Impact of slope construction on urban form: A case study of 97 cities in China

Multidimensional impact of urban form on urban planning has received extensive attention. However, with the increasing phenomenon of urban slope expansion, there is still a lack of research on the impact of slope construction (SC) on urban form. Based on 97 cities in China with obvious SC, this paper selects 12 urban form indicators from five aspects: shape, boundary, void, area, and distance to explore the impact characteristics of SC on urban form. The results show that SC has a significant ( P < 0.001) impact on the changes of 11 urban form indicators, and the degree of impact is significantly linearly correlated with the slope construction rate (SCR) ( P < 0.001). In addition, the SC has basically the same impact on the shape of large and small urban patches, but the impact on large patches is significantly greater than that on small patches. In general, the SC tends to complicate the shape of urban patches, increase the number of voids inside the patches, concentrate the area distribution of patches on the largest patches, and reduce the distance between patches. The study provides a basic reference for the sustainable spatial planning in complex terrain areas from a morphological perspective.