From buildings to cities: techniques for the multi-scale analysis of urban form and function

The built environment is a significant factor in many urban processes, yet direct measures of built form are seldom used in geographical studies. Representation and analysis of urban form and function could provide new insights and improve the evidence base for research. So far progress has been slow due to limited data availability, computational demands, and a lack of methods to integrate built environment data with aggregate geographical analysis. Spatial data and computational improvements are overcoming some of these problems, but there remains a need for techniques to process and aggregate urban form data. Here we develop a Built Environment Model of urban function and dwelling type classifications for Greater London, based on detailed topographic and address-based data (sourced from Ordnance Survey MasterMap). The multi-scale approach allows the Built Environment Model to be viewed at fine-scales for local planning contexts, and at city-wide scales for aggregate geographical analysis, allowing an improved understanding of urban processes. This flexibility is illustrated in the two examples, that of urban function and residential type analysis, where both local-scale urban clustering and city-wide trends in density and agglomeration are shown. While we demonstrate the multi-scale Built Environment Model to be a viable approach, a number of accuracy issues are identified, including the limitations of 2D data, inaccuracies in commercial function data and problems with temporal attribution. These limitations currently restrict the more advanced applications of the Built Environment Model

Key challenges in agent-based modelling for geo-spatial simulation

Agent-based modelling (ABM) is fast becoming the dominant paradigm in social simulation due primarily to a worldview that suggests that complex systems emerge from the bottom-up, are highly decentralised, and are composed of a multitude of heterogeneous objects called agents. These agents act with some purpose and their interaction, usually through time and space, generates emergent order, often at higher levels than those at which such agents operate. ABM however raises as many challenges as it seeks to resolve. It is the purpose of this paper to catalogue these challenges and to illustrate them using three somewhat different agent-based models applied to city systems. The seven challenges we pose involve: the purpose for which the model is built, the extent to which the model is rooted in independent theory, the extent to which the model can be replicated, the ways the model might be verified, calibrated and validated, the way model dynamics are represented in terms of agent interactions, the extent to which the model is operational, and the way the model can be communicated and shared with others. Once catalogued, we then illustrate these challenges with a pedestrian model for emergency evacuation in central London, a hypothetical model of residential segregation tuned to London data which elaborates the standard Schelling (1971) model, and an agent-based residential location built according to spatial interactions principles, calibrated to trip data for Greater London. The ambiguities posed by this new style of modelling are drawn out as conclusions

Mapping for the Masses: Accessing Web 2.0 through Crowdsourcing

The authors describe how we are harnessing the power of web 2.0 technologies to create new approaches to collecting, mapping, and sharing geocoded data. The authors begin with GMapCreator that lets users fashion new maps using Google Maps as a base. The authors then describe MapTube that enables users to archive maps and demonstrate how it can be used in a variety of contexts to share map information, to put existing maps into a form that can be shared, and to create new maps from the bottom-up using a combination of crowdcasting, crowdsourcing, and traditional broadcasting. The authors conclude by arguing that such tools are helping to define a neogeography that is essentially "mapping for the masses,'' while noting that there are many issues of quality, accuracy, copyright, and trust that will influence the impact of these tools on map-based communication

Time step rescaling recovers continuous-time dynamical properties for discrete-time Langevin integration of nonequilibrium systems

When simulating molecular systems using deterministic equations of motion (e.g., Newtonian dynamics), such equations are generally numerically integrated according to a well-developed set of algorithms that share commonly agreed-upon desirable properties. However, for stochastic equations of motion (e.g., Langevin dynamics), there is still broad disagreement over which integration algorithms are most appropriate. While multiple desiderata have been proposed throughout the literature, consensus on which criteria are important is absent, and no published integration scheme satisfies all desiderata simultaneously. Additional nontrivial complications stem from simulating systems driven out of equilibrium using existing stochastic integration schemes in conjunction with recently-developed nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems. Here, we examine a family of discrete time integration schemes for Langevin dynamics, assessing how each member satisfies a variety of desiderata that have been enumerated in prior efforts to construct suitable Langevin integrators. We show that the incorporation of a novel time step rescaling in the deterministic updates of position and velocity can correct a number of dynamical defects in these integrators. Finally, we identify a particular splitting that has essentially universally appropriate properties for the simulation of Langevin dynamics for molecular systems in equilibrium, nonequilibrium, and path sampling contexts.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures, and 2 table

Random planar graphs and the London street network

In this paper we analyse the street network of London both in its primary and dual representation. To understand its properties, we consider three idealised models based on a grid, a static random planar graph and a growing random planar graph. Comparing the models and the street network, we find that the streets of London form a self-organising system whose growth is characterised by a strict interaction between the metrical and informational space. In particular, a principle of least effort appears to create a balance between the physical and the mental effort required to navigate the city

On the Quantum Jarzynski Identity

In this note, we will discuss how to compactly express and prove the Jarzynski identity for an open quantum system with dissipative dynamics. We will avoid explicitly measuring the work directly, which is tantamount to continuously monitoring the system, and instead measure the heat flow from the environment. We represent the measurement of heat flow with Hermitian map superoperators that act on the system density matrix. Hermitian maps provide a convenient and compact representation of sequential measurement and correlation functions.Comment: 4 page

Near-equilibrium measurements of nonequilibrium free energy

A central endeavor of thermodynamics is the measurement of free energy changes. Regrettably, although we can measure the free energy of a system in thermodynamic equilibrium, typically all we can say about the free energy of a non-equilibrium ensemble is that it is larger than that of the same system at equilibrium. Herein, we derive a formally exact expression for the probability distribution of a driven system, which involves path ensemble averages of the work over trajectories of the time-reversed system. From this we find a simple near-equilibrium approximation for the free energy in terms of an excess mean time-reversed work, which can be experimentally measured on real systems. With analysis and computer simulation, we demonstrate the accuracy of our approximations for several simple models.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Guidelines for Reducing the Negative Public Health Impacts of Medical Tourism

Étude de cas / Case studyLes voyages internationaux pour des soins médicaux, ou le tourisme médical, créent des problèmes d’éthique et de sécurité pour les patients. Des lignes directrices pourraient être développées et distribuées pour aider à répondre à ces préoccupations, mais ils peuvent en même temps sembler entériner cette pratique.International travel for medical care, or medical tourism, creates ethical and safety concerns for patients. Guidelines could be developed and distributed to help address these concerns, but they may at the same time appear to endorse this practice