Abstract:
In developing countries, rapid urbanization and sprawling require authorities to assess
the sustainability and development of the cities from different perspectives so that they
can develop a solution for policy and decision-making. The research proposes gravitybased
accessibility measures to figure out the influencing factors and for the
categorization of cities` subdivisions from the perspectives of urban land use and
transport road network. GIS and statistical software programs-based is used in the
methodology. The research follows a quantitative approach for sustainable and
balanced urban development. Basically, the methodology involves four steps: first,
primary and secondary data collection, which are land use data, population data, road
network data and shop data. Second, integrating required data into ArcGIS to obtain
land use proportion, critical center point, shortest O-D distance, road network length,
and intersection density. Third, analyzing accessibility within the study area using an
existing gravity-based model for each kebele and for each significant land use type.
Lastly, modeling accessibility by incorporating influencing factors into a gravity-based
model. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to verify the statistical and
theoretical significance of the proposed variables during modeling. The result revealed
that when a kebele hosts diverse land-use (availability of almost all land use types), its
accessibility becomes very high. Most kebeles around the periphery have lower
accessibility performance, and unless special attention is given, their impact on the
downtown becomes greater to fulfill their needs. An average accessibility score, which
is the average of all available significant land-use types accessibility value within a
kebele, can express a kebele`s performance when any significant land use type does not
exist within a kebele in the study area. This can consider a user’s opportunity to access
the neighborhood. A total accessibility score, which is the summation of all available
significant land-use types accessibility value within a kebele, can show a kebele`s land
use diversification, relative location from the center, and land use development.
Key words: Average accessibility score, GIS, Gravity-based, Urban land-use, Multiple
regression, Transport road network, Total accessibility score