| Abstract: | Summary Previous studies of the vertical arrangement of land uses within the central areas of cities have been few, incomplete and employed crude methods of analysis. The present study employs 24 categories of land uses and analyses their distribution over 50 floor levels in Sydney's central district. To model the data, the gamma distribution is employed, being a flexible curve type. With only trifling exceptions, this distribution represents the data remarkably well. The two parameters of the fitted curves are interpreted as: (a) a measure of the propensity of a use to be accommodated over a wide range of floor levels, and (b) as a measure of resistance to height. The values of the parameters are used to define, using a clustering algorithm, groups of uses having members characterized by the most similar floor level arrangement. The results are of major importance for three reasons: First, the degree of regularity in the way establishments seek locations in the height dimension has not been discovered before. Second, the gamma‐distribution offers utility in modelling vertical location and should be useful in testing aspects of different town planning policies on plot ratios. Third, draconian town planning restrictions imposed on height controls may introduce locational inefficiencies hitherto unsuspected. |
