Measuring land-use variables in the transport–land-use interaction

This chapter overviews the most important concepts associated with the measurement of land-use variables. After detailing land-use measures common to transport–land-use studies and past typologies proposed to categorize these metrics, a discussion of various strategies for defining the spatial scale of these land-use phenomena and the value in accounting for their temporal condition is offered. A general description is given of primary and secondary land-use data sources, with attention given to the benefits and drawbacks of data supplied at national or local geographies. Land-use data unavailability and resource limitations subsequently lead to the challenges in land-use measurement and analyses raised in this chapter. Yet the prospect of addressing these notable impediments to land-use measurement lie in the transformations and trends found in more recent transport–land-use studies, including the use of non-traditional quantitative and qualitative data to produce land-use measures sensitive to temporal conditions.