Seeing the invisible: from imagined to virtual urban landscapes
Files
Published version
Date
2020-03
Authors
Ma, Yaxiong
Wright, Jessica
Gopal, Sucharita
Phillips, Nathan
Version
OA Version
Published version
Citation
Yaxiong Ma, Jessica Wright, Sucharita Gopal, Nathan Phillips. 2020. "Seeing the invisible: From imagined to virtual urban landscapes." Cities, Volume 98, pp. 102559 - 102559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102559
Abstract
Urban ecosystems consist of infrastructure features working together to provide services for inhabitants. Infrastructure functions akin to an ecosystem, having dynamic relationships and interdependencies. However, with age, urban infrastructure can deteriorate and stop functioning. Additional pressures on infrastructure include urbanizing populations and a changing climate that exposes vulnerabilities. To manage the urban infrastructure ecosystem in a modernizing world, urban planners need to integrate a coordinated management plan for these co-located and dependent infrastructure features. To implement such a management practice, an improved method for communicating how these infrastructure features interact is needed. This study aims to define urban infrastructure as a system, identify the systematic barriers preventing implementation of a more coordinated management model, and develop a virtual reality tool to provide visualization of the spatial system dynamics of urban infrastructure. Data was collected from a stakeholder workshop that highlighted a lack of appreciation for the system dynamics of urban infrastructure. An urban ecology VR model was created to highlight the interconnectedness of infrastructure features. VR proved to be useful for communicating spatial information to urban stakeholders about the complexities of infrastructure ecology and the interactions between infrastructure features.
Description
License
"© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license."