Fractal Analysis in Urban Studies: A Case Study on Ukrainian cities

The paper provides a survey of the fractal theory, focusing on applications to the study of cities. Cities are especially interesting because they can be considered fractal systems with self-affinity or self-similarity, and their spatial structures are often subject to scale invariance and have self-similarity. The article gives the main definitions and describes commonly used algorithms for calculating the fractal dimension. In three case studies, fractal properties of 11 Ukrainian cities are analyzed. First, their “fractality” is confirmed by ht-index calculation for many object types in cities, like road networks, buildings, boundaries, land use, and natural objects. Second, the fractal dimensions of the road networks and buildings are calculated. Third, this paper illustrates how the fractal dimension varies over different parts of Kyiv.