Table 1 Urban spatial metrics used in this study: The variables, calculated per MSA and year, used to describe the evolution of urban areas in this study, categorized into two categories (i.e., size and form). Variables in each category are sorted by their factor loadings from principal component analysis, conducted across all MSAs and points in time, indicating how much data variance these variables explain (sorted per category, descending from top to bottom), see Supplementary Table 1.
From: A century of decoupling size and structure of urban spaces in the United States
Variable | Characteristic of built-up areas | Description |
|---|---|---|
Size | ||
Built-up area (BUAREA) | Horizontal extension | Total built-up area |
Number of built-up properties (NUMBUPROP) | Quantity of built-up elements | Number of built-up properties |
Net built-up intensity (NETBUI) | Built-up volume | Total indoor area of buildings within an MSA |
Built-up density (BUDENS) | Built-up density | Total indoor area of buildings per built-up area) |
Average housing unit size (AVGHUSIZE) | Built-up element size | Average size of housing units, measured in indoor area |
Form | ||
Scatteredness (SCAT) | Dispersion | Scatteredness: number of isolated built-up grid cells |
Number of built-up patches (NUMPATCH) | Dispersion | Number of contiguous areas (patches) of built-up land |
Largest patch area proportion (MAXPATCHPROP) | Contiguity / dominance | Largest built-up patch area proportion of total built up area |
Clusteredness (CLUST) | Compactness / dispersion | Deviation of built-up cells from a random spatial distribution |
Mean circularity (CIRC) | Compactness | Circularity of the ten largest built-up patches |
