Quantitative Assessment of Spatial Heterogeneity of the Morphological Structure of the Post-Soviet City of Perm

Post-Soviet cities have a pronounced spatial heterogeneity produced by planning paradigms and stages of the urban development. This work differentiates between morphological types of development through the qualitative and visual analyses, which limit their comparability. Purpose: The aim is to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of the morphological structure of a postSoviet city as a result of its planning evolution, using quantitative characteristics of urban quarters. Methodology: The study is based on spatial data for the city of Perm, including boundaries of 2.440 urban quarters, population and job distribution, and the street network (density, crossing density, dead-end streets and nonstraightness). Differences between the groups are assessed using nonparametric statistical methods. Research findings: Statistically significant differences are found between morphological types for all indicators, including the population and job density as well as the street network. The strongest differentiation is observed for the job density, reflecting the functional heterogeneity, and for the network parameters relating to connectivity and permeability. It is shown that visually distinct morphological types correspond to stable quantitative differences reflecting the city planning evolution. Value: The proposed approach enables a shift from descriptive typologies to quantitative analysis of the urban structure and supports the use of morphological parameters in transport accessibility studies.