Local Betweenness Centrality Analysis of 30 European Cities

Abstract: Urban morphology and socioeconomic aspects of cities have been explored by analysing urban street network. To analyse the network, several variations of the centrality indices are often used. However, its nature has not yet been widely studied, thus leading to an absence of robust visualisation method of urban road network characteristics. To fill this gap, we propose to use a set of local betweenness centrality and a new simple and robust visualisation method. By analysing 30 European cities, we found that our method illustrates common structures of the cities: road segments important for long-distance transportations are concentrated along larger streets while those for short range transportations form clusters around CBD, historical, or residential districts. Quantitative analysis has corroborated these findings. Our findings are useful for urban planners and decision-makers to understand the current situation of the city and make informed decisions.