Prospect for the Method of Urban Safety Analysis and Environmental Design
Osamu Murao and Fumio Yamazaki
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 153-8505
Tel: (81)-3-5452-6388, Fax: (81)-3-5452-6389
E-mail: murao@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
JAPAN
Keywords: Information Technology, GIS, Digital City, Urban Simulation, Urban Safety
Planning
Abstract
In Japan, it is important to carry out urban planning considering natural disasters,
because earthquakes occur frequently. However, except for few cases, cities in Japan have not
been designed with any definite visions for urban safety based on previous research concerning
natural disasters. It is necessary for the people in Japan to propose a future vision of a city from
the urban safety point of view, as it has been plagued with many earthquakes throughout history.
On the other hand, recent information technology enabled the improvement of real-time
monitoring systems after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. The
authors proposed a method of analyzing and designing a city based on the urban safety point of
view in previous papers. This method, named as MUSE (the Method of Urban Safety Analysis
and Environmental Design), is based on the theory of The Image of the City by Lynch (1961),
and some urban physical elements are defined as parts of an organic system. In this paper the
prospect for MUSE and the methodology to realize it are described. The proposed system is
related to Information Technologies and we expect that MUSE will be applied to early
earthquake damage assessment systems.
Introduction
Recent rapid development of information technologies, i.e., Internet, Mobile Computing,
Remote Sensing, Virtual Reality, etc., have changed our social life in various fields. This
remarkable innovation also affects the field of urban safety planning or disaster mitigation.
Cooperating with these latest information technologies, some human activities for disaster
mitigation could be shifted into a new paradigm. Especially, GIS technology will be an effective
means, because the spatial viewpoint is indispensable not only for the field of physical
environment like urban planning but also for human activities. In fact, a lot of researches with
GIS have been carried out since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and the standardization of
spatial data infrastructure as ISO/TC211 is globally under development. In the field of
architectural design, some architects (e.g., Frazer, 1995) have discussed new possibility of
Cyber City or Cyber Architecture. However, the expected new concept of cyberspace might be
only artistic expression on the monitor without awareness of urban problems in the real world.
Linking the real world and the cyberspace together to solve the concrete urban problem, the new
life style in the IT era will be realized. Based on the above social background and the previous
research (e.g. Murao et al., 2000), the present authors proposed a method named MUSE (the
Method of Urban Safety Analysis and Environmental Design) to analyze a city from the
viewpoint of urban safety (Murao and Yamazaki, 1999). This paper focuses on the prospect to
realize MUSE.
Outline of "MUSE "
MUSE (the Method of Urban Safety Analysis and Environmental Design) is based on the theory
of The Image of the City by Lynch (1961), and some urban physical elements are defined as
parts of an organic system in GIS. This is a method to analyze or recognize urban phenomena. It
will be able to simulate and design cities optimally according to each condition. The physical
elements are classified into the following 10 types.
Element-0: Imaginary Walls
Element-I: Subjects (as Physical Dynamic Elements): people, bicycles, cars, trains, etc.
Element-II: Shapes (as Physical Static Elements)
a. Paths (Leading Paths and Secondary Paths): streets, expressways, alleys, railways, etc.
b. Edges: coastlines, riverbanks, long walls, edges of developed districts, etc.
c. Cells: town blocks, etc.
d. Voids: open spaces, public squares, parks, playgrounds, campuses, parking lots, etc.
e. Cores: city halls, ward offices, elementary schools, hospitals, etc.
Element-III: Webs (as Systematic Elements): common ducts, lifelines, water supply, etc.
Element-IV: Nature (as Natural Elements): ponds, lakes, rivers, green belts, farms, etc.
With the classified spatial data for GIS, inventory and statistical data, and the latest information
technologies (e.g., high quality computers, GPS, Remote Sensing, Virtual Reality, Augmented
Reality, Ubiquitous Computing, Cyber Architecture, etc.), we hope to have remarkable
improvement in the field of disaster mitigation (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Cooperation between Information Technologies and MUSE
