Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences (2008) 31: 195-205

APPLICATION OF SERIATION TO RELATIVE URBAN HOUSING QUALITY

CLASSIFICATION IN ECUADOR AND BOLIVIA

Betty E. Smith
Department of Geology and Geography
Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, Illinois 61920

1. INTRODUCTION

Benefits of nominal categorical data are greater freedom of expression of cultural,

socioeconomic, and institutional context. A heuristic technique, seriation is used to reveal and
classify data structure graphically. Seriation involves placing objects or observations in an
order based on their attribute similarities. The more attributes shared, the closer the
observations are in the ordering; likewise, the fewer attributes shared the more distant.
Archaeologists seriate characteristics of artifacts to identify propinquity of attributes and infer
chronology (O’Brien and Lyman, 1999). Geographers rarely seriate geographically referenced
nominal data in spite of advances in computing and binary visualization capabilities. The
objective of this research was to identify residential socioeconomic configuration of three
South American cities by applying seriation to nominal census data. A relative housing quality
index was developed as an indicator of poor, middle class, and elite neighborhoods. Part of a
larger project to identify generalities about density structure of South American cities, the
seriation of nominal housing data can provide a surrogate for income data not available.
The three research sites varied in size and context. Medium size cities, Riobamba and
Ibarra were tenth and fourteenth in the urban hierarchy of Ecuador with populations of 100,710
and 87,834 (INEC, 1992b, 1992a), respectively. At an elevation of 9,000 feet in the shadow of
Chimborazo volcano, Riobamba grew from a population of 100,710 in 1990 to a population of
124,478 in 2001. Situated at 7800 feet elevation on gentle slopes of Imbabura volcano, the
medium size city, Ibarra, grew over the same period from 87,834 to 108,666. Santa Cruz is the
second largest city in Bolivia and quadrupled between 1970 and 1990, to approximately
600,000. Built on the subtropical plains east of the Andes, Santa Cruz Department has
continued to grow. According to the World Gazetteer (Helders, 2008), the official 1992
Bolivian census put department population at 1,364,389 and the 2001 population was
2,033,739; estimated 2007 population was 2,541,151.

2. BACKGROUND

Statistical techniques available to urban geographers often assume availability of

normally distributed high level ratio type data, when in reality much data is low order nominal
(e.g., house construction materials, type of water service available) (Wrigley 1985). The
seriation method is a graphic information processing technique that is useful to researchers
confronted with categorically measured nominal variables. Seriation has been used by
archaeologists for classification of pottery and other artifacts (Dunnell, 1986; Duff, 1996;
Ortman, 2000; Hurt et al., 2001), population and culture change over time and space (Lipo et
al., 1997; Lyman et al., 1998; Lyman and O’Brien, 2000), and linguistics (Mallory, 1976).
“Seriation as a scaling technique produces a formal arrangement of units, the significance of
which must be inferred. Arrangement per se is a statistical matter, while the inference of
significance is archaeological method” (Dunnell, 1970). Dunnell explained that seriation has
been in the literature for more than fifteen years; although geology-based stratigraphy can only

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be applied to a single site, seriation has the potential to be applied across several sites to
establish chronology.
Seriation offers a visual means of examining data structure by reorganizing and
presenting as homogeneous a picture as possible. The technique merges researcher judgment
with computer power, graphically processing and simplifying data. Advantages over cluster
analysis or factor analysis are that: 1) data structure is visualized as a simple black and white
image, 2) 100 percent of original information remains intact, and 3) geography of data is
retained when rearranging categories to best reflect generalized data structure. Geography is
retained because the method uses a matrix in which rows are areal units (observations) and
columns are binarized nominal variables. This contrasts with cluster, factor, and principal
component methods that rely upon a symmetrical matrix in which variables are correlated with
each other without regard to geographic location.
Seriation was first developed by anthropologist Petrie (1899) and subsequently used
by archaeologists to establish chronology of archaeological sites and ancient tools (Hodson et
al., 1970). It is well suited to urban geography, but has received little attention. French
cartographer Bertin (1981) published examples of graphics as a tool for information processing
and problem solving. However, matrix size and speed of manipulation of rows and columns
were limited in a manual approach. According to Muller (1983),
The purpose of the matrix manipulation is to find the permutations which
unveil associations or oppositions between rows and columns that lead to an
interpretation of the structural relationships between geographical entities
and their spatial attributes.... The manual process ideally converges toward a
solution where both similarities between consecutive rows and similarities
between consecutive columns are optimized. Visually the pattern of black
cells in the new matrix appears more regular.
The objective is to bring together those rows and columns that are most similar. Resultant
groupings of characteristics can be interpreted and mapped to show regional distribution.
Membership of a geographic unit in a group is mutually exclusive.
Seriation today is a semi-automated process that uses human judgment at certain
junctures. Bertin (1981, 9) noted that “the most important stages—choice of questions and
data, interpretation and decision making—can never be automated” (Bertin 1981, 9). A key
characteristic of seriation, and probably a major reason for its lack of frequent application, is
that the method cannot be completely automated. Muller (1983) was the first to discuss the
feasibility of automated seriation and used the technique to display the regional classification
of employment structure in Canada by province, using a small 9 x 11 matrix. Although the
seriation procedure cannot be completely automated, Muller (1983) attempted to formalize the
process of measuring difference between rows and columns, thereby minimizing visual
perception bias of similarities and differences. A problem encountered in seriation automation
is the magnitude of considering all possible combinations. Parallel processing or alternative
algorithms are possible solutions; the latter were applied empirically in this research.

3. DATA

The Ecuador census (INEC, 1992a, 1992b) enumerated persons based upon location
at moment of the census: Sunday morning, 25 November 1990. Ibarra data contain 108,943
observations, of which 21,109 are housing and 87,834 are population. Riobamba data contain
125,620 observations; 24,910 are housing and 100,710 are population. A Santa Cruz regional
development corporation, Corporación Regional de Desarrollo de Santa Cruz (CORDECRUZ)
concluded a 1988 survey of migration, employment, and housing in Bolivian cities of Santa
Cruz, Montero, and Villa Busch (CORDECRUZ, 1988). This survey was a stratified random
sample including more than 3,000 homes and 14,000 persons, representing approximately a
two percent sample. Santa Cruz data contained 2,481 housing observations and 10,782

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population observations. Lacking access to a recent population census in Bolivia at the time of
this research, the stratified random sample was used.
To proceed with spatial analysis of housing, observations were aggregated to create
new geographically referenced data. The 113 census areal units in Santa Cruz are called
zonas, more or less equivalent to census tracts. Ibarra contained 144 sectores, also
approximating census tracts, and Riobamba, 178 sectores. The zonas and sectores were
digitized from original paper maps to form digital polygon coverage. Nominal data were
sorted by sector and zona and tables were created showing percentage of each nominal
classification. The predominant characteristic mode was selected as representative. Finally, a
new dataset based on the modal values was merged with geographic coordinates derived from
digitized maps.

4. METHODS

Bjorke (1989) presented an alternative algorithm for automated seriation that

reordered a two dimensional matrix of geographic areas (rows) and their qualitative
characteristics (columns). This algorithm was revised and empirically tested by Bjorke and
Smith (1996) and was used in this research to demonstrate reordering, classification, and
comparison of relative housing quality. Census areal units are shown as rows and binarized
categories of nominal variables are columns. As an example, if variable FLOOR has six
possible categorical responses (wood, tile, brick, cement, earth, other), then FLOOR becomes
six variables (FLOOR1, FLOOR2, etc.), each with a binary response of yes or no, one or zero,
or a black or white pixel on a computer screen. Thus there are six columns for variable
FLOOR. In a similar fashion, each category of each nominal variable is binarized, e.g., type of
home, roof material, or availability of drinking water. The data matrix becomes considerably
wider with a long list of variables. Binarizing categorical variables results in three matrices for
the three study sites: 1) Ibarra has 144 rows and 53 columns, 2) Riobamba has 177 rows and 42
columns, and 3) Santa Cruz has 113 rows and 80 columns. On the computer screen each
positive response is represented by a black pixel and each negative response by a white pixel.
The original data matrix is represented by an image of scattered black and white pixels with no
apparent organization. The objective is to rearrange the black pixels to achieve the highest
possible degree of homogeneity, bringing as many black pixels together as possible without
violating the integrity of any one row (census areal unit) or any one column (binarized
categorical variable).
The Bjorke (1989) algorithm for semi-automation of seriation is based upon
minimization of entropy. Entropy is minimized when pattern is most ordered, most
homogeneous. The approach of Bjorke and Smith (1996) expands the seriation criterion from
minimum first order Hamming distance of a binary image to also include calculation of higher
order neighbors. Hamming distance is the number of bits which differ between two binary
strings. More formally, the distance between two strings A and B is ∑ | Ai - Bi |. Hamming
distance is positively correlated with measure of entropy of an image and is therefore useful in
defining seriation criteria. An image which has a high measure of entropy also has a high
Hamming distance and likewise, an image which has a low measure of entropy has a low
Hamming distance. However, Bjorke and Smith (1996) show the seriation criterion must
evaluate not only nearest neighbors but all matrix rows. Although reordering of rows of black
pixels may be automated, the decision regarding partitioning of the image into groups remains
a judgment by the researcher. Thus, the solution is not deterministic.
An issue with any classification scheme is selection of the number of groups.
Appropriate generalization depends upon the problem to be solved, data structure, and
researcher judgment. Since many descriptive urban land use models simply diagram
distribution of poor, middle class, and elite socioeconomic groups, generalizing three broad
groups of relative housing quality is quite useful. Cluster analysis can be a check for seriation
results. Cluster analysis partitions a set of objects (observations) into homogeneous subsets

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based on inter-object similarities to develop subgroups that differ in meaningful ways. A
VARCLUS (SAS, 1989) cluster analysis was conducted to compare group results for a
maximum of three, four, seven, and eight clusters. Results of the cluster procedure confirmed
the presence of the variables in the seriated groups, provided the variable was at least 90
percent present. An advantage of seriation is that a category of a single variable may be found
in several real world groups and be represented in different proportions in the derived groups.
In contrast to cluster analysis, seriation retains geography throughout analysis and each
geographical areal unit is assigned to one and only one housing quality group which can then
be mapped.

5. INTERPRETING THE SERIATED IMAGE OF IBARRA

Ibarra graphic information images before and after seriation are shown in Figures 1
and 2. Each housing quality variable has been binarized; for example, ROOF with seven
possible categorical responses (cement, asbestos, wood, zinc, tile, straw, other) became seven
dichotomous variables in seven columns. For each geographic observation (census unit) one of
the seven responses is the mode and that pixel is shaded black; the other six remain white.
FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2
IBARRA BEFORE SERIATION IBARRA AFTER SERIATION
Group 1
Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6
Group 7
Group 8

Both before and after seriation, graphic images contain some all black and all white
columns. An all black column indicates all census tracts are predominantly characterized by
this attribute, such as bottled gas for cooking in each of the cities. Other characteristics which
appear as all black columns in some, but not all, of the three cities are separate room for
kitchen, water pipe in home, public water, and electricity. Examples of all white columns are
common shower, commercial enterprise in home, wood roofs, cane floors, well as a source of
water, and river as a source of water. Uniform black or white columns provide the least
information for classification purposes because they fail to differentiate.
Characteristics of housing quality unique to a group offer the best information for
defining that group. The following questions should be asked: 1) what variable category is
unique to this group? and; 2) what variable category is lacking in this group but present in
other groups? Seriation analysis (visual identification of pattern similarities) of binarized
housing quality variables yielded eight groups. Groups in Figure 2 from top to bottom
(separated by white lines) are Group 1 to Group 8. The eight groups were merged into three
housing quality classifications for mapping and future spatial analysis (Table 1).
To generalize three broad groups, Groups 1 and 2 form a unique part of the image,
QUALITY 1. Groups 3, 4, 5, and 6 seem to fit together visually and were designated as

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 TABLE 1
MERGING OF SERIATED GROUPS

Ibarra, Ecuador
QUALITY 1 = Group 1 Poor With Limited Urban Services + Group 2 In Town Poor
QUALITY 2 = Group 3 All One-Bedroom + Group 4 In Town Better + Group 5 Room Rent +
Group 6 Apartment Rent
QUALITY 3 = Group 7 Good Quality Big Home + Group 8 Best Quality

Riobamba, Ecuador
QUALITY 1 = Group 1 Room Rent + Group 2 Metal Roof Owners + Group 3 Small Poor + Group
4 All One-Bedroom
QUALITY 2 = Group 5 All Two Bedrooms + Group 6 Good Quality
QUALITY 3 = Group 7 Best Quality Home

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

QUALITY 1 = Group 4 No Public Services Poor + Group 5 Earth Floor Poor
QUALITY 2 = Group 2 Fair Services Small Home + Group 3 Poor Services Small Home + Group
6 Rural Room Rent + Group 7 All Rooms For Rent
QUALITY 3 = Group 1 Best Quality Big Home

QUALITY 2, and Groups 7 and 8 form a third group, QUALITY 3. A number of all-black and
all-white columns of pixels are evident in the Ibarra image: 100 percent of tracts have a
predominant number of homes with a separate room for the kitchen and have bottled gas for
cooking. None are predominantly homes containing commercial enterprise, or homes with
wood roofs, cane floors, well water for water source, or river water for water source.
Groups 1 and 2 are made up of poorer homes and were merged to form QUALITY 1,
the lowest quality housing in Ibarra. Group 1 unique conditions (those conditions not present
in other groups) are earth floor, non-public drains, water pipe outside of the lot, no electricity,
water delivered by car, and no drains. Some tracts have no shower and lack public sewers.
Although representation is fairly small, 10 to 30 percent, it is important because these housing
characteristics are not present in the other seven groups. Group 1 consists of one bedroom
detached homes with metal roofs, adobe walls, no electricity, and no telephone. All modal
values represent owners, not renters. Lack of urban services, small size of homes and presence
of earth floors and adobe walls suggest this group should be named POOR With Limited Urban
Services. Each group member has a majority of homeowners. A check of geographic location
of rows confirms that the sectors are located near Lake Yaguarcocha, north of city center and
beyond city services. Group 2 also seems to be a poor housing quality group, but in contrast to
Group 1, this group has city services. This is the only group in which no group members have
a private bathroom. Indicators include all tracts with primarily one bedroom detached homes
with metal roofs and brick or cement floors. Most modal values are adobe walls, water pipe in
the house, and public drains. All tracts in this group have city services such as electricity,
public water and trash pickup. Since these are small homes with adobe walls but with city
services, the group was designated In-Town Poor.
The next four sets of homes are of moderate quality and were merged to form
QUALITY 2. Group 3 has no unique variables however it is the only group having no two
room homes. Group characteristics are all one bedroom detached homes with brick or cement
floors, electricity, public water, water pipe in the home, and nearly all sectors have trash
pickup, public drains and one room homes. Eighty percent of sectors are predominantly
owners. The group was named In-Town Small. Group 4 is the only group that consists of all
sector modes of two room detached homes. All sectors consist of homes with electricity,
public water, public drains, and water pipe in the home. Nearly all have private bathroom,
private shower, and trash pickup. Again, the group is predominantly made up of owners.

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Presence of private bathrooms suggests better quality housing. This group is named In-Town
Better. Group 5 has the unique characteristic of being the only group with sectors which
primarily consist of rooms for rent, rather than detached homes. Not surprising, the group also
consists of a high percentage (70 percent) renters. Sectors consist primarily of one room
homes or one-bedroom homes. In contrast to other groups, nearly all homes have floorboards,
suggesting second and third story dwellings. Combination of rooms for rent, one room homes
and floorboards, suggest downtown location, perhaps residential rooms for rent located above
first floor commercial uses. Nearly all floors in other groups are brick or cement. Availability
of nearly all public services also suggests a downtown location, later confirmed by mapping.
This group was named Room Rent. Group 6 is unique as the only group with some apartments
and 100 percent renters. The group is served by nearly all city services and homes are slightly
better quality than Group 5, indicated by presence in all cases of private bathrooms, private
showers, cement and brick walls, cement roof and some larger two and three bedroom homes.
Floor category is dominated by floorboards, suggesting as in Group 5, a second or third floor
location or an older downtown residence, since newer dwellings have cement floors. This
group was called Apartment Rent.
The best quality homes are found in the last two groups and were merged to form
QUALITY 3. Group 7 is the only group with some sectors dominated by dwellings with five
rooms per home. More than half the sectors are predominantly three bedroom homes and all
have private shower, private bathrooms, cement and brick walls, and cement roofs. All city
services are available. Ninety percent are predominantly owners. Most homes have parquet
floors, characteristic of recently built tract homes. This group was tagged as Good Quality Big
Home. Group 8 is the only group that has no one bedroom homes. Homes are predominantly
two and three bedroom homes which are all owner occupied. A high proportion of sectors
have asphalt-composition roofs, an indication of better quality construction. A higher
percentage of telephones are available than any other group. This group is called Best Quality.
Of note, aggregation of population and housing data excluded institutions such as jails,
hospitals, and boarding schools.

6. INTERPRETING THE SERIATED IMAGE OF RIOBAMBA

Riobamba has more population than Ibarra and more census units. However, there
are fewer columns and more categories with 100 percent representation for all groups,
indicating Riobamba is a more homogeneous city in terms of housing quality. Figure 3 presents
the Riobamba binarized housing data matrix before seriation. The seriated Figure 4 graphic
suggests seven groups, although differentiation is less clear than Ibarra.
FIGURE 3 FIGURE 4
RIOBAMBA BEFORE SERIATION RIOBAMBA AFTER SERIATION

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5
Group 6

Group 7

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 The Riobamba seriated image was most difficult of the three study sites to interpret
because it lacked differentiating characteristics. At first glance, the image appears to fall into
two very broad groups, the top four horizontal slices and the bottom three slices. However,
closer examination suggests that each of seven groups may be identified as a unique part of the
overall graphic. Best characteristics for interpretation are number of bedrooms, presence or
absence of private shower, and type of roof. Based on these characteristics it is possible to
further generalize seven groups into three. The top four groups form a unique part of the image
and consist almost entirely of one room homes, QUALITY 1. Groups 5 and 6 fit together on
the image and show that two bedroom homes dominate each sector, QUALITY 2. Group 7
seems to stand on its own, QUALITY 3, with best housing quality attributes and the largest
homes. A large number of all black and all white columns express a lack of variation.
Data structure suggests the entire Riobamba population is provided with city services
such as water, drains, trash pickup and electricity. In contrast, Ibarra has some small areas
which are not served. This may be a result of annexation of residential areas north of Ibarra
which, due to higher elevation and distance, are not served by water or electricity. In
Riobamba, an under-bounded city, the built up area extends beyond the city limits. Additional
residential areas outside Riobamba city limit, had they been included in this dataset, would
have resulted in a data structure similar to Ibarra (e.g., lack of services in outlying areas).
Defining urban limit is problematic when using government data to analyze urban structure
because political boundaries dictate data collection. Thus, data limitations must be considered
when drawing conclusions about availability of city services in Riobamba. Data structure
suggests seven groups. For reasons just outlined, there is no group named In Town With
Limited Urban Services in Riobamba.
QUALITY 1 is interpreted visually to include the top four groups of Figure 4. One-
room homes make up Group 1, Room Rent. Unique categories here are common bathroom and
rooms for rent. It is the only group with all metal roofs, all renters, all floorboards, one room
and one bedroom homes with private showers. Group 2 Metal Roof Owners has no unique
characteristics; however, it is the only group which is 100 percent owners. The group is
entirely detached homes with floorboards and private bathroom. Most homes have metal roofs
and one bedroom. Group 3 Small Poor has slightly more renters than owners and all modal
values are cement roofs. Most homes are detached with one or two rooms, excluding the
bathroom. Group 4 is All One Bedroom.
QUALITY 2 includes the next two groups. Group 5, called All Two Bedroom, has all
two bedroom homes with private shower. There are a few apartment modal values in this
group. Most are owned rather than rented. Group 6 is the only group with all three room
homes, primarily detached with two bedrooms. There are a few apartment areas but most
modal values indicate owners. This group was designated Good Quality, however, the second
best group in Ibarra, Good Quality Big Home, consists of predominantly three bedroom homes,
whereas in Riobamba Good Quality consists of primarily two bedroom homes. On average,
better quality homes in Riobamba tend to be smaller relative to Ibarra.
Group 7 is the only group with some five or six room homes and made up entirely of
three bedroom detached homes with private shower. With higher than usual telephone service,
this is the only group with predominantly asphalt composition roofs. Most modal values are
owners. This group was tagged Best Quality Home, the only group in QUALITY 3.

7. INTERPRETING THE SERIATED IMAGE OF SANTA CRUZ

Figures 5 and 6 present Santa Cruz binarized housing data before and after seriation.
The matrix is 113 rows by 80 columns. Two variables not present in the Ecuador data are
TVRADIO (presence of television and radio in home) and NEWS (frequency of newspaper
delivery). Ecuador variable TELE (presence of telephone) is not in the Bolivia data. Since
these are all means of communication and further define housing quality, they are included in
the analysis. There are fewer areal units because Santa Cruz data is a sample, not a census.

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More variable categories suggest a more heterogeneous city, not surprising given Santa Cruz
population is several times larger than Ibarra or Riobamba.
The seriated data structure yields seven groups (Figure 6). Each has unique identity
when interpreted column by column. In Santa Cruz, Group 1 is best quality housing. In
considering merging, Groups 4 and 5 in the middle of the image fit together visually as
QUALITY 1. Group 1 stands alone as QUALITY 3, with quite a few all black pixel columns.
Groups 2, 3, 6, and 7, become QUALITY 2, with pixel distributions more alike than the other
three groups. As in Ibarra and Riobamba, all Santa Cruz modal values have bottled gas
available for cooking. In Santa Cruz there are no areal unit modal attributes predominantly
apartments or hut type houses, whitewashed adobe walls, stone walls, cane or palm walls, or
wood floors. Wood floors may be subject to deterioration and less popular due to lower
elevation and more humid climate. Rainwater, river, lake or gravity flow water sources and
firewood, guano, charcoal, or kerosene cooking fuel are absent, not surprising given the urban
environment.

FIGURE 5 FIGURE 6
SANTA CRUZ BEFORE SERIATION SANTA CRUZ AFTER SERIATION
Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5
Group 6

Group 7

Unlike the other two cities, for Santa Cruz, Group 1 is named Best Quality Big Home
and is associated with higher-value homes designated as QUALITY 3. Group 1 has several
unique characteristics, though fairly small in number (i.e., homes with four bedrooms, four
rooms or three bedrooms). All group members have modal values for brick or cement walls,
electricity, private bathroom, TV and radio, and separate room for kitchen. Approximately 80
percent are owners of detached homes which have public water, tile roofs, private shower, in-
home water, trash pickup, and newspaper delivery seven times per week.
Categorized here as moderate value homes (QUALITY 2), dwellings in Groups 2, 3,
6, and 7 are more similar visually on the seriated image to each other than to Groups 1, 4, or 5.
All members of Group 2 have similar amenities, however, this group does not have any three
or four bedroom homes; more than half of homes in this group are one room although all have
a separate room for kitchen. Most are owners of detached homes with private shower and trash
pickup. Although homes are smaller than Group 1 (QUALITY 3), they seem to have access to
public services with the exception that in this group most have a water pipe outside of the
home rather than piped inside the home. Group 2 is named Fair Services Small Home. Group 3,
named Poor Services Small Home, is the only group which has no modal values of apartments.
All are owners of homes, mostly detached with private bathroom, electricity, TV and radio.
The group has no renters. There are no modal values for rooms for rent and fewer public
services are available as indicated by lack of trash pickup, lack of public drains, and low
incidence of newspaper delivery. Majority have public water available, although most do not

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have a private shower or a water pipe inside the home. Most have a water pipe outside the
house and within the lot, although some must go beyond the lot for water. Homes are mostly
small one or two room homes, and approximately 20 percent have predominantly earthen
floors.
Groups 4 and 5 were of the poorest quality housing (QUALITY 1). Low value
residences in Group 4 consist of small one room homes which have no bedrooms or showers.
Most are owner occupied detached homes with no public water pipe available, no separate
kitchen and no newspaper delivery. Although most have a private bathroom, more often source
of water is not a public system, but rather well water or other source of water. Some homes
have earthen floors. This group was designated No Public Services. Group 5 is the only group
that has improvised housing, adobe walls without whitewash, no tile roofs, no cement floors,
and no separate kitchen. This is the only group in which all members have earthen floors and
metal roofs. None have water pipe inside of home, a shower or a separate kitchen. All homes
are owner occupied one room homes and most do not have electricity or public water. This
group was named Earth Floor Poor.
All members of Group 6 Rural Room Rent have electricity, TV, and radio, suggesting
a better quality of housing than Groups 4 and 5. Nearly all members have rooms for rent with
common bathroom, public water, no bedrooms and no separate kitchen. Very few have trash
pickup and none have public drains, suggesting an urban environment lacking services. Group
7 All Rooms For Rent is the only group which predominantly rents from family, has no private
bathrooms, no detached homes, and is made up entirely of rooms for rent, with common
shower, and separate room for kitchen. Groups 6 and 7 fit best with Groups 2 and 3, which
were designated as relatively moderate in housing quality or value, QUALITY 2.

8. CONCLUSIONS

Nominal housing variables for three South American cities were analyzed using
seriation. The technique identified indicators of relative housing quality and yielded an ad hoc
three tier quality of housing index, a surrogate for income data that is not available in the
Ecuador or Bolivia census. The index QUALITY 1, QUALITY 2, and QUALITY 3 (from
lowest to highest property value) will be used as an explanatory ordinal variable with ratio type
data as part of a larger project to explain generalities of density structure of South American
cities.
Each city was classified into seven or eight groups based upon visual interpretation
of seriated images. Groups were further generalized to create a three tier relative housing
quality index. (Table 1) Although groups were comparable within each city, they were only
relatively comparable between cities, e.g., best housing in one city may be substantively quite
different than best housing in another city. Mapping the derived three level housing quality
index revealed that these three cities support the widely understood phenomenon that poor tend
to live greater distances from city center, in contrast to most North American cities in which
urban poor tend to reside closer to urban centers. Poorer residents in Ibarra, Riobamba, and
Santa Cruz take advantage of lower land prices at the periphery while maintaining affordable
bus access to urban centers. Apartment houses are not widespread in the three South American
cities. Instead, rooms were rented or exchanged for services in homes or in rooming houses.
Home ownership was associated with all levels of housing quality in all three cities.
Figures 7, 8, and 9 are presented with approximate relative scale with north to the top
and indicate schematically the distribution of housing quality and urban services based upon
seriation of modal values of nominal housing quality variables. QUALITY 1 has the poorest
housing and services and is shaded the lightest shade of gray, QUALITY 2 is a medium shade
of gray and QUALITY 3, the best quality housing is black. Mapping supports the widely
accepted characterization that Latin American cities have declining housing quality with
distance from city center. Results also suggest correlation between political context and
variability of housing quality. Of the three investigated cities, Riobamba exhibited the lowest

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variability of housing quality and Santa Cruz the greatest, in part because of size, but also
perhaps the result of political context and public policy. The most homogeneous city,
Riobamba, is a city managed by strong planning sanctions and socialist party government. The
most heterogeneous seriated image is that of Santa Cruz, a city oriented to the service sector,
with great extremes of wealth and poverty, a drug related economic base, and policies
promoting entrepreneurialism. A seriated image indicating medium degree of housing quality
heterogeneity, Ibarra, is a city managed by social democratic government.

FIGURE 7 FIGURE 8 FIGURE 9

IBARRA RIOBAMBA SANTA CRUZ

A method involving visual graphic information interpretation, seriation offers a rich

source of information for classifying and interpreting nominal housing quality data; is useful
when ratio type data is not available; and provides results about distribution and clustering of
various housing characteristics. Increased availability and quality of digital census data in
South America combined with more powerful personal computing capabilities will increase
value of empirical research using seriation from which new insights about cities will emerge.

9. REFERENCES

Bertin, J. 1981. Graphics and Graphic Information-Processing. New York: Walter de

Gruyter Publisher.
Bjorke, J., and B. Smith. 1996. Geographic seriation: an implementation and a case study.
Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 20: 427-438.
Bjorke, J. 1989. Entropy as a tool for automated seriation. Unpublished manuscript,
Trondheim, Norway: Department of Surveying and Mapping, University of
Trondheim.
Corporación Regional de Desarrollo de Santa Cruz (CORDECRUZ). 1988. Unpublished
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