Mixed-Use Index

A mixed-use index measures how evenly different land uses — residential, retail, office, civic, industrial — are blended within an area, turning the planning ideal of vibrant, walkable mixed-use districts into a number. The dominant formulation borrows the entropy measure from information theory: a value near zero when one use dominates and near one when uses are perfectly balanced. Popularised through the 'density, diversity, design' framework of Cervero and Kockelman and embedded in walkability indices by Frank and colleagues, these indices quantify land-use diversity for studies of travel behaviour, walkability and urban vitality.