Urban Sprawl and Local Infrastructure in Japan and Germany

Abstract

Urban dispersion processes in metropolitan areas have led to patterns of suburbanization and urban sprawl. These processes are inseparably connected with the shift of private mobility from green transport modes to cars. Urbanization is always accompanied by the development of physical infrastructure, which requires huge investments and determines the structure of a city over long periods of time. Moreover, it cannot be readily adjusted to changing patterns of the demanded services, e.g., triggered by population shrinking. Thus, the impacts of urban sprawl on the local urban infrastructure asset represent complex and important issues to be considered in this context. This comparative study, conducted for the metropolitan regions of Nagoya in Japan and Munich in Germany, correlated six land-use patterns and two mobility parameters with the complexity of urban infrastructure by multiple regression modeling. The result confirms the impact of density on public infrastructure stock and additionally shows that there are other relevant parameters of urban sprawl beyond density, such as the concentration of urban development. The saving potential, which was calculated as the monetary cost difference between the most infrastructure-efficient and most inefficient municipalities, is 85% on average for Munich and 57% for the Nagoya region for sewage, primary schools, and local roads.