Analytical Measuring and Visualization of Spatio-Temporal Change in Built Environments: Beyazit Square Case Study Area in Istanbul

Tobler's First Law of Geography states that nearby things are more related than distant things. In other words, there is a close relationship between nearby things compared to distant things. This also implies that built form is in a relational process in its topologic embodiment and the overall spatial form emerges a certain degree of wholeness. Mediating C. Alexander's "levels of scale" property as a morphologic translation interface and using Shannon's Entropy theory as a data-mining method, this study allows revealing the degree of uncertainty and disorderliness that a certain spatial complexity embodies. Shannon's Entropy, a method of measuring the information, has been employed in this study in measuring the state of uncertainty and disorderliness conveyed through the multi-scalar context of built configuration across scales. Results have been hypothesized to correlate with the degree of wholeness, in other word completeness, of the case built area. Beyazit Square with its 50-hectare environs in the Peninsula of Istanbul has been selected as the case area due to the remarkable change that the square experienced through a harsh urbanization over the last sixty years. Building footprints belonging to two time periods have been used as raw data. Multi-scalar analyses conducted upon the data of 1946 and 2013 revealed that the wholeness of the square has deteriorated, from 0,77bit to 1,02bit entropy level within last sixty years. This finding is being verified by the remarks of the spatial assessments done for the square and visualized by the color-coding way of data-visualization.