Version 1
: Received: 8 August 2024 / Approved: 9 August 2024 / Online: 9 August 2024 (12:11:27 CEST)
How to cite:
Calderón, F.; Orellana, D.; Carrasco, M. I.; Astudillo, J.; Hermida, M. A. Beyond the Typology: Assessing Urban Fabrics in Cuenca – Ecuador through a Sustainability Lens. Preprints2024, 2024080664. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0664.v1
Calderón, F.; Orellana, D.; Carrasco, M. I.; Astudillo, J.; Hermida, M. A. Beyond the Typology: Assessing Urban Fabrics in Cuenca – Ecuador through a Sustainability Lens. Preprints 2024, 2024080664. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0664.v1
Calderón, F.; Orellana, D.; Carrasco, M. I.; Astudillo, J.; Hermida, M. A. Beyond the Typology: Assessing Urban Fabrics in Cuenca – Ecuador through a Sustainability Lens. Preprints2024, 2024080664. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0664.v1
APA Style
Calderón, F., Orellana, D., Carrasco, M. I., Astudillo, J., & Hermida, M. A. (2024). Beyond the Typology: Assessing Urban Fabrics in Cuenca – Ecuador through a Sustainability Lens. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0664.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Calderón, F., Johnatan Astudillo and M. Augusta Hermida. 2024 "Beyond the Typology: Assessing Urban Fabrics in Cuenca – Ecuador through a Sustainability Lens" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0664.v1
Abstract
Understanding the relationship between urban morphology and sustainability can inform strategies for facing the contemporary challenges of cities since urban fabrics embed information regarding the performance of different urban systems and their spatial heterogeneity. This paper assesses the variability of urban sustainability indicators for urban fabric typologies in Cuenca, Ecuador. We assessed 30 sustainability indicators for each cell in a hexagonal regular grid covering the study area and explored their spatial patterns and relationships with urban fabric typologies through spatial and statistical analysis. Results show that indicators vary significantly among urban fabrics, while built environment indicators dominate overall sustainability levels. A marked spatial heterogeneity is revealed by high sustainability for inner-core areas but much lower sustainability for fringe expansion areas – although transition areas are also identified. Spatial clusters of urban fabrics are found to be homogeneous in terms of sustainability only for urban fabrics with high/low sustainability levels, while heterogenous for fabrics in the mid-range levels. The quantitative evidence on the relation between urban morphology and sustainability unveils otherwise hidden patterns, which can support and enhance evidence-based decision-making for urban planning. Open-source data and tools developed allow full replication for further research in similar urban areas.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
