IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v44y2012i11p2765-2784.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who Sprawls Most? Exploring the Patterns of Urban Growth across 26 European Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Siedentop
  • Stefan Fina

Abstract

In recent years considerable progress has been made in the understanding of urban land-use change and its dynamic interrelationships with economic, social, and environmental systems. From a quantitative perspective, advancements in GIS technologies, the increased availability of high-resolution remote sensing data, and new GIS-based spatial metrics of urban form and urban growth have helped to establish methods for comparative spatial analysis. However, due to the lack of homogeneous data, very few empirical studies have systematically addressed urbanisation and urban growth at a cross-national level. With this background, this paper presents a comparative assessment of urban land-use change across twenty-six European countries. On two scales of analysis, country and 20 km cells, we found a surprising variability in terms of urban growth and its territorial shape. We argue that these differences cannot be explained by varying demographic or economic growth pressures alone. Indicators on the composition, pattern, and density of urban growth illustrate that country-specific drivers of urban land-use change play an important role for the shaping of Europe's settlement structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Siedentop & Stefan Fina, 2012. "Who Sprawls Most? Exploring the Patterns of Urban Growth across 26 European Countries," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(11), pages 2765-2784, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:11:p:2765-2784
    DOI: 10.1068/a4580
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a4580
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a4580?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eid, Jean & Overman, Henry G. & Puga, Diego & Turner, Matthew A., 2008. "Fat city: Questioning the relationship between urban sprawl and obesity," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 385-404, March.
    2. Michael Landesmann & Roman Römisch, 2006. "Economic Growth, Regional Disparities and Employment in the EU-27," wiiw Research Reports 333, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    3. Burchell, R.W. & Mukherji, S., 2003. "Conventional Development Versus Managed Growth: The Costs of Sprawl," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(9), pages 1534-1540.
    4. Qing Su & Joseph S. DeSalvo, 2008. "The Effect Of Transportation Subsidies On Urban Sprawl," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 567-594, August.
    5. Hugo Priemus, 2004. "Spatial Memorandum 2004: A Turning Point In The Netherlands’ Spatial Development Policy," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(5), pages 578-583, December.
    6. Martin Herold & Joseph Scepan & Keith C Clarke, 2002. "The Use of Remote Sensing and Landscape Metrics to Describe Structures and Changes in Urban Land Uses," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(8), pages 1443-1458, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francis Ostermeijer & Hans R A Koster & Jos van Ommeren & Victor Mayland Nielsen, 2022. "Automobiles and urban density [Urban spatial structure]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 1073-1095.
    2. Nora Libertun de Duren & Roberto Guerrero Compeán, 2016. "Growing resources for growing cities: Density and the cost of municipal public services in Latin America," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(14), pages 3082-3107, November.
    3. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Wendlan, Nicolai, 2008. "Spatial Determinants of CBD Emergence: A Micro-level Case Study on Berlin∗," MPRA Paper 11572, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kar, Armita & Carrel, Andre L. & Miller, Harvey J. & Le, Huyen T. K., 2021. "Reducing public transit compounds social vulnerabilities during COVID-19," OSF Preprints 5xerm_v1, Center for Open Science.
    5. Ivan Parise & Penelope Abbott & Steven Trankle, 2021. "Drivers to Obesity—A Study of the Association between Time Spent Commuting Daily and Obesity in the Nepean Blue Mountains Area," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Kuzey Yılmaz & Muharrem Yeşilırmak, 2023. "Access to transportation, residential segregation, and economic opportunity," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(1), pages 103-127, January.
    7. Brueckner, Jan K. & Largey, Ann G., 2008. "Social interaction and urban sprawl," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 18-34, July.
    8. Iga Solecka & Dietmar Bothmer & Arkadiusz Głogowski, 2019. "Recognizing Landscapes for the Purpose of Sustainable Development—Experiences from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Marlon G. Boarnet & Xize Wang & Douglas Houston, 2022. "Can New Light Rail Reduce Personal Vehicle Carbon Emissions? A Before-After, Experimental-Control Evaluation in Los Angeles," Papers 2206.12610, arXiv.org.
    10. Buiter, Willem H., 2007. "Seigniorage," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 1, pages 1-49.
    11. Shirkou Jaafari & Yousef Sakieh & Afshin Alizadeh Shabani & Afshin Danehkar & Ali-akbar Nazarisamani, 2016. "Landscape change assessment of reservation areas using remote sensing and landscape metrics (case study: Jajroud reservation, Iran)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1701-1717, December.
    12. Bento, Antonio M. & Franco, Sofia F. & Kaffine, Daniel, 2011. "Is there a double-dividend from anti-sprawl policies?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 135-152, March.
    13. Yuval Arbel & Chaim Fialkoff & Amichai Kerner, 2020. "The Chicken and Egg Problem: Obesity and the Urban Monocentric Model," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 576-606, November.
    14. Jinling Zhao & Jie Wang & Yu Jin & Lingling Fan & Chao Xu & Dong Liang & Linsheng Huang, 2018. "Land Cover Based Landscape Pattern Dynamics of Anhui Province Using GlobCover and MCD12Q1 Global Land Cover Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, April.
    15. Sarah Hasan & Wenzhong Shi & Xiaolin Zhu & Sawaid Abbas & Hafiz Usman Ahmed Khan, 2020. "Future Simulation of Land Use Changes in Rapidly Urbanizing South China Based on Land Change Modeler and Remote Sensing Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-24, May.
    16. Delucchi, Mark & Kurani, Ken, 2010. "How We Can Have Safe, Clean, Convenient, Affordable, Pleasant Transportation Without Making People Drive Less or Give Up Suburban Living," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt0x92n7rg, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    17. Charles J. Courtemanche & Joshua C. Pinkston & Christopher J. Ruhm & George L. Wehby, 2016. "Can Changing Economic Factors Explain the Rise in Obesity?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(4), pages 1266-1310, April.
    18. Joseph DeSalvo & Qing Su, 2017. "Determinants of Urban Sprawl: A Panel Data Approach," Working Papers 0217, University of South Florida, Department of Economics.
    19. Fang, Kevin & Volker, Jamey, 2017. "Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Is Only the Beginning: A Literature Review of the Co-Benefits of Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt4h5494vr, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    20. Eeva-Sofia Säynäjoki & Jukka Heinonen & Seppo Junnila, 2014. "The Power of Urban Planning on Environmental Sustainability: A Focus Group Study in Finland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(10), pages 1-22, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:11:p:2765-2784. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.