Multi-Scale Identification of Urban Landscape Structure Based on Two-Dimensional Wavelet Analysis: The Case of Metropolitan Beijing, China

Abstract

Scale dependence is one of the major characteristics of landscape. Urban landscape is highly affected by human activities with a multi-scale structure, which makes the multi-scale identification of urban structure an obligation for urban spatial studies. Although there have been many previous studies on urban landscape structure, most of them have been conducted on a single scale, and the multi-scale effects of landscape patterns were rarely involved. Two-dimensional wavelet transforms can link spatial structures to scale and spatial locations, and maybe an effective method for the multi-scale analysis of landscape. In this paper, we applied two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform and wavelet variance to analyze the multi-scale spatial structure characteristics and the nested hierarchical structure of the metropolitan Beijing area. The results indicated that the spatial distribution and configuration of the patches were highly scattered at small scales, and the urban landscape exhibited a relatively complicated structure. At medium scales, a combination of the polycentric and sectorial structure was identified due to the prominence of dominant patches within each administrative district. At larger scales, the urban landscape pattern exhibits typical concentric ring characteristics. Two characteristic scales were detected by the wavelet variance in the south-north direction of the main urban zones, scale 4 (112m) and 8 (1792m) in Dongcheng District, scale 3 (56m) and 6 (448m) in Xicheng District, which were corresponding to the extent of middle-small blocks and large blocks respectively. One characteristic scale was detected in each of the suburb areas (Chaoyang, Haidian, and Fengtai District). The spatial structure of the main urban zones is more complex than that of the suburb areas, and it presents a typical hierarchical structure in the south-north direction. In general, the spatial structure of Beijing metropolitan area appears polycentric and concentric ring structure at large scales, the main urban area has nested hierarchies at different characteristic scales, and the wavelet method can effectively identify multi-scale characteristics of urban spatial structure.