From the street to the metropolitan region: Pedestrian perspective in urban fabric analysis

The urban fabric is a fundamental small-scale component of urban form. Its quantitative analysis has so far been limited either in its geographical extent or in the diversity of components analysed. Moreover, the planning approach has traditionally privileged an aerial perspective. A new approach integrating the pedestrian point of view is proposed. Spatial analysis procedures are implemented with a twofold objective: identifying urban fabrics and studying their spatial organization within a large metropolitan area. The former is achieved through multiple fabric assessment, a three-step protocol using a network-based partition of urban space: (i) a set of skeletal streetscape indicators is implemented on each spatial unit, considering different constituents of the urban fabric; (ii) spatial patterns on the street network are identified, applying geostatistical analysis to each indicator; and (iii) spatial patterns with Bayesian clustering are recombined, allowing the identification and characterization of urban fabric types and subspaces within the city. This methodology is tested on the French Riviera metropolitan area, where nine families of urban fabric are identified. Disentangling the spatial organization of urban fabrics represents the second objective of this paper: the geographical distribution of urban fabrics is investigated, applying mathematical morphology and variography while considering network-constrained topological contiguities.