A Multiscale Model of Morphological Complexity in Cities: Characterising Emergent Homogeneity and Heterogeneity

Approaches from complex systems science can support design decision-making by extracting important information about key dependencies from large, unstructured data sources. This paper presents an initial case study applying such approaches to city structure, by characterising low-level features and aggregate properties of artifact morphology in urban areas. First, shape analysis is used to describe microscale artifact clusters, analysed in aggregate to characterise macroscale homogeneity and heterogeneity. The characterisation is used to analyse real-world example cities, from both historic maps and present-day crowdsourced data, testing against two performance evaluation criteria. Next, the characterisation is used to generate simple artificial morphologies, suggesting directions for future development. Finally, results and extensions are discussed, including real-world applications for decision support.