Influence of Socioeconomic and Cultural Factors on Urban Structure in Central Europe

The shape of cities, formed by cultural, political, economic and technological shifts in human society, now reciprocally forms people living in them. Nonetheless, understanding patterns making up cities is limited, especially in the effects of forces shaping them into their current form. Advancements in geographic data science and the availability of urban data resulted in a growing field of urban morphometrics, a quantitative assessment of urban form, with methods that enable detailed classification of the built environment applicable beyond a metropolitan scale. This project combines advancements in morphometrics with an understanding of the socioeconomic and cultural development of Central Europe, aiming to uncover how societal shifts influenced the physical structure of towns and cities and how it affected the composition of the urban environment in individual regions. It follows the spatiotemporal development of urbanisation across five countries that show a direct contest of political and societal ideas alongside the formation and dissolution of new boundaries, unearthing the developments of urban typology from historical regional diversity to contemporary convergence.