1 Spatial Modelling of the Terrestrial Environment - Georeferencial

Characterizing Land Use in Urban Systems via Built-Form Connectivity Models 205
Urban System
Built-Form Galaxy
Channel Network
Built-Form Constellations
Road Rail River
Built-Form Arrays
Cul-de-sacs
Blocks
Built Forms
Figure 10.2 Kruger’s (1979a) conceptual hierarchy of built-form in an urban system. Reproduced
by permission of Pion Limited
Built-Form Galaxy
Built-Form Constellation
Built-Form Array
Built-Unit
Figure 10.3
hierarchy
Diagrammatic representation of the different levels in Kruger’s (1979a) built-form
rather than an explicit evaluation of their potential to map such patterns onto different
categories of urban land use. Kruger (1979a, b), for example, models urban systems as
structured trees stratified into Galaxies, Constellations, Arrays and Units on the basis of
their channel-network components (i.e., Roads, Railways and Rivers; Figure 10.2). In these
studies, Kruger distinguishes different elements of the urban system using two topological
properties, namely containment (Urban-System→Galaxy→Constellation) and adjacency
(Constellation→Built-Form Array↔Built-Forms; Figure 10.3). Thus, constellations are
defined as collections of buildings that are wholly contained within a closed loop of
either the road, river or rail network. Within each constellation, the spatial organization
of buildings is characterized by a number of distinct built-form arrays. These are, in turn,