Centrality assessment of neighbourhood commercial areas in Iskandar Malaysia

Abstract

Centrality is an indices to evaluate the centralization of the components in a layout plan. Centrality of a component in a neighborhood also has its own influence in residents travel behavior. Centralized component, especially for commercial area also tend to create a center of attraction within the neighborhood. The decentralized commercial area will contribute to extra trip, consequently adding up the travel-induced carbon emission. Thus, this study reveals the current layout design of the selected neighborhood in Iskandar Malaysia in term of the Reach Centrality which is one of centrality measures. This paper aims to identify the distribution pattern of neighborhood commercial areas and assessing their Reach Centrality, RC condition. Using Urban Network Analysis extension for ArcGis 10.1 to run the analysis, result will be presented in graphical images that locate the location of area that have best RC value. Although most of the research that studied Centrality using regional scale, this study used neighborhood scale to give clearer view of current condition in neighborhood layout design. This study reveals that those commercial areas are not located in central location in terms of Reach centrality assessment. This situation currently contributes to the increase of travel carbon emission for local residents.