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Entropy and order in urban street networks

Gudmundsson, Agust; Mohajeri, Nahid; (2013) Entropy and order in urban street networks. Scientific Reports , 3 , Article 3324. 10.1038/srep03324. Green open access

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Abstract

Many complex networks erase parts of their geometry as they develop, so that their evolution is difficult to quantify and trace. Here we introduce entropy measures for quantifying the complexity of street orientations and length variations within planar networks and apply them to the street networks of 41 British cities, whose geometric evolution over centuries can be explored. The results show that the street networks of the old central parts of the cities have lower orientation/length entropies - the streets are more tightly ordered and form denser networks - than the outer and more recent parts. Entropy and street length increase, because of spreading, with distance from the network centre. Tracing the 400-year evolution of one network indicates growth through densification (streets are added within the existing network) and expansion (streets are added at the margin of the network) and a gradual increase in entropy over time.

Type: Article
Title: Entropy and order in urban street networks
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/srep03324
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep03324
Language: English
Additional information: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200244
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