SPT-E8010 - Smart and Liveable City Studio V D, 03.03.2021-02.06.2021
This course space end date is set to 02.06.2021 Search Courses: SPT-E8010
Assignment 1b - The Evaluation Graph of Liveability
Introduction
You've now had the chance to define a domain for liveability from your personal perspective and from a top-down view (expanding from the liveability concept itself). Now we need to move towards a more structured and internally consistent perspective that allows us to define how liveability is to be evaluated. In this assignment you will create a graph that connects this top-down view together into the real-world entities in our built environment.
As mentioned in 1a, the concepts by which planning is steered need to be connected to tangible real-world entities (streets, buildings, etc.) and formally defined concepts (building heights, lot sizes, permitted building volume etc.) - the plan is a formal document after all and it must be as unambiguous as possible in what kind of restrictions and allowances it imposes on a certain area. As it stands, the connection from high-level strategic goals to actual quantifiable changes in the build environment (let alone the intended effects these changes are supposed to have) is very opaque, and rests on the shoulders of planners' experiential tacit knowledge in interpreting and reasoning with available information.
What we intend to do is make these causal networks visible in such a way that we can begin to discuss and evaluate their soundness as part of the toolbox used in planning. This part (building ontologies) is very important also because it is the foundation upon which technology built for planning rests on (to be discussed in detail on a later lecture).
Practical Steps
Debate
- Go trough the individual liveability graphs in your group once more so that you have a clear conceptual view of where you agree and disagree currently.
- Through debate and discussion attempt to come up with roughly six key components that together constitute liveability. This is the conceptual "top-end" of your graph. These components should be defined on the level of themes (for example "well-being" or "safety" are themes whereas "pollution" is more a phenomenon than a theme). Remember that themes should not be adjectives but nouns (as they are concepts)!
- Begin going through concrete entities that exist in our built environment (different building types, parks, infrastructure etc.) and try to think of the kind of phenomena (counting both activities the entities are used for and collateral effects of those activities) the use of these entities strengthens or weakens. Remember that also phenomena themselves can strengthen or weaken other phenomena! Phenomena should also be in noun form.
- Now, attempt to bridge the gap between the phenomena and components through directed relationships. In the end you should have "weaved" together all the bottom-level concrete entities and the top-level liveability components.
Building a Graph
- Now you will be working in groups (A,B,C or D: the ones assigned during the first lecture). Create a shared account at Graph Commons for your group and start working on a new graph. You can also create individual accounts (and the student creating the graph can invite other users as collaborators after they've registered). Look at some of the tutorials to get you started (and read this section through for hints)!
- We have defined a very simple ontology schema for you to build a graph. The ontology we've given you only dictates the kinds of things you are allowed to add to your graph and the kinds of relationships you are allowed to add, it gives ample freedom in selecting the instances of these classes and determining the relationships between instances.
- The Ontology schema:
- Look at mapping services and discussions as potential sources for entities, phenomena and themes.
- When you are building a knowledge graph in Graph Commons, you are effectively creating things (instances) that belong to certain groups (classes). The classes (Entity, Phenomenon, Liveability component, Liveability) have been declared in the ontology, as well as their relationship types.
Thus, when you add a new node (a thing) into the Graph Commons graph, it asks you for a "Type" (this is the class) and a Name. For example, creating a node called "Pollution" would mean that you write "PHENOMENON" as its type and "Pollution" as its name.
The same applies for adding relationships. Graph Commons calls them "edges". When you add a new relationship, first look at the node types you are adding the relationship to. For example, if both the start and end nodes are of type "PHENOMENON", you can only write either "WEAKENS" or "STRENGTHENS" to the text field. Also, after adding the relationship, ensure that the arrow (effect) direction is correct by hovering the mouse cursor on the relationship.
You can edit the contents also in tabular ("Excel") format by pressing the DATA button on the left. That allows you to select either a type or a relation (bottom of the screen) and then edit the values directly. Do not worry about the extra fields like "Image" or "Reference" - they are there by default but we are not going to use them for anything. You can also press the "Carto" button on the left panel to edit relationship directions and their properties. - When you are finished, select "Info" from the top row and press "EDIT" next to the name and status ("Work in progress") of your graph. After setting it to "Published", go to your user profile page (Click the icon on top right corner and select profile), and click the graph name you've published. You will be taken to a page that says "VIEW GRAPH". Copy the address of this page (it is in the form of https://graphcommons.com/graphs/<a long string of letters and numbers>) and paste it into the text field of this assignment.
Materials to Get You Started
Sources
Submission and Evaluation
Return Format
- When you are finished with your graph, publish it on the Graph Commons site, and paste the address of your graph here to the submission text field.
Evaluation
- Presentations, discussion and some rudimentary graph analyses
Downloadable Materials
- 1 March 2021, 2:19 PM