Abstract
Urban expansion determines socioeconomic and environmental changes with unpredictable impacts on peri-urban land, especially in ecologically fragile areas. The present study assesses the impact of dense and, respectively, discontinuous urban expansion on high-quality land consumption in 76 metropolitan regions of Southern Europe. Land quality indicators and land-use maps were considered together with the aim to analyze urban growth and land take processes in Portugal, Spain, Southern France, Italy and Greece. Differences in the rate of selective land take (high- vs. low-quality soils) were observed at the metropolitan scale depending on the size of urban regions, the average level of land quality and the percentage of built-up areas and cropland in the total landscape. Discontinuous residential settlements were more frequently developed on high-quality soils in respect to both dense and mixed residential settlements and service settlements. Urbanization – especially discontinuous urban expansion – consumed high-quality land mainly in Spain and Greece. The approach presented in this paper may inform joint policies for urban containment and the preservation of high-quality soils in peri-urban areas.
Submitted Version (
Free)
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
