Street networks and the description, explanation and prescription of urban landscapes

This paper addresses the description, explanation, and prescription of urban landscapes. While recognizing the importance of plot patterns and building arrangements in shaping the historico-geographical structure of cities, the focus is on the configuration of street networks. It argues that current methods of quantitatively measuring street networks can be improved, particularly in identifying homogeneous geographical patterns created by specific types of streets. To this end, it explores the most effective ways to assess the spatial configuration of street networks by analyzing the relationships among edges (streets), nodes (intersections), and angles. Four fundamental metrics are introduced –griddedness, order, diversity, and complexity– all derived from a proposed measure called the Gfactor, which represents the average angle between adjacent streets at an intersection. The method is applied to the case of Tehran, providing empirical insights. The paper concludes by discussing the specificity of the object and method, as well as the broader applicability of the approach, moving from a specific case study to more general contexts.