Spatial analysis of urban form based on building density

Building density, which is defined is the ratio of total area of a residential building (in all floors) to the area of its lot, is an important issue in land management and urban planning. Today, the scarcity of financial resources and the need for reducing the costs of urban development and providing more suitable and economical services have directed the attentions toward the potential advantages of denser housing and has consequently led to cities’ increased building density. The present paper seeks to conduct a spatial analysis on Babol city to assess its building density, and a descriptive-analytical approach is used to achieve this objective.
The research findings show that the density pattern is not uniformly distributed across the city, and is scattered at some parts of the city in the form of multiple cores, and that building density in western and north-western parts of the city is more than other parts. The findings indicate that the middle and southern parts of the city have an old and worn-out fabric.
The optimized distribution and balancing the building density through the reuse of land and upgrading it to the required residential standards will provide the residential space needed in the next 10 years for population housing without the need for expanding the city limits.