LAND USE MIX Add-In (beta)

Descriptions of the characteristics of the built environment assist in determining accessibility, and aid in assessment of urban form. Determining the relationship of urban form with levels of accessibility requires measures that allow contrasts in urban environments to be described. Features such as pedestrian-oriented design, high levels of public transport, and the proximity to destinations (such as services and jobs) could reasonably be expected to influence mode choice.

Computing the Entropy Measure

Entropy is useful for quantifying access to different land use types. It measures the evenness of distribution of the land-uses present in the study region. The entropy measure is used to quantify land-use balance. It ranges from 0 to 1 and captures how evenly the square footage of the land use types for the study area are distributed within a zone.

To compute the entropy measure you will need:

• An area layer of zones
• An area layer of land use
• A land use field that lists the land use types in each area

You can choose to display:

• An optimal breaks theme
• A 3D prism map of the theme

To install:*

1. Download the file land-use-mix-add-in.exe.
2. Double-click the executable to launch the installation.
3. Confirm that you’d like to allow the installer to make changes to your PC and follow the instructions in the installation wizard.
4. Once installed, the add-in can be launched by opening a Maptitude map and choosing Tools>GIS Developer's Kit>Add-Ins>Compute Entropy Index.

*NOTE: The add-in works only with latest version of Maptitude.

To Compute the Entropy Measure

1. If necessary, create a selection set of the zones that will be used in the analysis.
2. Choose Tools>GIS Developer's Kit>Add-Ins>Compute Entropy Index to display the Entropy Index dialog box.
3. Make choices as follows:

   To do this...	Do this...
   Choose the zones to analyze	Choose All Features or a selection set from the Records drop-down list
   Choose layers	Make a choice from the Landuse drop-down list
   Choose the land use zones to analyze	Choose All Features or a selection set from the Records drop-down list
   Choose the field with the land use	Choose a field from the Field drop-down list; otherwise, choose None
   Add a land use	Click
   Remove a land use	Highlight the land use and click

4. Make choices in the Display Options frame as follows:

   To do this...	Do this...
   Create a theme	Check Theme
   Create 3D prism maps of the theme	Check 3D Figure

5. Click OK, choose the file settings in the Output File Settings dialog box, and click OK.

Try it Yourself: Calculating Entropy

1. Choose File>Open and open the file ASHLANDUSE.WRKZ from the Tutorial folder. Maptitude displays a map of Ashland MA showing the zones, and the land uses.
2. Choose Ashland Block Group from the drop-down list on the Standard toolbar.
3. Choose Tools>GIS Developer’s Kit>Add-Ins>Compute Entropy Index to display the Entropy Index dialog box.
4. Click on the Other (Landuse 3) cell in the Values column of the grid and click .
5. Click OK to display the Output File Settings dialog box.
6. Type “My Ashland” in the File Prefix edit box and click OK. Maptitude runs the entropy analysis, estimates the square foot per land use for each zone, and displays these estimates and the color and 3D themes based on these values for each zone.
7. Choose File>Close Workspace and click No to All to close the map, dataview, and figure.