Disastrous fires in Swedish cities and their impact on the urban structure

Abstract: This thesis describes the historical development of the urban structure of three Swedish cities, which have each suffered from a large fire at some point during the 19th century. Using a collection of historical maps, as well as contemporary geographical data, this work aims to assess the impact these fires had on the built-up urban structure at the time immediately after they occurred, as well as their impact upon the urban structure of the contemporary city. The urban structure is composed of three primary elements, which are the streets, buildings, and land-use plots, which over time changes at differing rates. In order to determine whether the fire had an impact on the ordinary rate of change to the city, historical maps of the three Swedish cities are used, depicting them as they were before and shortly after the fire occurred. The pre- and post-fire maps are used to produce composite maps detailing the amount of change which occurred in the time period before and after the fire. The maps depicting the cities after the fire are then in turn overlaid with modern geodata of the contemporary cities, in order to determine whether the fire could be considered to have had a significant impact on the development of the present urban structures. The comparison of the maps of the case-cities shows that a significant amount of change occurred between their pre- and post-fire states, and that the post-fire structure closely aligns to the present urban structure. In each of the cities then, the urban fire could be considered an important component to the historical development of their urban structures.