Identifying Clusters of Complex Urban–Rural Issues as Part of Policy Making Process Using a Network Analysis Approach: A Case Study in Bahía de Los Ángeles, Mexico

Javier Sandoval, Manuel Castañón-Puga, Carelia Gaxiola-Pacheco and Eugenio Dante Suarez
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Javier Sandoval: Computer Engineering Department, Autonomous University of Baja California, 22390 Tijuana, B.C., Mexico
Manuel Castañón-Puga: Computer Engineering Department, Autonomous University of Baja California, 22390 Tijuana, B.C., Mexico
Carelia Gaxiola-Pacheco: Computer Engineering Department, Autonomous University of Baja California, 22390 Tijuana, B.C., Mexico
Eugenio Dante Suarez: Finance & Decision Sciences Department, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX 78212, USA

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Improving human settlements diagnosis is a key factor in effective urban planning and the design of efficient policy making. In this paper, we illustrate how network theory concepts can be applied to reveal the topological structure of functional relationships in a network of heterogeneous urban–rural issues. This mapping is done using clustering algorithms and centrality value techniques. By analyzing emergent groups of urban–rural related issues, our methodology was applied to a rural community, considering in this exercise environmental matters and real estate interests as a way to better understand the structure of salient issues in the context of its urban development program design. Results show clusters that arrange themselves not by an obvious similarity in their constituent components, but by relations observed in urban–rural settings that hint on the issues that the urban development program must focus. Due to its complex nature, the classification of these emerging clusters and how they must be treated in traditional planning instruments is a new challenge that this novel methodology reveals.

Keywords: clustering; urban issues; complexity; public policy; network theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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