diff --git a/src/overview.md b/src/overview.md index cc9ba51..d974824 100644 --- a/src/overview.md +++ b/src/overview.md @@ -54,3 +54,63 @@ darker, blue or violet colours. The control panel includes an "Explain Layer" button which opens a text panel explaining details of the chosen variable. ## Transform + +The [Transform page](https://urbananalyst.city/transform) enables the +properties of any chosen city to be transformed to reflect equivalent +properties of some chosen "target" city. This page is best explained by an +example. Looking at the [Compare page](https://urbananalyst.city/compare) for +the "bike index" shows that Berlin has relatively poor bicycle infrastructure, +while Paris is a very good city for cyclists. The +[Transform page](https://urbananalyst.city/transform) can be used to visualise +how Berlin could best transform its current bicycle infrastructure to have an +overall distribution across the whole city equivalent to Paris. Conversely, +Paris has poorer access to natural spaces than Berlin, and the page could also +be used to examine how Paris could best transform its access to natural spaces +so that it functioned more like Berlin. + +Urban Analyst values displayed in the [Map page](https://urbananalyst.city/map) +are aggregated from generally hundreds of thousands of individual calculations +at every street junction in each city. For the chosen variable, subsets of +these individual data points are sampled from each city, and the statistical +distribution for the chosen city is then transformed by changing each point by +the smallest amount possible so that they reflect the distribution in the +target city. These values are then aggregated into the polygons defined for the +city, to produce a visual representation of the least-cost transformation that +would be necessary for the city to have the same distribution as that of the +target city. The transformation algorithm is described in detail in the final +[*Software and Algorithms* chapter](./software.md). + +### Extra Layers + +The [Transform page](https://urbananalyst.city/transform) includes an +additional button labelled *Extra Layers*. The transformations described above +described transforming single layers or variables. The *Extra Layers* panel +enables transformations not just of single chosen variables, but also of their +relationships with other variables. Examining the [Compare +page](https://urbananalyst.city/compare), for example, shows that not only does +Paris provide poorer access to natural spaces than Berlin, but also that Berlin +has a better relationship between access to natural spaces and social +disadvantage. (This can be seen by clicking on the "*Paired*" layer option and +selecting those two layers.) The *Extra Layers* panel can be used in this case +to examine not just how Paris might best transform its access to nature to look +more like Berlin, but also how it might also improve its relationship between +access to nature and social disadvantage. + +By default, values of *Extra Layers* are automatically selected as those which +have better relationships in the target city. These default values will thus +change for each choice of target city and focal layer. It may be necessary to +click on the "Reset" button in the *Extra Layers* panel to update this default +selection after changing any of these options. + +### Output Layer + +Finally, the [Transform page](https://urbananalyst.city/transform) also has an +*Output Layer* option at the bottom of the control panel. This enables results +of the transformation algorithm to be displayed in one of four ways: + +1. *Original* to show original values, prior to transformation; +2. *Transformed* to show the actual transformed values; +3. *Absolute* to show the absolute value by which each are in the city would + have to be transformed to match the distribution in the target city; and +4. *Relative*, which displays the absolute transformation values relative to + the original, untransformed values.