Measuring Urban Design: Metrics for Livable Places - Metropolitan Planning & Design Guide for Sustainable Cities | Urban Development, Community Planning, Walkability Studies

This is an important and well cited document in academia. The text is not dense, well written, and a fairly easy read. Because of its unique experimental design in the investigation, I am sure to show it to my graduate students as a case study in research metrics. There are several perspectives concerning environmental perception and evaluation. Much of the world employs the use of experts to determine the contents and structure of the built environment, from Vitruvius, to Palladio, to Frank Lloyd Wright. When reading this document, there are three caveats. First this work is based upon the beliefs about space by experts (some of the most noted world experts). However, some studies have shown that planning and design experts may not comprehend or assess space in a manner similar to the public. The reader should not assume that the preferences of experts are the preferences of the public. Second, the results in this document are primarily a validation concerning the consistency of experts to judge space based upon their own criteria. In other words, the the study reveals that experts in this study were reliable in predicting the their own values to evaluate space. The study is similar to a team creating an index and then using the variables in the index to corroborate the index-- a self-fulfilling prophecy. In most regression studies, the independent variables are not normally used to construct the dependent variable, and then after construction of the dependent variable, regressed to show that the independent variables do indeed predict the dependent variable. However this approach is an excellent way to get large r-squared values and significant predictors. Third, the range of spaces examined (streetscapes) in the study is relatively narrow (view the range of images in the document). When employing scales and equations to measure the universal appeal of environments from highly desirous to very undesirable, most of the images presented in the book might rate on the less desirable side. So the reader should not confuse preferred streetscapes with preferred environments. Across the full dimension of environmental preference, the more preferred streetscapes might possibly be only somewhat more preferred than the least preferred streetscapes. Still this book is worth reading and studying. Landscape metrics are in their formative early stages. Many more studies refuting and corroborating the ideas presented in the book will follow. Reid Ewing is a productive investigator and may have more to offer on the subject of environmetnal metrics.