Abstract

Delineation of Urban Neighborhoods
Track: Urban and Regional Planning
Authors: Zachary Beus

This project aims to determine if historically designated urban neighborhood boundaries conform to the characteristics of its inhabitants. Using census data, this project examines twenty-six socioeconomic and demographic variables in an attempt to delineate coherent urban neighborhoods within the cities of the District of Columbia, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles. An advanced Grouping Analysis tool developed by Esri will be used to analyze the data and to identify possible boundary changes. The results are expected to yield new urban neighborhood boundaries in all three cities, thus highlighting socioeconomic shifts in different urban settings. These results will provide useful insight into neighborhood delineation to city planners, local policy makers, community leaders, and social scientists. Additionally, the established methodology could be used as a cost-effective and time-saving approach when attempting to conduct similar analysis in other cities.