Topological Qualities of Urban Streets and the Image of the City: A Multi-Perspective Approach

Previous studies of the influence of topological qualities of urban street network on the image of the city are based mainly on centrality and connectivity measures taken from graph theory. The paper suggests instead a multi-perspective approach combining graph theory and Q-analysis. Although Q-analysis shares some similarity with graph theory, it enables us to deal with a multidimensional chain of connectivity. The suggested approach is applied to the case of the city of Tel Aviv by using a geographic database of the street network and subjective data acquired from Tel Aviv residents' production of sketch maps. The study's findings provide preliminary evidence for the relevance of the multi-perspective approach for understanding the relationships between structural qualities of the street network and the image of the city from local and global levels.