From Accessibility to Allocation: An Integrated Workflow for Land-Use Assignment and FAR Estimation

2026-02-02

AI Summary

This study addresses the frequent lack of auditable linkage between urban land-use and building intensity planning and street network accessibility, which hinders ex ante policy evaluation. The authors propose a three-stage framework: first, block-level accessibility is quantified using multiscale street centrality measures; second, land uses are allocated via rule-based assignment incorporating constraints on minimum parcel size and average floor area ratio (FAR); third, development intensity is configured through an accessibility-weighted linear FAR model. This approach enables transparent counterfactual simulation and multi-objective trade-off analysis. Applied to a real-world urban area, the framework successfully reproduces observed commercial corridors and industrial belts while concentrating development intensity in highly connected zones. Pareto-optimal scenarios are generated that jointly enhance accessibility and respect aggregate controls on land use and built volume.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Search and Optimization: Sampling/Simulation-based Search
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Constraint Optimization

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods to enhance, augment, integrate or synergize semantic models such as knowledge graphs and LLMs

Abstract

Urban land use and building intensity are often planned without a direct, auditable link to network accessibility, limiting ex-ante policy evaluation. This study asks whether multi-radius street centralities can be elevated from diagnosis to design lever to allocate land use and floor area in a transparent, optimization-ready workflow. We introduce a three-stage pipeline that connects configuration to program and intensity. First, multi-radius accessibility is computed on the street network and translated to blocks to provide scale-legible measures of reach. Second, these measures structure nested service basins that guide a rule-based placement of land uses with explicit priorities and minimum parcel footprints, ensuring reproducibility. Third, within each use, floor-area ratio (FAR) is assigned by an accessibility-weighted linear model that satisfies global construction totals while anchoring the average FAR, thereby tilting height toward better-connected blocks without pathological extremes. The framework supports multi-objective policy search via sampling and Pareto screening. Applied to a real urban district, the workflow reproduces corridor-biased commercial siting and industrial belts while concentrating intensity on highly connected blocks. Policy sampling via multi-objective screening yields Pareto-efficient plans that reconcile accessibility gains with deviations from target land-share and construction-share structures. The contribution is twofold: methodologically, it translates familiar space-syntax measures into cluster-aware, rule-governed land-use and FAR assignment with explicit guarantees (scale-legible radii, parcel minima, and an average-FAR anchor). Practically, it offers planners a transparent instrument for counterfactual testing and negotiated trade-offs at neighborhood/district/city scales.

Problem

• land-use allocation
• floor area ratio
• network accessibility
• urban planning
• policy evaluation

Innovation

• multi-radius accessibility
• land-use allocation
• floor area ratio (FAR) estimation
• rule-based urban planning
• Pareto-efficient policy search