Descriptions of the characteristics of the built environment assist in
determining accessibility, and aid in assessment of urban form. Determining
the relationship of urban form with levels of accessibility requires
measures that allow contrasts in urban environments to be described.
Features such as pedestrian-oriented design, high levels of public
transport, and the proximity to destinations (such as services and jobs)
could reasonably be expected to influence mode choice.
Computing the Entropy Measure
Entropy is useful for quantifying access to different land use
types. It measures the evenness of distribution of the land-uses
present in the study region. The entropy measure is used to quantify
land-use balance. It ranges from 0 to 1 and captures how evenly the
square footage of the land use types for the study area are
distributed within a zone.
To compute the entropy measure you will need:
- An area layer of zones
- An area layer of land use
- A land use field that lists the land use types in each area
You can choose to display:
- An optimal breaks theme
- A 3D prism map of the theme
To install:*
- Download the file land-use-mix-add-in.exe.
- Double-click the executable to launch the installation.
- Confirm that you’d like to allow the installer to make changes to
your PC and follow the instructions in the installation wizard.
- Once installed, the add-in can be launched by opening a Maptitude
map and choosing Tools>GIS Developer's
Kit>Add-Ins>Compute Entropy Index.
*NOTE: The add-in works only with Maptitude 2024.
To Compute the Entropy Measure
- If necessary, create a selection set of
the zones that will be used in the analysis.
- Choose Tools>GIS Developer's
Kit>Add-Ins>Compute Entropy Index to display the
Entropy Index dialog box.
- Make choices as
follows:
| To do this... |
Do this... |
| Choose the zones to analyze |
Choose All Features or a selection set
from the Records drop-down list |
| Choose layers | Make a
choice from the Landuse drop-down list |
| Choose the land use zones to
analyze | Choose All Features or a selection set
from the Records drop-down list |
| Choose the field with the land
use | Choose a field from the Field drop-down
list; otherwise, choose None |
| Add a land use | Click
 |
| Remove a land use |
Highlight the land use and click
 |
- Make choices in the Display Options
frame as follows:
| To do this... |
Do this... |
| Create a theme | Check
Theme |
| Create 3D prism maps of the
theme |
Check 3D Figure |
- Click OK, choose the
file settings in the Output File Settings dialog box, and click
OK.
Try it Yourself: Calculating Entropy
- Choose File>Open and open the file
ASHLANDUSE.WRKZ from the Tutorial folder. Maptitude displays a map
of Ashland MA showing the zones, and the land uses.
- Choose Ashland Block Group from the drop-down
list on the Standard toolbar.
- Choose Tools>GIS Developer’s Kit>Add-Ins>Compute Entropy Index
to display the Entropy Index dialog box.
- Click on the Other (Landuse 3) cell in the
Values column of the grid and click
.
- Click OK to display the Output File Settings
dialog box.
- Type “My Ashland” in the File Prefix edit box and click
OK. Maptitude runs the entropy analysis, estimates the
square foot per land use for each zone, and displays these estimates
and the color and 3D themes based on these values for each zone.
- Choose File>Close Workspace and click
No to All to close the map, dataview, and figure.
