Population growth has determined two different types of urban development: the vertical growth, tending to compactness, and the horizontal one which privileges a more dispersed and sprawled expansion. Those two urban forms have different impacts on environmental sustainability influencing, among others, the microclimate conditions of a city, the energy demand and its economic cost, and the provision of Ecosystem Services. European policies are oriented towards sustainable development of urban areas reducing the environmental footprint and restoring degraded ecosystem through a Green infrastructure deployment. Understanding the urban form, and specifically, the typology of the building form is crucial for policymakers and urban planners to define strategies for a higher degree of sustainability. The lack of data and the heterogeneity of information across Europe on the built form have hindered the operationalisation of European strategies and their downscaling into national or regional policies. The paper aims to fill this gap proposing a methodology based on a cluster analysis that estimates the built form of Belgium at LAU2 level for addressing single specific actions towards environmental sustainability goals. The cluster analysis uses data traditionally surveyed by national censuses, ensuring the replicability of the method for the upcoming 2021 census, and also the opportunity to update it continuously.

中文翻译：

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将 LAU2 级别的构建形式聚类以解决可持续政策：来自比利时案例研究的见解


人口增长决定了两种不同类型的城市发展：纵向增长，趋于紧凑；横向增长，倾向于更加分散和蔓延的扩张。这两种城市形态对环境可持续性有不同的影响，其中包括城市的小气候条件、能源需求及其经济成本以及生态系统服务的提供。欧洲政策旨在通过绿色基础设施部署实现城市地区的可持续发展，减少环境足迹并恢复退化的生态系统。了解城市形态，特别是建筑形态的类型，对于政策制定者和城市规划者制定更高程度的可持续性战略至关重要。整个欧洲建筑形式数据的缺乏和信息的异构性阻碍了欧洲战略的实施以及将其缩减为国家或地区政策。本文旨在填补这一空白，提出一种基于聚类分析的方法，该方法估计比利时 LAU2 级别的建筑形式，以解决实现环境可持续性目标的单一具体行动。聚类分析使用传统上由全国人口普查调查的数据，确保了即将到来的2021年人口普查方法的可复制性，以及不断更新的机会。