The Classification of Urban Growth Pattern Using Topological Relation Border Length Algorithm: An Experimental Study

Generally, the pattern of urban growth is classified as either infill growth, expansion growth, or outlying growth. Topological relation length algorithm determines the urban growth pattern based on the common boundary analysis of the new and old urban region. However, literatures are concerned that the existing algorithm may produce incorrect classification result as infill growth are often confused as either expansion or outlying growth. This paper aims to investigate the effect of existing topological relation border length algorithm on the classification results and proposed an improvement to the algorithm with new classification rule. Results showed that the existing algorithm is only able to classify outlying growth while the improved algorithm has successfully identified all three urban growth patterns.