Building Indicators
The table building_indicators contains the initial information from the input table building
(id_build, id_source, height_wall, height_roof, etc. — cf. building input table),
the identifiers of the block and the RSU it belongs to (id_rsu, id_block), and a set of building indicators described below.
AREA
Description: Building’s area.
Method: Area of the building footprint.
AREA_CONCAVITY
Description: Calculates a degree of convexity of a building (based on the building surface).
Method: Area / Convex Hull area
Range of values: [0, 1] — the closer to 1, the more convex the building.
COMMON_WALL_FRACTION
Description: Fraction of facade length (also called “party walls”) shared with other buildings.
Method: Shared facade length / total facade length
CONTIGUITY
Description: Fraction of wall shared with other buildings.
Method: Shared wall area / total wall area
FLOOR_AREA
Description: Building’s floor area.
Method: Area * Number of levels
FORM_FACTOR
Description: Ratio between the building’s area and the square of the external building’s perimeter.
Method: Area / (perimeter)^2
LIKELIHOOD_LARGE_BUILDING
Description: Building closeness to a 50 m wide isolated building (where NUMBER_BUILDING_NEIGHBOR = 0).
Method: Step 9 of the decision tree in the MaPUCE project manual building typology classification checks whether a building has a horizontal extent larger than 50 m. This indicator measures the horizontal extent based on the largest side of the building’s minimum bounding rectangle. A logistic function is used to smooth threshold effects (e.g. difference between 49 m and 51 m). Parameters of the logistic function are set based on training data.
MINIMUM_BUILDING_SPACING
Description: Closest distance (in meters) from the building to another building.
Method: Minimum distance to other buildings within a buffer distance (bufferDist), default 100 m.
Warning: - If buildings touch, result = 0. - If no building is within 100 m, result = 100 m (or the value of bufferDist).
NUMBER_BUILDING_NEIGHBOR
Description: Number of neighboring buildings in contact (touching at least at one point).
Method: Count of buildings touching the building of interest.
PERIMETER
Description: Building’s external perimeter (does not consider courtyards).
Method: External building perimeter length.
PERIMETER_CONVEXITY
Description: Degree of convexity of the building based on the perimeter.
Method: Convex Hull perimeter
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