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Rivers and road systems play crucial roles in urban development and in shaping the vitality of cities. The present study focuses on the spatiotemporal development patterns of canal cities. Taking Suzhou as an example, employing various spatial measurement methods combined with multidimensional spatiotemporal data, it clearly demonstrates the urban morphological patterns and societal characteristics related to the road and river network systems at different stages of urban development. Utilizing data extracted from historical and modern maps of Suzhou and employing the YOLO (You Only Look Once) algorithm, this study establishes a spatiotemporal dataset for Suzhou's ancient city, a representative Chinese canal city. An optimized space syntax algorithm for public service facilities, utilizing Python library like Geopandas, Numpy, is proposed to analyze the river and road system's impact on historical development and urban morphology. With multiple spatial econometric models applied to maps from various periods, this research explores the following findings: (1) By controlling rivers as a variable, it quantitatively confirms that rivers were crucial components of urban systems in ancient cities, playing a significant role in urban development and activities, though gradually overlooked in modern times. (2) Public service facilities of different types demonstrate patterns of Accessibility and Integration within the river-road system across various periods. (3) Changes in the distribution of public service facilities correspond to phased shifts in the center of Suzhou's ancient city, mutually validating the authenticity of realistic paintings, historical maps, and the methodologies used in this study. This study emphasizes a broader historical and spatiotemporal perspective, augmented by quantitative research methods. It investigates the distribution and developmental characteristics of various types of public service facilities across different periods. The research aim is to understand the impact of river and road systems on urban development, as well as the morphological and social changes in historical cities that arise from urban activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many models depicting the spatial dimensions of poverty are based on cities in developed countries, raising questions about their appropriateness for urban spaces in developing countries. This study evaluates the spatial suitability of these models in understanding poverty distribution and informing alleviation efforts related to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). One in cities of developing nations. A grid sampling technique in ArcGIS 10.8 was used to select 1098 households across 56 wards in three mid-sized Nigerian cities. Household data were collected through structured questionnaires using GeoODK, and Maxar high-resolution imagery was used to assess urban building density. The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty indices and Pearson correlation were applied for analysis. Results showed that over 29 wards had a poverty incidence and gap index greater than 0.20, while poverty severity remained below 0.20 in most wards. High building density was more prevalent in the city's interior. Significant correlations were found between the income poverty gap (p = 0.005, r = 0.367), poverty severity (p = 0.009, r = 0.346), and building density. The study concludes that these models are suitable for informing poverty alleviation policies in mid-sized cities of developing countries, especially Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the evolution of public spaces from the 1940s to today, emphasizing the social and spatial transformations at Taksim Republic Square. Utilizing argumentative and exploratory methods, the study conducts a detailed process analysis using various sources, including historical documents, photographs, and maps. This study’s innovation is the development of a new methodology that examines the social and spatial structure of Taksim Republic Square in ten-year intervals. Typo-morphological analysis provided spatial insights, while photographic analysis offered social perspectives. This methodology enabled both socio-spatial layers and thematic examinations. The results demonstrate how global events have directly and indirectly influenced the urban space and social life of Taksim Republic Square. It is observed that public life perpetually recreates itself through experiences. This study applies to fields such as urban planning, urban design, urban morphology, social anthropology, and social geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization combined with global climate change, exacerbates the urban thermal environment and hinders sustainable urban development. However, the complex relationships between land surface temperature (LST) and urban morphology are being further understood, particularly in relation to different urban development patterns, distinct topography, and 3D building morphology. Thus, this study conducted a comparative study in Chengdu and Chongqing, Southwest China. We explored the impact of comprehensive factors (including socio-economic factos, topography, land use composition, and building morphology) on LST by employing the methods of linear regression, geographical detector model, and the boosted regression trees. Our results suggest that (1) high LST was mainly observed in the central part of Chengdu but it presented multicenter aggregation trend in Chongqing; (2) Socio-economic factors were the dominant variables affecting LST in both cities; (3) land use composition and building morphology showed distinct contributions to LST among the two cities; and (4) 3D building management was more effective in Chengdu than in Chongqing. A better understanding of the impact of various influencing factors on LST will enable policy makers and planners to develop appropriate strategies for constructing climate-adaptive cities and mitigating urban heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractUrban expansion models (UEMs) help unfold the mechanism, future pathways, and relevant repercussions of urban landscape dynamics. Although a plethora of UEMs have been developed, the field of open-access modeling platform for urban expansion simulation still presents gaps in terms of representing urban development events, regulating multilevel urban morphologies, and reflecting underlying regularities of physical urban growth. This study develops an open-access Multiengine Urban Expansion Simulation (MUSE) platform together with software that addresses some of these limitations. MUSE employs patch-based concepts and different patch generation engines to represent urban development events of distinctive types, enabling control over spatial morphology at landscape, class and patch levels. Moreover, MUSE incorporates two general regularities on urban development waves and urban diffusion and coalescence to govern physical urban expansion processes. Experiments in two cities examine MUSE’s ability in simulating realistic urban dynamics, and a series of synthetic experiments verify the operational behavior of the patch generation engines. These experiments show that MUSE can simulate a range of urban expansion types, including infill, edge growth and leapfrog expansion, and various morphologies, such as aggregated, sprawl, fragmented and compact. MUSE can empower practitioners to better project, analyze and understand complex urbanization dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based in interviews as well as analysis of planning documents and media coverage, this article scrutinizes the role of property in urban morphology by tracing two decades of attempts to redevelop Norra Sorgenfri, a partly deindustrialized area almost at the topographic centre of Malmö, Sweden. In this city, urban redevelopment projects are centrally placed within a hegemonic story of Malmö as shedding its industrial past to become a sustainability forerunner. This was the story that Norra Sorgenfri was inserted into, with initial visions underlining its potential as an exciting extension of the inner city. But in targeting this 45 ha piece of land, Malmö also planned to transform a landscape subdivided into a complex pattern of mostly private properties alongside some scattered lots of municipally owned land. Scrutinizing property in Norra Sorgenfri and how particular property owners have reacted to redevelopment efforts, we centre on the significance of this lack of municipal land. Rather than merely asserting that property matters, we thus strive to trace how property matters, to planners striving to realize visions for a future Malmö, to different land-owners in the area, to the unhoused seeking refuge on post-industrial land, and to the authorities tasked with removing them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple fabric assessment (MFA) is a computer‐aided procedure designed for identifying and characterizing urban fabric types (morphotypes) from a street‐based perspective. Nonetheless, the original MFA presents some limitations: it relies on surface‐based descriptors, conceived as proxy variables for the pedestrian perspective in urban form analysis, rather than direct sight‐based measurements. It also uses building footprint classes as proxies for building types. The spatial statistics on the street network concentrate on patterns of over‐ and under‐represented values, which often results in a limited number of morphotypes. Furthermore, the morphotypes are typically valid only for a specific study area. This article presents the latest methodological advancements in MFA overcoming these four limitations. Its implementation over the eight largest French metropolitan areas successfully distinguishes approximately 20 distinct place‐specific morphotypes, which are further aggregated into a comprehensive multi‐level nested taxonomy. The new MFA procedure allows a nationwide comparative analysis of contemporary urban forms, laying the groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of morphologically regionalized metropolitan areas. Through detailed algorithmic improvements and nationwide implementation, integrating traditional urban morphology with streetscape analysis, MFA provides insights into the analogies and differences of the urban fabric in contemporary metropolitan areas, enabling interoperability with other domains of urban research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban heat island (UHI) has posed a threat to sustainable development, and the identification of the spatial characteristics of UHI is a prerequisite for the mitigation of UHI effects. Taking Kunming City and Guiyang City in the karst region of Southwest China as two examples, this study utilized spatial econometric modeling and random forest regression to identify and compare the spatial distribution and impact of urban heat islands related to topographic and urban morphology. The results indicated that the UHI in Kunming and Guiyang mainly monocentrically and polycentrically distributed, respectively, and the urban heat island intensity (UHII) in Kunming was significantly higher than that in Guiyang. The spatial error model effectively reflected the influence of topography and urban form on UHII, and the random forest regression model objectively measured the contribution of different influencing factors to UHII. Enhanced vegetation index (EVI), population density (PD), percentage of impervious surface (PIS), ground sky view factor (GSVF), building density (BD) and percentage of water bodies (PW) had similar effects and contributions to the UHII in the two cities, while urban surface roughness (USR) contributed less than topographic slope (SLOPE) on UHII in Kunming, and the SLOPE contributed less than USR in Guiyang. In the karst ecologically fragile zone, the morphology of Kunming and Guiyang are mainly shaped by the topography, which can be characterized as monocentric and polycentric, respectively. And the UHI distribution and UHII were also closely related to topographic patterns. EVI, SLOPE and PW, all showed inhibitory effects on UHII, and EVI contributed the most. PD, PIS, USR and BD, exacerbate the UHII, with PD contributing the most. The above conclusions can provide a reference for policymakers and urban planners to optimize urban morphology and mitigate urban heat island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the application of procedural design methods in urban morphology, drawing inspiration from the innovative work of the Architectural Workshop of Miskolc in Hungary during the late 20th century. This study presents a generative approach termed "Simulated Morphogenesis" (or the "Miskolc Method"), which models organic city growth by analysing historical urban tissues and applying recursive algorithms to simulate natural urban development. The method leverages advanced generative tools, such as Rhinoceros 3D and Grasshopper, to model the step-by-step growth of Central European cities, with a particular focus on Miskolc. By incorporating controlled randomness into the algorithmic processes, the method captures the complexity of organic urban growth while maintaining structured development. The Miskolc Method emphasizes the importance of continuity and context, allowing for the "healing" of urban fabric discontinuities or the generation of new urban structures. This article demonstrates how this approach, while rooted in geometrical analysis, offers a valuable foundation for preliminary urban planning. The findings are relevant for understanding the morphogenesis of cities and provide a flexible framework applicable to various urban contexts globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeology of early urbanism is a growing and dynamic field of research, which has benefited in recent years from numerous advances at both a theoretical and a methodological level. Scholars are increasingly acknowledging that premodern urbanization was a much more diverse phenomenon than traditionally thought, with alternative forms of urbanism now identified in numerous parts of the world. In this article, we review recent developments, focusing on the following main themes: (a) what cities are (including questions of definitions); (b) what cities do (with an emphasis on the concentration of people, institutions, and activities in space); (c) methodological advances (from LiDAR to bioarchaeology); (d) the rise and fall of cities (through a focus on persistence); and (e) challenges and opportunities for urban archaeology moving forward. Our approach places people—with their activities and networks—at the center of analysis, as epitomized by the quotation from Shakespeare used as the subtitle of our article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although neighborhoods are a widely used analytical concept in urban geography, they are often proxied using grids or statistical sectors in empirical research. The rationales underlying these proxies are often separated from the theoretical considerations of what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood, casting shadows over their relevance and applicability. In this article, we identify two specific challenges separating empirical operationalizations from theoretical considerations in neighborhood delineations: (1) not incorporating key built environment elements and (2) monodimensional approaches. We develop a method that addresses this double challenge by (1) creating morphological basic spatial units (BSUs) and (2) aggregating them into neighborhoods using multilayer community detection (MLCD) drawing on datasets used in both formal and functional regionalization approaches. We illustrate this method for the case of Leuven, Belgium, by (1) using street blocks as BSUs and (2) focusing on proximity, land use, and social interactions. Through a comparative analysis, we show that our results align with theoretical considerations and perform as well as, and perhaps better, than statistical sectors and grids as neighborhood representations. We therefore argue that this flexible method can bridge formal and functional regionalization approaches making the case for its adoption in neighborhood delineation exercises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid population growth globally is resulting in urban densification exponentially. As cities become denser, the environmental quality of urban canyons reduces, resulting in an increase in associated energy use in buildings. Currently, cities are responsible for 70% of the world’s energy consumption. One of the efficient solutions to address this issue is allowing more solar access into interiors and thus making the most of daylight and solar heat gain. Accordingly, this paper presents a novel approach to integrate daylight optimization in both urban environments and buildings’ interiors via the development and application of a custom algorithm based evolutionary computation. This ultimately allows more daylight penetration into urban canyons [vertical daylight illuminance (VDI)] and, subsequently, improves indoor visual comfort [useful horizontal illuminance level (HIL)]. This can also reduce the associated lighting and heating (during winter) energy use of buildings. Furthermore, investigating the correlation between indoor and outdoor illuminance levels aims to bridge the gap between daylight requirements at the urban planning and building scale. A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm-based assessment using computational simulation of design variables is conducted. This determines the extent to which each urban morphology can affect daylight access in both indoor and outdoor environments. Accordingly, the optimal range for different design factors is suggested.Highlights: Applying the best and worst designs alters indoor visual comfort by 88.09%. Applying the best and worst designs alters outdoor illuminance levels by 62.5%. Urban grid rotation has the highest impact on indoor visual comfort. Outdoor daylight availability is mainly affected by the floor area ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urbanization and expansion of cities have raised sustainability concerns and impacted the overall quality of life. Numerous studies have explored sustainable cities with climate-adapted urban and architectural designs, particularly focusing on optimizing thermal comfort within different urban morphologies. This publication presents a meticulous systematic review analyzing how urban form influences microclimatic conditions through advanced computer simulations. The PRISMA methodology condenses key indicators to facilitate informed decision making. A robust dataset from reputable databases such as ProQuest, Web of Science, and Scopus was analyzed, revealing discernible climate patterns, with hot arid (Bwh) and humid subtropical (Csa) climates being the most studied. The Thermal Comfort Index predominantly relies on the PET metric, with ENVI-met software as a popular simulation tool. Uncontrolled urban sprawl, surface impermeability, and lack of greenery exacerbate the urban heat island effect, leading to multifaceted environmental, social, and energy-related implications. The study underscores the importance of exploring topics like urban forms and morphology while advocating for increased attention to specific climatic conditions and urban scales. The growing prevalence of computational simulations for climate analysis emerges as a pivotal area of interest for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significant increase in building energy consumption poses a major challenge to environmental sustainability. In this process, urban morphology plays a pivotal role in shaping building energy consumption. However, its impact may exhibit latent heterogeneity due to differences in temporal resolution and spatial scales. For urban energy planning and energy consumption modeling, it is crucial to pinpoint when and where urban morphology parameters matter, an overlooked aspect in prior research. This study quantitatively explores this heterogeneity, utilizing a detailed dataset from old residential buildings within a university campus. Spatial lag models were employed for cross-modeling across various temporal and spatial dimensions. The results show that annual and seasonal spatial regression models perform best within a 150 m buffer zone. However, not all significant indicators fall within this range, suggesting that blindly applying the same range to all indicators may lead to inaccurate conclusions. Moreover, significant urban morphology indicators vary in quantity, category, and directionality. The green space ratio exhibits correlations with energy consumption in annual, summer, and winter periods within buffer zones of 150 m, 50~100 m, and 100 m, respectively. It notably displays a negative correlation with annual energy consumption but a positive correlation with winter energy consumption. To address this heterogeneity, this study proposes a three-tiered framework—macro-level project decomposition, establishing a key indicator library, and energy consumption comparisons, facilitating more targeted urban energy model and energy management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The street space of China's inner cities performs the function of organizing neighbourhood services. This study aims to understand the typological characteristics of street network structures from a spatial configuration perspective and their impact on neighbourhood facilities' layout. The study selected four Chinese inner cities and adopted a route structure approach comprising continuity, connectivity, and depth to distinguish seven street types. A correlation analysis between street configuration and Baidu maps' points of interest revealed different street types' ability to support service facilities and how street-type combinations affect the block group unit's overall cohesion. Finally, it proposed an ideal street network model to provide reference for neighbourhood design practice and presented adaptive suggestions for a value cognition and management system. This study established a direct connection between cognition in the field of urban morphology and practice in the field of urban design, thus providing new perspectives on neighbourhood community design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gap between morphological knowledge and urban planning is a major problem. The absent or insufficient morphological components of most planning instruments, like municipal plans, seem to reduce planning ability to define adequate rules for urban form transformation. This paper suggests that an integrated methodology for Morphological Analysis and Prescription (MAP), which benefits from the convergence of key complementary methods—morphological regionalization, typological process, and configurational analysis—can be a powerful tool to support planning practice, enabling a structural and comprehensive understanding of urban form dynamics. The Amial area, in Oporto, Portugal, is the setting for comparing the morphological analysis and proposals of MAP and the Oporto municipal master plan (Plano Diretor Municipal), and empirically examining the robustness of MAP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a massive investment in subsidized housing, informal settlement remains a significant aspect of urban development in Chilean cities. This paper first surveys the urban morphology of contemporary settlements in four Chilean cities to maps the extent and location of neighbourhoods that have developed informally or semi-formally. The broad pattern is that the more informal of settlements have been practically eliminated from the capital of Santiago, yet mixed informality flourishes and is expanding on the peripheries of regional cities. Four cases are then mapped and analysed to show the morphogenesis—the ways buildings and street networks are incrementally designed and produced. A range of morphogenic patterns are identified including highly irregular morphologies on escarpment conditions, semi-regular street grids, and informal encrustations within formal housing projects. It is argued that informal production will remain significant and that a better understanding of informal settlement morphology is crucial to the design and planning for the future of Chilean cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of spatial parameters on urban well-being by comparing the urban design and housing policies of Roosevelt Island in New York City and Bat Yam in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Israel. Despite their distinct political and cultural contexts, these cities exhibit similar urban design approaches that integrate physical well-being parameters—such as density, building height, open spaces, and walkability—alongside social well-being parameters including age distribution, income levels, and ethnic diversity. The research traces the evolution of affordable housing through various historical phases, including Urban Renewal, Community Development, and Neoliberal Urbanism, and explores how different residential ownership structures have influenced demographic shifts, gentrification, and neighborhood transformation over the past decades. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines historical analysis with spatial and demographic data, this study highlights the contrasting impacts of Roosevelt Island's affordable housing program and Bat Yam's state-led urban renewal policies. The results illustrate how distinct housing models affect community resilience, social stability, and overall urban well-being. By uncovering parallel narratives and extracting valuable insights, this analysis offers lessons for other cities navigating similar market-led pressures and policy shifts. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the interplay between spatial design, housing policies, and ownership structures in shaping the long-term sustainability and quality of life in urban neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of street spatial form on thermal comfort from urban morphology and human-centered perspectives has been underexplored. This study, utilizing multi-source data and focusing on urban central districts, establishes a refined index system for street spatial form and a thermal comfort prediction model based on extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and Shapley additive explanations (SHAP). The results reveal the following: (1) Thermal comfort levels display spatial heterogeneity, with areas of thermal discomfort concentrated in commercial zones and plaza spaces. (2) Compared to the human-centered perspective, urban morphology indicators correlate strongly with thermal comfort. (3) The key factors influencing thermal comfort, in descending order of importance, are distance from green and blue infrastructure (GBI), tree visibility factor (TVF), street aspect ratio (H/W), orientation, functional diversity indices, and sky view factor. All but the TVF negatively correlates with thermal comfort. (4) In local analyses, the primary factors affecting thermal comfort vary across streets with different heat-risk levels. In high heat-risk streets, thermal comfort is mainly influenced by distance from GBI, H/W, and orientation, whereas in low heat-risk streets, vegetation-related factors dominate. These findings provide a new methodological approach for optimizing urban thermal environments from both urban and human perspectives, offering theoretical insights for creating more comfortable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial variability of land surface temperature (LST) is considerably affected by urban morphology. Previous research has focused separately on the thermal effects of urban morphology and the cooling effects of water bodies and urban parks. However, the combined influence of intra- and extra-block factors on LST has not been thoroughly examined. To bridge this research gap, we conducted an extensive analysis of 17 urban morphology factors in Hangzhou by employing a novel stacked ensemble approach. Results showed that the stacked ensemble models outperformed commonly used techniques, such as random forest and boosted regression trees. Extra-block factors, alongside building density, average building height, and vegetation coverage within blocks, predominantly influenced the LST distribution across all seasons. Building density was positively correlated with LST, with a maximum influence of 1.5 °C in spring, whereas building height was negatively correlated with it, with a maximum influence of 1.8 °C in winter. The cooling distance of the Qiantang River extends up to 2500 m into the urban blocks and has a maximum effect of 2 °C in summer. These insights deepen our comprehension of the interplay between LST and intra- and extra-block urban morphologies, thus offering valuable guidance for urban planners and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have failed to adequately address intangible characteristics and lacked a comprehensive quantification of cultural dimensions. Additionally, such works have not merged supervised and unsupervised classification methodologies. To address these gaps, this study employed multidimensional numerical techniques for precise spatial pattern recognition and urban morphology classification at the block scale. By examining building density, mean floor numbers, functional compositions, and street block mixed-use intensities, alongside historical and contemporary cultural assets within blocks—with assigned weights and entropy calculations from road networks, building vectors, and POI data—a hierarchical categorization of high, medium, and low groups was established. As a consequence, cluster analysis revealed seven distinctive morphology classifications within the studied area, each with unique spatial configurations and evolutionary tendencies. Key findings include the dominance of high-density, mixed-use blocks in the urban core, the persistence of historical morphologies in certain areas, and the emergence of new, high-rise clusters in recently developed zones. The investigation further elucidated the spatial configurations and evolutionary tendencies of each morphology category. These insights lay the groundwork for forthcoming studies to devise morphology-specific management strategies, thereby advancing towards a more scientifically grounded, rational, and precision-focused approach to urban morphology governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Engineering (17264073) is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Olympic Games have been associated with many urban transformation projects throughout their history, often focusing on city expansion. Recent sustainability concerns, however, constitute a pressing challenge, with the regeneration of central areas fulfilling a key role in existing urban agendas. In this paper, the legacy of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at two proposed centralities was analysed, namely, the Olympic Park, intended as a future neighbourhood to the west of the city, and Porto Maravilha (PM), an urban project aimed at revitalizing a central, historical area of the city. By comparing the Olympic Park and the first provided areas in PM, in terms of selecting urban design criteria through qualitative in loco assessments, this paper focused on analysing the impacts of urban forms and heritage on the consolidation of these two centralities, as well as encouraging social interaction and integration into the city. The analysis results indicated that urban design attributes such as human-scaled, mixed-use, context-based urban spaces could interfere with social interaction and the usability of spaces. Moreover, the repurposing of heritage buildings contributed to urban cohesion for legacy transformation. Hence, novel insights into urban design and heritage could become important for future editions of the Olympics so that host cities may fulfil their sustainability agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centre-city neighbourhoods is where residents expect a diversity of residents and an active social life, along with numerous amenities. This study investigates the relationship between the transforming morphology of Over-the-Rhine – a historic centre-city neighbourhood in Cincinnati, Ohio – and its urban social life. Detailed observations and morphological analyses of four new residential projects reveal that typologies that on the face appear urban, in fact promote a suburban lifestyle that prioritizes independence and seclusion and focus on private domestic life, in an urban context. We conclude with a set of strategies to increase the interaction between the private and the public realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries with complex urban spatial configurations strive to control urbanization and its impact on energy consumption. The current study has used Tiruchirappalli city in India as a study area to demonstrate the impact on cooling energy consumption by complex urban spatial configurations. To comprehend the complexity, sixty-five urban prototypes were generated through permutation and combination using local climatic zones scheme. The image-based binary classification model was used to categorize the morphologies in the city. The study aims to investigate the cooling energy consumption of a heterogeneous urban spatial configuration through prototype models. The urban prototypes were grouped using the unsupervised machine learning approach. The validation for the prototypes was conducted through the RMSE method, and the errors lie between 0.45 and 0.68. The results indicated that increasing the green cover ratio on the combination of high and mid-rise spatial configurations is ineffective in reducing the cooling energy. In contrast, the combination of low-rise and mid-rise spatial configurations consumed less energy for air-conditioning when the green cover ratio was increased. The results conclude that the combination of high-rise with open low-rise spatial configuration is unsuitable for warm and humid climate. The high frequency of the cooling energy was between 120Gjs to 250Gjs which explains that the complexity of the spatial configuration in the city helps to reduce the energy utilized for air conditioning. This research aids planners and energy policymakers in the decision-making process of city spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban vitality is a core feature of sustainable cities and neighborhoods. Acknowledging the significant role of the spatial and physical attributes of built urban landscapes in influencing urban vitality, scholars and planners in the field of urban studies have meticulously examined the relationship between urban morphology and variations in urban vitality. While most previous studies have primarily focused on a narrow range of factors when analyzing urban form, often neglecting its multifaceted nature, this study utilizes urban morphometrics using Python's Momepy library to offer a comprehensive typology. It integrates diverse urban components from individual buildings and streets to entire neighborhoods into a unified, holistic framework, providing a more integrated understanding of urban form's influence on urban vitality. Our spatial econometric models identified higher building floor areas, taller and narrower streetside buildings, diversely aged buildings, and higher building coverings on lots as favorable urban form settings for urban vitality. Measuring urban morphology with advanced methods and identifying their relationship to urban vitality provides insightful implications for urban planners and designers for creating vibrant cities and neighborhoods. Practical Applications: This study utilizes advanced methods to assess the design and layout of cities and neighborhoods and analyzes their effects on urban vitality. The Momepy Python package is used in this study to capture urban form in terms of size, density, layout, diversity, and connectedness. This study measures how diverse urban morphologies affect the variation of urban vitality captured by mobile phone data. This study introduces an integrated approach that identifies spatial relationships between buildings and street networks into a comprehensive framework. This holistic approach can suggest effective strategies for decision-making by urban planners and policymakers to create livable and sustainable cities and neighborhoods. Moreover, this study reveals how the effects of the urban morphology on urban vitality vary depending on the time of day and day of the week. The core findings suggest that urban planners and designers should consider spatial configurations of buildings and streets as well as residents' behavior over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Planlama is the property of TMMOB Sehir Plancilari Odasi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rapid urbanization has altered the natural surface properties and spatial patterns, increasing the risk of urban waterlogging. Assessing the probability of urban waterlogging risk is crucial for preventing and mitigating the environmental risks associated with urban waterlogging. This study aims to evaluate the impact of different urban spatial morphologies on the probability of urban waterlogging risk. The proposed assessment framework was demonstrated in Guangzhou, a high-density city in China. Firstly, a spatial weight naive Bayes model was employed to map the probability of waterlogging risk in Guangzhou. Secondly, the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT)-based method was used to create a local climate zone (LCZ) map of Guangzhou. Then, the range of waterlogging risk and the proportion of risk levels were analyzed across different LCZs. Finally, the Theil index was used to measure the disparity in waterlogging risk exposure among urban residents. The results indicate that 16.29% of the area in Guangzhou is at risk of waterlogging. Specifically, 13.06% of the area in LCZ 2 is classified as high risk, followed by LCZ 1, LCZ 8, and LCZ 10, with area proportions of 11.42%, 8.37%, and 6.26%, respectively. Liwan District has the highest flood exposure level at 0.975, followed by Haizhu, Yuexiu, and Baiyun. The overall disparity in waterlogging exposure in Guangzhou is 0.30, with the difference between administrative districts (0.13) being smaller than the difference within the administrative districts (0.17). These findings provide valuable insights for future flood risk mitigation and help in adopting effective risk reduction strategies at urban planning level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the transformation of the urban fabric by analyzing changes in both structural and numerical parameters of spatial organization, with a particular emphasis on the hierarchical relationships between streets, blocks, and buildings. The research utilizes Bursa, the former Ottoman capital in Turkey, as a case study to explore these dynamics. The elements of streets, blocks, and buildings are posited as fundamental components in conceptualizing cities as layered palimpsests, where successive historical layers coexist within the urban fabric. The research establishes a conceptual parallel between the methodologies and analytical tools of urban morphology, particularly through the shared notion of the palimpsest. In the case of Bursa, the architectural remains and urban form of the Early, Classical, and Late Ottoman periods and of the Republican period are superimposed. In particular, the late Ottoman reform era, the Tanzimat period of the 19th century, brought great change. Historical maps from this era serve as primary sources for comprehending the evolving character and spatial configuration of the city. This research presents a novel methodological contribution by extending the analytical framework of urban morphology to integrate both qualitative and quantitative data. It employs Geographic Information Systems (GISs) and statistical methods to quantify changes in the urban fabric, assessing both pre-modernization and post-modernization phases. Historical maps from the 19th century are utilized as primary sources to trace and compare transformations within the urban fabric, with clustering techniques further aiding this analysis. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic processes that shape the historic structure of cities, offering a dual approach to urban transformation that harmonizes historical continuity with modern development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional urban design often overlooks the synchronisation of human and ecological connectivities, typically favouring corridors for ecological continuity. Our study challenges this convention by introducing a computational design approach, meta-connectivity, leveraging the deep generative models performing cross-domain translation to integrate human–wildlife landscape connectivity in urban morphology amidst the planetary urbanisation. Utilising chained Pix2Pix models, our research illustrates a novel meta-connectivity design reasoning framework, combining landscape connectivity modelling with conditional reasoning based on deep generative models. This framework enables the adjustment of both human and wildlife landscape connectivities based on their correlative patterns in one single design process, guiding the rematerialisation of urban landscapes without the need for explicit prior ecological or urban data. Our empirical study in East London demonstrated the framework's efficacy in suggesting wildlife connectivity adjustments based on human connectivity metrics. The results demonstrate the feasibility of creating an innovative urban form in which the land cover guided by the connectivity gradients replaces the corridors based on simple geometries. This research thus presents a methodology shift in urban design, proposing a symbiotic approach to integrating disparate yet interrelated landscape connectivities within urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, several analytical approaches have been developed to understand urban form and to address the complexity of human settlements as well as various socio-economic and environmental challenges. Each approach is characterized by specific disciplinary and geographical trends, often emerging from distinct schools of thought within urban morphology. Typically, these approaches are associated with specific research centers or individual researchers and have frequently been applied in isolation, with some exceptions. The teaching of urban morphology in higher education institutions across Europe faces the challenge of training future graduates to effectively address contemporary urban issues from often isolated perspectives rooted in the aforementioned schools of thought, either reflecting specific national educational trends or adopting a globalized approach that overlooks local specificities. Furthermore, the relationship between professional practice in urban and planning fields and higher education institutions is a notable concern. While the importance of broad knowledge and multidisciplinary skills for urban professionals is recognized, the connection between academia, research and practice is minimal. The increasing demand for evidence-based approaches in urban design highlights the need for solutions grounded in sound knowledge. To address the relationship between academic research and its integration into professional practice, innovation in teaching practices is crucial, aligning academia with the evolving needs of planning, architecture, and urban design professions. This involves focusing on developing learners' fundamental and transversal skills and providing tools, methods, and research findings applicable in professional settings. This paper is based on two research projects that sought to bridge the gaps between different morphological approaches in teaching and between academic research and practical application. The projects, Emerging Perspectives on Urban Morphology (EPUM) and the Knowledge Alliance for Evidence-Based Urban Practices (KAEBUP), brought together partners from various South and Central European countries to address these gaps. EPUM focused on integrating different morphological approaches within the context of teaching, while KAEBUP aimed to connect theoretical knowledge with practical actions concerning the built environment. The situative pedagogical perspective, rooted in communities of practice and supported by a blended learning approach, is central to this endeavor. This perspective provides a collaborative framework for educators, students, and professionals in urban morphology to co-create knowledge through integrated learning, teaching, and research activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Making cities health-promoting places is an evolving theme. Numerous studies confirm the health-promoting qualities of contact with nature and problems resulting from the deprivation of access to public green spaces. Easy access to safe and inclusive public green spaces is still one of the long-lasting problems of urbanized areas around the globe. It is one of the sustainable development goals, SDGs, proposed by the UN: 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Point 11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities. The major question is how to implement this goal in practice and design cities to provide easy access to safe and inclusive public green spaces. One of the important concepts for sustainable urban development is the urban block, Macrolot, coined by Christian de Portzamparc, which led to the new urban morphology of eco-neighborhoods in France. It combines the traditional, walkable urban grid with the Le Corbusier vision for a healthy modernist city offering daylight, fresh air, and greenery for everyone. Among the advantages of this particular urban morphology are the increased presence of green spaces and possibilities for placemaking. Studying the effects of the urban form of the Macrolot is of great significance for sustainable urban development. In this study, five neighborhoods—three eco-neighborhoods from France designed according to the open urban block, Macrolot urban morphology, ZAC Massena, ZAC Trapeze, and ZAC Clichy-Batignolles, and two award-winning developments from Poland, Riverview and Ostoja Wilanów—were chosen as case studies. The application of the Macrolot concept to sustainable urban planning and design and the possibilities for operationalization of the SDG—11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable—are discussed. This study offers valuable evidence to inform urban planning and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Bangalore Petta, also referred to as Bangalore Pete or City Market area has garnered considerable attention from urban researchers across numerous dimensions. The name "Pete" has been a recurring identifier across diverse cultures and languages, yet its origin remains enigmatic. These dimensions encompass the spectrum from morphology to perception and from visual to sensory, allowing for the exploration of diverse characteristics within this historical part of the city. Examining these settlements through various lenses is necessary to understand the significance of multiple dimensions of the city and Cartography, though a predominant tool for assessment, seldom explored in this context. Delving into the study of one of Bangalore's oldest vernacular settlements through Cartography can unearth the visual and geographical aspects that reveals the historical layers, linguistic roots, and cultural stories woven into the fabric of the area. This method allows the tracing of the evolution of place names and uncover the narratives that have shaped the region's identity over time, offering a deeper understanding of the etymology that defines its character. Through maps, insights can be gained into how the landscape has been interpreted, inhabited, and transformed, enriching our appreciation of the area's rich and multifaceted history. Utilizing mapping tools and through analysis of these maps, the study provided visual representations of the name's dispersal, including its shifts in morphology taking into consideration the sociocultural contexts, trade routes, and historical events that have contributed to the diffusion of the name. Comparative analysis of linguistic structures reveals the relationships between different iterations of the name, "Pette", once a prominent commercial center which has evolved significantly over time. Its transformation reflects the influence of surrounding developments and shifts in urbanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban energy infrastructure is facing a rising number of challenges due to climate change and rapid urbanization. In particular, the link between urban morphology and energy systems has become increasingly crucial as cities continue to expand and become more densely populated. Achieving climate neutrality adds another layer of complexity, highlighting the need to address this relationship to develop effective strategies for sustainable urban energy infrastructure. The occurrence of extreme climate events can also trigger cascading failures in the system components, leading to long-lasting blackouts. This review paper thoroughly explores the challenges of incorporating urban morphology into energy system models through a comprehensive literature review and proposes a new framework to enhance the resilience of interconnected systems. The review emphasizes the need for integrated models to provide deeper insights into urban energy systems design and operation and addresses the cascading failures, interconnectivity, and compound impacts of climate change and urbanization on energy systems. It also explores emerging challenges and opportunities, including the requirement for high-quality data, utilization of big data, and integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning in urban energy systems. The proposed framework integrates urban morphology classification, mesoscale and microscale climate data, and a design and operation process to consider the influence of urban morphology, climate variability, and extreme events. Given the prevalence of extreme climate events and the need for climate-resilient strategies, the study underscores the significance of improving energy system models to accommodate future climate variations while recognizing the interconnectivity within urban infrastructure.

Abstract Urbanization combined with global climate change, exacerbates the urban thermal environment and hinders sustainable urban development. However, the complex relationships between land surface temperature (LST) and urban morphology are being further understood, particularly in relation to different urban development patterns, distinct topography, and 3D building morphology. Thus, this study conducted a comparative study in Chengdu and Chongqing, Southwest China. We explored the impact of comprehensive factors (including socio-economic factos, topography, land use composition, and building morphology) on LST by employing the methods of linear regression, geographical detector model, and the boosted regression trees. Our results suggest that (1) high LST was mainly observed in the central part of Chengdu but it presented multicenter aggregation trend in Chongqing; (2) Socio-economic factors were the dominant variables affecting LST in both cities; (3) land use composition and building morphology showed distinct contributions to LST among the two cities; and (4) 3D building management was more effective in Chengdu than in Chongqing. A better understanding of the impact of various influencing factors on LST will enable policy makers and planners to develop appropriate strategies for constructing climate-adaptive cities and mitigating urban heat.

This article explores the application of procedural design methods in urban morphology, drawing inspiration from the innovative work of the Architectural Workshop of Miskolc in Hungary during the late 20th century. This study presents a generative approach termed “Simulated Morphogenesis” (or the “Miskolc Method”), which models organic city growth by analysing historical urban tissues and applying recursive algorithms to simulate natural urban development. The method leverages advanced generative tools, such as Rhinoceros 3D and Grasshopper, to model the step-by-step growth of Central European cities, with a particular focus on Miskolc. By incorporating controlled randomness into the algorithmic processes, the method captures the complexity of organic urban growth while maintaining structured development. The Miskolc Method emphasizes the importance of continuity and context, allowing for the “healing” of urban fabric discontinuities or the generation of new urban structures. This article demonstrates how this approach, while rooted in geometrical analysis, offers a valuable foundation for preliminary urban planning. The findings are relevant for understanding the morphogenesis of cities and provide a flexible framework applicable to various urban contexts globally.

This paper investigates the background and basis for O. Mathias Ungers’ exploration of the morphology of the city and its implications on the architectural project, beginning with seminal but unrealized proposals that resulted from typological and morphological studies, followed by a discussion of theoretical and academic investigations in Germany and in the U.S., and finally by the analysis of three executed proposals in Trier as the synthesis to these explorations.

Introduction In recent years, the ever-increasing population growth and rampant use of personal transportation and daily trips have caused many problems in the field of transportation, including high fuel consumption, air pollution, noise, high density streets, reduced physical activity, etc. In many metroplolitan areas during the past decades, the sudden increase of motor vehicles has caused heavy street traffic in intra-city trips, and the main reason for this can be considered the weak relationship between urban morphology and transportation, in other words, urban forms that avoid pedestrians and encourage motor trips. Urban morphology is one of the most important and main factors that affect the demand for urban transportation. The quality of land use (density of residential units or their dispersion) forms the important basis of urban morphology. In the formation of urban morphology, natural and human factors play varried roles, among them road network is of paramount importance in construction and morphology of a city. Since urban morphology has a significant effect on urban transportation, how to establish a strong relationship between urban morphology and travel modes has has always been of great interst of researchers. This study is aiming at investigating the impact of morphology characteristics on urban transportation demand. In this research, features of urban morphology, such as overall residential density, connectivity index, and the average width of roads, with the help of demographic characteristics, such as population density, female and female working poulation, total working population etc., on demand for urban transportation have been ivestigated. These include four parameters such as creation of public and personal trips and attraction of public and personal trips on in 186 traffic areas of Isfahan city. Methodology This research has been conducted with a descriptive causal approach based on the data and information required in the study areas. To achieve the research goals, 186 traffic areas of Isfahan City have been studied. For analyzing the characteristics of urban morphology, including average width of roads, overall residential density, and connectivity index (street density), in the form of GIS maps have been investigated, and for demographic characteristics, the population and housing census map of Isfahan City was obtained and researched from the Deputy Planning and Human Capital Development Organization of Isfahan Municipality. Then, using the map of 186 traffic areas of Isfahan City, the amount of these variables was calculated and extracted by GIS software. Moreover, the information related to urban transportation demand based on public transportation demand, including public travel creation, public travel attraction, and personal transportation demand, including personal travel creation and personal travel attraction from the origin-destination matrix of the year 2021 of Isfahan city on a normal working day and at the peak hour of 7:00 to 8:00 a.m., the transportation and traffic department of Isfahan municipality has been obtained and used for evaluation. In the present research, in order to reach a complete and comprehensive answer, after extracting the data from GIS software, the Eviuse software was used. According to the number and nature of the research variables, the specification of the model is done using the multivariate regression method and the weighted least squares method. GIS software was also used for drawing the maps. Findings The research findings show that in the TSS and JSS models, with the increase in the average width of traffic areas, the creation and attraction of personal travel have also increased, and in the TSO and JSO models, the creation and attraction of public travel have decreased with the increase in the average width of traffic areas. In TSS model, the coefficient is negative and in JSO model, the coefficient is positive, which shows that with an increase in the overall residential density, the use of private transportation decreases and the use of public transportation increases. In terms of street density, which also indicates the connection index, the coefficient value is positive in TSS and negative in TSO model. The results also show that women in general use public transportation, but working women use private transportation more. The estimation of TSS model shows that as population is aging in the traffic areas of Isfahan City, the preferrence in using personal transportation has been rising. In JSS model, the parking variable has a direct relationship with the attraction of personal travel. In the personal travel attraction model, health-therapeutic use and commercial use have a direct relationship with the attraction of personal trips, and in the public travel attraction model, commercial, educational, and health-therapeutic uses have a direct relationship with the attraction of public trips. Finally, the increased number and variety of the users will also increase intra-city trips. Discussion and Conclusion In this research, an attempt has been made to investigate the effect of urban morphology variables on urban transportation demand with a general perspective. The results of the estimation of the research models show that the widening of urban roads as a management policy for intra-city travel demand increases people's trips using personal transportation and as a result, increases the number of road users. Street density, which indicates the number of higher streets and therefore greater connectivity, has a direct relationship with citizens' use of private transportation. Residents of areas that have higher overall residential density and population density, which indicates denser urban fabric and more dispersion, are less likely to use personal transportation, and people in those areas prefer to use public transportation and walking options. Also, as the age of the residents of the area increases, they use private cars for their daily trips. Another examination of the results of the research indicates that areas with parking facility, will attract passengers who have used private transportation compared to the areas that do not have such possibility. In general, as the total working population increases in the areas, they use personal transportation to go to their workplace, and it can be said that the female population uses public transportation more for their daily trips. In the public travel attraction model, the positive coefficient of commercial use is higher than the coefficient of health-therapeutic use and educational use, and with the increase in the number of commercial uses, the attraction of public travel increases to a greater extent. In the personal travel absorption model, the effect value of the healthcare usage coefficient is higher than the commercial usage coefficient and it shows that with the increase in the number of healthcare usages, the absorption of personal travel will increase. Moreover, the increased number and variety of the users will also increase intra-city trips.

Abstract The Olympic Games have been associated with many urban transformation projects throughout their history, often focusing on city expansion. Recent sustainability concerns, however, constitute a pressing challenge, with the regeneration of central areas fulfilling a key role in existing urban agendas. In this paper, the legacy of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at two proposed centralities was analysed, namely, the Olympic Park, intended as a future neighbourhood to the west of the city, and Porto Maravilha (PM), an urban project aimed at revitalizing a central, historical area of the city. By comparing the Olympic Park and the first provided areas in PM, in terms of selecting urban design criteria through qualitative in loco assessments, this paper focused on analysing the impacts of urban forms and heritage on the consolidation of these two centralities, as well as encouraging social interaction and integration into the city. The analysis results indicated that urban design attributes such as human-scaled, mixed-use, context-based urban spaces could interfere with social interaction and the usability of spaces. Moreover, the repurposing of heritage buildings contributed to urban cohesion for legacy transformation. Hence, novel insights into urban design and heritage could become important for future editions of the Olympics so that host cities may fulfil their sustainability agendas.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of two types of urban morphology existing in the area of Bucharest on the local microclimate, using Landsat satellite data, GIS techniques and numerical modelling. The two types of urban design analyzed are differentiated by the period in which they were constructed, one being built in the communist era and the other in the current period. The phases of the study are: i) geospatial analysis of urban morphology focusing on the urban design features of each period; ii) spatial analysis of the land surface temperature in relation with urban geometry, using Landsat 9 satellite images; iii) simulation of microclimate using ENVI-met software to highlight the local thermal environment. Satellite data analysis highlighted higher values for the land surface temperature in neighborhoods built in the current period compared to the areas built in the communist era. The results of the simulation highlight the distinctions in the thermal environment between the two categories examined, lower values of air and surface temperatures for the neighborhoods built in the communist era.

The literature considers urban green spaces as a key to promoting physical activity and health. Despite the increasingly recognized walking exercise promotion benefits of urban green spaces, the relationship between walking exercise preferences and green space layout remains unclear. We extracted preferred routes for walking exercise and measured the route heat using a one-year shared data of walking exercise from a mobile outdoor assistant app in the old city of Fuzhou, China. We then evaluated green space layout features within a 500-m buffer zone along the preferred routes in dimensions of scale, form, and function. The relationship between the route heat and green space layout features was analyzed using a series of poisson regression models, with the influence of urban morphology and the built environment allocation being controlled. Results showed that there existed a significant association between preferred routes for walking exercise and the combination of green space layout, urban morphology, and the built environment allocation; the route heat had positive associations with NDVI and comprehensive park area density, and showed negative associations with patch shape index and patch density. This study illustrates the necessity for targeted intervention strategies to promote the development of walkable and healthy urban areas.

The traffic planning network (TPN) represents future urban development and holds particular significance for the growth of cities. Although urban morphology (UM) has been applied to traffic networks, there exists a lack of multiscale quantitative research on TPN. From the UM perspective, this paper develops a quantitative framework to achieve the extraction and analysis of multimorphological features of TPNs on spatiotemporal scales. Subsequently, we investigated the morphological evolution of TPNs in Nanjing, China, from the 1980s to the 2020s. The research reveals the following findings: (1) In terms of spatiotemporal scales, the Nanjing TPN exhibits a multicentric agglomeration pattern on a smaller scale, evolving from discrete points to urban belts; on a larger scale, the urban framework transitions from a cross-shaped axis to a circular radial form. The evolution of Nanjing's form zones shows a southward shift of the Core zone and a transition from agglomeration to expansion and then gradual stabilization in the periphery of the Core zone. (2) The quantitative framework we proposed effectively extracts morphological characteristics within TPNs, visualizing the focal points and trends in urban traffic planning. (3) These morphological characteristics create Nanjing's heart-shaped layout, also reflecting the evolution of planning concepts from concentric urban groups to urban–rural integration. Our study enriches research on traffic planning and UM and offers valuable insights for traffic planning in Chinese cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses informal built landscapes in nine fast-growing global cities across diverse geo-political regions using historical maps, aerial photographs, and field visits. This empirical study investigates the urban form of informal built landscapes, identifying 10 main patterns of urban form in settlements created in the 1970–2020 period. This period was characterized by rapid spatial expansion of informal settlements. These trends raise the question of whether there were common characteristics of informal land occupation, how public sector interventions have changed informal settlements, and whether certain built landscapes were more prominent globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The increase in urban population growth has contributed to the expansion of unplanned settlements, especially in developing countries. Triggered by the lack of government oversight, the expansion of these settlements is characterized by unique economic, social, physical, and functional attributes. This study aims at exploring the physical features of unplanned settlements in District 4th of Herat city, western Afghanistan. Employing a mixed-research method, we integrated spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into detailed field observations to get a better understanding of the characteristics of the formation of these informal settlements. Our findings shed light on a number of key physical features including irregular street layouts, inadequate drainage systems, and substandard construction materials, irregular buildings in term of layout, number of floors, and building density. The features of unplanned urban morphology contribute to socio-economic loss and environmental degradation due to the absence of critical infrastructures including water infrastructures and the presence of unplanned streets in under-resourced unplanned settlements. In fact, the absence of government’s efforts in monitoring the development of unplanned settlements hinders the provision of essential services and infrastructures in the informal settlement communities. Our assertion is that the findings of this research will help policy makers in Afghanistan to reconsider their policies and decisions on urban development and growth, particularly in the poorer and under-served unplanned settlements in major cities in Afghanistan.