Continuous Urban Fabric Research Articles

The Clustering of the Population at Building Scale in Bursa City (Türkiye)

Research on spatial statistical methods related to population estimation at the building scale and its implications for urban land use has attained little attention. The main target of this study is to propose a new method for population estimation at the building level with minimal data and methodology and a high accuracy rate. In addition to this, it discusses urban population from various perspectives by using spatial statistical methods (Local Moran’s I and Hot–Cold Spot) to examine the population calculated based on the number of residential units in buildings and the household size of the neighborhood along with urban land use types in the case of Bursa. The results showed the following: (1) The suggested method achieves a 76% accuracy rate in population estimation at the building level; (2) 64.6% of the city’s population (2,101,581 individuals) is located in areas classified as Discontinuous High-Density Urban Fabric (50–80%) and Continuous Urban Fabric (>80); (3) 13.2% of the population is located in hot spot areas of these two types, while 14.5% is in cold spot areas. This research provides decision-makers with a framework for addressing urban problems related to housing, transportation, health, and energy in addition to the methods it proposes.

Prioritizing participatory planning solutions: Developing place-based priority categories based on public participation GIS data

Prioritization of knowledge produced in participatory planning has been approached mainly from the perspective of whose perspectives are most in need of consideration. We ask, whether it is also possible to consider which locations, based on the knowledge from participants, should be prioritized. We developed a place-based approach to inform spatial decision making especially when the prioritization of limited resources is necessary. In the place-based prioritization model frequency of use and perceived quality of everyday places were used to identify various priority categories. We argued that especially places that are perceived negatively but used often in daily life pose a risk to wellbeing and the quality of life and should thus be prioritized in development. Such places belonged to the Development priority category, but also three other categories, Development potential, Management potential and Management priority were identified. The prioritization model was tested empirically by using place-based knowledge about inhabitants everyday and quality networks collected in the Finnish city of Espoo. According to the results, the Development priority category was represented only in about 5% of places, most often in land associated with road and rail networks as well as in continuous urban fabric. As hypothesized, high share of the Development priority places in everyday networks reduced individual’s quality of life. We also found that a rather high share of these places was located within existing planning areas of the city.

Accuracy Assessment of the Building Height Copernicus Data Layer: A Case Study of Bratislava, Slovakia

High buildings have generally changed the morphology of cities in recent decades, and they have a significant impact on multiple processes in the urban area. Building height is one of the criteria for urban land cover classification in local climate zone delineation and urban heat island modeling. The European Union’s Earth observation program Copernicus aims to achieve a global, continuous, autonomous, high-quality, wide-range Earth observation capacity. One of the most recent Urban Atlas layers is the Building Height 2012 (BH2012) layer released in 2018, which consists of a 10 m resolution raster layer containing height information generated for core urban areas of the capitals of the EEA38 countries and the United Kingdom. This contribution aims to present the accuracy validation of the BH2012 data in Bratislava using the Slovak Basic Database for the Geographic Information System (ZBGIS). To compare the two datasets, four different tests were performed for the following group of landmark buildings: (i) with area > 100 m2, (ii) in Urban Atlas classes with soil sealing > 10%, (iii) with height > 50 m, (iv) with area > 1 ha. The results demonstrate the effect of the building’s area and compactness on the vertical accuracy of the BH2012 Copernicus data. The greater the building’s area and compactness, the smaller the difference between its height value in BH2012 and ZBGIS. The Urban Atlas class 11100 Continuous Urban Fabric (soil sealing: >80%) recorded the lowest vertical accuracy. The BH2012 database provides sufficiently accurate data for primary planning analyses of public administration bodies and various stakeholders who need to obtain information on the nature of a locality for development activities and small-scale environmental analyses. However, for detailed studies focusing on the quality of life in cities at the local level, more precise identification of the building height is recommended.

Soil sealing along the Beirut coast during half a century marked by population growth and refugee inflows

Land take by urbanization has increased significantly in the last decades, seriously contributing to the loss and degradation of the land capital. Urban sprawl and the related soil consumption are a major environmental and urban planning issue in the West Asian regions, particularly in the recent context marked by fast economic development and by regional conflicts that produced waves of war refugees and economic migrants. This study quantifies soil sealing due to the urban development between 1962 and 2020 in 28 municipalities located along the coastal strip and the coastal hill range of the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Governorates, in Lebanon, and discusses the impacts of urbanization processes on important ecosystem services such as food security and hydrological risks. The study is based on original data derived from historical topographic maps and from recent geospatial datasets. The two datasets have been generated and combined in a GIS environment by means of an original method that proved to be effective to perform detailed urban change analyses over long time spans covering periods in which no satellite information with sufficient resolution was available. An overall 54.0% increase in land surface taken by urbanization was observed in the study area between 1962 and 2020. This amount is not exceptional if compared to other fast-growing urban centers of the region. It is, however, very high considering the high overall degree of saturation (83.5%) of the available land space, the very dense continuous urban fabric, and the high level of soil sealing on the hill slopes overlooking the plain. These aspects raise concerns about the environmental sustainability of the urbanization process. A very sensitive situation is represented by the suburban areas located on the hill sides and still destined to agricultural crops, which preserve high value traditional rural landscapes. Urgent measures should be taken, framed within improved urban planning policies, to prevent further losses and to mitigate the impacts of the present-day soil sealing situation.

Arazi Kullanımı/Arazi Örtüsü Değişikliklerinin Ekosistem Hizmetleri Üzerindeki Etkisinin Sayısallaştırılması: Adana-Karaisalı Örneği

Global scale changes in land use affect biodiversity, global climate, and ecosystem services. Integrating a local and regional ecosystem service approach into plans and policies levels is essential for sustainable land management. In this study, land use/land cover differences in Adana-Karaisali district of Turkey were investigated using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Landsat satellite images of the area from 2000 and 2016 were analyzed using ISODATA method and 16 land use were identified based on the third level of the CORINE classification framework. The results showed that the biggest changes occurred in agricultural areas, 2.57% decrease in non-irrigated arable land while a 7.14% increase was observed in permanently irrigated lands. In spite of the decrease in the number of inhabitants in the area, continuous urban fabric increased at the rate of 0.07% and 7.62% increase was observed in forest lands. The positive or negative effects of the identified changes on ecosystem services based on the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES) framework were evaluated. In the case of Karaisalı, in spite of the decrease in water bodies and natural landscapes, it has been observed that increases in agricultural areas, forests, and artificial surfaces positively have affected ecosystem services valuation in the district.

The role of urban trees in reducing land surface temperatures in European cities

Urban trees influence temperatures in cities. However, their effectiveness at mitigating urban heat in different climatic contexts and in comparison to treeless urban green spaces has not yet been sufficiently explored. Here, we use high-resolution satellite land surface temperatures (LSTs) and land-cover data from 293 European cities to infer the potential of urban trees to reduce LSTs. We show that urban trees exhibit lower temperatures than urban fabric across most European cities in summer and during hot extremes. Compared to continuous urban fabric, LSTs observed for urban trees are on average 0-4 K lower in Southern European regions and 8-12 K lower in Central Europe. Treeless urban green spaces are overall less effective in reducing LSTs, and their cooling effect is approximately 2-4 times lower than the cooling induced by urban trees. By revealing continental-scale patterns in the effect of trees and treeless green spaces on urban LST our results highlight the importance of considering and further investigating the climate-dependent effectiveness of heat mitigation measures in cities.

Cambio de cobertura y uso de la tierra por actividades antrópicas en el distrito de Chota, periodo 2003/2019

The objective was to evaluate the change in land cover and use due to anthropic activities in the district of Chota-Peru, during the years 2003 and 2019. Analysis of Landsat satellite images was used, the Corine Land Cover methodology was used, in a level II and III. Nine land covers were identified: continuous urban fabric, transitional crops, pastures, planted forests, grasslands, shrubs, rocky outcrops, bare lands, and permanent natural ponds, lakes and swamps. In total, the change produced was 6,804.06 ha (25.36%), while 20,022.77 ha (74.64%) did not experience any change. In the same period, the land covers that increased its area were temporary crops in 10.94% (2,934.35 ha), bare lands in 1.11% (298.91 ha), the urban fabric continued in 0.73% (196.33 ha) and planted forests at 0.53% (143.34 ha); while the covers that decreased their area were grassland by 6.91% (1 853.57 ha), shrubland by 4.79% (1 284.86 ha), pasture by 1.55% (416.02 ha), the rocky outcrop by 0.06% (16.25 ha) and permanent natural ponds, lakes and swamps by 0.01% (2.03 ha). The main factor behind the changes caused to the coverage and use of land in the Chota district is the population growth of 7%, putting pressure on these areas, with a clear trend towards an increase in agricultural areas and urban growth, producing a change in coverage and land use of 25.36%.

Towards a Multi-Temporal Deep Learning Approach for Mapping Urban Fabric Using Sentinel 2 Images

The major part of the population lives in urban areas, and this is expected to increase in the future. The main challenges faced by cities currently and towards the future are the rapid urbanization, the increase in urban temperature and the urban heat island. Mapping and monitoring urban fabric (UF) to analyze the environmental impact of these phenomena is more necessary than ever. This coupled with the increased availability of Earth observation data and their growing temporal capabilities leads us to consider using temporal features for improving land use classification, especially in urban environments where the spectral overlap between classes makes it challenging. Urban land use classification thus remains a central question in remote sensing. Although some research studies have successfully used multi-temporal images such as Landsat-8 or Sentinel-2 to improve land cover classification, urban land use mapping is rarely carried using the temporal dimension. This paper explores the use of Sentinel-2 data in a deep learning framework, by firstly assessing the temporal robustness of four popular fully convolutional neural networks (FCNs) trained over single-date images for the classification of the urban footprint, and secondly, by proposing a multi-temporal FCN. A performance comparison between the proposed framework and a regular FCN is also conducted. In this study, we consider four UF classes typical of many European Western cities. Results show that training the proposed multi-date model on Sentinel 2 multi-temporal data achieved the best results with a Kappa coefficient increase of 2.72% and 6.40%, respectively for continuous UF and industrial facilities. Although a more definitive conclusion requires further testing, first results are promising because they confirm that integrating the temporal dimension with a high spatial resolution into urban land use classification may be a valuable strategy to discriminate among several urban categories.

Urban water bodies as the basis for functioning of public spaces

Recently, housing construction in cities has been carried out at a high rate. Increasingly, urban abandoned and flooded depressive spaces near water bodies (often rivers), which were previously used as industrial facilities or temporarily used, are becoming the sphere of architectural and landscape transformations. The restoration of such territories helps to improve the quality of urban space and improve its ecological properties. Correct development of territories near rivers and various water bodies has a great health-improving effect on the urban environment, improves its natural and climatic conditions. In addition, social and economic factors play an important role in this process, since such transformed territories and territories adjacent to them significantly increase investment attractiveness. This paper examines modern approaches to the development of urban public spaces, based on the formation of architectural environments that ensure the relationship of urban development with water bodies and adjacent territories. The paper notes that water bodies are not only an important component of the natural-ecological framework, but are also the basis for the framework of urban-planning natural-technogenic systems as a whole. And the creation of a continuous urban fabric is impossible without the organization of a ‘water’ line of development, provision of compositional, functional and communication interconnection of open urban and water spaces, which is actively being introduced today in architectural and urban planning practice. The paper examines the role of water bodies in the ecological system of the city, as well as in its structure as a whole. The aim of the study is to identify the features of the formation of a public urban space, to determine the patterns of its development, to identify criteria that reflect the nature, scale and features of the impact of urbanization on a water body. Some principles of revitalization of coastal areas, as well as the creation of a system of publicly accessible, compositionally expressive spaces are considered. The principles of space transformation aimed at the formation of a holistic image of the city, as well as the impact of such a spatial arrangement of urban and water bodies on the safety and quality of the urban environment are considered.

Estimating Barcelona's metropolitan daytime hot and cold poles using Landsat-8 Land Surface Temperature

The Barcelona Metropolitan Area (BMA) is located in Catalonia, northeastern Spain. With a population of over 3 billion people, the BMA is one of the most populous metropolitan areas on the Mediterranean coast. A local climatic modification known as the urban heat island (UHI) occurs in the urban areas. The UHI is usually quantified by means of air temperature, although remote sensing can be used to extract a thermal image of the earth's surface to provide temperature values throughout the study area. Estimation of the land surface temperature (LST) for the BMA enabled us to establish the spatial patterns of LST and to detect the poles of heat and cold within the BMA on 24 dates during the 2013–2018 period, distributed among the 4 seasons of the year. To this end we performed a principal component analysis (PCA) and a cluster analysis (CA). Moreover, we employed the Random Forest (RF) regression method to quantify the influence and variation of diverse geographic covariates according to season and location in the study area. Finally, to determine the influence of land covers on temperature, the thermal values of the 4 land covers included in the Corine Land Cover dataset were analyzed: industrial units, continuous urban fabric, green urban areas, and forest areas. Results show that the heat poles are concentrated in industrial areas primarily, followed by urban fabric areas. On the contrary, the cold pole is found in green urban areas, as well as forested areas. The maximum temperature range between land covers was detected in spring and summer, while in winter this difference was negligible. Our study showed that green urban areas presented temperatures up to 2.5 °C lower than in urban areas. The results of the present research are intended to serve as a roadmap for enhancing thermal comfort in the BMA.

Visualising a comparison of simulated urban heat islands: a case study of two Slovakian cities

Abstract. Temperature increases in cities affects inhabitants’ quality of life, justifying the extent of research focusing on identifying, analysing, and assessing the relationship between the density of urban fabric represented by land cover/land use (LC/LU) classes and manifestation of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. This paper delimits LC/LU classes for the urban Bratislava (2,117 ha of class 12110 dominated in 2016) and Trnava (598 ha of class 12120 dominated in 2016). The greatest median air temperature over 33 °C (at 18:00) was derived with the MUKLIMO model for the class Continuous urban fabric with the sealing degree > 80% in Bratislava. The graphic outputs improve our perception and evaluation of the LC/LU and UHI relationship. The information potential of the graphical outputs may increase through use of computer animations to represent the temperature changes during day or the temperature changes among years.

Revealing millimetre-scale ground movements in London using SqueeSAR™

A series of illustrated examples is presented here to demonstrate the capabilities of ground-level monitoring using InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar). Greater London is an ideal area to demonstrate and validate measurements derived using InSAR; its continuous urban fabric and the regular acquisition of SAR images from high-resolution sensors, such as TerraSAR-X, allows detection and monitoring of over 1.7 million measurement points with millimetre-scale accuracy. The results, some of which are shown here, reveal fascinating spatial and temporal patterns of ground motion across London and demonstrate the benefit of using high-resolution InSAR technologies in engineering applications. Interpreting the motion patterns can be challenging, however, owing to their complex and sometimes mysterious causes; we therefore welcome any assistance in doing so and we hope this photographic feature serves to trigger interest. Thematic collection: This article is part of the Measurement and monitoring collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/cc/measurement-and-monitoring

Influence of sewer network models on urban flood damage assessment based on coupled 1D/2D models

One of the main steps in assessing flood risk in urbanised areas is the quantification of damage costs. Damage is often estimated based on depth‐damage curves for which depth maps are obtained (ideally) from coupled flood models. While the comparative analysis of flood damage models has been extensively researched in the literature, the influence of the underlying sewer network model has not been investigated. In this study, a 2D locally inertial equations flood risk analysis model (GWM) is coupled with two stormwater models (SWMM, tested with three different configurations, and SIPSON). The assessment of the network performance is made through the total exchanged volume between the surface and stormwater system, the surcharged conduits and manholes, maximum overland inundation and costs using a stepped version of the multi‐coloured manual depth‐damage curves for continuous urban fabric. The models behave similarly; however, they do show differences in the head pressures, number of surcharged manholes and maximum depth in some locations. The case study results show that despite the good agreement in damage between the four configurations (≈6% maximum disagreement), some localised high differences in maximum depth observed [0.25 (m)] exist. It was also shown that SWMM needs to be calibrated in order to perform similarly to Preissmann slot models.

The urban heat island in the city of Pozna\u0144 as derived from Landsat 5 TM

To study urban heat island (UHI), Landsat 5 TM data and in situ measurements of air temperature from nine points in Poznań (Poland) for the period June 2008–May 2013 were used. Based on data from measurement points located in different types of land use, the surface urban heat island (SUHI) maps were created. All available and quality-controlled Landsat 5 TM images from 15 unique days were used to obtain the characteristics of land surface temperature (LST) and UHI intensity. In addition, spatial analysis of UHI was conducted on the basis of Corine Land Cover 2006 dataset. In situ measurements at a height of 2 m above ground level show that the UHI is a common occurrence in Poznań with a mean annual intensity of 1.0 °C. The UHI intensity is greater during the warm half of the year. Moreover, results based on the remote sensing data and the Corine Land Cover 2006 indicate that the highest value of the mean LST anomalies (3.4 °C) is attained by the continuous urban fabric, while the lowest value occurs within the broad-leaved forests (−3.1 °C). To re-count from LST to the air temperature at a height of 2 m above ground level (Tagl), linear and non-linear regression models were created. For both models, coefficients of determination equal about 0.80, with slightly higher value for the non-linear approach, which was applied to estimate the Tagl spatial variability over the city of Poznań.

Spatial and temporal land use change and occupation over the last half century in a peri-urban area

Understanding the reorganisation of land in order to adapt its use and spatial structure to social demands has become crucial to management and represents a major challenge to land use planning and public policies. This study explores the temporal and spatial land use change transitions in a peri-urban area of a medium-sized city located in the central Portugal and characterised by profound changes in the last half century. The study is supported by a collection of seven years/moments of image analysis (the 1958, 1973, 1979, 1995, 2002 and 2007 maps). Cross-referencing the successive sets of images defines the percentage of land transition and provides the stability grade (SG), which expresses the total proportion of the landscape that has not experienced any transition to a different category of land use. In order to evaluate the intensity of urban expansion, an annual rate of artificialisation of surfaces (AS) indicator was used. The seven cartographic outputs highlight a decrease in the area occupied by permanent crops, an increase in urban areas, especially the continuous urban fabric, a large forest occupation involving different typologies and paths, and an increase in base soil areas. The data also shows a general increase in the number of patches recognised and in pattern complexity. The results show that land use changes are created by systematic transitions, with or without gross variations, and also by casuistic processes associated with an increase in artificialised areas and the growth of the continuous urban fabric. Land use transition reflects the internal and external inputs associated with the approval of Municipal Master Plans and the land regulatory regime, and also the consolidation of the road infrastructure network. The analysis indicates that the transfer takes place in a set of small sequential steps marking the evolution from rural characteristics to a process of peri-urbanisation, ending in urban consolidation.