Macau - Magnet for gamblers and tourists
FC-01x Future Cities (1st Run) - Exercise 1 : "Making the Invisible - Visible"
Uploaded on 2014-10-23 by mlvonschaper
[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14140669552534793.jpg This photo is taken from the Macau-Taipa Bridge linking two parts of the Special Administrative Region Macau with each other. The photo is taken from out of a bus of the public transportation network. Visible information is that - there is a part of an ocean separating the city, linked by at least one bridge (>2km) - there are visually attractive structures at the coastline, i.e. casinos for which this city is famous for The following invisible information can be extracted out of this photo: - due to the fact that his particular bridge is off limits for non-public transportation vehicles (i.e. only taxis and busses can pass over the bridge), the travel paths of citizens with private cars is limited to two outer lying bridges. Hence movement behaviours captured by the Macau pass can lead to a better understanding of choices for mode of transportation and residential living. - given the fact that the biggest and fanciest buildings in the photo are casinos, it can be deducted that the gambling industry represents a substantial part of the city's economy and hence services related to gambling and casinos are making up a bigger part of the industrial landscape. This can be verified by government statistics on company earnings and taxation. Given the understanding of the invisible information about the current economical structure of the city, the collective historical data along with other data sets on citizen behaviour in education, professional life choices and tourist transportation, one can use these information to improve city planning by: - redirecting efforts in land reclamation to support the casino industry OR - create subsidies and sponsored office space for other industries to increase economical diversification - offer new or more specific choices in education to cater the dominating industries - change plans for airports and ferry terminals to allow for a better and more smooth touristic transportation without impacting other parts of the city