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Meta-Connectivity in Urban Morphology: A Deep Generative Approach for Integrating Human-Wildlife Landscape Connectivity in Urban Design

Huang, Sheng-Yang; Wang, Yuankai; Llabres-Valls, Enriqueta; Jiang, Mochen; Chen, Fei; (2024) Meta-Connectivity in Urban Morphology: A Deep Generative Approach for Integrating Human-Wildlife Landscape Connectivity in Urban Design. Land , 13 (9) , Article 1397. 10.3390/land13091397. Green open access

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Abstract

Traditional urban design often overlooks the synchronisation of human and ecological connectivities, typically favouring corridors for ecological continuity. Our study challenges this convention by introducing a computational design approach, meta-connectivity, leveraging the deep generative models performing cross-domain translation to integrate human–wildlife landscape connectivity in urban morphology amidst the planetary urbanisation. Utilising chained Pix2Pix models, our research illustrates a novel meta-connectivity design reasoning framework, combining landscape connectivity modelling with conditional reasoning based on deep generative models. This framework enables the adjustment of both human and wildlife landscape connectivities based on their correlative patterns in one single design process, guiding the rematerialisation of urban landscapes without the need for explicit prior ecological or urban data. Our empirical study in East London demonstrated the framework’s efficacy in suggesting wildlife connectivity adjustments based on human connectivity metrics. The results demonstrate the feasibility of creating an innovative urban form in which the land cover guided by the connectivity gradients replaces the corridors based on simple geometries. This research thus presents a methodology shift in urban design, proposing a symbiotic approach to integrating disparate yet interrelated landscape connectivities within urban contexts.

Type: Article
Title: Meta-Connectivity in Urban Morphology: A Deep Generative Approach for Integrating Human-Wildlife Landscape Connectivity in Urban Design
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/land13091397
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.3390/land13091397
Language: English
Additional information: © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Environmental Studies, Environmental Sciences & Ecology, urban design, deep generative models, cross-domain translation, landscape connectivity, progressive reasoning, urban ecology, LYNX LYNX-LYNX, CIRCUIT-THEORY, SPACE, SIZE
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 > The Bartlett School of Architecture
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201509
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