Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation
Urban systems present hierarchical structures at many different scales. These are observed as administrative regional delimitations which are the outcome of complex geographical, political and historical processes which leave almost indelible footprints on infrastructure such as the street network....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2016-01-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.150691 |
| _version_ | 1818417530668056576 |
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| author | Elsa Arcaute Carlos Molinero Erez Hatna Roberto Murcio Camilo Vargas-Ruiz A. Paolo Masucci Michael Batty |
| author_facet | Elsa Arcaute Carlos Molinero Erez Hatna Roberto Murcio Camilo Vargas-Ruiz A. Paolo Masucci Michael Batty |
| author_sort | Elsa Arcaute |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Urban systems present hierarchical structures at many different scales. These are observed as administrative regional delimitations which are the outcome of complex geographical, political and historical processes which leave almost indelible footprints on infrastructure such as the street network. In this work, we uncover a set of hierarchies in Britain at different scales using percolation theory on the street network and on its intersections which are the primary points of interaction and urban agglomeration. At the larger scales, the observed hierarchical structures can be interpreted as regional fractures of Britain, observed in various forms, from natural boundaries, such as National Parks, to regional divisions based on social class and wealth such as the well-known North–South divide. At smaller scales, cities are generated through recursive percolations on each of the emerging regional clusters. We examine the evolution of the morphology of the system as a whole, by measuring the fractal dimension of the clusters at each distance threshold in the percolation. We observe that this reaches a maximum plateau at a specific distance. The clusters defined at this distance threshold are in excellent correspondence with the boundaries of cities recovered from satellite images, and from previous methods using population density. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T12:08:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8102be620ade488b8d97856f4f1dd2e4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T12:08:15Z |
| publishDate | 2016-01-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-8102be620ade488b8d97856f4f1dd2e42022-12-21T23:01:50ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032016-01-013410.1098/rsos.150691150691Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolationElsa ArcauteCarlos MolineroErez HatnaRoberto MurcioCamilo Vargas-RuizA. Paolo MasucciMichael BattyUrban systems present hierarchical structures at many different scales. These are observed as administrative regional delimitations which are the outcome of complex geographical, political and historical processes which leave almost indelible footprints on infrastructure such as the street network. In this work, we uncover a set of hierarchies in Britain at different scales using percolation theory on the street network and on its intersections which are the primary points of interaction and urban agglomeration. At the larger scales, the observed hierarchical structures can be interpreted as regional fractures of Britain, observed in various forms, from natural boundaries, such as National Parks, to regional divisions based on social class and wealth such as the well-known North–South divide. At smaller scales, cities are generated through recursive percolations on each of the emerging regional clusters. We examine the evolution of the morphology of the system as a whole, by measuring the fractal dimension of the clusters at each distance threshold in the percolation. We observe that this reaches a maximum plateau at a specific distance. The clusters defined at this distance threshold are in excellent correspondence with the boundaries of cities recovered from satellite images, and from previous methods using population density.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.150691percolation theoryurban hierarchiescity boundariesfractal dimensionstreet networks |
| spellingShingle | Elsa Arcaute Carlos Molinero Erez Hatna Roberto Murcio Camilo Vargas-Ruiz A. Paolo Masucci Michael Batty Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation Royal Society Open Science percolation theory urban hierarchies city boundaries fractal dimension street networks |
| title | Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation |
| title_full | Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation |
| title_fullStr | Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation |
| title_short | Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation |
| title_sort | cities and regions in britain through hierarchical percolation |
| topic | percolation theory urban hierarchies city boundaries fractal dimension street networks |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.150691 |
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