Developing Urban Metrics to Describe the Morphology of Urban Areas at Block Level

This research focuses on the potential of spatial metrics for describing distinct types of urban morphology at block level. Urban blocks typically consist of built-up and non built-up areas, with a specific composition and configuration. To characterize the twodimensional structure of urban blocks, next to traditional, landscape ecological metrics, two alternative methods are proposed, describing the alternation between, and the characteristic size of built-up and non-built-up surfaces along a set of radial and contourbased profiles. Urban areas are, of course, also characterized by their third dimension. Therefore, also metrics were developed describing different characteristics of the elevation pattern of built-up areas. A case study was carried out on the Brussels-Capital region. Several vector layers of the large-scale UrbIS database for the region were used to define the blocks, the delineation of individual buildings within each block, and the number of floors for each building. High-resolution satellite data were used to define the presence of green in non-built areas. A combination of the metrics proposed shows clear potential for describing different types of urban morphology. Yet there are several issues that require further research, such as the relation between different types of urban morphology and urban land use, as well as the potential of additional data (satellite imagery, digital elevation models, socioeconomical data) for improving the distinction between different urban morphologies and/or land-use types.