelling density
  indicator), office space (Valuation Office).
• Accessibility- good pedestrian access to
  services and public transport necessary for
  achieving more sustainable travel. Calculate
  small scale accessibility measures, possibly link
  to existing larger scale transport model data.
• Differences from typical GIS models
• Finer Scale GIS generally use aggregated data,
  urban form and development analysis benefit from
  finer scale, data at individual building level,
  compliment larger scale analysis.
• 3D represent multiple land uses, explore major
  issue of high rise development. Challenges with
  data, standardised datamodels, analysis in true
  3D.

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London Planning Context

• Period of sustained economic growth. Substantial
  employment growth, led by service industries,
  particularly business services, predicted to
  continue.
• Offset partly by loss of 600,000 manufacturing
  jobs in last 30 years, sector still shedding jobs
  (GLA, 2004).
• Population steadily rising- 7.5 million in 2006
  (GLA, 2006), 8.2 m 2016. Still lower than
  historical peak of 8.6 million in 1939.
• Planners face number of related challenges from
  this growth
• Housing shortages
• Regeneration following industrial decline.
• Accommodating growth (minimise town cramming
  and congestion).

Source London Plan (GLA, 2004)
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London Growth and Sustainable Development

• Establishing Greater London Authority important
  change in providing unified development strategy
  and policies across Greater London.
• Annually monitored targets for Borough Councils
  on new homes constructed, brownfield land
  development, density of development.
• Planning policy all within framework of
  sustainable development. Aspects in current
  planning policy
• Efficient use of land, minimise development on
  greenbelt, encourage brownfield development.
• Allow high density development in general and
  particularly at public transport nodes, more
  mixed use developments. Intended to encourage
  sustainable travel, more walking and cycling.
• Also issues of emissions during construction,
  energy efficiency during use- not looked at in
  this research.
• In general agreement with compact city ideas
  (Jenks et al, 1996), but contested concept in
  academia.

London Plan Monitoring Report (GLA, 2006)
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Urban Form and Sustainable Travel

• Although promotion of the compact city is now
  enshrined in land use policy in the UK, there is
  little evidence to support the many claims in its
  favour (Burton, 2002).
• Car ownership and fuel prices most important
  factors in determining travel behaviour (Breheny
  et al, 1998). Transport planning measures
  (parking provision, road capacity) also
  influential.

Despite lack of strong relationship between urban
form and travel, still important to measure urban
form and accessibility. Provide opportunity for
sustainable travel, necessary but not sufficient
condition. Built form timescale long term
(decades, centuries), private vehicle costs (fuel
prices) likely to rise substantially in this
period. Opportunity for finer scale measures to
explore density and accessibility- defining
compact city using density figures without any
consideration of built form, may lead to the
failure of the concept (Sherlock, 1996)
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Employment Density

• Trends in knowledge economy encourage clustering
  jobs in city centre, agglomeration of business
  services (Sassen, 2000).
• Londons global financial centre expanding
  (Southwark, East End).
• Subcentre structure weaker, major dense
  employment subcentres at Croydon and Canary
  Wharf.
• Edge City effects at Heathrow and M4/M1
  corridors.
• Monocentric structure encourages public transport
  use but can also increase commuting times
  (Breheny et al, 1998) .

Employment Density Map (GLA Economics, 2003)
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Visualising Land Use

• Recently released OS Address Layer 2 now includes
• land use attributes. First fine scale
  comprehensive
• land use data for UK.
• Each Address Point linked to a building polygon.
• 3 Classifications Included-
• OS Base Function- very specific classification
• (1000 categories)
• e.g. Travel Agency, Cathedral, Dwelling.
• National Land Use Database- more manageable
  number of categories e.g. Retail, Residential.
  But incomplete.
• Valuation Office- Similar to NLUD but only
  commercial properties.
• Decided to use Base Function attribute,
  generalise into simpler classes.
• Isle of Dogs- example to test concept and
  accuracy of data. Isle of Dogs area of massive
  redevelopment, great contrasts in land use and
  building scale, symbolic of structural economic
  change.

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Isle of Dogs Background

• West India Docks constructed in 1802, part of
  worlds largest port in 19th century.
• Isle of Dogs urbanised to house dock workers
  (21,000 in 1901).

Growth continues into 20th century, then
containerisation and structural economic change
in the 1970s lead to massive decline.
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Canary Wharf Background

• West India Docks close 1980. Large areas of
  derelict and abandoned land.
• Conservative government attempt to revive area-
  set up Enterprise Zone 1982 with tax allowances,
  planning restrictions lessened.
• Plan for 12.2 million sq. ft. office development
  at Canary Wharf, infill part of West India Docks.
  Centrepiece UKs tallest tower at 1 Canada
  Square, completed 1991.
• 1992- recession sends developers into
  administration. Lack of transport infrastructure.
• 1996- Canary Wharf bought by international
• consortium. Jubillee Line station opens in 1999.
• Period of rapid expansion. New towers for
• Citybank, Credit Suisse, HSBC.
• 13,400 employees in 1996
• 82,000 by 2006.

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Land Use Classes

• Aiming for visualisation that is easily
  comprehended from map, maintains major land use
  categories for urban context.
• Emphasis on home/work/retail division

Also interested in more specific land uses,
categorising urban area, local services and
facilities that encourage sustainable travel
Local Services- health centre, community centre,
church, post office etc.
Leisure- cinema, gallery, gym.
Education- schools, further edu
Pub/Restaurant- cafes, takeaway
Industrial- warehouses, factory
Hotel- guest houses, hostel
Emergency Services
Mixed Use Categories, dominant land use
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Isle of Dogs Housing
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Housing Density

• Land use data can also be used to calculate the
  number of dwellings per building, and then create
  a dwelling density surface.
• Developers attracted to waterside.
• Canyonisation of the Thames?
• (Karadimitriou, forthcoming),
• social and physical division.
• Marketed as sustainable development.
• Interesting to combine with accessibility
• data, parking data.
• Temporal perspective lacking.
• Also detailed housing data, planning class,
• Affordable housing. Link to London
• Development Database from
• the Greater London Authority.

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Accessibility Measures

• Planning policy directs that new development
  should be accessible by public transport, and
  that higher density development should be
  focussed at public transport nodes. But not
  necessarily priority in private sector
  development.
• Accessibility data could be combined with
  housing/office density data to measure success of
  policy.
• Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL)
  common measure used in London. Tends to be
  contour measure, sharp cutoffs, and doesnt model
  destinations beyond public transport nodes.
• More sophisticated measures based around Hansen
  indices, weigh all available opportunities from
  an origin (e.g. population zones) to destinations
  (e.g. services) by the deterrent effect of travel
  to each (Hansen, 1959).
• Virtual London model offers opportunity for finer
  scale accessibility measures. Not yet setup with
  network data.

Greater London Public Transport Accessibility Map
(TfL, 2004)
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3D Land Use Visualisation

• Metropolitan areas (Central London) dominated by
  mixed use buildings-
  single buildings
  categories less useful.
• Possible to slice 3d building volumes
  into distinct land uses.
• Lack of floor information means effectively
  guessing at vertical land use distribution.
  Assume retail/restaurant/leisure at ground level,
  residential typically highest level.
• Another source of error is property divisions
  changing between floors. Ideally need volume or
  layer datamodel (Slingsby, 2006).
• Need to assess accuracy. Floor information
  sources- Valuation Office?

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Measuring Office Density

• Potential to map density of office space by
  linking land use model to Valuation Office data.
• City of London restricted heights to preserve
  views of St Pauls since 1930 (City of London,
  2002).
• Possible to investigate how policy has influenced
  development over this period.
• New cluster of towers given planning permission
  north west of Bank (Bishopsgate, Leadenhall
  Street). Current debate on strategic views policy.

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Conclusion

• Attributing the Virtual London model with
  socio-economic data provides base for spatial
  analysis of planning issues at fine scale.
• Land use data visualisation potential to be
  highly useful to planners. Need to test accuracy,
  develop 3D visualisations, use standard
  classifications, feedback from planners.
• Intend to use model to explore sustainable
  development issues
• accessibility and density of development,
  accessibility and land use, local services and
  sustainable travel. Which accessibility measures
  most useful? Scale of analysis.
• Link planning policy to urban form
• High buildings policy, more detailed urban design
  measures possible?

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• Thank you for listening!
• Welcome any comments and questions.
• References
• Batty, M. Hudson-Smith, A. (2005), Urban
  Simulacra London, Architectural Design, Vol 5,
  6, pp 42 47.
• Breheny,M.,Gordon,I.,Archer,S.(1998), Building
  densities and sustainable cities, Engineering
  and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC),
  Sustainable Cities Programme, Project Outline No.
  5, June 1998.
• Burton, E. (2002), Measuring urban compactness in
  UK towns and cities, Environment and Planning B
  Planning and Design 2002, 29, pp 219 250.
• Greater London Authority (2004), The London Plan
  Spatial Development Strategy for London, GLA.

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Affordable Housing and Sustainability

• Provision of affordable housing priority in
  London - public service workers, social
  polarisation.
• Local authority negotiate proportion of
  affordable housing with developer during planning
  permission.
• Arsenal example- new stadium development, 1200
  homes. Islington council secure 40 affordable.
• Affordable housing built at very high density
  next to tube station. Highly sustainable from
  accessibility view.
• But amenity, public realm issues- next to railway
  and waste centre, no public space, dark street
  environment.

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Mixed Uses and Subcentre Structure

• London centre dominant, also hundreds of
  subcentres, local services. Can be measured
  spatially using employment diversity data.
• (Thurstain-Goodwin Batty, 2001)
• Urban village ideal of local services
  accessible on foot, strong communities, urban
  texture of London (Sherlock, 1996).
• Encourage sustainable travel? Potential to-
  history in London of centres developing around
  rail and underground stations.
• Nodes on road network also create subcentres,
  especially Greater London.

Diversity Index Greater London (Batty et al, 2003)
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References

• Batty, M. Hudson-Smith, A. (2005), Urban
  Simulacra London, Architectural Design, Vol 5,
  6, pp 42 47.
• Breheny,M.,Gordon,I.,Archer,S.(1998), Building
  densities and sustainable cities, Engineering
  and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC),
  Sustainable Cities Programme, Project Outline No.
  5, June 1998.
• Burton, E. (2002), Measuring urban compactness in
  UK towns and cities, Environment and Planning B
  Planning and Design 2002, 29, pp 219 250.
• Greater London Authority (2004), The London Plan
  Spatial Development Strategy for London, GLA.
• Jenks, M, Burton, E., Williams, K. (2000) The
  Compact City A Sustainable Urban Form?, (Spon.
  London).
• Sassen, S (2000), The Global City New York,
  London, Tokyo, Princeton University Press.
• Sherlock, H. (1996), Repairing our much abused
  cities the way to sustainable living, in The
  Compact City A Sustainable Urban Form?, eds.
  Jenks, M, Burton, E., Williams, K. (Spon. London)
  pp 66 73.