sustainability Article Analysis of Three-Dimensional Space Expansion Characteristics in Old Industrial Area Renewal Using GIS and Barista: A Case Study of Tiexi District, Shenyang, China Yanyan Xu 1,2,3 , Miao Liu 1, Yuanman Hu 1,*, Chunlin Li 1 and Zaiping Xiong 1 1 CAS Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China;
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[email protected] (Z.X.) 2 School of Architecture, Tianjin Chengjian University, No.26 Jinjing Road, Tianjin 300384, China 3 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-024-8397-0351 Received: 2 February 2019; Accepted: 19 March 2019; Published: 28 March 2019 Abstract: With rapid urban development in China in the last two decades, 3D characteristics have been the main feature of urban morphology. Nevertheless, the vast majority of urban growth research has only focused on area expansion horizontally, with few studies conducted in a 3D perspective. In this paper, the characteristics of 3D expansion that occurred in Tiexi from 1997 to 2011 were evaluated based on geographic information system (GIS) tools, remote-sensing images, and Barista software. Landscape index, the spatiotemporal distribution of changes in buildings’ renewal modes and variations in city skylines as well as the relationship between number and size of high-rise buildings are the specific phenomena and data utilized to quantify the 3D urban expansion. The results showed that the average height of Tiexi increased by 0.69 m annually, the average urban capacity increased by 490.15 m3 annually, and space congestion degree increased by 0.11% annually.