Application of Digital Technologies in Controlling Urban Sprawl

Abstract

Urban sprawl has been defined as an excessive conversion of rural land into urban land or excessive increase of the city beyond the optimal city size. Urban sprawl became a hot topic first in the United States, where the low-density city the problem emerged in the late 70s and early 80s. In Europe, urban sprawl wasn’t an issue until very recently, predominantly due to the structure of the European cities, which are traditionally more concentrated and densely populated, in contrast to the US cities. However, today we observe signs of urban sprawl in European cities, such as excessive decentralization, road congestion, lack of open space, overpopulation, etc. Recently urban city planners started using contemporary digital technologies to measure and control urban sprawl. This study discusses modern digital technologies used in present-day city planning.