A Fractal Study On Urban Spatial Morphology

Urbanization is a main process in region land use, and the urbanization research is always a hot issue for geographical scientists. In the process of Urban expansion, some problems of urban spatial morphology come out. At present, there are many study cases on urban spatial morphology in coastal cities of eastern China, but few in Hexi Corridor region of western China.This paper measured the fractal dimension of Wuwei city using the method of fractal geometry, better than previous measurement methods of urban spatial form. We analyzed the measuring results with the principles of fractal geometry and allometric growth. And we came to conclusions as to urban form of Wuwei city as follows:Firstly, three fractal dimensions of urban form of Wuwei city in 1967, 1998 and 2004 are 1.5397, 1.7086 and 1.7717 respectively, less than 2. Therefore, this paper concluded that the land use density decreased from centre to margin of Wuwei city.Secondly, from 1967 to 2004, these fractal dimensions, greater than average of experiential urban fractal dimensions, were increasing gradually, which showed the urban form of Wuwei city was compact.Thirdly, urban form fractal dimension variation of Wuwei city include two stages: urban form changed rapidly during 1967 and 1987, and grew slowly from 1987 to 2004.Finally, the analysis of urban spatial form based on allometric growth model showed fractal dimension of urban population was greater than urban land use. And we proposed that the abnormal urban form should be modified by transforming the state of the population concentration.