Macroeconomic Perspective on Urban Sprawl: A Multidimensional Approach in Poland

Piotr Lityński,Artur Hołuj

doi:10.3390/land10020116

Abstract

There are important relationships between the urban sprawl process and economic growth. They are usually expressed through spatial relations and changes taking place in the local, regional and national economy. The temporal and spatial dimension, including dispersed location, are the determinants of development and economic growth. Therefore, the urban sprawl phenomenon and the related location, hypothetically conditioning economic growth, should be subject to macroeconomic research. The article examines how urban sprawl affects the national budget and national economic growth. Unlike many studies where urban sprawl is studied by scattering the population around cities, we undertake more complex examination using buildings’ location. Urban sprawl, as we understand it, is a spontaneous spread of buildings around cities. To assess the spontaneity, we use a grid of squares with a side of 500 m. The squares are used to calculate the morphological indicators of urban sprawl. Therefore, quantified urban sprawl is one side of the equation; on the other side are macroeconomic variables. In this way, we examine the relationship between urban sprawl and the national budget and economic growth of Poland. The conclusions obtained are, e.g., urban sprawl does not have a negative effect on the national economy and the budget. This is a different conclusion from those thus far. There are also different conclusions on the regional level. Based on the research results, we formulate recommendations for national economic policy and spatial policy.

Highlights

Urban sprawl has been a phenomenon discussed in literature since the middle of the last century [1]
The added value in the methodological layer is the measurement of the impact of urban sprawl on national budget, taking into account the morphological variables
It is a process that slows down economic growth, and communes with a compact structure are important to accelerate the pace of economic growth

Summary

Introduction

Urban sprawl has been a phenomenon discussed in literature since the middle of the last century [1] This phenomenon is usually identified with a chaotic reorganization of spatial structure of suburban communes with a simultaneous low impact of local spatial policy [2]. The indicated process of social development is reflected in the local and regional economy Another group of urban sprawl factors is distinguished in micro and macroeconomic terms. The macroeconomic context of urban sprawl related to a country’s economic growth usually comes down to the distribution of the economic base in the region Another group of factors is related to the form and decision-making possibilities of entities from the real and regulatory sphere of the economy. The last important group of urban sprawl factors is closely related to the suburban local investment and speculative conditions of land, including geographic and environmental conditions as well as technical infrastructure

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Methods

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Conclusion