citiesroughly

Citiesroughly is a concept used in urban studies to describe the roughness or irregularity of a city's form, particularly its boundary shape and street-network layout. Rather than a single metric, it refers to a family of measures that summarize the spatial complexity of urban morphology.

The term appears in theoretical discussions and applied GIS work to compare cities, assess planning quality, or model growth. It emphasizes approximate rather than precise geometry, recognizing that urban forms are shaped by history, topography, and policy.

Common components include boundary compactness (for example, Polsby-Popper), boundary fractal dimension, street-network density, block-size distribution, and orientation entropy. Data are drawn from sources such as OpenStreetMap, satellite imagery, and cadastral records; analyses are scale-dependent.

In planning, citiesroughly helps identify areas with irregular layouts that may affect transit efficiency or hazard exposure; in historical analysis, it aids comparisons of growth patterns; in disaster risk management, roughness relates to evacuation routes and accessibility.

Because there is no universal standard definition, results are sensitive to data quality and scale. Cross-country comparisons require harmonized data, and the concept remains descriptive rather than prescriptive.

Related topics include urban morphology, fractal geometry, and street-network analysis.