This issue explores the marvelous Mitteleuropean city of Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and one of the urban jewels that grew up along the extraordinary river that is the Danube. We know exactly when Budapest was founded: 1873, when the towns of Pest (on eastern bank of the Danube) and those of Buda and Óbuda (on the west bank) were unified. The so-called Chain Bridge symbolizes this unification. In the 19th Century, Budapest was one of the capitals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today, its many splendid palaces, monuments and museums, along with its urban layout make this historic city among the twenty most visited cities in the world. Budapest is now a middle-sized European city with a population of about 1,750,000 inhabitants and a metropolitan area of about 3 million. As usual, the key map produced from GIS data shows population distribution overlaid on the main road grid. This, along with the natural contour map - in which the River Danube is the main feature - underscores the asymmetry of the urban structure. In fact, the population resides largely on the east bank, in Pest. The old city core is enclosed by a ring road whose north circuit crosses the river to reach the northernmost point of Margaret island, which, together with the island of Óbuda, is the main topographical feature of this section of the Danube. Surprisingly, the worker distribution map almost matches the population distribution map, the only exception being the evident concentration along the radial routes leading out of the central city hub. This feature indicates the strong mixed-use characteristic of the city and a correspondingly high urban volume density in the center of the city. The services map also reflects the asymmetric population distribution between the sides of Budapest, with the majority of services located on the eastern bank. Likewise, the transport density map is also skewed to the east of the city where most people live. The dense tramway network...
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