Form Of Urban Growth Research Articles

Pattern of Sprawl Development Along the Abuja–Keffi Highway Corridor in The North Central Nigeria

Purpose: The rapid expansion of urban areas worldwide is widely attributed to the growth of urban populations. The objective of this study is to examine the expansion of urban sprawl in the North Central area of Nigeria, specifically along the Abuja-Keffi highway corridor, over a period of 29 years, from 1991 to 2020. Methodology: The study utilised satellite imagery from three distinct spatio-temporal intervals (1991–2003, 2003–2015, and 2015–2020) and incorporated three different types of Landsat sensors, namely Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Operational Land Imager (OLI). The study employed image processing and land use classification analysis techniques to generate land use and land cover (LULC). Results: The analysis of the data reveals that there has been a significant increase in sprawling development along the Abuja-Keffi highway corridor. The built-up area of the region has undergone significant expansion over the past three decades, with the urbanised land area increasing from 1081.98 hectares (4.96%) in 1991 to 10263.15 hectares in 2020, accounting for 47.06% of the total built-up area. The research also documented two distinct forms of urban growth, specifically linear and leapfrog, throughout the corridor. Applications/Originality/Value: The research recommends regional urban policy, urban growth boundaries as well as effective and efficient development control mechanism in the selected settlements along the corridor. The Abuja Municipal Area Council and Karu Local Government are urged to promote urban renewal and infrastructure development through private partnership, sustainable policies, waste management systems and community engagement.

PATTERN OF SPRAWL DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE ABUJA – KEFFI HIGHWAY CORRIDOR IN THE NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

The rapid expansion of urban areas worldwide is widely attributed to the growth of urban populations. The objective of this study is to examine the expansion of urban sprawl in the North Central area of Nigeria, specifically along the Abuja-Keffi highway corridor, over 29 years, from 1991 to 2020. The study utilized satellite imagery from three distinct spatiotemporal intervals (1991–2003, 2003–2015, and 2015–2020) and incorporated three different types of Landsat sensors, namely Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Operational Land Imager (OLI). The study employed image processing and land use classification analysis techniques to generate land use and land cover (LULC). The analysis of the data reveals that there has been a significant increase in sprawling development along the Abuja-Keffi highway corridor. The built-up area of the region has undergone significant expansion over the past three decades, with the urbanized land area increasing from 1081.98 hectares (4.96%) in 1991 to 10263.15 hectares in 2020, accounting for 47.06% of the total built-up area. The research also documented two distinct forms of urban growth, specifically linear and leapfrog, throughout the corridor. The research recommends regional urban policy, urban growth boundaries as well as effective and efficient development control mechanisms in the selected settlements along the corridor. The Abuja Municipal Area Council and Karu Local Government are urged to promote urban renewal and infrastructure development through private partnerships, sustainable policies, waste management systems, and community engagement.

Solar Rooftop Systems and the Urban Transition: Shall the Twain Ever Meet? Interrogations from Rewari, India

ABSTRACT India is facing two major transitions. In 2040, its energy demand will double while 800 million Indians will live in cities by 2050. Situated at this intersection, this article contributes to the field of urban energy research by looking at Solar Rooftop Systems (SRS) in a district located in the extended periphery of Delhi. Using a multi-pronged qualitative methodology in a corridor made of villages and small towns, we argue that public policies are framed applying a rigid territorial grid opposing urban and rural, ignoring the motivations of both residential and professional users, which are not bounded by the rural/urban binary. This disjunction explains that renewable energy does not lead to a new imagination of urban and energy systems. These two fields remain disconnected while solar energy fuels consumption and the city expansion in its peripheries. Finally, the observed variegated urban energy landscapes (UEL) embody a land and energy intensive form of urban growth.

Does Architecture Matter to Urban Vitality? Buildings and the Social Life of Streets and Neighbourhoods

Since Jane Jacobs's seminal insights in the 1960s, one of the most emphasized notions in urban studies is the role of architectural and urban form in the 'vitality' and 'liveability' of cities, understood as sets of social and economic qualities such as people's co-presence in public spaces and diversity in local activities. However, can buildings aff ect their urban surroundings? Would diff erent architectural types have diff erent eff ects on the social life of streets and neighbourhoods? These questions are all the more important once we observe a trend in developing countries and other regions – a form of urban growth shaped by detached vertical buildings and gated communities surrounded by setbacks, replacing traditional buildings and creating fragmented urban fabrics. We develop an approach to recognize empirically the urban eff ects of buildings while controlling for systemic factors such as street network eff ects. We apply this method in a large-scale empirical study with twentyfour areas randomly selected in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Statistical results suggest distinct eff ects of building types and their features on pedestrian behaviour and land use diversity, helping answer a question that puzzles the spatial imagination: does architecture ma er to urban vitality?

Urban sprawl towards the water fronts of the city of Ramadi

This research came through multiple axes represented by the reasons behind the urban sprawl towards the waterfront resulting from population growth, spatial expansion outside the boundaries of the master plan of the city of Ramadi, abuses and the absence of the rule of law, with the large number of rubble as a result of demolitions that were exposed to large parts of the city of Ramadi . The first topic included the forms of urban growth towards the environment of the Euphrates River and Al Warar Canal represented by the consequences of this urban sprawl towards the environment of the river and the canal, resulting in economic effects related to the loss of rare agricultural land, the shrinkage of the river basin and its alluvial soils, morphological effects and environmental effects represented by pollution.

Master Planned Communities for Healthy Living: A Systematic Literature Review

ABSTRACT Master Planned Community (MPC) Developments are a dominant form of urban growth and housing development. This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the associations between MPCs and community health. Our review of 39 peer-reviewed journal papers suggested that the MPC physical features (public spaces/facilities, built form, spatial segregation, and location), social dimension (age structure and community development) and governance (private governance and housing tenure) are key players in the health of residents, particularly, their social health. This paper provides valuable information for future research on healthy housing and informs planning and decision-making in housing policy and development.

The cleanliness of otherness: epidemics, informal urbanization and urban degeneration in early twentieth-century Madrid

ABSTRACT In the first few decades of the twentieth century, makeshift shelters known as chozas grew in Madrid. Using historical monographs and the press as main sources, in this article we discuss the influence of medical thinking on the problematisation and eradication of this form of urban growth. During the nineteenth century, scientific racism identified poor housing areas as a source of disease and immorality, yet the public powers in Madrid tolerated and overlooked the development of these spaces until the early twentieth century. It was only when the fear of epidemics and warnings from the press became too great that the authorities began to implement various high-profile ‘sanitary campaigns’ to destroy the shacks. Although these initiatives did not solve the sanitation problems because the deprived populations frequently constructed new living areas, the continued efforts of the public authorities succeeded in displacing the shantytowns to the less regulated periphery. Whilst the spaces were transformed, the representations that signalled them as pathological spaces seems to have remained. Research on the historical eradication of urban ‘otherness’ allows us to discuss the legacy of the medical theories that supported it and the influence of this on current prejudices regarding disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

THE CONURBATION OF THE CENTER-EAST OF MONASTIR BETWEEN INDIVIDUALITY AND FUNCTIONAL COMPLEMENTARITY

The towns of central-eastern of Monastir have over time been able to form an urban complex, which is referred to as conurbation. The study shows that this form of urban growth is not simply due to the coalescence of urban fabrics, favored by the short distances that separate these cities. It is also the result of the complementarity already established between these centers, although they are originally individualized. The study of spatial structures shows that these cities have remained individualized and their respective structures are well characterized. They do not appear in a uniform mass; they each have a more or less complex structure comprising residential areas, various facilities, an industrial area, etc. Moreover, these agglomerations today have very strong links of interdependence and constitute a veritable urban complex where functional complementarities clearly appear; each city makes its contribution to the functioning of the whole system and it happens that some stand out in one sector or another.

A Narrative Literature Review: What Is the Ideal Density for Environmentally Sustainable Urban Growth?

Urban growth in the form of sprawl became a global planning problem in the 20th century. High urbanization rates in combination with low-density zoning regulations put additional pressure on growing cities. Sprawl continues to generate negative social, environmental, and economic impacts. The results of 20 studies presented in this narrative review, which observe the change in urban form over time, indicate that the current urban growth form is sprawl. Compact urban form is considered a sustainable form of urban growth in the literature. The results of 10 studies on the correlation between the urban form and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions show that densification without provision of adequate access to public transportation will induce more traffic, congestion, and associated CO2 emissions. The ideal density is subject to adequate access to public transportation—that is, mass transit-supportive density. Environmentally sustainable densities cannot deliver detached housing as a housing mode in many countries. International agreements on CO2 emissions should be translated and implemented at the metropolitan and municipal levels of governance via tools that have statutory powers. Statutory instruments such as planning schemes, building codes, and planning and environmental acts incorporating precinct-sustainable assessment systems (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE, and Green Star) provide the opportunity to endorse sustainable density objectives.

Contemporary Urban Expansion in the First Fastest Growing Metropolitan Region of China: A Multicity Study in the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration from 1980 to 2015

Contemporary urbanization in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Urban Agglomeration is the epitome of China’s urbanization process as the PRD is the first fastest growing metropolitan region of China. Here, we mapped and quantified the spatiotemporal dynamics of urban expansion for seven major cities in the PRD between 1980 and 2015, using remotely sensed data integrated with landscape metrics, urban growth form, and rank clocks. Results showed that rapid land urbanization occurred in all the seven cities since the execution of reform and opening up, with the annual increase rate ranging from 8.1% to 11.3% among cities, suggesting a relatively equal level of urbanization within the PRD. Socioeconomic drivers underlying urban expansion in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai can be characterized as “top–down” mechanisms led by the municipal government, while those in Foshan, Jiangmen, Dongguan, and Zhongshan are “bottom–up” ones from low–level administrative organizations. The trajectory of urban expansion in Shenzhen conformed to the diffusion–coalescence urban growth hypothesis in terms of temporal evolution of landscape metrics and urban growth types. This is related to the fact that Shenzhen, the first special economic zone established by the Chinese government, was the first mover of urbanization in China and functioned under the umbrella of a robust socialist market economy relative to a highly centralized planned economy for other cities. The changes of Shenzhen in rank order in terms of both urban population and urbanization area were the largest, exemplifying its evolution from a small fishing village to a metropolis. Furthermore, we found that moving up in the rank order in terms of land use efficiency of wealth creation over time for all cities was accompanied with rank clocking up of population per area (crowd). How to balance trade–offs between the benefits and costs of urbanization is the challenge faced by the urban agglomeration.

Tourist Clusters as a Factor in Activating Cross-Border Spatial Development

Tourism is one of the factors of local economic development and cross-border cooperation on EU borders, reducing the risk of economic recession in those areas. The purpose of the article is to reveal trends in the development of cross-border tourism on the Polish-Belarusian border and to verify the following research issues: 1) whether the economic sanctions introduced by EU countries on Russia after 2014 reduced cross-border traffic on the Polish-Belarusian section of the EU border; 2) to what extent the tourist potential of the Polish-Belarusian region corresponds to the demand in the modern European market; 3) how the new visa-free travel mechanisms activate tourist markets; 4) to what extent tourism stimulates the development of new forms of urban growth in the cultural landscapes of the cross-border region. The process of shaping tourism clusters as a form of the spatial organisation of tourism development in cross-border regions was analysed using analytical and synthetic methods. The research area covers the eastern border of Poland on the section of its border with Belarus. The primary research and empirical materials were obtained from the Central Statistical Office of Poland and the Statistical Committee of Belarus on tourism on the eastern border of Poland in the years 2015–2018. An investigation of the subject literature and source documents, as well as field observations and statistical analyses, were carried out. Particular attention was paid to the creation of a visa-free regime region in the special tourist zones of “Brest” and “Grodno” in the border regions of Belarus.

New Town Development and Sustainable Transition under Urban Entrepreneurialism in China

New towns are a major form of urban growth in China. In recent years, increasing numbers of large new town projects have been planned and built in and around existing cities. These new town projects have frequently been employed by city governments as central elements of pro-growth strategies, based on ideas of urban entrepreneurialism, which seek to promote economic growth, project a dynamic city image, and increase urban competitiveness. This article studies how the pro-growth, urban entrepreneurial approach affects the planning and development of Chinese megacities. A conceptual framework focusing on land-leasing revenue and new town development strategies is employed to explore the linkages between urban growth mechanisms and urban outcomes. Empirical material from four cities in the Pearl River Delta—Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, and Zhuhai—is presented. The analysis indicates that new town developments in these cities have different levels of dependency on spatial expansion and land revenue, and emphasize different issues of sustainable development in their plans. Cities with a lower dependency on physical and economic growth are be more likely to emphasize the quality of the built environment and address issues of sustainable urban development more closely when planning and implementing new town projects.

Comparing the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban expansion in Guangzhou and Shenzhen from 1975 to 2015: A case study of pioneer cities in China’s rapid urbanization

The distinct urbanization process of China has attracted worldwide attention because of its impressive speed, massive scale, and policy intervention. However, the interrelationship between urban expansion and government policies is still not well understood. The Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration of China is the first national pioneering urbanization area since the implementation of the policy “Reform and Opening-up” in the late 1970s. Here we compared the spatial and temporal patterns of urbanization in two leading cities of the Pearl River Delta (i.e., Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the provincial capital and the first Special Economic Zone of China, respectively) from 1975 to 2015, using Landsat data integrated with urban growth and landscape metrics analysis, and examined possible footprints of major economic and urbanization policies. Our results illustrated that urban land areas in both Guangzhou and Shenzhen have experienced magnificent annual growth rates at 8.1% and 11%, respectively between 1975 and 2015. On average, Shenzhen witnessed substantially higher urban growth rate than Guangzhou during the past four decades, particularly in the initial period (1978–1990) when the Reform and Opening-up policy was launched and Shenzhen was designated as the first Special Economic Zone in China in the late 1970s. However, the speed of urban expansion in Shenzhen became considerably lower than Guangzhou from 2005 to 2015, subject to physical conditions and a series of urban land use policies. Both cities showed a generally similar dynamics of urban growth forms with leapfrogging as the predominant type of urban growth at first and then edge-expansion while the contribution of infilling in Shenzhen was higher than that in Guangzhou, especially since 2005. The urbanization processes characterized by landscape and urban growth metrics revealed that a diffusion-coalescence-diffusion-coalescence process was identified for Guangzhou, while Shenzhen was generally consistent with the diffusion-coalescence urban growth hypothesis.

Surface runoff in urban areas: The role of residential cover and urban growth form

In the context of rapid urbanization and climate change, understanding the impact of urban dynamics on surface runoff is important. For future urban planning, there is a particular knowledge gap regarding the factors that affect surface runoff to improve urban resilience to local flooding. This study explored the impacts of different urban dynamics on surface water runoff considering the surface cover characteristics of different residential types (i.e., low- and high-density settlements) in the city of Munich, Germany. The surface cover characteristics were quantified using the ‘i-Tree Canopy’ method based on high-resolution aerial images. The surface runoff was simulated by the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method. Meanwhile, the impacts of different urban dynamics on surface runoff were compared by incorporating a scenario-based urban dynamic modeling approach. The results suggest that, compared with low-density settlements, high-density settlement areas tend to generate more surface runoff within the neighborhood because they have considerably less vegetative surfaces and more built ones. As the development of low-density settlements leads to a greater loss of green and open spaces in the surrounding peri-urban areas, however, the compact growth scenarios characterized by high-density settlements have advantages over low-density scenarios in terms of overall surface runoff reduction at the city scale. Thus, the trade-off between the neighborhood and city scale should be considered when promoting nature-based solutions for surface runoff mitigation. Moreover, the approach presented here can be used as an effective planning tool supporting various urban contexts.

Building up or spreading out? Typologies of urban growth across 478 cities of 1 million+

Urban form in both two- (2D) and three-dimensions (3D) has significant impacts on local and global environments. Here we developed the largest global dataset characterizing 2D and 3D urban growth for 478 cities with populations of one million or larger. Using remote sensing data from the SeaWinds scatterometer for 2001 and 2009, and the Global Human Settlement Layer for 2000 and 2014, we applied a cluster analysis and found five urban growth typologies: stabilized, outward, mature upward, budding outward, upward and outward. Budding outward is the dominant typology worldwide, per the largest total area. Cities characterized by upward and outward growth are few in number and concentrated primarily in China and South Korea, where there has been a large increase in high-rises during the study period. With the exception of East Asia, cities within a geographic region exhibit remarkably similar patterns of urban growth. Our results show that every city exhibits multiple urban growth typologies concurrently. Thus, while it is possible to describe a city by its dominant urban growth typology, a more accurate and comprehensive characterization would include some combination of the five typologies. The implications of the results for urban sustainability are multi-fold. First, the results suggest that there is considerable opportunity to shape future patterns of urbanization, given that most of the new urban growth is nascent and low magnitude outward expansion. Second, the clear geographic patterns and wide variations in the physical form of urban growth, within country and city, suggest that markets, national and subnational policies, including the absence of, can shape how cities grow. Third, the presence of different typologies within each city suggests the need for differentiated strategies for different parts of a single city. Finally, the new urban forms revealed in this analysis provide a first glimpse into the carbon lock-in of recently constructed energy-demanding infrastructure of urban settlements.

The impact of urban growth patterns on urban vitality in newly built-up areas based on an association rules analysis using geographical ‘big data’

The emergence of geographical ‘big data’ provides new opportunities for studying urban issues. This study uses geographical ‘big data’ on point of interest density (POID), degree of urban function mixing (MIX), location check-in density (CIQD), housing prices (HP), and population change (POPC) to measure the urban vitality of patches of new development that occurred in Chinese cities from 2005 to 2015. The study uses association rule analysis to explore the relationship between different urban growth patterns on urban vitality, and the results indicate that different forms of urban growth have different effects on urban vitality. Infilling is characterized by high values for point of interest density and location check-in density with low values for urban function mixing and mixed values for population change. Edge-expansion is associated with high values for population change and urban function mixtures. Outlying expansion is associated with several negative values for urban vitality, particularly variables related to interactions between people and the environment around them (CIQD). The results indicate that cities may utilize these different forms of urban growth patterns to achieve different goals; for example, infilling may be more effective for office-style development in areas with existing higher population density and urban function mixtures, and edge-expansion may be effective for rapidly absorbing large populations and hosting urban functions that require larger footprints. As such, Chinese cities currently undergoing early stages of development should pursue high-intensity edge-expansion development. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the relationship between urban expansion types and urban vitality through the use of ‘big data,’ and the results of this study can provide guidance on urban spatial development for government leaders and researchers in the future.

Spatial variation of green space equity and its relation with urban dynamics: A case study in the region of Munich

Green spaces provide urban residents with numerous environmental and social benefits and are regarded as a fundamental part of sustainable urban development. However, the spatial distribution of green spaces is uneven in most cities and urban regions, which has been considered as an issue of environmental injustice. We present a study in which the spatial variation of green space equity and its relationship with socioeconomic variables were analyzed across different municipalities in the region of Munich, southern Germany. The Gini coefficient was applied as an indicator of green space equity and its relationship with socioeconomic variables was explored by using a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Moreover, the impacts of different urban dynamic scenarios on green space equity were comparatively assessed at both the regional and sub-regional zone levels by incorporating a multiple urban dynamic scenario modeling approach. The results indicate that the relationships between green space equity and socioeconomic variables are not always consistently significant over space and the coefficients of GWR reflect great spatial heterogeneity indicating the relationships are locality-specific. At both levels, a higher housing demand scenario tends to increase the spatial inequality of green space distribution. Polycentric urban spatial structure scenarios are found less limiting than monocentric ones in terms of green space equity at the regional scale. Among different urban growth form scenarios (“sprawl”, “compact sprawl” or “compact”), “compact” growth is most favorable at both levels in terms of green space equity. However, the other two growth form scenarios perform differently in each sub-regional zone. Therefore, the physical and socioeconomic heterogeneity across space should be considered thoroughly in the process of developing policies for urban development that effectively safeguard access to sufficient green space. This implication is not only crucial for this study region but also of great significance for other urban regions which aim to achieve successful green space planning.

The impact of different urban dynamics on green space availability: A multiple scenario modeling approach for the region of Munich, Germany

Green spaces can mitigate the negative impacts of urbanization and improve the overall quality of life of urban residents, but the availability of green spaces has been extensively influenced by urban dynamics. In this study, multiple scenarios were developed for one of the fastest and most dynamically growing urban regions in Germany, Munich, with respect to the following three dimensions: housing demand (high, medium or low), urban spatial structure (monocentric or polycentric) and urban growth form (sprawl, compact sprawl or compact). By using per capita green space (PCGS) and the share of the population with access to green spaces (SPAGS) as indicators, the availability of green spaces under different scenarios and the tradeoffs between the two indicators were analyzed at the levels of both regional and sub-regional zones. Our results show that, without effective greening policies, there were different degrees of decline in green space availability in most of the selected scenarios, although scenarios that showed urban shrinkage did result in new green space development. Higher housing demand places more pressure on green space availability at both levels, and the two green space indicators perform better in the polycentric urban spatial structure scenario than in the monocentric scenario. However, one must consider the tradeoffs between the two indicators to define the most advisable urban growth form. The results also highlighted that it is difficult to find a single growth form that performs best in all different zones. Thus, this novel and straightforward scenario approach allows both urban and regional planners to consider the different impacts of urban dynamic scenarios on green space availability and to propose planning strategies adapted to different sub-regional zones.

Regulating market-led urban expansion in the new master plans of Sofia and Belgrade

Like most European cities, cities in South-east Europe (SEE) have been growing throughout the 20th century, however, since the end of the 1980s, the mechanisms of urban growth and expansion have changed radically: from development fully determined by central planning to market-led urban development. This paper examines how planning in large SEE cities is coping with the challenge to balance the action of the market and achieve planning goals relating to the form of urban growth and expansion. As case studies we analyse the master plans of Sofia and Belgrade and their implementation. We have two research questions: first, whether planning in the two cities has considered the role of the market when defining its objectives, measures and solutions regarding the forms of urban growth and the development of in suburban areas, and, second, whether planning has been able to influence the market or cooperate with it in order to achieve its objectives in suburban development.

Imaginaries and itineraries in the city. Construction of urban identities from the ambulantaje

Ambulant activity turns the mediating activity of the forms of urban growth, the sort of activities that the metropolitan city generates, the varied forms of citizen living and the social, politic, economic and cultural participation. The reflection in this essay will be focused in the forms of urban identity and imageries construction that come from ambulant activities. Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 109, 2006: 405-440