ABSTRACT
Formal models can reveal much about the form and function of urban systems. In this respect, a routine ability to measure, share and concatenate new sources of digital data is creating considerable opportunity to develop up-to-date and relevant depictions of urban morphology. In this paper we explore how Ordnance Survey’s Code-Point and Address-Point products can be incorporated within a broader framework of RS image classification. Population surface models are created from both Census and postcode data, and, using the unit postcode as a de facto standard for data integration, we apply commercial marketing data to obtain models of the residential patterning of the City and County of Bristol, England. Such procedures, we argue, can generate realistic and scientifically grounded models of urban systems, these being a necessary pre-requisite to the effective management of sustainable cities.
