Urban Development and Complexity: Shannon Entropy as a Measure of Diversity

Shannon entropy is offered here to establish an urban diversity indicator using the city of Sheffield, UK as an illustrative case. Diversity is calculated for several time periods throughout the city’s evolution and provides a means to evaluate the ‘mix’ of green and urban space throughout its expansion and development. Secondly, three statistics models are developed to open discussion around alternative forms of urban development extrapolating from early settlement origins to the present day; these include an entropic, deterministic, and a hybrid model. Through this approach, the paper aims to aid the hypothetical exploration of urban growth dynamics.