Suburban Morphology Dynamics: The Case of the Tricity Agglomeration, Poland

Barbara Korwel-Lejkowska

doi:10.3390/su132112223

Abstract

Suburbanization is a phase of the development of cities that consists in the growth of the suburban zone at the expense of the city center, which becomes gradually depopulated. The phenomenon of uncontrolled suburbanization (urban sprawl) causes infrastructural (including transport), environmental, social, economic, and legal problems. This paper presents the results of a study of the phenomenon of suburbanization conducted on the basis of vector data using two methods: one based on the use of a grid of primary square fields, and one based on the use of concentric zones/rings. The analyses were conducted in the surroundings of the Tricity agglomeration, which is located in the northern part of Poland on the Gulf of Gdansk, and covered the period from 2000 to 2018. Using a grid of primary fields, the areas of the greatest increase and decrease in the developed areas, irrespective of administrative boundaries, were determined for the selected periods, and the areas of the constant positive and negative balance of the buildings were identified. Using concentric rings, the process of the shifting of the new development zones was traced. The paper also refers to the route of the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway (PKM), which was commissioned in 2015, and its potential impact on suburbanization in the Tricity area. The results made it possible to trace the suburbanization process in time and space and to learn the advantages and disadvantages of the use of vector data in spatial studies.

Highlights

IntroductionA unique form of this process is urban sprawl—the process of the development of rural areas outside the compact urban zone that is used more intensively, characterized by the scattering of housing, services, and jobs, and associated with an overdeveloped and non-functional road network [14]
This paper presents the results of analyses conducted to examine the spatial aspect of the process of suburbanization in the surroundings of the Tricity, with a presentation of the differences between its stages from 2000 to 2018
Suburbanization covers areas distant from city centers, especially 5–10 km away, and tracing this process over the years makes it possible to observe a shift of the zone of the most intensive development growth to areas located at a greater distance from the assumed central points

Summary

Introduction

A unique form of this process is urban sprawl—the process of the development of rural areas outside the compact urban zone that is used more intensively, characterized by the scattering of housing, services, and jobs, and associated with an overdeveloped and non-functional road network [14]. Zuziak [15] emphasizes that sprawl is a form of settlement characterized by an amorphous nature of the urban fabric, the blurring of the identity of the space, a high landuse rate, a high energy consumption, and an increase in the social costs of the transport and infrastructure. The problems associated with this phenomenon affect practically all areas of life: social, infrastructural (especially transport), economic, legal, and environmental issues alike. The causes and the course of this process vary in different countries [16,17]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion