Spatial-Sensitivity Analysis for Urban Color Planning: Study of Luoyang City, China

Abstract

As they undergo rapid urbanization, many Chinese cities are lacking color coordination among their buildings. Although there has been substantial research on urban colors in the West, such studies are less developed in the China’s context. This paper grounds itself on the theories of geography of colors and city image. It integrates a geographical information system (GIS) spatial-sensitivity analysis method into the two Western theories. Three stages of analysis have been employed in Luoyang City, China. The authors firstly extracted dominant colors using a visual saliency model. Spatial-sensitivity analysis was then performed regarding three environmental factors—cultural environment, natural environment, and land use. In the end, sensitive zones and spatial control ranks were identified according to the city image theory. Results show that the new and old building structures in Luoyang are set apart in style and color use, which has adversely affected the city image. The proposed method helps to determine the coordination ranks of urban colors and control intensities in urban color planning.