Identification of New Urban Centers by Using Taxonomic Methods
Identification of New Urban Centers by Using Taxonomic Methods

Summary/Abstract: Research background: In recent years, the return of city and suburbs dwellers to city centers has been observed. This phenomenon is caused in particular by the growing costs of transport and time spent on commuting. From this point of view, it seems interesting to observe the prices of properties located in the suburbs in relation to the prices of properties located around city centers and to examine their similarity. The center, however, should not be identified solely as the Old Town but rather as a certain area in which the professional, cultural and private life of the citizens is concentrated. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find a method of identifying new city centers that allow developers to create a pricing map and, consequently, to determine the appropriate price level on the primary market. At the same time, it should help appraisers to capture the relationship between values of the properties located in different parts of a city. Research methodology: The purpose of this study is achieved by deploying a taxonomic method (the modified density method) to identify new (or created) urban centers. The analysis is applied to the city of Wrocław. Results: The findings reveal that it is clearly possible to identify visually clusters constituting new city centers by using the applied method. It is also possible to indicate in an analytical way the central location of a given center. The main advantage of the applied approach is that it is of universal use, suitable both for cities where one city center dominates, and for those where the dominant center is not present and is represented, for example, by the coastline of a sea. Novelty: The density measure presented in the paper allows identifying city centers in an analytical way, based on given conditions. Habitants usually feel where the local center is, but it is not obvious how the prices of residentials might spread out in space according to those centers. The measure can be easily modified by introducing new features that characterize the centers.

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