Investigating the Influences of Tree Coverage and Road Density on Property Crime
1
Key Laboratory of Earth Exploration and Information Technology of Ministry of Education, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
2
Mobile Sensing and Geodata Science Lab, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2018, 7(3), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi7030101
Received: 22 December 2017 / Revised: 18 February 2018 / Accepted: 12 March 2018 / Published: 14 March 2018
With the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), crime mapping has become an effective approach for investigating the spatial pattern of crime in a defined area. Understanding the relationship between crime and its surrounding environment reveals possible strategies for reducing crime in a neighborhood. The relationship between vegetation density and crime has long been under debate. The convenience of a road network is another important factor that can influence a criminal’s selection of locations. This research is conducted to investigate the correlations between tree coverage and property crime, and road density and property crime in the City of Vancouver. High spatial resolution airborne LiDAR data and road network data collected in 2013 were used to extract tree covered areas for cross-sectional analysis. The independent variables were inserted into Ordinary Least-Squares (OLS) regression, Spatial Lag regression, and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) models to examine their relationships to property crime rates. The results of the cross-sectional analysis provide statistical evidence that there are negative correlations between property crime rates and both tree coverage and road density, with the stronger correlations occurring around Downtown Vancouver.
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Keywords:
crime mapping; GIS; urban vegetation; road density; spatial lag; geographically weighted regression
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ye, C.; Chen, Y.; Li, J. Investigating the Influences of Tree Coverage and Road Density on Property Crime. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2018, 7, 101. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi7030101
AMA Style
Ye C, Chen Y, Li J. Investigating the Influences of Tree Coverage and Road Density on Property Crime. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. 2018; 7(3):101. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi7030101
Chicago/Turabian StyleYe, Chengming; Chen, Yifei; Li, Jonathan. 2018. "Investigating the Influences of Tree Coverage and Road Density on Property Crime" ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 7, no. 3: 101. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi7030101
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