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Do land policies make a difference? A data-driven approach to trace effects on urban form in France and Germany

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  • Mathias Jehling
  • Robert Hecht

Abstract

Against the backdrop of rapidly expanding urban structures, land policies in many countries have been adapted to contain and redirect growth to existing urban structures. However, obstacles remain to measure the effects of policies. In the meantime, geoinformation technologies have given rise to a wide range of approaches to measure and describe urban form. Nevertheless, its application for the assessment of land policy has a high, but not yet fully exploited, potential. It is thus the aim of this research to address and investigate the options of spatial analysis and machine learning in particular to analyse urban form from a land policy perspective. To do so, we develop urban metrics informed by urban planning and land readjustment policies of two countries describing urban form on different spatial levels. We therefore formulate hypotheses on causal relations between policy and form. Based on the metrics, we apply the random forest algorithm to classify the building stock of the region. We then extract the residential areas, those with single-family houses, as this is where the effects of the policy are considered most visible. In a next step, we use random forest to predict the nationality of a building. Through variable importance measures, we identify and discuss urban morphological differences between the two countries and test the hypotheses on effects of land policies. We develop and test the approach for the French-German city-region of Strasbourg using OpenStreetMap data. We identify significant differences in the building coverage ratios, which tend to be higher in Germany. This can be linked to differences in planning regulations. Furthermore, German residential areas appear to be more diverse in urban form. Differences in land readjustment policies have proven to be plausible here, as French policies favour strong actors that develop residential areas more uniformly. In Germany, policies favour fragmented ownership-oriented development of residential areas. The metrics and the applied algorithm for building classification have proven to be robust in terms of data heterogeneity and have shown high levels of accuracy. They could also be successfully used for tracing causal relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathias Jehling & Robert Hecht, 2022. "Do land policies make a difference? A data-driven approach to trace effects on urban form in France and Germany," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(1), pages 114-130, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:49:y:2022:i:1:p:114-130
    DOI: 10.1177/2399808321995818
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Geoffrey CARUSO & Mohamed HILAL & Isabelle THOMAS, 2017. "Measuring urban forms from inter-building distances: Combining MST graphs with a local index of spatial association," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2837, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    2. Joost Tennekes & Arjan Harbers & Edwin Buitelaar, 2015. "Institutional Arrangements and the Morphology of Residential Development in the Netherlands, Flanders and North Rhine-Westphalia," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(11), pages 2165-2183, November.
    3. Colsaet, Alice & Laurans, Yann & Levrel, Harold, 2018. "What drives land take and urban land expansion? A systematic review," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 339-349.
    4. Meta Berghauser Pont & Gianna Stavroulaki & Lars Marcus, 2019. "Development of urban types based on network centrality, built density and their impact on pedestrian movement," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 46(8), pages 1549-1564, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Boehnke, Denise & Jehling, Mathias & Vogt, Joachim, 2023. "What hinders climate adaptation? Approaching barriers in municipal land use planning through participant observation," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Eichhorn, Sebastian & Ehrhardt, Denise & Münter, Angelika & Behnisch, Martin & Jehling, Mathias, 2024. "Understanding land take by low-density residential areas: An institutionalist perspective on local planning authorities, developers and households," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Andreas Heinrich Hengstermann & Mathias Jehling, 2023. "Understanding Private Preferences in Urban Development—Analysing Spatial Patterns of Food Discount Stores Locations in Switzerland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-15, March.

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