comparative urbanism – The CASA Blog Network

Measuring Comparative Public Transport Accessibility for GB Cities

Posted on Monday 29 January 2024 by Duncan A Smith

While Greater London has a comprehensive transit network, this is not a fair representation of UK cities where underinvestment and privatisation has seen many bus, metro and rail networks stagnate in recent decades, falling well behind European and Asian peers. Improving public transport is an important aspect of addressing the UK’s high regional inequality and … Continue reading Measuring Comparative Public Transport Accessibility for GB Cities →

accessibility, comparative urbanism, density, Great Britain, mapping, Public Transport, public-transportation, Software tools, sustainability, Transport, Transportation, travel

World Population Density Map Update with GHSL 2023

Posted on Sunday 21 May 2023 by Duncan A Smith

The European Union JRC recently released a new 2023 update of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) data. This update has greatly improved the GHSL data, with a 10m scale built-up area dataset of the entire globe which has been used to create a 100m scale global population density layer. The level of detail for … Continue reading World Population Density Map Update with GHSL 2023 →

City Planning, comparative urbanism, density, global cities, mapping, sustainability, Transport, urban form, visualisation, web mapping

Pandemic Geographies and Challenges with the 2021 England & Wales Census Results

Posted on Tuesday 16 August 2022 by Duncan A Smith

The Census is the most comprehensive demographic survey in the UK, providing detailed data for government and academics in many fields, from health and education, to planning and transport. The 2021 Census has a unique context, as the 2021 census day (21st March 2021) occurred when the UK was still in the 3rd national lockdown … Continue reading Pandemic Geographies and Challenges with the 2021 England & Wales Census Results →

census, City Planning, comparative urbanism, Demographics, Great Britain, Housing, london, mapping

Global Prospects for a Post-Car World

Posted on Tuesday 26 September 2017 by

Earlier this year I worked on some charts and maps for a Greenpeace report authored by sustainable transport academic Robin Hickman, exploring the impacts of automobile dependence and the prospects for a post-car world. The report is online here. The much debated phenomenon of ‘peak-car’ can be observed in many countries in the global north, … Continue reading Global Prospects for a Post-Car World →

comparative urbanism, Publications, sustainability, Transport

Global Urban Constellations

Posted on Monday 26 December 2016 by

Geographers have long grappled with the complex and ever changing configurations of global urbanism. Many terms have been coined to describe new 20th and 21st century urban forms: conurbations (Geddes, 1915), multi-nuclei cities (Harris & Ultman, 1945), megalopolis (Gottman, 1961), world cities (Hall, 1966), desakota (McGee, 1991), fractal cities (Batty & Longley, 1994), network cities (Batten, 1995), … Continue reading Global Urban Constellations →

comparative urbanism, density, global cities, interactive mapping, urban form, visualisation

World Population Density Interactive Map

Posted on Wednesday 14 December 2016 by

A brilliant new dataset produced by the European Commission was recently released- the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL). This is the first time that detailed and comprehensive population density and built-up area for the world has been available as open data. As usual, my first thought was to make an interactive map, now online at- http://luminocity3d.org/WorldPopDen/ … Continue reading World Population Density Interactive Map →

comparative urbanism, density, global, global cities, interactive mapping, sustainability, urban form, visualisation

New Paper- Online Interactive Mapping: Applications and Techniques for Socio-Economic Research

Posted on Tuesday 23 February 2016 by

I have a new paper published in Computers Environment and Urban Systems- Online interactive thematic mapping: applications and techniques for socio-economic research. The paper reviews workflows for creating online thematic maps, and describes how several leading interactive mapping sites were created. The paper is open access so you can download the pdf for free. The paper…

CASA, comparative urbanism, interactive mapping, mapping, Open Data, visualisation, web mapping

An Urban Renaissance Achieved? Mapping a Decade of Densification in UK Cities

Posted on Monday 9 September 2013 by

It’s been 14 years since the landmark Urban Task Force report, which set the agenda for inner-city densification and brownfield regeneration in the UK. Furthermore we’ve seen significant economic and demographic change in the last decade that’s greatly impacted urban areas. We can now use the 2011 census data, mapped here on the LuminoCity GB … Continue reading →

comparative urbanism, density, Great Britain, LuminoCity, planning, Population Change, UK Census 2011, urban form, visualisation

An Urban Renaissance Achieved? Mapping a Decade of Densification in UK Cities

Posted on Monday 9 September 2013 by

comparative urbanism, density, Great Britain, LuminoCity, planning, Population Change, UK Census 2011, urban form, visualisation

Launching LuminoCity GB: Urban Form and Dynamics Explorer

Posted on Wednesday 4 September 2013 by

Our cities have been changing dramatically in recent years, with the intensification of urban centres, redevelopment of old industrial spaces, new demographic trends, and the pressures of a volatile global economy. The aim of the LuminoCity website, which launches in beta today, is to visualise urban form and dynamics to better understand how these trends … Continue reading →

comparative urbanism, density, Great Britain, LuminoCity, urban form, visualisation

Launching LuminoCity GB: Urban Form and Dynamics Explorer

Posted on Wednesday 4 September 2013 by

comparative urbanism, density, Great Britain, LuminoCity, urban form, visualisation

ESRI Urban Observatory- the right model for city crowdsourcing?

Posted on Tuesday 23 July 2013 by

This month ESRI made an interesting move into the field of global city data with the launch of Urban Observatory (TM). The site has some great interactive visualisation ideas with simultaneous mapping of three interchangeable cities, linked navigation and indicator selection. It provides an intuitive interface to explore the diverse forms of world cities- Furthermore this … Continue reading →

comparative urbanism, esri, global cities, Open Data, Smart Cities