Urban vitality: Effects of land use and urban form on transit-oriented mobility and activity

Abstract

This dissertation aimed to understand the environmental factors enhancing urban vitality. The city of Seoul in South Korea was tested to explore the relationships between transit-oriented urban mobility, urban activity, land use, and urban form through a data-driven approach. The analyses in this dissertation were conducted over three steps. The first analysis validated the interactive relationship between transit-oriented urban mobility and urban activity, from the geographical and temporal perspectives. The second analysis grouped the subway stations based on the similarity in temporal profiles of ridership using clustering analysis and evaluated the effects of land use and urban form on temporally different trajectories and volumes of ridership using trajectory modeling. In the last analysis, the author defined the reasonable areal unit to analyze urban activity from the urban vitality perspective, and examined the influential attributes of land use and urban form for vibrant activity using spatial regression modeling. The outcomes of these analyses offer a chance to understand the current urban structure and the requirements for creating vibrant environments in cities. The results show that the city has a severed structure by regional functions, but the dense, widespread transit network supports to sustain vibrant citizens’ mobilities and activities at the city level as it reduces the auto-dependency of citizens. At the neighborhood level, the results verify that transit- and walking-friendly environments encourage a vibrant community, which involves the well-connected streets, small block size, and small plot size. In addition, the analysis result of activity indicates that the residential use should be placed in balance with the neighborhood commercial, education, and welfare uses. The findings of this dissertation can provide the fields of urban and transportation planning with a comprehensive insight into creating a vibrant and sustainable city and also improving the quality of citizens’ daily lives.