The Structure and Form of Urban Settlements - Remote Sensing of Urban and Suburban Areas - page 11

Chapter 2
The Structure and Form of Urban Settlements
Elena Besussi, Nancy Chin, Michael Batty, and Paul Longley
This chapter introduces you to the different theoretical and methodological approaches
to the understanding and measuring of urban growth and urban patterns. Particular
attention is given to urban sprawl as one of the forms of suburbanization. Urban
sprawl today represents a challenge for both scientists and decision makers, due to
the complexity of its generative processes and impacts. In this chapter, we introduce
ways of measuring the spatial pattern of sprawl noting how remotely sensed imagery
need to be integrated with spatial socioeconomic data, and how this integration is
essential in making accurate interpretations of very different urban morphologies.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:
 Speculate on the range of processes which generate urban
growth and its different structures
 Differentiate between approaches used to define and measure
urban and suburban patterns
 Describe some of the zone-based spatial statistical methods
available to measure urban growth dynamics and patterns
E. Besussi ( * )
Development Planning Unit, University College London, 34 Tavistock Square,
London, WC1H 9EZ, UK
e-mail: [e-mail]
N. Chin and M. Batty
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place,
London WC1E 7HB, UK
e-mails: [e-mail]; [e-mail]
P. Longley
Department of Geography, University College London, Gower Street, London
WC1E 6BT, UK
e-mails: [e-mail]