The Urban Atlas: Methodological Foundation of a Morphometric Taxonomy of Urban Form is the title of my PhD Thesis defended in January 2021 at the University of Strathclyde.
Thanks to Ombretta and Sergio for guiding me along the way!
Abstract
No two cities in the world are alike. Each urban environment is characterised by a unique variety and heterogeneity as a result of its evolution and transformation, reflecting the differences in needs human populations have had over time manifested, in space, by a plethora of urban patterns.
Traditionally, the study of these patterns over time and across space is the domain o urban morphology, a field of research stretching from geography to architecture. Whilst urban morphology has considerably advanced the current understanding of processes of formation, transformation and differentiation of many such patterns, predominantly through qualitative approaches, it has yet to fully take advantage of quantitative approaches and data-driven methods recently made possible by advances in geographic data science and expansion of available mapping products. Although relatively new, these methods hold immense potential in expanding our capacity to identify, characterise and compare urban patterns: these can be rich in terms of information, scalable (applicable to the large scale of extent, regional and national) and replicable, drastically improving the potential of comparative analysis and classification.
Different disciplines with more profound quantitative methods can help in the development of data-driven urban morphology, as now, for the first time, we are in the position where we can rely on a large amount of data on the built environment, unthinkable just a decade ago. This thesis, therefore, aims to link urban morphology and methodologically strong area of quantitative biological systematics, adapting its concepts and methods to the context of built-up fabric. That creates an infrastructure for numerical description of urban form, known as urban morphometrics, and a subsequent classification of urban types.
Conceptually building on the theory of numerical taxonomy, this research progresses the development of urban morphometrics to automate processes of urban form characterisation and classification. Whilst many available methods are characterised by significant limitation in applicability due to difficulties in obtaining necessary data, the proposed method employs only minimal data input - street network and building footprints - and overcomes limitations in the delineation of plots by identifying an alternative spatial unit of analysis, the morphological tessellation, a derivative of Voronoi tessellation partitioning the space based on a composition of building footprints. As tessellation covers the entirety of urban space, its inherent contiguity then constitutes a basis of a relational framework aimed at the comprehensive characterisation of individual elements of urban form and their relationships. Resulting abundant numerical description of all features is further utilised in cluster analysis delineating urban tissue types in an unrestricted urban fabric, shaping an input for hierarchical classification of urban form - a taxonomy.
The proposed method is applied to the historical heterogeneous city of Prague, Czechia and validated using supplementary non-morphological data reflecting the variation of built-up patterns. Furthermore, its cross-cultural and morphological validity and expandability are tested by assessment of Amsterdam, Netherlands and a combination of both cases into a unified taxonomy of their urban patterns. The research is accompanied by a bespoke open-source software momepy for quantitative assessment of urban form, providing infrastructure for replicability and further community-led development.
The work builds a basis for morphometric research of urban environment, providing operational tools and frameworks for its application and further development, eventually leading to a coherent taxonomy of urban form.
Keywords: urban morphometrics, taxonomy, classification, measuring, urban form, quantitative analysis, urban morphology, software
PDF of the thesis is available from my Dropbox before it will be visible in the University repository. The code repository will be shared once I’ll manage to clean it :).