Zastosowanie narzędzi GIS do analizy planu miasta w morfologii miast
Application of GIS tools to the town plan analysis in urban morphology

Summary/Abstract: Urban morphology is a scientific discipline which studies the external structure (i.e. shape and physiognomy of buildings) and the internal structure (i.e. layout) of the town, as well as the genesis and evolution of its various parts (their morphogenesis). The main research method in urban morphology is the town plan analysis. It is based on observation of changes in the urban space of the study area by comparing chronologically listed town plans. GIS tools may be applied in urban morphology at all stages of town plan analysis: from the selection of source materials (especially archival town plans), through a proper analysis of morphology and morphogenesis of the study area, to the presentation of the results of these analyses. The paper shows the possibilities of using these tools. It also identifies a number of advantages and benefits related with the introduction of GIS to urban morphology. Attention is also paid to difficulties which may arise at each stage of research. It seems that rectification of archival town plans is the most troublesome task. The older a plan is, the harder it is to register. Another disadvantage is the necessity of arduous digitization of all archival maps. Overcoming these difficulties opens the way to all advantages of GIS. The greatest advantage of applying GIS to the town plan analysis is the improvement of comparison of town plans from the same area but from different periods of time. Adding georeferences to archival maps, and converting them to one coordinate system, facilitates unification of the scale of all town plans, and allows overlapping of one town plan with another. In turn, the digitization of archival maps enables the introduction of uniform signs and uniform naming for thematic vector layers in all analysed periods of time, which facilitates tracing the evolution of the town plan.

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