Interested in fractal theory, instruction, research and developing alternative ideas in urban planning theory and methodology – you are welcome to contact the principal.
Plan
Concepts in urban geography and fractal theory
- Heterogeneity of spatial distributions
- The centre-periphery pattern and self-similarity
- Spatial gradients : fractal and non fractal scaling exponents
- Scaling and geographical scales
- Fractal aspects of urban growth
Some applications of fractals to urban questions
- Description of urban morphologies
- Simulation of urban spatial dynamics
An empirical example : a fractal analysis of the urban pattern of Basle
- Method of analysis
- Correlation analysis
- Step by step dilation and extraction of information about each dilated image
- Evolution of the border of the urban area
- Correlation analysis applied to the border
- Evolution of the length of the urban border through the dilations
- Evolution of the built-up structure of the urban area
- Correlation analysis of the built-up surface of the area
- Evolution of the number of clusters of built-up pixels through the dilations
- Concluding remarks
Discussion : what are fractals useful for ?