Land Use Spatial Optimization Using Accessibility Maps to Integrate Land Use and Transport in Urban Areas

The scarcity of urban land resources requires a well-organized spatial layout of land use to better accommodate human activities, however, as a widely accepted concept, the integration of land use and transport is not given due consideration in land use spatial optimization (LUSO). This paper aims to integrate land use and transport in LUSO to support urban land use planning. Maximizing accessibility fitness, which follows the underlying logic between land use types and transport characteristics, is introduced into multi-objective land use spatial optimization (MOLUSO) modelling to address transport considerations, together with widely-used objectives such as maximizing compactness, compatibility, and suitability. The transport characteristics, in this study, are identified by driving accessibility, cycling accessibility, and walking accessibility. Accessibility maps, which quantify and visualize the spatial variances in accessibility fitness for different land use types, are developed based on the empirical results of the relationship between land use types and transport characteristics for LUSO and addressing policy issues. The 4-objective LUSO model and a corresponding non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) based optimization method constitute a prototype decision support system (DSS) for urban land use planning. Decision-makers (e.g., planning departments) can choose an ideal solution to accommodate urban development needs from a set of Pareto-optimal alternatives generated by the DSS. The approaches to creating accessibility maps and MOLUSO modelling are demonstrated by the case study of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. This study advocates limited changes to the current land use pattern in urban planning, and the LUSO emphasizes urban renewal and upgrading rather than new town planning.