Urban neighbourhood classification and multi-scale heterogeneity analysis of Greater London

We study the compositional and configurational heterogeneity of Greater London at the city- and neighbourhood-scale using Geographic Information System (GIS) data. Urban morphometric indicators are calculated including plan-area indices and fractal dimensions of land cover, frontal area index of buildings, evenness, and contagion. To distinguish between city-scale heterogeneity and neighbourhood-scale heterogeneity, the study area of 720 km(2) is divided into 1 x 1 km(2) neighbourhoods. City-scale heterogeneity is represented by categorisation of the neighbourhoods using a k-means clustering algorithm based on the morphometric indicators. This results in six neighbourhood types ranging from "greenspace " to "central business district ". Neighbourhood-scale heterogeneity is quantified using a hierarchical multi-scale analysis for each neighbourhood type. The analysis reveals the dominant length scales for land-cover and neighbourhood types and the resolutions with the most information gain. We analyse multi-scale anisotropy and show that small-scale features are homogeneous, and that anisotropy is present at larger length scales.