Title :

The morphology of built-up landscapes in wallonia (Belgium) : a classification using fractal indices

Author(s) :

Thomas, Isabelle [Auteur]
Frankhauser, Pierre [Auteur]
Biernacki, Christophe [Auteur]

Journal title :

Landscape and Urban Planning

Volume number :

84

Pages :

99-115

Publisher :

Elsevier

Publication date :

2008

ISSN :

0169-2046

Keyword(s) :

Fractal dimension
Built-up geometry
Pattern analysis
Peri-urbanisation
Belgium

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Géographie

English abstract : [en]

The spatial pattern of built-up areas within a NUTS-1 European region (Wallonia in Belgium) is analysed using fractal indices. Methodologically, this paper illustrates the usefulness of fractal indices in measuring built-up ...
Show more >The spatial pattern of built-up areas within a NUTS-1 European region (Wallonia in Belgium) is analysed using fractal indices. Methodologically, this paper illustrates the usefulness of fractal indices in measuring built-up morphologies, and also shows that clustering techniques have to be adapted for the non-Euclidean nature of the fractal measurements. An expectation maximisation algorithm (EM) combined with a Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is used. Empirically, we show that fractal indices partition the region into sub-areas that do not correspond to "natural landscapes" but result from the history of urbanisation. Urban sprawl seems to affect most communes, even the remotest villages: traditional (compact, ribbon, etc.) villages are transformed into more complex and heterogeneous shapes. These indices seem to be useful for characterising and understanding the built landscapes, as well as for modelling and planning urban realities.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Audience :

Internationale

Popular science :

Non

Collections :

• METRICS : Evaluation des technologies de santé et des pratiques médicales - ULR 2694

Submission date :

2020-06-08T14:11:10Z