City Evolution - digital

Image 2013. http://opendalston.blogspot.co.uk/ How is the conservation movement doing today? Have the post-war campaigns which correctly predicted the socio-economic benefits of saving areas such as Covent Garden, Parliament Square and Soho, along with thousands of buildings/areas across the UK, changed planning for the better? Almost built proposals for Covent Garden (left) and Parliament Square (right). James Woodward with PHD. Almost Lost' exhibition. English Heritage 201

There is a now a growing awareness that knowledge of a city's past is necessary to predict and plan for its future. Evolution animations can rapidly visualise vast amounts of historical spatial data across unlimited time periods. They allow historical patterns of development and demolition (in both our cities and our local areas) to be better understood and to be debated more widely. Below we show three examples produced for London. The London Evolution Animation (2012) The L

This is our second CASA blog on the release of comprehensive open footprint data for the UK. In our earlier post we looked value of this dataset for the intelligent cities debate and the potential of OS Open Map Local (OML) to accelerate comprehensive cover. We also identified a quick method of creating detailed open footprints for local areas/local communities, by merging OML with out of copyright historical maps. Using OML and INSPIRE to create open footprints for England a

One of the greatest impediments to innovation in the UK in terms of sustainable city development continues to involve lack of access to open building footprint data. All cities are made up of buildings. Like cells and atoms these constitute recognisable granular building blocks which collectively do much to determine a city's appearance, character, health and potential. Gathering data on a these buildings, and understanding the contribution of each to the city as a whole, is