Mixed Uses

Accessible via Processing > Cityseer > Mixed Uses. Computes land-use diversity metrics within distance thresholds along the street network, from a point or polygon data layer with a land-use category column.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
Street network line layer	A line layer in a projected metre-based CRS	(required)
Data layer	A point or polygon layer containing land-use features	(required)
Land-use category field	Text column containing the land-use category for each feature	(required)
Distance thresholds	Comma-separated distances in metres	400,800
Max assignment distance	Maximum distance (metres) to snap data points to the nearest street segment	400
Use simplest path (angular)	Use angular (simplest) paths instead of shortest (metric) paths	False
Hill diversity	Compute Hill diversity at q = 0, 1, 2. q0 counts distinct reachable land uses.	True
Shannon entropy	Advanced. Prefer Hill q = 1 unless you specifically need entropy.	False
Gini-Simpson	Advanced. Prefer Hill q = 2 unless you specifically need it.	False
Boundary polygon	Optional polygon layer. Nodes inside the boundary are used as sources.	(none)
Decay expression	Advanced. Distance-decay weighting for Hill diversity. Default 1 weights all reachable features equally.	1
Time thresholds	Advanced. Comma-separated minutes; overrides distances when set. Converted using the walking speed.	(none)
Walking speed	Advanced. Metres per second, used to convert minutes to distances.	1.33

Output

The output is a line layer with the original street segments and diversity values as attributes:

cc_hill_q0_<distance>[_ang]   -> count of distinct reachable land uses
cc_hill_q1_<distance>[_ang]   -> Hill diversity of order 1 (exponential of Shannon)
cc_hill_q2_<distance>[_ang]   -> Hill diversity of order 2 (inverse Simpson)
cc_shannon_<distance>[_ang]   -> Shannon entropy (if enabled)
cc_gini_<distance>[_ang]      -> Gini-Simpson diversity (if enabled)

Hill diversity is the recommended measure: q = 0 is generally the best choice for granular land-use data, and higher orders progressively discount rare categories. Shannon and Gini-Simpson are provided under the advanced parameters for comparability with older studies; the Hill equivalents (q = 1 and q = 2) are preferable in most cases. See the land-use guide for interpretation.