urban research methods

1. Urban research methods included
studies, research reports, market
surveys, questionnaires and
statistical analysis
Urban research methods

2. urban setting or which seeks to analyze and
understand urban processes
(1) an historicized and appropriately contextualized
understanding of the different knowledge frames by which
cities have been recorded, comprehended and studied
(including a sense of the situated production of these distinct
knowledge frames)
(2) an introduction into the techniques of data collection,
representation and analysis that flow from these quite
distinctive knowledge frames
two types of core knowledge
. . . upon actual city places and processes
Dr Jane Jacobs http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/14-15/dpt/cxprge11012.htm THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH
School of Geosciences

3. - Appreciate the skills required for advanced research on
the city
- Understand what methods and techniques are relevant to
what kinds of studies and projects;
- Be equipped to discern the appropriate methodologies
for the research projects they wish to pursue
- Know the relationship between theory and methodology
and techniques;
- Be able to analysis critically different urban knowledge
frames and associated methodologies
- To ascertain and apply specific data collection and
analysis frameworks
- Be able to present in written, visual, verbal and other
forms, analyses of specific components of the city.
Dr Jane Jacobs http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/14-15/dpt/cxprge11012.htm THE
UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH
School of Geosciences

4. emphasis on understanding urban environments, usually with the
objective of improving urban outcomes. It included research covering
one or a number of the spatial, biophysical, social, cultural and
economic dimensions, and included terms or subject areas such as:
1. better urban outcomes through good design at different scales
(strategic, city, town, suburb, precinct, place) and for different densities
2. urban design related to land use and spatial planning
3. urban form and transport
4. planning for urban infrastructure
5. urban intensification
6. urban design as part of ‘smart growth’ and/or related terms (eg, low-
impact development, transit-oriented development, sustainable
development)
7. effects of urban design on social and/or cultural outcomes and the use
of urban design to help achieve social and cultural outcomes
8. how urban design contributes to economic, social and cultural value
9. urban open space planning and design.

5. Models of urban structure

6. Urban / Services FYI
1. Cities have many
issues to deal with
Race relations
Traffic
Water delivery/
infrastructure
Pollution
Sprawl
2. Cities are ranked in
a hierarchy: hamlet
to megalopolis
• Largest megalopolis
in USA = NYC area
(Bos – Wash)
3. There are only 3
World Cities: NYC,
London, Tokyo
• Other cities are
ranked based on
importance to their
service areas (SEP)
4. Primate cities have
2x the amount of
population as the next
largest city in the
same country
(London, Paris,
Buenos Aires….)

7. 5. The USA has 3 basic models of urban
structure:
– Concentric Zones/ Burgess,
– Sectors/Hoyt,
– Multiple Nuclei/ Ullman and Harris
6. Continents have different urban characteristics:
• Europe-older/more historic cities, poor in
suburbs, not inner cities….
• Asia-cities are built as ports for trade b/c of
colonialism
• Latin America-High income houses are built on a
spine from the CBD
• Africa-3 separate CBDs: colonial, modern, market
zone (pre-colonial)

8. 7. All cities fit w/in Christaller’s central place
theory.
• Some have greater ranges and need bigger
thresholds.

9. Burgess – Concentric Zone model
A model describing land uses as a series of circular belts or rings around a core
central business district, each ring housing a distinct type of land use.
Studied 1920’s Chicago to make this model
• 5 concentric zones
• Immigrants lived in inner zones causing affluent residents to move further out
Weaknesses--
does not allow for change in the city
does not allow for physical geographic
barriers like mtns, rivers, etc..

10. Sector model/Hoyt
A description of urban land uses as wedge-
shaped sectors radiating outward from the
central business district along transportation
corridors.
Answered drawbacks of Burgess Model
Growth creates PIE shaped urban structures
CBD isn’t as important is Burgess says it was
Sectors develop along transport routes (hwy,
RR, etc)

11. The Sector Model -Homer Hoyt
(1939)There tends to be a
filtering down process
as older areas are
abandoned by the
outward movement of
their original inhabitants,
with the lowest-income
population becoming
the dubious
beneficiaries of the least
desirable vacated
areas.

12. (1945)
The postulate that large
cities develop by peripheral
spread not from one central
business district. There are
several nodes of growth,
each of specialized use.
The separately expanding
use districts eventually
coalesce at their margins.
Multiple Nuclei Model – Harris and Ullman

13. Urban Realms Model
• Modeled after L.A. in the 1990’s
• Post WWII cities grew increasingly
outward
• Nuclei or Realms become less
dependent on each other, and much
less on the CBD
• Realms became largely self-sufficient
in most cases
• Regional shopping centers became
like the CBD
Construction ‘ring roads’ created growth explosions at major highway intersections in outer areas
Leads to emergence of EDGE CITIES (Woodlands)

14. Models of urban structure
Color code the map using 10 colors or patterns
so you can distinguish the zones in each model.
1. Central Business District
2. Wholesale/Light manufacturing
3. Low-class residential
4. Medium-clas residential
5. High-class residential
6. Heavy manufacturing
7. Outlying business district
8. Residential suburb
9. Industrial suburb
10.Commuter zone

15. Edge Cities
• Edge Cities – Joel
Garreau
Nodal concentrations of shopping
and office space that are
situated on the outer fringes of
metropolitan areas,
typically near major highway
intersections.

16. The Concentric Zone Model - Ernest Burgess(1925)
1. CBD is primary and at
the center, CBD is
also divided into
districts (financial,
retail, fashion, etc)
2. Zone in transition –
residential
deterioration and
encroachment by
business and light
manufacturing
3. Independent workers
homes – closely
spaced homes,
typically blue collar
homes
4.Better residences –
middle class/white
collar
5.Commuter zone –
suburban ring

17. The Sector Model -Homer Hoyt (1939)
Sector 1 – high rent
2 Intermediate rent
3. Low Rent residential
4. Education and
recreation
5. Transportation
6. Industrial
7. Core

18. The Concentric Zone Model - Ernest Burgess(1925)
It recognizes four concentric circles of mostly
residential diversity at increasing distance in
all directions from the wholesaling,
warehousing, and light industry border of the
high-density CBD core.
A zone in transition is marked by the deterioration
of old residential structures abandoned, as
the city expanded, by the former wealthier
occupants and now containing high-density,
low income slums, warehouses
and (in some areas) gentrified buildings.

19. Other Urban models info
The Galactic City
As suburbs continue to sprawl they
spawn many suburban
nucleations, which are simply
multiple downtowns and
special function nodes and
corridors, which are linked by
the metropolitan expressway
system.
Squatter Settlements
An area within a city in a less
developed country in which people
illegally establish residences on land
they do not own or rent and erect
homemade structures.
Density Gradient
The change in density in an urban
area from the center to the periphery.

20. Gentrification
The movement into the inner portions of American cities of
middle- and upper-income people who replace low-
income populations, rehabilitate the structures they
occupied, and change the social character of
neighborhoods.