Social Sustainability and the Built EnvironmentThematic Topic: Sustainability in the Liberal Arts

JUAN G. YUNDA - Phd Student Community and Regional Planning, School of Architecture

1. Measuring Household Income Diversity in New York City through the Simpson Diversity Index (SDI)

2. Assessing the Relationship between Built Environment and levels of Income Diversity using OrdinaryLeast Squares (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR)

6th Annual Sustainability Symposium - The University of Texas at Austin

Population Density and Income Diversity

Mix of Use and Income Diversity

“The Social Sustainability of Cities have been defined as a development that is harmonious with the evolution of civil society, fostering an environment conductive to the compatible cohabitation of culturally and socially diverse groups while at the same time encouraging social integration with improvements in the quality of life for all seg-ments of the population” (Polese and Stren, 2000; Bramley et al. 2006; Dave, 2011)

The map shows the census tracts of New York City colored by their SDI score. The Simpson Diversity Index measures the probability of picking out randomly two individuals belonging to the same category. Categories were the number of households with annual expenditures that account either more, the same or less than their income. Data was obtained from the American Community Survey 2013. Methodology was based on: Talen, E. (2006) Neighborhood-Level Social Diversity: Insights from Chicago, Journal of the American Planning Association, 72:4, 431-446.

A statistical OLS regression was em-ployed to predict the diversity scores of the SDI using the population density data for each census tract. The predictive margins of the OLS regression show a quadratic curve that associates built envi-ronment characteristics like population density or land use with the household income diversity.

Through GWR analysis we can assess if the relationship among the variables of

the built environment and the household income diversity is non stationary

across the city. The diagrams show that for population density the relationship is stronger in the peripheral areas than in the center. For the variety of the build-

ing’s age the pattern is the opposite. These results show the impact of the

rising prices of land in Manhattan and the gentrification trends in the boroughs.

BIBLIOGRAPHYBramley, G., Dempsey, N., Power, S., Brown, C., & Watkins, D. (2009). Social sustainability and urban form: evidence from five British cities. Environment and Planning. A, 41(9), 2125. Retrieved from http://envplan.com/epa/fulltext/a41/a4184.pdfDave, S. (2011). Neighbourhood density and social sustainability in cities of developing countries.-Sustainable Development,19(3), 189–205. http://doi.org/10.1002/sd.433Jacobs, J. (1961). The death and life of great American cities. Vintage BooksTalen, E. (2005). Land Use Zoning and Human Diversity: Exploring the Connection. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 131(4), 214–232. http://doi.org/10.1061/(AS-CE)0733-9488(2005)131:4(214)Talen, E. (2006a). Neighborhood-level social diversity: Insights from Chicago. Journal of the Ameri-can Planning Association, 72(4), 431–446. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/-doi/abs/10.1080/01944360608976764

PLACES OF INCOME HOMOGENEITY PLACES OF INCOME DIVERSITY

Manhattan - Upper East Side Huds

on R

iver

MANHATTAN QUEENS

BROOKLYN

THEBRONX

East River

INCOME HOMOGENEITY

INCOME DIVERSITY

Manhattan - Soho, Tribeca

Brooklyn - Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn - Sunset Park

Queens - Jackson Heights

The Bronx - Crotona, Morrisania

GWR Building Age Variety and Income Diversity

GWR Population Density and Income Diversity

LEFT

RIGHT

Talen, E. (2006b). Design That Enables Diversity: The Complications of a Planning Ideal. Journal of Planning Literature,20(3), 233–249. http://doi.org/10.1177/0885412205283104Talen, E. (2010). The Context of Diversity: A Study of Six Chicago Neighbourhoods. Urban Studies, 47(3), 486–513. http://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009349778Talen, E. (2012). Design for diversity. Routledge. Tarbatt, J. (2012). The Plot: Designing Diversity in the Built Environment : a Manual for Architects and Urban Designers. RIBA Publishing.Sharifi, A., & Murayama, A. (2013). Changes in the traditional urban form and the social sustainability of contemporary cities: A case study of Iranian cities.Habitat International, 38, 126–134. http://-doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2012.05.007Zukin, S. (2009). Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places. Oxford University Press