In recent years, dissatisfaction with the quality of the urban
environment has become widespread, and opposition to many
development proposals has been mounted by citizens groups
across Canada. Yet all attempts to improve the environment
so far have proved relatively ineffectual.
The thesis argues that the environment will continue to
deteriorate unless massive changes are made in the structure
of decision making which surrounds the urban development
process; the major change required being meaningful participation
by citizens in making the decisions that affect their
lives. A first step towards this goal is the attainment of a
clear and comprehensive understanding of how urban development
occurs at present. Citizens must be informed before
they can be involved.
The thesis presents an initial description of the urban
development process and outlines the conceptual basis for
the construction of a simulation model of the process. It
is argued that because of the complexities of urban development,
a simulation technique seems appropriate. Given an
operating model, it would be possible to test proposals for
change on the model before implementing them in reality.
Using Metropolitan Vancouver - a typical Canadian urban region
- as a data base, the thesis examines the types of public
dissatisfactions with the urban environment. These are then
translated into the more general categories of urban problems,
such as soaring housing costs, transportation congestion,
urban sprawl, poverty, pollution and so on.
Through a literature survey a number of processes suspected as
being related to these urban problems were identified. Two
kinds of processes emerged: those which lead to population
and economic growth (the ones usually considered in urban
models), but also those processes which constrain policy
formulation and implementation, such as fragmented authority,
inadequate research and development, uncoordinated planning,
the pressure of developers. Both types need inclusion in the
model.
These processes were investigated through a number of case
studies of the system in action: downtown redevelopment schemes,
Vancouver transportation proposals, a public urban renewal project,
a shopping centre proposal, etc. Basic chronologies of events
were prepared for each case; the events were then abstracted
into a set of actions with the (organizational and individual)
actors who engaged in them and the criteria (goals or constraints)
upon which the actions were based. These actions were then
grouped into related processes.
A preliminary conceptual mock-up of the model was
made, and a program of research outlined which involves the
analysis of factors affecting major processes and the development
of values suitable for computer manipulation. At this
stage of the work it appears that the building of the model
is indeed feasible and that such a simulation will prove most
useful in understanding the urban development process. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41940 |
| Date | January 1972 |
| Creators | Gutstein, Donald Irwin |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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