A Comprehensive View on Urban Spatial Structure: Urban Density Patterns of German City Regions

Urban density must be considered a key concept in the description of a city’s urban spatial structure. Countless studies have provided evidence of a close relationship between built density and activity densities, on the one hand, and urban environmental conditions or social practices, on the other hand. However, despite the concept’s common use in urban research, urban density is a rather fuzzy and highly complex concept that is accompanied by a confusing variety of indicators and measurement approaches. To date, an internationally-accepted standard for the implementation of density indicators that permits a robust comparison of different countries, regions or cities is widely missing. This paper discusses the analytical opportunities that recent remote sensing data offer in regard to an objective and transparent measurement of built density patterns of city regions. It furthermore clarifies the interrelations between built and activity densities. We apply our approach to four German city regions to demonstrate the analytical capacity of spatially-refined density indicators for the purposes of comparative urban research at a regional scale. In so doing, we contribute to a more encompassing and robust understanding of the urban density concept when analyzing regional morphology.