Urban networks and environmental resilience. Fractal urban aggregates’ role

Abstract

Fractal urban aggregates establish a new paradigm of interpretation, on a natural scale, of the planning process of a territory that evolves between the present and the eco-compatible future. A fractal urban aggregate brings within itself both the morphometric and environmental indicators of minimum sustainable urban development and the laws of direct scaling (self-similar and/or self-affine) for large-area planning, the latter consisting of a finite number of aggregates, according to nature's physical scaling. Fractal analysis in the context of strategic and territorial planning of a large area characterizes urban aggregates in planimetrical terms, as well as the identification of criteria for the development of urban systems that take into account the multiple components. In this sense, the Fractal Dimension is a descriptive criterion, and represents a design parameter.

Keywords: fractal dimension, fractal analysis, fractal urban aggregates, environmental resilience, cities science