Revealing Social Values by 3D City Visualization in City Transformations

Abstract

Social sustainability is a widely used concept in urban planning research and practice. However, knowledge of spatial distributions of social values and aspects of social sustainability is required. Visualization of these distributions is also highly valuable, but challenging, and rarely attempted in sparsely populated urban environments in rural areas. This article presents a method that highlights social values in spatial models through 3D visualization, describes the methodology to generate the models, and discusses potential applications. The models were created using survey, building, infrastructure and demographic data for Gällivare, Sweden, a small city facing major transformation due to mining subsidence. It provides an example of how 3D models of important social sustainability indices can be designed to display citizens' attitudes regarding their financial status, the built environment, social inclusion and welfare services. The models helped identify spatial variations in perceptions of the built environment that correlate (inter alia) with closeness to certain locations, gender and distances to public buildings. Potential uses of the model for supporting efforts by practitioners, researchers and citizens to visualize and understand social values in similar urban environments are discussed, together with ethical issues (particularly regarding degrees of anonymity) concerning its wider use for inclusive planning.

Co-creative place innovation in an arctic town

“…Public policy in Sweden and elsewhere increasingly prescribe involvement of local communities in planning processes (Nilsson, 2010b). This is part of a general promotion of social, ecological and economic sustainability in urban planning (Hidman, 2018; Johansson et al , 2016; Nilsson, 2017). Studies of inclusive innovation and design highlight various approaches to broadened involvement in development processes, in regard to represented actors, applied perspectives and aspired outcomes (Heeks et al , 2014; Lindberg, 2018; Nyseth and Viken, 2009; Wikberg Nilsson and Jahnke, 2018).…”

Evaluation of the Supply-Side Efficiency of China’s Real Estate Market: A Data Envelopment Analysis

“…Therefore, determining how to use existing land resources to improve development efficiency is particularly important. In practice, on the one hand, it is possible to adopt the method of adjusting the market structure, such as revitalizing urban stock land, and encouraging the development and utilization of urban underground space through three-dimensional development [53,54], multiple land use, and circulation utilization [33,55]. At the same time, the redevelopment of urban low-efficiency land should be actively supported, and the transformation of shantytowns, urban villages, and old factories should be accelerated [56,57].…”

Impacts of Urban Institutions of Higher Education on the Community: A Social Approach

“…However, studies on sustainable developement mainly focus on the associations between this concern and environmental and/or economic issues (e.g. Johansson, Segerstedt & Jakobsson, 2016;Reed & Wilkinson, 2005;Yu, Tong, Tang, Yuan & Chen, 2018). Researchers have found that society has also had some interactions with other fields as environmental and/or economic changes have some influences on humans and vice versa (Cook & Esuna, 2014).…”