ABSTRACT

It is surprising difficult to define where a city center lies, yet its location has a profound effect on a city’s structure and function. We examine whether city center typicality points can be consistently located on historical maps such that their centroid identifies a meaningful central location over a 500-year period in Southampton, UK. We compare movements of this city center centroid against changes in the geographical center of the city as defined by its boundary. Southampton’s historical maps were georectified with a mean accuracy of 21 m (range 9.9 to 47 m), and 18 to 102 typicality points were identified per map, enough to chart changes in the city center centroid through time. Over nearly 500 years, Southampton’s center has moved just 343 m, often corresponding with the key retail attractants of the time, while its population has increased 80-fold, its administrative area 60-fold and its geographical center moved 1985 m. This inertia to change in the city center presents environmental challenges for the present-day, made worse by the geography of Southampton, bounded by the sea, rivers and major roads. Geographical context, coupled with planning decisions in the past that maintain a city center in its historical location, place limits on the current sustainability of a city.

摘要

很难定义市中心的位置，但是其位置对城市的结构和功能产生了深远的影响。我们研究了市中心典型点是否可以始终位于历史地图上，从而使它们的质心标识了英国南安普敦市500年期间的有意义的中心位置。我们比较了该城市中心质心的运动与由其边界定义的城市地理中心的变化。对南安普敦的历史地图进行了地理校正，平均精度为21 m（范围为9.9至47 m），每张地图确定了18至102个典型点，足以绘制随时间变化的市中心质心。在近500年的时间里，南安普敦的中心仅移动了343 m，通常与当时的主要零售吸引者相对应，人口增加了80倍，行政区域增加了60倍，地理中心移到1985 m。市中心变化的惯性为当今的环境带来了挑战，南安普敦的地理条件更加严峻，该地区以海洋，河流和主要道路为边界。地理环境以及过去将城市中心保持在其历史位置的规划决策，限制了城市当前的可持续性。