Measuring urban compactness in UK towns and cities

Although promotion of the compact city is now enshrined in land-use planning policy in many countries, including the United Kingdom, there is little evidence to support the many claims in its favour. In seeking to provide empirical data to advance the debate, one of the key problems researchers face is the task of measuring urban compactness. Research on the compact city is hampered both by a lack of consensus on its meaning and by the absence of recognised indicators for measuring it. This paper describes the development of a large set of urban compactness indicators used in an investigation of social sustainability outcomes in twenty-five English towns and cities. The paper begins by identifying and defining the different aspects of urban compactness, then outlines the indicators (including sources and methods) used for measuring each of these aspects. Finally, the values of these indicators for a range of English towns and cities are presented and reviewed. The aim of the paper is to contribute methodological tools to the compact city debate and provide a model for further research, essential in this field.