Conference Agenda

People can be characterised from many aspects, but one can tell more than most of the other - where they live. This research focuses on the interplay between the two aspects of cities - for one, their population and for the other, their built-up form - to understand the housing patterns in Czechia and the ability of different socio-demographic population groups to inhabit them. Both location and a type of urban development play a significant role in their lifestyle choices and accessibility to basic services and amenities, or dependency on individual transportation when moving around. However, not everyone is equally able to choose where to settle. The ongoing housing affordability crisis further restricts these choices, highlighting the urgent need for effective urban planning and housing policies that address growing inequalities.

While previous studies have often examined the socio-demographic structure of populations and the morphology of urban environments separately, this research addresses the gap by explicitly considering their interdependencies. It assesses the degree of inequality in access to various housing types at the neighborhood level, mapping these patterns at local and regional scales. Using spatially explicit architecture, the paper introduces new methods for modelling the relationship between socio-demographic factors and urban form to explore how socio-demographic indicators can predict the distribution of urban forms. By combining computational social science approaches, using recent census data, with morphological analysis through urban morphometrics, the research enables the quantification of both societal structure and the built environment, as well as the description of housing types from a data-driven built-form typology. Linking these indicators to specific neighborhoods allows for a comprehensive assessment of (in)equality of access to the desired place to live and the capability of different groups to make such a choice.

The findings offer a methodological contribution to modelling the relationship between socio-demographic factors and urban form, combining traditional machine learning with advanced spatial analysis techniques. While global models assume uniform relationships across entire datasets, geographically weighted models are inherently designed to capture geographic variations through localized analyses. This distinction is particularly important given the uneven spatial distribution of urban form classes. The results reveal clear spatial heterogeneity in the relationships between socio-demographic characteristics and housing typologies across Czechia, emphasizing the need for regionally tailored housing and urban planning policies. Geographically weighted models prove especially effective in capturing nuanced, location-specific dynamics that global models overlook. Furthermore, the case study of Czechia provides new insights into these dynamics at fine spatial scales, deepening the understanding of how social structures link to the built environment.

Urban form is a key concern for sustainable urban development and climate change adaptation. Consequently, it has become a focus for policymakers over the past decades. While many countries implement land policies that pursue specific objectives in the built urban form, like density, accessibility, or lower land-take rates, their outcomes in the actually built urban form often remain only vaguely evaluated. Thus, challenging the effectiveness and legitimacy of land policies.

Consequently, this contribution focuses on tracing expected outcomes of land policies in the produced urban form. For this, the French-German border region serves as a study area due to its economic and demographic similarities and high level of interconnectedness. While policymakers in both countries have committed to sustainable urban development goals, they are employing different land policy approaches to achieve their goals. This leads to different outcomes that can be expected to materialize in the actual built urban form as a consequence of these land policies.

A fine-grained cross-border geo-data model is set up to evaluate expected outcomes of specific land policies in the built urban form in the two countries using a covariational approach. Based on harmonized and preprocessed national geo-data sources for streets, buildings and plots, a homogenous urban form model is set up at the building block level, i.e. development blocks grouping together plots and buildings in proximity that have been developed together. Further information on building types, ages, and location through accessibility are added to describe temporal and spatial patterns in the region. Identified land policies in the two countries are then assessed and evaluated based on their expected outcome that is shown in these dynamics and patterns from 1990 to 2020.

While quantifiable trends towards lower land-take rates are in line with the respective expected land policy outcomes, further outcomes of specific policies in built urban form vary significantly between the two countries, in time and by policy. Contradictory to the expected outcomes and land policy orientation, the data shows a distinct suburbanization process in the French part through the location evaluation. Simultaneously, share of building types shifts towards more multi-family housing in the French part in line with a specific land policy, while the German part is defined through an increase in low-density single-family house development.

The variance in outcomes links to different approaches of implementing land policies in Germany and France at the municipal level. It is indicating for regulatory challenges in the federal planning system in Germany. The findings thus prompt a stronger debate of the specific configurations of land policies in the two countries and beyond. Especially on how land policies aim at promoting or regulating for a more sustainable built urban form through municipal actors and planning stakeholders.

Introduction

In urban planning, a simple uniform shape is favorable, indicating a compact city, while a complex
shape signals high ecological fragmentation. Eventually, it is difficult to say whether a complex
urban form is good or bad. There are no agreed reference values for the shape of cities with which
we can confront case studies.
The P/A ratio is a common indicator of shape complexity. Measuring the complexity of a physical
urban footprint is key to understanding the impact of urbanisation patterns. When the square root
of the area is used as denominator, this complexity indicator is made independent of the size (area)
of the patch and sometimes called ‘shape-index’.

Our goal is to address those issues head-on by assessing the robustness of the ‘shape-index’ to the
definition of patches and the aggregation methods. We suggest that instead of using arithmetic
mean averages, we should look at the entire relationship between perimeter and square root of the
area of all European cities.

Method

This study analyses urban patches based on Urban Atlas 2018 (Copernicus), covering 785 functional
urban areas (FUAs) in Europe. We classified 23 land cover categories into 2 classes to create the
urban footprint with u = 1 for urban and u = 0 otherwise. As a measure for each city, urban
patches are defined by 3 spatial analyses i, j and g.

• i: using original patches
• j: using merging patches that touch each other
• g: all patches j are merged into a single patch

We propose to estimate the slopes directly from the elementary perimeters and areas in both i
and j cases. Nevertheless, outlying values highly influence the fit j, we make those estimates after
removing outliers called j.c, but we further demonstrated that a single estimated ‘shape-index’ is
insufficient. Therefore, we compute a profile of estimations for subsets of increasing size along the
area dimension, ranging from the initial values to the maximum.

Results

We find that analysis j is more accurate than using analysis i and provides a better representation
of reality, allowing more effective comparisons between cities. The j.c, which provided a good
adjustment to fit the observed values, allows us to examine rural complexity by excluding outliers
defined as the developed urban core. The estimated coefficient showed that the urban patch across
Europe has a mean of 11.03, a good indicator of world cities. Complex urban patches are
located together in Portugal around Porto, Belgium, Netherlands, and England, whereas
simple urban patches are common in Spain, Turkey, Germany, and Bulgaria.

Providing readers with the possibility of obtaining a morphological indication depends on the profile.
Notably, by looking at such profiles, we can understand the difference between the role of urban
core patches and secondary patches that are more peripheral, often less complex, and smaller.

Conclusion

By systematically examining the urban footprint of 785 urban regions of different sizes, we provide
a set of reference values and profiles that can be used for comparative studies at different scales
and stages of urban growth. We think our novel approach is an important step towards a
better understanding of the impact of more fragmented or complex urban footprints.

Urban land-use planning regulations, including zoning, are critical policy instruments for managing urban development. While intended to guide cities toward collective goals, such as compactness, livability, and land-use efficiency, these regulations often produce complex and sometimes unintended urban form and land-use patterns. A key challenge is that these regulations are typically encoded in textual documents and linked to 2D zoning maps, yet their impacts are three-dimensional form and function of urban areas. Understanding beforehand how regulatory parameters can/will influence both urban form and urban function is crucial for creating more adaptive, equitable, and sustainable urban environments.

This study investigates the spatial implications of land-use planning regulations through a dynamic 3D simulation model that translates zoning documents into visual and measurable spatial scenarios. Using zoning maps and regulatory texts as input data, first, building regulations are extracted and classified from regulatory documents to simulate 3D buildings at Level of Detail 1 (LOD1). Developable zones are then subdivided into smaller parcels for future development. The classified regulations are applied to each parcel according to its specific zone. Recognizing that building regulations vary in the level of flexibility, multiple regulatory scenarios are simulated to model variations in building form and building function. Finally, these scenarios are assessed and discussed based on their impacts on mixed-use development, density of built volume and land consumption.

Sisslerfeld, the largest contiguous development reserve in northwestern Switzerland, is selected as the case study due to its diverse zoning areas and development potential. This site includes mixed-residential, residential, mixed-business, commercial, and industrial zones, each regulated by specific building parameters such as setbacks, Building Coverage Ratio (BCR), Floor Area Ratio (FAR), and building height. Regulations related to compatibility and use quantity further determine the combination and composition of permitted functions within a designated area.

To analyse the impact of these regulations, four building form scenarios and two building function scenarios are defined. Scenario simulations and visualizations are performed at the building level within a 3D environment using ArcGIS Pro. The results of the building form scenarios reveal how development preferences, prioritizing horizontal expansion or vertical growth, influence density of built volume and land consumption. In addition, the building function scenarios reveal how regulatory openness allows for both mono- and mixed-use development outcomes within the same zone.

This research demonstrates the analytical power of 3D simulation to make planning policies visible, interpretable, and comparable across different spatial configurations. By visualizing how regulatory frameworks can manifest in built form, the study contributes examining land-use regulations and their impact on urban development. It highlights the value of digital simulation in critically evaluating planning instruments, not only to assess efficiency and performance but also to identify spatial trade-offs and policy blind spots. Such tools can support more informed, anticipatory, and spatially responsive planning decisions in the face of complex urbanization dynamics.