Geoscience Reference
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Tabl e 2. 1 Some fractal
dimensions of metropolitan
areas
Dimension of the
central cluster
boundary
Metropolitan area
Surface dimension
Berlin
1.75
1.58
Stuttgart
1.75
1.88
London
1.86
1.41
Tabl e 2. 2 Fractal surface
dimensions of some
agglomerations
Agglomeration
D
Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz
1.483
Bergamo
1.752
Besançon
1.638
Basel
1.723
Brussels
1.883
Cergy-Pontoise
1.695
Charleroi
1.857
Helsinki
1.708
Liège
1.914
Lille
1.683
Lyon
1.786
Montbéliard
1.558
Namur
1.526
Sarrebrücken
1.659
Strasbourg
1.785
France. We present here results obtained exclusively by correlation analysis. First,
we refer to Thomas et al. ( 2012 ) which analyzed 18 cities. When considering
the agglomerations as a whole, we may distinguish different ranges of dimension
values. As Table 2.2 shows, Besançon, Strasbourg, Sarrebrücken, Basel, and
Bergamo have dimensions of about 1.6-1.8. This holds even for Helsinki, which
is influenced by its coastline, but also by a ribbon-like development on its periphery.
These are cities of different sizes, in different countries and geographical situations,
but they are dominated by a historical center and a gradual decline in density
toward the periphery. A second group consisting of Bayonne-Anglet-Biaritz, Cergy-
Pontoise, Lille, and Montbéliard has lower dimensions, lying between 1.5 and 1.7.
All these towns are conurbations consisting of a rather disparate patchwork of
zones with different morphologies where transient areas fill spaces between denser
zones. Brussels and Lyon have high-dimension values; they are dominated by rather
homogenous town sections dating from the nineteenth century. The highest values
are observed for Charleroi and Liège, which were greatly affected by heavy industry
constructions in the nineteenth century such as ribbons of working-class housing
and an intricate urban structure (see, e.g., Vanneste et al. 2008 or Thomas et al.
2008a ).
These examples, which are fully consistent with those obtained on the basis
of more coarse-grained data, show that the historical context which contributed to
 
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