Pace Of Urban Growth Research Articles

Analysis of Urban Expansion and Human–Land Coordination of Oasis Town Groups in the Core Area of Silk Road Economic Belt, China

Under economic globalization, synergy among cities has been actively promoted. Establishing inter–city networks and joint regional development could catalyze economic growth. The mode and pace of urban growth could be gauged by construction land expansion and human–land coordination. This study adopted the dynamic change, the center of gravity, and coordination analyses to comprehensively portray spatial patterns and changes amongst 13 oasis town groups in Xinjiang, China, from 2000 to 2018. The results identified that 2010 was the turning point of acceleration in construction land expansion, demonstrating notable spatial differentiations among town groups. Northern Xinjiang experienced faster urban growth than southern Xinjiang. The Urumqi–Changji–Shihezi (UCS) town group on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains constituted the crucial urban core with the fastest construction land expansion. Although the towns in southern Xinjiang were small and beset by inherent limitations in the early period, some town groups acquired new impetus and vitality and became the fastest–developing areas in Xinjiang in recent years. The growth was driven by China’s western development program, economic assistance, and Silk Road Economic Belt. Eastern Xinjiang had convenient transportation, but its small urban entities needed population supplementation to invigorate urban expansion. In the far north, the Altay and Tacheng–Emin (TE) town groups were situated too far from development cores. They lacked the collateral benefits of nearby strong–growth loci, resulting in sluggish growth. A north–south dual–hub strategy was proposed to spearhead the dissemination of urban growth by fostering core–periphery linkages pump–primed by improved road connections.

Analysing spatial patterns and trend of future urban expansion using SLEUTH

With the onset of rapid urban growth in the past 3 decades, a developing country for instance India, Africa, etc. has resulted in climatic and environmental changes severely. Pace of urban growth has increased in India post 2000’s because of key driving economic factors coupled with industrial development promoting job opportunities and promising better life style. This has led to cities expanding towards periphery and rural neighbourhood causing urban sprawl. Continuous increase in the built-up area is also responsible for rise in the surface temperature modifying the rainfall patterns and affecting the biodiversity of the region. This communication focuses mainly on the recent urban growth challenges and changing land surface temperature by developing Indian cities with very minimum landscape to house burgeoning population, immediate strategies and action-plan required to mitigate negative environmental impacts and effects on human beings. Further, the study attempts to correlate the dynamic land use change, land cover, land surface temperature and future urban growth scenario for one of the most systematically planned city of India, Chandigarh. Analysis was performed using open source coding and software platforms such as GRASS, QGIS and shell scripting. The study elaborates land use modelling for the year 2025 by adopting cellular automata based open source SLEUTH model The documentation and source code of SLEUTH model are publically available. The model was tested and calibrated in three different modes: coarse, fine and full resolution. The calibration mode showed high spread coefficient suggesting the urban sprawl would take organic growth. Open source software and coding would help in increased scientific output as it would help researchers understand the code that is being implemented and helps in improvisation of exiting codes to variety of applications. Results of this study would help in developing necessary policy measures and sustainable actions that are required to reduce anthropogenic effects on urban and natural environment.

Wellness and illness: the aftermath of urban mass housing in Lagos, Nigeria

ABSTRACTMass housing policy and an attendant population increase play a vital role in the socio-economic profile of Lagos. The article, using data from mass housing projects, explains the effects of these projects on intra-urban dynamics and the implications in Lagos. The pace of urban growth is increasing, and there is an absence of supporting infrastructures. The areas where populations are decreasing happen to be where contemporary housing construction is concentrated. Therefore, programmes aimed at providing housing and improving quality of life should, as a priority, deal with factors affecting population growth and spatial distribution.

The Gold Coast as a City of 'Adolescent Urbanism'

Australia's oldest cities are little more than two hundred years old. Some are much younger, emerging only recently and growing rapidly. In the space of little more than one generation the City of Gold Coast has become Australia's sixth largest city, having only come into existence as a local government entity in 1959. The pace and extent of this growth is seen by some as exemplary and as a model for other emergent Australian cities, and by others as the epitome of unregulated and unsustainable urban growth. This paper analyzes the nature, extent and pace of urban growth in the City of Gold Coast using a framework derived from theories of human development. It treats the city as a case of 'adolescent urbanism' in which rapid physical growth is accompanied by identity confusion, hubris and egocentricity, entrepreneurial zeal and emergent forward thinking. The paper goes on to consider briefly possible future trajectories of the city – in particular, its prospects for growing up and becoming a more mature city as well as the risks (or opportunities) associated with remaining an adolescent city. The paper concludes by reflecting critically on the potential for applying this developmental conception of urban growth in the City of Gold Coast to other Australian cities.

A History and Analysis of Mapping Urban Expansion in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

There have been numerous efforts over many years to map or delineate urban locations and features in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. This study acquired 27 land useland cover maps for the Valley or the urban portions of the Valley. Those maps vary greatly in their mapping parameters. The objectives of this study were to first conduct a cartographic comparison of the differences in the creation and content of the maps and then do an analysis of the urban changes in the Valley based upon the maps. The maps for the Valley have differed in their source materials, the amount of field work involved, scale and minimum mapping units, classifications used, definitions of classes and coordinate systems. Source materials have included various scales and formats of aerial photography and different satellite systems. The most difficult issue in comparing the maps is the varied classification systems and definitions. The same feature will be classified differently from map to map. This is particularly an issue for institutional features such as temples, palaces, educational facilities, open public space and governmental sites. Definitions of residential areas are also not consistent. Even with the differences in mapping parameters, considerable useful information can be obtained by comparing these maps. These include a simply documentation of the urban extent and the generally resulting loss in agricultural lands. There was an increase in urban extent from 22 to 83km2 between 1955 and 2000. Urban expansion has also changed from occurring on the upland river terraces or tars to the floodplains. Finally, while not directly documented in these maps, the tremendous pace of urban growth has resulted in multiple infrastructure and environmental challenges.

Communities, the Private Sector, and the State

In postapartheid South African cities, civil society's loss of confidence in the ability of public authorities to protect citizens reflects the international trend toward the State's delegation of a number of public functions. It has led to the proliferation of private and community initiatives which quickly spread across urban space, taking different forms according to the level of segregation, the shape of the urban fabric, the local culture of urban development and planning, the political context, and the pace of urban growth. This article, informed by the examples of Johannesburg and Cape Town, discusses the specific South African way of handling these delegation processes: a complex mix of neoliberal policies and practices and of the ANC's agenda toward equality and redistribution for democratic South Africa. Indeed, after a transitional period where these initiatives were tolerated, public authorities are currently reasserting their power over some of these forms (community-led initiatives) while still encouraging public-private partnerships (CIDs).

Projecting rates of urbanisation in England, 1991-2016: method, policy application and results.

"The rate of conversion of land from rural to urban uses has been a central concern of the British planning system. Despite this interest, however, the factual basis of the debate on the pace of urban growth, its form and distribution has been extremely weak. The reason for this is lack of appropriate data. This paper reports research on two new data sources on land use--a digital database of the boundaries of tracts of urban land in 1981 and 1991 and the Land Use Change Statistics--to analyse recent urban growth in England and, in conjunction with current household projections, to estimate the likely extent of urbanisation in 2016. In addition to assessing the geographical distribution of this growth, the paper draws out some implications for policy analysis of the method of projecting the extent of land in urban use."

Energy and Environmental Management in Eastern African Cities

Cities in eastern Africa have been growing at an unheralded pace, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Despite this rapid urbanization, very little research has been focused on energy and the environment in urban eastern Africa. This paper contains a review of what little work has been carried out to date. Several conclusions are pointed out. First, cities throughout the region remain small and have formed largely without industrial development. ‘Urbanization without industrialization’ means that the existing urban environmental problems are attributable to inadequate provision of service and not to the industrialization-linked problems found in more developed countries. Even if economic growth improves, action will be necessary to alleviate existing environmental problems. Second, the expected rapid pace of urban growth will impose tremendous costs at all levels. Increased user costs, either through reliance on private-sector alternatives or through public-sector tariffs, must be increasingly relied upon to defray the fiscal impacts of rapid urbanization and to assure the sustainability of urban infrastructural systems. Third, as the anticipated urban growth and industrialization take place, the focus of energy and environmental planners working on cities in eastern Africa will shift from basic service provision to increasingly complex problems. These shifts will require labor and financial resources far exceeding those currently found in these countries. Fourth, although energy and environmental needs may differ according to the size of the city, there has been little or no attention paid to problems outside of the primate cities. As a result, it is unclear how the problems and solutions will differ across the urban hierarchy. Clearly, urban planners need to consider the importance of energy and the environment. At the same time, energy and environmental researchers must pay greater attention to urban areas.