期刊名称：Acta Geographica Debrecina. Landscape and Environment Series
印刷版ISSN：1789-4921
电子版ISSN：1789-7556
出版年度：2014
卷号：8
期号：2
页码：78-88
出版社：University of Debrecen
摘要：The study of settlement shape, morphology and structure is a classic topic of urban geography. Since the1960s multiple shape indices have been developed. Urban patterns were then compared with geometricforms or, alternatively their temporal changes were tracked and analysed. In the current study weadapted the landscape shape index (LSI) to analyse the historical shape development of eight Hungariancities. The LSI is capable to demonstrate the functional and mutual relationship between the developedarea and their immediate physical and natural environment. Over the past 230 years the land area of thestudied cities has increased manifold for several reasons: on average, an areal increase of 10.4 to 24.5was observed for the eight settlements, while their perimeter increased by 8.8 to 30.3 times. Simultaneouslywith their size growth, the studied cities are characterized by an increasingly fragmented anddissected ground plans. Consequently, due to the longer border between the developed areas and theadjacent natural zones, urban areas have become increasingly sensitive to environmental effects over thepast century, while mutual ecological and environmental interactions has also considerably increasedbetween the adjoining zones. In general, cities of hilly and low-mountain areas had the highest LSIs,whereas cities located on relatively flat grounds had comparatively low LSIs. We also investigated therank correlation of the historical change of LSI of the studied settlements. Cities of high positive correlations(> 0.9) were classified into two major categories. Miskolc, Pécs, Szeged and Kecskemét belonged tothe group of higher LSIs, whereas Székesfehérvár and Nyíregyháza fell into the class of medium LSIs andthe third category included Debrecen and Győr, cities of low (< 0.9) LSIs. Based on the temporal trends ofthe LSIs, our results provide applicable information for decision makers in order to monitor, manage andtrack their investments, city management policies and infrastructural development strategies.
关键词：ground plan shape; urban development; urban-environment interaction;shape index
