The analysis of settlement network's dispersion using Ward's taxonomy method

Buildings together with related constructions and also with facilities of technical infrastructure create settlement units. A settlement network is made of interconnected settlement units that create the functional structure of the settlement network. After the period of the political transformation in 1989, changes in settlement systems have been observed. The number of buildings has increased, their function, shape, colours and mutual arrangement have changed. The aim of the paper is to analyse settlement units paying special attention to the buildings' dispersion and their division into the groups of uniform objects (units). The similarity of settlement units (registration ranges) in regard to the concentration of residential housing and productive development for agriculture is determined. Information about buildings' location and their function is taken from the Database of Topographic Objects BDOT10k acquired from the Centre of Geodesic and Cartographic Documentation. The level of building complex concentration is determined by means of the concentration index on the plane. Advanced techniques of geoprocessing are used in the paper. Units' similarity is determined by means of the method of numerical taxonomy using the agglomerative combinatorial Ward method. The results of the survey indicate the fact that the level of buildings' dispersion is influenced not by the amount of buildings in particular ranges but their mutual arrangement and its level in space. However, the ranges with the smaller area are characterised by the lower dispersion level which responds to the higher value of the concentration index. High buildings' concentration is a characteristic feature of not only the close vicinity of cities. The analyses proved the irregular arrangement of units with various levels of buildings' concentration without implication to the hierarchy of the structure of the functional settlement network. So, the buildings' concentration is of chaotic character which confirms the high entropy of the settlement network in Poland.