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Publication Detail
Cities and regions in Britain through hierarchical percolation
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Publication Type:Journal article
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Publication Sub Type:Article
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Authors:Arcaute E, Molinero C, Hatna E, Murcio R, Vargas-Ruiz C, Masucci P, Batty M
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Publication date:06/04/2016
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Journal:Royal Society Open Science
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Keywords:physics.soc-ph, physics.soc-ph
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Author URL:
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Notes:16 pages, 12 figures
Abstract
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.
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