Shaw, D T (1989) SITE CODE: A knowledge-based model of municipal site development regulations for computer-aided design. PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Abstract
A comparative study of the legal framework of site development regulations in Austin, Texas, San Diego, California, and Fairfax County, Virginia was undertaken to gain insight to the generic structure of such regulations, and to study how regulations could be incorporated into systems for computer-aided design. This study showed that the legal framework of site development regulation can be used to create an organizational system for regulations. The organizational system is utilized to isolate the subset of regulations that are applicable to a given site development project, and is based on: (1) the geographic district in which a regulation is applicable, (2) the time period during which a regulation is effective, and (3) the administrative or legal process (zoning, subdivision, or site review) with which a regulation is associated. Additionally, a relationship is identified between the amount of regulatory discretion available to a municipal government and the types of knowledge sources from which site design requirements are derived. This relationship has important implications on knowledge engineering and the practical development of automated regulatory information systems. Based on the results of the comparative study, conceptual models of a land development permitting process and a substantive design regulation are formulated. A knowledge-based computer model of a municipal site development code is created using the conceptual models as guidelines. This computer application, called SITE CODE, extracts from the regulatory knowledge base all regulations which are applicable to a particular development project. The SITE CODE architecture includes data entities called "regulation objects" which symbolize substantive regulations. A regulation object is linked to a set of rules representing the logic of the regulation, and possesses information used to determine if the regulation is potentially applicable to a given project. A matrix interface allows the user to obtain information contained in the regulations by initiating the evaluation of rules linked to selected classes of regulation objects. Determining which design requirements affect different areas of a single site requires a geometric representation of the site, and necessitates interaction between models of site geometry and regional geography.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Maidment, D R |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | computer-aided design; government; information system; regulation |
| Index terms: | computer application, municipal government, geometry, interaction, comparative study, knowledge base, information system, regulation, zoning, land development, computer aided design |
| Subjects: | administrative law, political science, information systems, behavioral psychology, software systems, urban planning, real estate economics, computational design, research design and methodology, mathematical modelling |
| Topics: | Governance, Research Practice, Urban Studies, Digital Applications, Legal Issues |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here