scholarly journals Methodological foundation of a numerical taxonomy of urban form

2021 ◽  
pp. 239980832110598
Author(s):  
Martin Fleischmann ◽  
Alessandra Feliciotti ◽  
Ombretta Romice ◽  
Sergio Porta
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Numerical Taxonomy ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Voronoi Tessellation ◽  
Hierarchical Classification ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Morphological Studies

Cities are complex products of human culture, characterised by a startling diversity of visible traits. Their form is constantly evolving, reflecting changing human needs and local contingencies, manifested in space by many urban patterns. Urban morphology laid the foundation for understanding many such patterns, largely relying on qualitative research methods to extract distinct spatial identities of urban areas. However, the manual, labour-intensive and subjective nature of such approaches represents an impediment to the development of a scalable, replicable and data-driven urban form characterisation. Recently, advances in geographic data science and the availability of digital mapping products open the opportunity to overcome such limitations. And yet, our current capacity to systematically capture the heterogeneity of spatial patterns remains limited in terms of spatial parameters included in the analysis and hardly scalable due to the highly labour-intensive nature of the task. In this paper, we present a method for numerical taxonomy of urban form derived from biological systematics, which allows the rigorous detection and classification of urban types. Initially, we produce a rich numerical characterisation of urban space from minimal data input, minimising limitations due to inconsistent data quality and availability. These are street network, building footprint and morphological tessellation, a spatial unit derivative of Voronoi tessellation, obtained from building footprints. Hence, we derive homogeneous urban tissue types and, by determining overall morphological similarity between them, generate a hierarchical classification of urban form. After framing and presenting the method, we test it on two cities – Prague and Amsterdam – and discuss potential applications and further developments. The proposed classification method represents a step towards the development of an extensive, scalable numerical taxonomy of urban form and opens the way to more rigorous comparative morphological studies and explorations into the relationship between urban space and phenomena as diverse as environmental performance, health and place attractiveness.

Exploring the relationships between urban form metrics and the vegetation biomass loss under urban expansion in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-380
Author(s):  
Tong Zhang ◽  
Sophia Shuang Chen ◽  
Guangyu Li
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Yangtze River Delta ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Urban Metrics ◽  
Biomass Loss ◽  
Loss Index

Compact urban form has been applied as a strategy to reduce the loss of green space that occurs from development, but the impact of this policy on the provision of green space still presents many uncertainties. This research investigated the statistical relationship between urban form indicators and the loss of vegetation biomass to understand the response of quality green space provision to changes in urban morphology. A methodology combining multi-source data assimilation, statistical analysis, and spatial analysis was adopted for the Yangtze River Delta cities of China. First, six urban metrics were selected to describe the shape and layout of urban patches in each city, and the total biomass loss index was then introduced as a parameter. The values of urban metrics and total biomass loss index were calculated for the 50 Yangtze River Delta cities. Second, ordinary least squares regression and geographically weighted regression analyses were then used to establish a quantitative relationship between total biomass loss index and urban form indicators. The results revealed an extremely negative correlation between total biomass loss index and the three urban variables of Richard compactness, density gradient, and the Gini coefficient; moreover, the parameter estimates for the three variables in the geographically weighted regression model were local and varied over space. Third, the mechanisms by which the urban form influences biomass loss were discussed and different urban form planning strategies for particular urban areas were suggested. In conclusion, compact urban form in a clustered layout of urban areas with a dense central agglomeration was verified to be ecologically superior and conducive to green space protection. For the physical interpretation of the statistical relationship between urban morphology and vegetation loss, the interface effect of urban agglomeration on vegetation merits further study.

scholarly journals Topological analysis of contemporary morphologies under conflict: The urban transformation of Dobrinja in Sarajevo and the Central District of Beirut

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inés Aquilué ◽  
Estanislao Roca ◽  
Javier Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Specific Method ◽  
Evolutionary Analysis ◽  
Lebanese Civil War ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Bosnian War ◽  
Central District

Regarding topological interpretation of space, this research aims to identify urban morphologies, whose topology becomes increasingly determining under high uncertainty. This topological approach has been applied in an evolutionary analysis of urban spaces under siege, fear and conflict, which conducted to the construction of a specific method. This method analyses the transformation of urban areas in five consecutive phases: urban form [1], increase of uncertainty [2], application of the apparatus [3], change in urban form [4], information flows [5]. These five phases were applied to different empirical studies, analysed through specific morphological and topological models. In the light of this method, two selected urban morphologies Dobrinja –a suburb in Sarajevo– and the Beirut Central District have been examined. The urban morphology of both areas was dramatically transformed after both civil conflicts –the Bosnian War and the Lebanese Civil War–. Dobrinja suffered severe modifications, first provoked by the violence of the siege during the Bosnian War [1992-1995], and then by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line as a result of the Dayton Peace Agreement [December 1995], which divided the neighbourhood and caused serious alterations in its ethno-demographic and spatial structure. The Beirut Central District was first destroyed by the violence experienced in the Lebanese Civil War [1975-1990] and then by the process of subsequent reconstruction [since 1992], which led to a simplification of its structure. The two morphological and topological analyses enable us to determine the initial causes and their spatial consequences in both urban areas, regarding their conflict and post-conflict stage.

scholarly journals The Nine Forms of the French Riviera: Classifying Urban Fabrics from the Pedestrian Perspective.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Araldi ◽  
Giovanni Fusco
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Central Cities ◽  
French Riviera

The Nine Forms of the French Riviera: Classifying Urban Fabrics from the Pedestrian Perspective. Giovanni Fusco, Alessandro Araldi ¹Université Côte-Azur, CNRS, ESPACE - Bd. Eduard Herriot 98. 06200 Nice E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Keywords: French Riviera, Urban Fabrics, Urban Form Recognition, Geoprocessing Conference topics and scale: Tools of analysis in urban morphology     Recent metropolitan growth produces new kinds of urban fabric, revealing different logics in the organization of urban space, but coexisting with more traditional urban fabrics in central cities and older suburbs. Having an overall view of the spatial patterns of urban fabrics in a vast metropolitan area is paramount for understanding the emerging spatial organization of the contemporary metropolis. The French Riviera is a polycentric metropolitan area of more than 1200 km2 structured around the old coastal cities of Nice, Cannes, Antibes and Monaco. XIX century and early XX century urban growth is now complemented by modern developments and more recent suburban areas. A large-scale analysis of urban fabrics can only be carried out through a new geoprocessing protocol, combining indicators of spatial relations within urban fabrics, geo-statistical analysis and Bayesian data-mining. Applied to the French Riviera, nine families of urban fabrics are identified and correlated to the historical periods of their production. Central cities are thus characterized by the combination of different families of pre-modern, dense, continuous built-up fabrics, as well as by modern discontinuous forms. More interestingly, fringe-belts in Nice and Cannes, as well as the techno-park of Sophia-Antipolis, combine a spinal cord of connective artificial fabrics having sparse specialized buildings, with the already mentioned discontinuous fabrics of modern urbanism. Further forms are identified in the suburban and “rurban” spaces around central cities. The proposed geoprocessing procedure is not intended to supersede traditional expert-base analysis of urban fabric. Rather, it should be considered as a complementary tool for large urban space analysis and as an input for studying urban form relation to socioeconomic phenomena. References   Conzen, M.R.G (1960) Alnwick, Northumberland : A Study in Town-Planning Analysis. (London, George Philip). Conzen, M.P. (2009) “How cities internalize their former urban fringe. A cross-cultural comparison”. Urban Morphology, 13, 29-54. Graff, P. (2014) Une ville d’exception. Nice, dans l'effervescence du 20° siècle. (Serre, Nice). Yamada I., Thill J.C. (2010) “Local indicators of network-constrained clusters in spatial patterns represented by a link attribute.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(2), 269-285. Levy, A. (1999) “Urban morphology and the problem of modern urban fabric : some questions for research”, Urban Morphology, 3(2), 79-85. Okabe, A. Sugihara, K. (2012) Spatial Analysis along Networks: Statistical and Computational Methods. (John Wiley and sons, UK).

scholarly journals Measuring urban form: Overcoming terminological inconsistencies for a quantitative and comprehensive morphologic analysis of cities

2020 ◽  
pp. 239980832091044 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Fleischmann ◽  
Ombretta Romice ◽  
Sergio Porta
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Systematic Classification ◽  
Social Patterns ◽  
The Impact

Unprecedented urbanisation processes characterise the Great Acceleration, urging urban researchers to make sense of data analysis in support of evidence-based and large-scale decision-making. Urban morphologists are no exception since the impact of urban form on fundamental natural and social patterns (equity, prosperity and resource consumption’s efficiency) is now fully acknowledged. However, urban morphology is still far from offering a comprehensive and reliable framework for quantitative analysis. Despite remarkable progress since its emergence in the late 1950s, the discipline still exhibits significant terminological inconsistencies with regards to the definition of the fundamental components of urban form, which prevents the establishment of objective models for measuring it. In this article, we present a study of existing methods for measuring urban form, with a focus on terminological inconsistencies, and propose a systematic and comprehensive framework to classify urban form characters, where ‘urban form character’ stands for a characteristic (or feature) of one kind of urban form that distinguishes it from another kind. In particular, we introduce the Index of Elements that allows for a univocal and non-interpretive description of urban form characters. Based on such Index of Elements, we develop a systematic classification of urban form according to six categories (dimension, shape, spatial distribution, intensity, connectivity and diversity) and three conceptual scales (small, medium, large) based on two definitions of scale (extent and grain). This framework is then applied to identify and organise the urban form characters adopted in available literature to date. The resulting classification of urban form characters reveals clear gaps in existing research, in particular, in relation to the spatial distribution and diversity characters. The proposed framework reduces the current inconsistencies of urban morphology research, paving the way to enhanced methods of urban form systematic and quantitative analysis at a global scale.

scholarly journals QUALITY ANALYSIS OF SINGLE TREE OBJECT WITH OBIA AND VEGETATION INDEX FROM LAPAN SURVEILLANCE AIRCRAFT MULTISPECTRAL DATA IN URBAN AREA

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurwita Mustika Sari ◽  
Dony Kushardono
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Hierarchical Classification ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Quality Analysis ◽  
Multispectral Data ◽  
Single Tree

High-resolution remote sensing data as the acquisition result of LAPAN Surveillance Aircraft (LSA) has the potential to analyze urban areas. The purpose of this study was to develop a method of LSA multispectral data utilization with an analysis of the single tree object in urban areas with OBIA and vegetation index. The method proposed in this study is a hierarchical classification to obtain the specific tree object that will be used further to analyze the quality of vegetation. In particular, analysis of the vegetation quality on the tree object was carried out by calculating the value of vegetation index NDVI. As a result, the overall accuracy of the hierarchical classification of objects in urban areas reached 88 %. In conclusion, the analysis of the quality of vegetation NDVI has been able to perceive the condition of trees in the urban area.

A Typo-Morphological Study: The Cmc Industrial Mass Housing District, Lefke, Northern Cyprus

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 16-30
Author(s):  
Nevter Zafer Cömert ◽  
Sebnem Önal Hoskara
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Morphological Study ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
North West ◽  
Mass Housing ◽  
Morphological Studies ◽  
Urban Pattern ◽  
Set Up

With the increasing number of universities in the country, research on urban form and architecture—with a focus on historic settlements—has accelerated in Cyprus in the last fifteen years. Lefke, a small traditional medieval town located on north-west Cyprus, warrants a detailed urban morphological study, as its traditional urban pattern has been shaped by a medieval character. Within its overall organic urban pattern, there are well-scaled narrow streets, a number of public buildings and irregularly shaped public spaces at the intersection of streets and/or in front of public buildings. Lefke's morphological characteristics, which have developed throughout many years, have been significantly impacted by British influences, as the Cyprus Mines Corporation (CMC), established in 1916, turned Lefke into an industrial town. The CMC district, which is the first industrial mass housing district in Cyprus, has uniquely impacted Lefke's urban patterns and still defines the morphological characteristics of the town today. Accordingly, this paper first explores urban morphology based on two pioneering morphological studies: Gianfranco Cannigia's theories of typo-morphological understanding, and the evolutionary insights of M.R.G. Conzen. The ultimate goal is to set up a typo-morphological basis for the CMC industrial mass housing district, which will drive future interventions, design and planning policies towards its conservation and sustainability.

scholarly journals On the origin of spaces: Morphometric foundations of urban form evolution

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 707-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Dibble ◽  
Alexios Prelorendjos ◽  
Ombretta Romice ◽  
Mattia Zanella ◽  
Emanuele Strano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
New Towns ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Way

The modern discipline of urban morphology gives us a ground for the comparative analysis of cities, which increasingly includes specific quantitative elements. In this paper, we make a further step forward towards the definition of a general method for the classification of urban form. We draw from morphometrics and taxonomy in life sciences to propose such method, which we name ‘urban morphometrics’. We then test it on a unit of the urban landscape named ‘Sanctuary Area’ (SA), explored in 45 cities whose origins span four historic time periods: Historic (medieval), Industrial (19th century), New Towns (post-WWII, high-rise) and Sprawl (post-WWII, low-rise). We describe each SA through 207 physical dimensions and then use these to discover features that discriminate them among the four temporal groups. Nine dimensions emerge as sufficient to correctly classify 90% of the urban settings by their historic origins. These nine attributes largely identify an area's ‘visible identity’ as reflected by three characteristics: (1) block perimeterness, or the way buildings define the street-edge; (2) building coverage, or the way buildings cover the land and (3) regular plot coverage, or the extent to which blocks are made of plots that have main access from a street. Hierarchical cluster analysis utilising only the nine key variables nearly perfectly clusters each SA according to its historic origin; moreover, the resulting dendrogram shows, just after WWII, the first ‘bifurcation’ of urban history, with the emergence of the modern city as a new ‘species’ of urban form. With ‘urban morphometrics’ we hope to extend urban morphological research and contribute to understanding the way cities evolve.

scholarly journals Urban form and vacant shops: can one explain the other? – a case study in Portugal

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Saraiva ◽  
Teresa Sá Marques ◽  
Paulo Pinho
Keyword(s):  
Urban Form ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Economic Market ◽  
New Developments ◽  
Morphological Variables ◽  
The City

Shopping is much more than a wealth-generator in post-modern societies; it is intrinsically linked with the way people experience the city and an indivisible part of their day-to-day social experiences. Consequently, the literature has gradually recognized that commercial geographies are not just a consequence of economic market logics. It has been proven that there is a relationship between store-types and urban morphology, and that commerce is an important catalyst for urban regeneration and revitalization. Thus, the urban form can also be a cause for the lack of success of a shop. The amount of vacant shops has been signaled as an important problem in urban areas, affecting the structure and the identity of neighborhoods, and reflects the negative effects of the economic-crisis. Strategies to overcome this problem are usually economically-oriented and fail to capitalize on the new-found relationships between store-success and urban morphology. Thus this research wishes to test whether there are indeed correlations between specific morphological features and the existence of vacant shops, and consequently to propose how changes in the urban environment can contribute to overcome, and even prevent, such cases. The geographical distribution of vacant shops in a sample of Portuguese cities was set against morphological variables such as building age or centrality in the network (Space Syntax). Positive association was found, for example, between new developments and vacant shops, questioning the need for more store space in certain areas; and, particularly outside central neighborhoods, between open shops and high ‘choice’ (rather than high ‘integration’) axes.

scholarly journals La producción desigual de la morfología urbana madrileña = The uneven production of the urban morphology in Madrid

2020 ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Ramón Aguilar Lucato
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
The City

ResumenSe analiza la impronta morfológica actual de la histórica producción desigual del espacio urbano madrileño. Se eligieron quince muestras de tejidos urbanos, tres en cada una de las clases morfológicas discutidas por Rodríguez-Tarduchy (2011), representativas de las innovaciones que se han generado en los modos de producir las grandes ciudades españolas. Cada tejido se localiza en una realidad socioeconómica en el marco de su clase morfológica (inferior, intermediaria y superior). La investigación se basó en el análisis de seis indicadores y posibilitó conclusiones cuantitativas sobre los cambios en los modos de diseñarse la ciudad en la medida que esta se expandía e innovaciones urbanísticas eran incorporadas a su trazado; y sobre las variaciones en la forma en una misma clase morfológica, pero en distintos contextos sociales. Con la ayuda del Diagrama Spacemate, se cuantificaron dos agrupamientos bien definidos y opuestos, confirmando la progresiva producción de una ciudad dual, es decir, densa en los tejidos más antiguos y difusa en las nuevas periferias.AbstractThis work verifies how the historical uneven production of Madrid's urban space is reflected in the present. Fifteen urban fabrics samples were chosen, three in each of the morphological classes discussed by Rodríguez-Tarduchy (2011), representative of the innovations that have been generated in the ways of producing large Spanish cities. Each fabric is located in a socioeconomic reality within the framework of its morphological class (lower, intermediate and upper). The research was based on the analysis of six indicators and made possible quantitative conclusions on the changes in the trends of designing the city as it expanded and urban innovations were incorporated into its layout; and on variations in urban form within the same morphological class, but in different social contexts. With the help of the Spacemate Diagram, two well-defined and opposite groupings were quantified, confirming the progressive production of a dual city, dense in the oldest fabrics and diffuse in the new peripheries.

scholarly journals Spatial Information and the Legibility of Urban Form: Big Data in Urban Morphology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Boeing
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Form ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Urban Morphology ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Form Analysis ◽  
Study Sites

Urban planning and morphology have relied on analytical cartography and visual communication tools for centuries to illustrate spatial patterns, propose designs, compare alternatives, and engage the public. Classic urban form visualizations – from Giambattista Nolli’s ichnographic maps of Rome to Allan Jacobs’s figure-ground diagrams of city streets – have compressed physical urban complexity into easily comprehensible information artifacts. Today we can enhance these traditional workflows through the Smart Cities paradigm of understanding cities via user-generated content and harvested data in an information management context. New spatial technology platforms and big data offer new lenses to understand, evaluate, monitor, and manage urban form and evolution. This paper builds on the theoretical framework of visual cultures in urban planning and morphology to introduce and situate computational data science processes for exploring urban fabric patterns and spatial order. It demonstrates these workflows with OSMnx and data from OpenStreetMap, a collaborative spatial information system and mapping platform, to examine street network patterns, orientations, and configurations in different study sites around the world, considering what these reveal about the urban fabric. The age of ubiquitous urban data and computational toolkits opens up a new era of worldwide urban form analysis from integrated quantitative and qualitative perspectives.

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