Barrios 4D: Semi-automated morphology analysis of human settlements using mobile laser scanning

Jason Alejandro Castaño-López, Juan C Perafán-Villota, Nicolas Llanos-Neuta, Simone Mora and Victor Romero-Cano

Environment and Planning B, 2025, vol. 52, issue 8, 1884-1902

Abstract: Civil or government organizations base human settlement transformation decisions on limited and sparse data. However, broader and denser information is necessary. Camera and LiDAR data processing is a more effective, automatic, and affordable method to fully characterize the morphological structure of human settlements. This work presents a system for estimating metrics about relevant morphological characteristics of human settlements using LiDAR data. We provide a quantitative analysis of these metrics obtained in the city of Cali, Colombia. Additionally, we enable the automatic calculation of urban metrics such as the street canyon ratio, which relates building height to street width, a metric highly correlated with air quality. Moreover, we extrapolate findings from existing literature to compare our results and understand how indirectly measured variables, such as thermal sensation and perceived beauty of the environment, might behave Our system can potentially be used by civil and government organizations to develop informed and precise urban planning and transformation strategies, including land use zoning, infrastructure development, and addressing issues related to housing, transportation, and environmental sustainability.

Keywords: Morphology; informal settlements; urban planning; LiDAR; SLAM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirb:v:52:y:2025:i:8:p:1884-1902

DOI: 10.1177/23998083251315966

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