Welcome to Blog 3
Summary of Concept Map
In my concept, I used urban design, natural environment, and transportation to represent the three dimensions of planning. I used different colors and icons to represent each of the planning dimensions. Also, I used lines to connect each component to the dimensions. For the urban design, I used the color blue and building icon, for the natural environment I used the color green and tree/leaf icons, and for transportation, I used the color gray and train icon. These three dimensions represent the city’s health and vitality where they all are connected by a black line. In my concept map, urban design and natural environment are connected to each other through ‘zoning’ and ‘keep factories away from residential areas’. These two are connected because to keep the environment safe by keeping factories away from residential areas can be achieved through zoning. Transportation and the natural environment are connected through ‘traffic’ and ‘public transportation’. These two are connected because through public transportation the traffic can low and public transportation is good for the environment and transportations. Urban design and transportation are connected through ‘School, Library, Police and Fire stations’ and ‘Economic development’. These two are connected because having a good school system and public safety can with economic development which can be achieved through urban design and transportation. Finally, urban design, transportation, and the natural environment are connected through ‘Improve the quality of people’s lives’, ‘social needs’, and ‘keep factories away from the residential area’. These three are connected because one component needs another and without one it will be hard to achieve the other ones.
Cities: Skylines simulator
Skylines does a wonderful job capturing these interactions because in the game there are many tools that let the user know how their city it is doing. For example, the happiness tap where lets the user know if people are in his city are happy or not, and by clicking there it highlights all the people who are happy and who are not. This tab also tells is small businesses and industries are doing in the city. There are other tools that help with capturing these interactions too. For example, adding bus stations/routes, schools, libraries, and parks increases happiness we know this because when we add these in the simulation, we get green happy faces. Whereas adding factories and fossil fuel industries takes happiness away and we know this because when we add these, we get red sad faces. So, overall Skylines does a good job showing these interactions, especially in the zoning. In my Skylines, I can see how zoning has affected traffics, pollution, and high population because I have built high-density buildings in a small area which causes all these problems. Even though Skylines gives us almost full control of the city, which is good for a game but in reality, it won’t fit. For example, in the game, we can destroy a whole part of the city where it is running smoothly, and we will be fine. The happiness might drop a little but we can still do it but in real life that is not possible and there are rules which will stop someone from doing it.
Public transportation
Keeping factories away from residential areas
Use of clean energy (natural environment)