A Synthetic Approach

Despite the burgeoning interests in studying mixed land uses and their relationship with individual and community outcomes in disciplines such as landscape ecology and the environment, transportation, health outcomes, and housing markets, there is a paucity of research on the measurement of such mixed land use. In this paper we provided a synthetic examination of an array of land use mix measures which would tap various dimensions of the urban land use mixture. We classified existing indices as measures of accessibility, intensity and pattern. With the purpose of evaluating the measures, we also applied selected measures in an empirical case study. Our review and the empirical application provide insights for researchers and practitioners regarding the appropriateness of particular measures for particular purposes. We propose three criteria for choosing the measures: the extent to which a measure captures the presence or configuration of land uses, practical considerations including data collection, amount of computation and ease of communicability, and connection between the measures and the purpose of the investigation.