Multiple Fabric Assessment: application to the case of Brussels

Résumé En

Finding the spatial unit at the right scale for analyzing urban fabrics has always been a challenge for spatial analysts. Administrative partitions (wards, municipalities) often do not match with urban landscapes: each spatial unit is heterogeneous in terms of built-up and not built-up surfaces hence not fitting with further spatial statistical analyses. In the context of rising interest on the impact of the urban environment on (mental) health, we start the analysis from the road network for taking into account the perceived public spaces. Multiple Fabric Assessment methodology (MFA) (Araldi and Fusco, 2017) is applied to Brussels (Belgium) in order to investigate urban fabrics from the street point of view. Once the basic spatial unit is redefined around each street segment, the so-called Proximity Bands are described by a set of geometrical and spatial indicators of urban form as perceived by the city-user. Then, geostatistic analyses (ILINCS) are achieved to identify local patterns of urban form features. Finally, clustering is carried out to identify and describe neighborhoods. Despite the small extension of Brussels, a large amount of detailed geographic information is available: new indicators are proposed and tested within the MFA method. Urban vegetation, sidewalks, new visibility indicators are added to the traditional urban morphometric evaluation. With this new combination of indicators, MFA is now fitted to the context of studying the impact of urban spaces on mental health. Finally, results of this application are compared to administrativeneighborhoods to evaluate their suitability in terms of morphological context.