Student Instructions

Required Reading

Horvath, Ronald J. "Machine Space." Geographical Review 64 (1974): 167-188.

Mapping Machine Space

Depending upon whether you work individually or in a group, you will gather information from between five and fifteen one-block sites within a nearby urban area. You may pick your sites to include: (1) representatives of commercial, high-density residential, industrial, and low-density residential landuses in one precinct of the city to see how land-use affects machine space, or (2) representatives from one land-use category (commercial, residential, or industrial) at varying distances from the center of the city in order to determine whether there is a correlation between the amount of machine space and the distance of a site from the center of the city. Both options explore how the machine space varies across the entire urban environment. This project will provide you with experience in field surveying and field mapping. It raises issues concerning the effects of urbanization on the environment and environmental quality.

Techniques for Studying Machine Space

1. Select study sites using a map of the city and zoning classifications. If you are working alone, select five one-block areas. Or, you may wish to work in a group of 3-4 people. In that case, you should select at least 15 sites. You may approach the study in a number of ways.

a. Select a section of the city that has blocks zoned for at least three of the following land-uses: commercial, industrial, high-density residential, and low-density residential. Choose your study-blocks from a mix of these land-uses. When you map the machine space in each of your blocks, the key question will be "does the amount of machine space vary significantly by land-use?" All of your study blocks should be in the same general area and at about the same distance from the center of the city, so that differences in the amount of machine space may be more directly linked to land-use, not distance.

b. Choose one land-use and select study blocks at varying distances from the center of the city. You might wish to draw a line extending from the center to the periphery of the city, and select sites at approximately 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, etc. from the city center along that line. In this case, you will be trying to determine whether there is a correlation between distance from the city center and machine space.

2. Acquire or copy the necessary base maps. Make sure the scale is sufficiently large that they are useful during your field reconnaissance surveys. You may need to enlarge street maps or zoning maps. There are digital maps (.dgn, .dxf. and arc.e00 formats) available on-line from the Texas Natural Resources Information System. Paper maps are available from a number of different sources. You might find street-level maps (available from the Texas Department of Transportation) and city zoning maps (available from the City of Austin) especially helpful.

3. Field survey your study sites. Pace off the areas you have selected and record your findings on your map. Before you begin, you should set a lower level cut-off for your survey -- for instance, you might not include anything less than ten feet on a side. Remember that machine space includes automobile space (streets, driveways, parking lots, garages, service stations), ventilation systems, cooling plants, electric utility substations, water systems, etc.

a. Pace along a line-of-sight route across your study area.
b. Stop every three paces and observe your surroundings. Are you in machine space or people space? In some cases (a cooling plant, for instance), you will not be able to walk through the area. You should be able to locate and mark these areas on your base map, anyway.
c. Record your observation on your base map. Darken all those areas which you designate as machine space.
d. Pace additional transects to complete the coverage of your study area.

4. Calculate area of machine space. At this point, you have several options. Check with your instructor to determine which you should use. You may use the:

• cut-and-weigh method:
• copy your field maps
• cut out study area and weigh on a postal scale
• cut the study area apart into pieces representing machine space and non-machine space
• weigh the machine space pieces on the scale
• % machine space = (weight of machine space pieces/ weight of total study area paper)*100

or


• the grid overlay method.
• Acquire light-weight graph paper or create a transparent grid by making a transparency of graph paper.
• Place grid over field maps and count total number of squares covering study are and total number of squares covering machine space.
• % machine space = (number of squares covering machine space/ number of squares covering study area)*100

or

• use GIS software to digitize the areas you designated as machine space into a digital base map, and then use the software to determine how much of your study area is comprised of machine space.

5. Make comparisons among your sites. If you are working in a group, this will involve combining everyone's data. If you chose to work with only one land-use, are you able to show a correlation between distance and amount of machine space? If you worked with multiple land-uses, does your map resemble the "Machine Space by Land Use" diagram in this module?

Finished maps of the machine space in your study area and an executive summary describing your findings.

On to the Supporting Materials -OR- Return to the Table of Contents

Created 10/30/96 by Shannon Crum. Last updated 9/6/96 by slc.