Uploaded on 2020-05-02 by GUMMANURU NEELAVATHI

Urban form is the physical characteristics that make up built-up areas, including the shape, size, density and configuration of settlements. It can be considered at different scales: from regional, to urban, neighbourhood, ‘block’ and street. The UK’s urban form has been shaped since the beginning of human settlement, and is evolving continually in response to social, environmental, economic and technological developments, mediated by policies in numerous sectors. In the post-war period, this has predominantly been planning, housing and urban policy, as well as health, transport and economic. Currently, the UK’s urban form is characterised by 64 ‘primary urban areas’ (see Figure 1), defined for England as areas with populations of over 125,000 and with continuous built-up land (see ONS, 2013). It has one built-up megacity region (London, and the Greater South East), six large metropolitan areas (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Sheffield), and 56 towns and cities with more than 125,000 people. Adjacent to cities and towns, and in more rural areas, are small towns and villages and a pattern of dispersed, very small settlements comprising a few dwellings.