{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,19]],"date-time":"2026-05-19T05:15:32Z","timestamp":1779167732527,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"21","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,30]],"date-time":"2022-10-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1667088000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004543","name":"China Scholarship Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["202008080124"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202008080124"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004543","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Urban morphology refers to the physical form of a city that is constantly transformed and updated in the process of urbanization. A valuable source of data on \u2018built forms\u2019 is modern remote sensing technology, which provides a variety of products on building footprints and heights at national, continental, and global levels. A large-scale comparison of urban morphologies is important for assessing urban development as well as its influence on urban ecology; however, this has not been well documented so far. This study includes 41 cities in China and 36 in Europe with various city sizes, population densities, and climate features. We applied 3D landscape metrics and principal component analysis (PCA) to compare the spatial aspects of the urban morphology of these cities. We found: (1) measurements of the building height, surface fluctuation, and texture directionality of urban building layouts in China are higher than those of European cities, while the latter are high-density and compact built landscapes; (2) a significant clustering phenomenon for Chinese and European cities revealed by PCA, with the former showing a much more aggregated pattern, indicating a relatively uniform morphology of urban buildings in China; (3) distinctions between cities in China and Europe are suggested by the first principal component, to which building height, surface fluctuation, building complexity, and spatial distance among buildings contribute significantly; and (4) the second principal component (mainly represented by maximum building height, surface area, volume, and shape metrics) can separate large metropolitan cities and provincial capitals from cities with lower urban population, smaller size, and slower economic development. Our results demonstrate the potential of 3D landscape metrics for measuring urban morphology. Together with a temporal analysis, these metrics are useful for quantifying how urban morphology varies in space and time on a large scale, as well as evaluating the process of urbanization.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14215462","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,30]],"date-time":"2022-10-30T10:47:57Z","timestamp":1667126877000},"page":"5462","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Differences in Urban Morphology between 77 Cities in China and Europe"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2250-4977","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fengxiang","family":"Guo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, UFZ\u2014Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, 04318 Leipzig, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3109-9459","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Uwe","family":"Schlink","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, UFZ\u2014Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, 04318 Leipzig, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wanben","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, UFZ\u2014Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, 04318 Leipzig, Germany"},{"name":"Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, National Observations and Research Station for Wetland Ecosystems of the Yangtze Estuary, Shanghai Institute of EcoChongming (SIEC), Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Abdelrhman","family":"Mohamdeen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, UFZ\u2014Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, 04318 Leipzig, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.51347\/jum.v1i1.4047","article-title":"Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field","volume":"1","author":"Moudon","year":"1997","journal-title":"Urban Morphol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.51347\/jum.v10i1.3926","article-title":"Mapping urban morphology: A classification scheme for interpreting contributions to the study of urban form","volume":"10","author":"Gauthier","year":"2006","journal-title":"Urban Morphol."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1016\/S1352-2310(97)00274-4","article-title":"High resolution urban morphology data for urban wind flow modeling","volume":"32","author":"Cionco","year":"1998","journal-title":"Atmos. Environ."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"223","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compenvurbsys.2004.05.008","article-title":"An approach for analysis of urban morphology: Methods to derive morphological properties of city blocks by using an urban land-scape model and their interpretations","volume":"29","author":"Yoshida","year":"2005","journal-title":"Comput. Environ. Urban Syst."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4789","DOI":"10.1016\/j.atmosenv.2009.07.061","article-title":"Urban morphology and air quality in dense residential environments in Hong Kong. Part I: District-level analysis","volume":"45","author":"Edussuriya","year":"2011","journal-title":"Atmos. Environ."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"556","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apacoust.2011.01.011","article-title":"Effects of urban morphology on the traffic noise distribution through noise mapping: A comparative study between UK and China","volume":"72","author":"Wang","year":"2011","journal-title":"Appl. Acoust."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Oke, T.R., Mills, G., Christen, A., and Voogt, J.A. (2017). Urban Climates, Cambridge University Press.","DOI":"10.1017\/9781139016476"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108354","DOI":"10.1016\/j.buildenv.2021.108354","article-title":"3D building configuration as the driver of diurnal and nocturnal land surface temperatures: Application in Beijing\u2019s old city","volume":"206","author":"Guo","year":"2021","journal-title":"Build. Environ."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2019.04.010","article-title":"Investigating the effects of 3D urban morphology on the surface urban heat island effect in urban functional zones by using high-resolution remote sensing data: A case study of Wuhan, Central China","volume":"152","author":"Huang","year":"2019","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.51347\/jum.v13i2.3949","article-title":"Aspects of urban form","volume":"13","author":"Kropf","year":"2009","journal-title":"Urban Morphol."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"285","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compenvurbsys.2009.01.009","article-title":"Integrating building footprints and LiDAR elevation data to classify roof structures and visualise buildings","volume":"33","author":"Alexander","year":"2009","journal-title":"Comput. Environ. Urban Syst."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Wang, J., and Wang, X. (2009, January 20\u201322). Information extraction of building height and density based on quick bird image in Kunming, China. Proceedings of the 2009 Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event, Shanghai, China."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2013.09.004","article-title":"Automated detection of buildings from single VHR multispectral images using shadow information and graph cuts","volume":"86","author":"Ok","year":"2013","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1016\/S0924-2716(03)00018-2","article-title":"Detection of building outlines based on the fusion of SAR and optical features","volume":"58","author":"Tupin","year":"2003","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogramm. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"225","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2017.02.020","article-title":"Spatio-temporal analysis of the relationship between 2D\/3D urban site characteristics and land surface temperature","volume":"193","author":"Berger","year":"2017","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102289","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2020.102289","article-title":"Relationships among local-scale urban morphology, urban ventilation, urban heat island and outdoor thermal comfort under sea breeze influence","volume":"60","author":"He","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"427","DOI":"10.1016\/j.envsoft.2016.06.021","article-title":"Characterizing the impact of urban morphology heterogeneity on land surface temperature in Guangzhou, China","volume":"84","author":"Guo","year":"2016","journal-title":"Environ. Model. Softw."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138229","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2020.138229","article-title":"Exploring the relationship between 2D\/3D landscape pattern and land surface temperature based on explainable eXtreme Gradient Boosting tree: A case study of Shanghai, China","volume":"725","author":"Yu","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"433","DOI":"10.1007\/s10980-009-9327-y","article-title":"Surface metrics: An alternative to patch metrics for the quantification of landscape structure","volume":"24","author":"McGarigal","year":"2009","journal-title":"Landsc. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"104499","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2022.104499","article-title":"Quantifying the influence of 2D and 3D urban morphology on the thermal environment across climatic zones","volume":"226","author":"Wu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Landsc. Urban Plan."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1023\/B:LAND.0000021711.40074.ae","article-title":"Effects of changing scale on landscape pattern analysis: Scaling relations","volume":"19","author":"Wu","year":"2004","journal-title":"Landsc. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2123","DOI":"10.1007\/s10980-019-00861-4","article-title":"Three dimensional (3D) spatial metrics for objects","volume":"34","author":"Kedron","year":"2019","journal-title":"Landsc. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"49","DOI":"10.1016\/j.landurbplan.2017.05.022","article-title":"Measuring landscape pattern in three dimensional space","volume":"167","author":"Wu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Landsc. Urban Plan."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Szatm\u00e1ri, D., Kopeck\u00e1, M., and Feranec, J. (2022). Accuracy Assessment of the Building Height Copernicus Data Layer: A Case Study of Bratislava, Slovakia. Land, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/land11040590"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2073","DOI":"10.1007\/s10980-019-00880-1","article-title":"Emerging trajectories for spatial pattern analysis in landscape ecology","volume":"34","author":"Frazier","year":"2019","journal-title":"Landsc. Ecol."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, G., Tang, L., Zhou, L., Liu, Z., Liu, Y., and Jiang, Z. (2019). Principal Component Analysis Method with Space and Time Windows for Damage Detection. Sensors, 19.","DOI":"10.3390\/s19112521"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"438","DOI":"10.1002\/cem.783","article-title":"A robust PCR method for high-dimensional regressors","volume":"17","author":"Hubert","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Chemom."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, Y., Li, K., Song, S., Sun, Y., Huang, Y., and Wang, J. (2014, January 19\u201323). The research of spacecraft electrical characteristics identification and diagnosis using PCA feature extraction. Proceedings of the 2014 12th International Conference on Signal Processing (ICSP), Hangzhou, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICOSP.2014.7015232"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhou, R., Xu, H., Zhang, H., Zhang, J., Liu, M., He, T., Gao, J., and Li, C. (2022). Quantifying the Relationship between 2D\/3D Building Patterns and Land Surface Temperature: Study on the Metropolitan Shanghai. Remote Sens., 14.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs14164098"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"13","DOI":"10.5194\/asr-19-13-2022","article-title":"Using machine learning to produce a cost-effective national building height map of Ireland to categorise local climate zones","volume":"19","author":"Keany","year":"2022","journal-title":"Adv. Sci. Res."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112128","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2020.112128","article-title":"National-scale mapping of building height using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 time series","volume":"252","author":"Frantz","year":"2021","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_32","first-page":"102558","article-title":"Multi-scale impacts of 2D\/3D urban building pattern in intra-annual thermal environment of Hangzhou, China","volume":"104","author":"Lu","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf. ITC J."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112877","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2021.112877","article-title":"World Settlement Footprint 3D-A first three-dimensional survey of the global building stock","volume":"270","author":"Esch","year":"2022","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103045","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2021.103045","article-title":"Influence of urban morphological characteristics on thermal environment","volume":"72","author":"Yang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102987","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scs.2021.102987","article-title":"The influence of urban form on surface urban heat island and its planning implications: Evidence from 1288 urban clusters in China","volume":"71","author":"Liu","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sustain. Cities Soc."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/21\/5462\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T01:06:18Z","timestamp":1760144778000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/14\/21\/5462"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,30]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"21","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11]]}},"alternative-id":["rs14215462"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs14215462","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,30]]}}}