Bologna city center

The city center includes all the area inside the original Bologna’s wall layout, composed of the following zones: Marconi, Malpighi, Irnerio and Galvani. In this scenario, it has been hypotesized the placement of 20 possible green cells.

Default configuration

In the default parameter configuration we have imposed that only 20% of the streets and 80% of the yards were available, in each cell, to insert new green areas. Furthermore, in the macro factor we have imposed that the weight of the population density and the green space already present is the same, 0.5 each.

../../_images/macro_factor.png — Macro factor heatmap

../../_images/default_center.png — Resulting TGCs, utility graduated

As was foreseeable, the majority of cells, and those with the higher utility, have been placed on zones with higher density population. This is expected, since in the 8 district in the city center there is a more or less equal distribution of the green areas and spaces where it is possible to place new green areas.

Green enhanced

Enhancing the green parameter of the macro factor, with respect to the density, we can note how some cells are now individuated in the areas lacking of green. And, the utility scale grading is now a little bit different.

../../_images/macro_factor_higher_green.png — Macro factor heatmap

../../_images/higher_green.png — Resulting TGCs, utility graduated

Density enhanced

Enhancing the density parameter of the macro factor, with respect to the green, we can note how some cells are placed with respect to density, so as the macro factor slightly change.

../../_images/macro_factor_higher_density.png — Macro factor heatmap

../../_images/higher_density.png — Resulting TGCs, utility graduated

No yard

Removing the yard from the availability to place new green areas has been experimented, by setting at 0 the corresponding parameter in the utility function.

../../_images/no_yard.png — Resulting TGCs, utility graduated

As expected, this experiment produces a strong change in the results, since all the cells are now placed entirely on the streets, with a focus on larger ones. Good candidates in this case are “Via Guglielmo Marconi”, “Via Irnerio” and the crossroads in the immediate nearby of the Bologna central train station.

No street

Also removing the streets from the availability to place new green areas has been experimented, by setting at 0 the corresponding parameter in the utility function. This experiment does not produce a strong change in the results, due to the already small amount of streets available to build on.

../../_images/no_street.png — Resulting TGCs, utility graduated

Conclusion

Overall, as shown in the images, in the city center we are not going to encounter strong changes throught the different experiments. This is not a surprise, since the area under examination is small, as long as the number of new cells.

However, combined or custom configurations can be tested to explore the behavior of the model, even if this study is focused on checking the impact of each parameter change. Furthermore, no “fancy” experiments have been made, such as using the 100% of roads, since they are not realistic in a real-world case.