The Organization of Urban Space and Socio-Economic Characteristics: A Graph Theory-Based Empirical Study Using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis

The relationship between the socio-economic factors and the organization of urban space has not received adequate attention in the literature. This study aims to answer the question: Is the organization of urban space associated with social and economic characteristics? The city of Izmir, Turkey, has been selected as the study area and the neighborhoods over 300 in number are grouped into 6 clusters based on their similarities pertaining to the social and economic indicators using hierarchical cluster analysis. The neighborhoods which are closest to the cluster centers selected as the cluster representatives. The organization of space in the representative neighborhoods is quantified using graph theory indices. The results from the ANOVA performed at the global level (or at the neighborhood level) and the post hoc Fisher's least significant difference tests performed at the local level (or at the node or edge level) both reveal that neighborhoods with different social and economic characteristics have different spatial organizations, and they are different in terms of the network accessibility levels measured through graph theory indices. The findings clearly indicate more developed social and economic conditions co-exist with more developed network topologies. The empirical findings of the present study put forward that the planning process is far from providing similar urban spatial organizations for people that differ in social and economic characteristics, and that is a major real-life problem. It is clear that we cannot and should not enforce similar spatial layouts in all neighborhoods, but we can work for achieving a heterogeneous social and economic structure within each neighborhood through urban policies and development plans. The method described in this study can then be used to assess the degree of success in achieving this aim.