Moscow Mapping - Cultural, planning and generational revolution in progress

By Andrea Boschetti, Federico Parolotto - 16 June 2014

With this special edition on Moscow we have changed the graphic presentation of the GIS-based maps to make the urban picture they describe all the more readable.
The population density map (on the cover of this edition of The Plan) is now separate, no longer superimposed on views of the topography and road network. Population distribution can now be easily compared with the other maps: topography, services, public transport, and natural vegetation.
The new stand-alone population map demonstrates how the conventional approach of considering “average” population densities obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants by a given surface area can often lead to oversimplification. In contrast, GIS data based maps clearly show how the population clusters in certain areas. In Moscow, for example, high residential concentration is to be found mainly in the peripheral areas distributed crown-like around an historic centre lying within the second “garden ring”, which although densely built up, is very sparsely inhabited.
An extensive central area with very few inhabitants is a specific feature of Moscow and contrasts with population densities in similar areas of New York, London and Paris.
The topography map shows how Moscow lies on a substantially flat plain with only a slight trough following the Reka Moskva River. The road system clearly shows the hub and spoke layout of the city, with a series of radial roads linking the city to the metropolitan area and converging on the historic centre. These main roads are in turn connected to several concentric ring roads: the “Boulevard ring”, the “garden ring” - enclosing the more sought-after urban areas - and the heavily used “third transport ring”. Beyond this is the MKAD freeway, an outer ring road running around the city. Beyond that lies the TsKAD, the road at the very edge of the city along which new development is continuing apace.