Urban Growth

The authors establish the effect of urbanization on precipitation in the Pearl River Delta of China with data from an annual land use map (1988–96) derived from Landsat images and monthly climate data from 16 local meteorological stations. A statistical analysis of the relationship between climate and urban land use in concentric buffers around the stations indicates that there is a causal relationship from temporal and spatial patterns of urbanization to temporal and spatial patterns of precipitation during the dry season. Results suggest an urban precipitation deficit in which urbanization reduces local precipitation. This reduction may be caused by changes in surface hydrology that extend beyond the urban heat island effect and energy-related aerosol emissions.

Los Modelos Basados en Agentes (MBA) están siendo cada vez más utilizados en la simulación de sistemas espaciales complejos, como es el caso del crecimiento urbano. En la presente comunicación se introduce parte de un modelo desarrollado para la simulación de la expansión urbana en el Corredor del Henares (Madrid), concretamente el relacionado con los agentes planificadores urbanos que asignan nuevo suelo urbanizable en esta área de estudio. Este submodelo constituye una parte importante del modelo general, cuya simulación pretende mostrar propuestas de nuevas áreas urbanizables de acuerdo a unas determinadas preferencias espaciales. El potencial de fundamentar esta decisión en un MBA reside en una configuración flexible que permite que la importancia dada a cada capa sea modificable, posibilitando generar diferentes escenarios de simulación. El comportamiento de planificadores urbanos con diferentes perfilesambiental, económico, social, especulador u otros -puede ser simulado en función de los ajustes realizados en la configuración inicial. Las preferencias de estos agentes están basadas en elementos como: distancia a áreas urbanas consolidadas, transporte público o carreteras, y existencia de equipamientos de educación y salud. Los resultados muestran las posibles nuevas distribuciones de suelo urbanizable según los criterios elegidos, y se pueden ver gráficamente en la propia interfaz del programa, o generar archivos en diferentes formatos de salida.

Although remotely sensed images have been used to study urban growth patterns the world over, very few studies have employed these methods to examine the growth of Iranian cities. Shiraz is perhaps the most important city in the southern part of Iran and, thus, was selected for this study. We used satellite images of the study area from the period between 1976 and 2005, and population censuses of Shiraz. By applying classification methods to the satellite images four main types of land use were extracted: water, built-up, vegetation and bare land. Then, the area coverage for all the land use types at different points in time were measured and coupled with population data. The results demonstrate that, over the entire study period, development in Shiraz cannot be characterized as sprawl. Since 2000, however, one can see evidence of sprawl. These results are also supported by calculations using Shannon’s entropy. A further finding is that vegetation growth did not keep pace with that of population or the built-up area; more recently, vegetation has greatly declined. It is advisable that future plans for the city give serious consideration to the preservation of available vegetation and, when possible, the restoration of vegetation that was destroyed in the past.► Remote sensing and GIS, are two powerful tools for urban environment studies. ► Built-up per capita index is a simple, but effective indicator of sprawl measurements. ► Shanonn’s entropy calculation, is the most validated method for sprawl measurement. ► Shiraz city is in the early stages of sprawl development.

The scientific literature has documented the growing risks of flooding posed for Asia’s coastal cities by the combination of climate change, as reflected in sea level rise and intensified storms and storm surges, and ongoing urban growth in low-lying coastal zones. These issues were already elaborated in the 2007 IPCC (IPCC, 2007) reports but recent studies indicate that climate change, sea level rise and the sinking of the deltas on which most Asian mega urban regions have arisen, are all occurring at much faster rates than earlier projected and therefore pose even greater risks than previously indicated. Global warming appears to be accelerating and may increase to 4° C or more by the end of this century, twice the earlier IPCC projections. The sea level is now expected to rise by one meter or more by 2100; two or three times the earlier projections. The recent typhoons and rains striking Southeast Asia have been the most intense in decades as would be expected as a result of glob...

Peri-urban agriculture is a pivotal issue in the debate on sustainable management of land in metropolitan regions worldwide. Multiple socioeconomic and environmental solutions introduced by new models of peri-urban agriculture are playing an important role in planning and management of fringe land. The recent development of peri-urban agriculture in Southern European cities was supposed to reflect latent, crisis-driven processes of 'coming back to land': new land has been extensively cultivated, and new relations have been created between farmers, communities and territories within peri-urban areas. This study describes some relevant experiences of peri-urban farming in 6 metropolitan regions (Lisbon, Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Athens, Istanbul) representative of different socioeconomic contexts in Southern Europe, outlining strengths and weaknesses in the use of fringe land for cropping, and evidencing relevant implications for urban sustainability.

Sistemas de información geográfica: Algunas aplicaciones en planificación y gestión urbana ROBERTO A. FIGUEROA Instituto de Geografía Pontifi cia Universidad Católi ca de Chile RESUMEN En un contexto de cont inuo crec imiento urbano en el mundo el presente arttculo revisa algunas de las aplicacion es de Sistemas de Informa ci án Geográfica (SIG) en planificaci6n y gestión urbana. Diferentes beneficios operacionales son descritos (e.g., búsqueda de planos y mapas). La inclusi ánde los SIG en estudio de sitio es analizada, tomando como caso los procesos de control, las evaluaciones y selecciones de sitio. La participación de SIG en estrategias de planificación es también considerada , señalando las ventajas en términos de sobreposici 6n de coberturas o cartas y en el análisis sociodemográfico . Al mism o tiempo las restr icc iones en términos de costos de apl icación son men cionadas . En este sentido, el desarrollo de Sistemas de Informacián Geográfica Mult ípropásito (SIGMP) es propuesto como alternativa de reduccián de costos . Una segunda restricc ión planteada se relaciona con la capac idad limitada de simulación de escenarios urbana que actualmente poseen los SIG comerciales. Dos modelos de simula ción de crecimiento urbano son descritos (Waterloo Generic Urban Model, Regional Growth Forecast) . ABSTRACf

Rapid industrialization and economic growth in South Korea since the 1970s have resulted in severe environmental disturbance and pollution, problems aggravated by the imprudent expansion of urban areas. This paper analyzes and predicts urban growth patterns with the aim of contributing to more efficient urban planning. Urban growth probability index (UGPI) maps were prepared using the frequency ratio (FR), analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and logistic regression (LR) methods, with and without considering development restrictions based on the national environmental conservation value assessment map (ECVAM). Environmental and legal restrictions were associated with an average difference of 41.70% in conservation areas and an 81.32% average difference in agriculture and forest land use-land cover (LULC). Accuracy of the models was examined by area under the curve (AUC) analysis. Accuracies of UGPI maps produced with the ECVAM were higher than UGPI maps produced without the ECVAM. In addition, effectiveness and accuracy tests based on LULC showed that the UGPI maps produced with the ECVAM had a higher rate of accuracy that UGPI maps produces without the ECVAM. Using the ECVAM and assuming that urban and built-up areas will be 1.5 times greater than in 2005 and that environmental restrictions are removed, urban development can be expected to more than double in conservation areas and borderlands, increase by more than 1.5 times in developable areas, and decrease by half in old downtown areas. If legal restrictions are removed, urban development is expected to occur mostly in former conservation areas, followed by borderlands, old downtowns, and developable areas.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has become the dominant urban growth planning paradigm in the United States. Yet scant evidence has been proffered to indicate that it will produce significant environmental and social benefits commensurate with the costs of the major transportation system improvements that it requires. Sixteen distinct planning issues will determine whether TOD significantly changes travel behavior in a metropolitan region. While some analysis exists, understanding of these issues needs improvement. In particular, more research is needed on non-work travel, retail market dynamics, and the likely constraints this $2.3 trillion area of business and human behavior imposes on TOD.

A markedly intense rain fell on southeastern Mexico during the period of 29 October–1 November 2007. As a result, the state of Tabasco recorded the gravest flood in the last 50 years. A reconstruction of the event is presented, including the identification of the factors that aggravated the sequels, and a discussion of the actions that were carried out to evaluate the flooding. The phenomenon consisted of a succession of rains in the region, including 3 days of continuous rain with over 403 mm d−1. The operation of a system of dams, the saturation of the soil, and runoff times below 16 h were the factors that generated the catastrophe, in synergy with the meteorological phenomenon. The analysis presented here will aid in understanding the development of the phenomenon in an integral way, and in establishing the minimum procedures to be followed to evaluate similar events in other regions where, as in Mexico, one does not have timely access to information. In the case of this disaster, for example, different versions of the causes of the flood continued to circulate 6 months after it took place, some lacking technical bases and some access-restricted. However, the information generated provided the academic community and state officials with a reference on which to evaluate the event. This analysis also makes a contribution by placing emphasis on the need to establish non-structural mitigation measures such as future urban growth and regulation plans and future early warning systems against flooding, monitoring the variables that were analysed and generating products useful to the decision-makers involved in civil protection systems and in carrying out preventive measures to mitigate the effects of extreme events.

Latin America is among the most urbanized regions of the world with relatively high motorization levels compared with the rest of the developing world. The automotive air pollution problem in Latin America is essentially a metropolitan problem, resulting from rapid and uncontrolled urban growth, increasing traffic congestion, inadequate urban transport infrastructure and services, and an aging and obsolete motor vehicle fleet. The problem is exacerbated by the vulnerable and sensitive physical location of the urban centers in the region. The paper discusses the size of the population in Latin America at risk, the magnitude of health costs associated with elevated levels of air pollution and the contribution of motor vehicles to the problem. The regional motorization characteristics and trends are analyzed, including certain similarities with industrialized countries. As some Latin American countries directed attention towards automotive air pollution long before other developing countries, there is a large body of practical and innovative pollution control experience in Brazil, Chile and Mexico from which other countries in the region could benefit.

Healthseekers [i.e., people seeking climactic cures from diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB)] migrated to the American West starting in the 19th century. Local officials, interested in promoting urban growth, capitalized on this phenomenon by aggressively advertising for healthseekers. This paper analyzes the case of TB in Phoenix, Arizona, USA during its period of early growth to demonstrate how social constructions of disease intersected with political constructions of race and class to produce pathologized bodies and stigmatized places. Contradictions in Phoenix's progrowth strategy are discussed in this paper, along with strategies employed by city leaders to 'solve' them. These strategies included an emergent discourse by those in power that served to construct race, class and place-based inequities. Further, ideological and spatial strategies were instantiated to ensure that other Phoenix residents did not 'see' the injustices being produced. The material results of these discursive strategies included dilapidated housing, a lack of urban infrastructure, and lack of health-care services for minorities and the poor in Phoenix. Those in power, in the name of private accumulation and urban growth, had constructed a context in which poor persons with TB were spatially isolated and socially stigmatized while wealthy whites with TB were socially, culturally and environmentally advantaged. r

This study explores the combined application of remote sensing, spatial metrics and spatial modeling to the analysis and modeling of urban growth in Santa Barbara, California. The investigation is based on a 72-year time series data set compiled from interpreted historical aerial photography and from IKONOS satellite imagery. Spatial metrics were used both specifically to assess the impact of urban development in four administrative districts, and generally to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban growth. The metrics quantify the temporal and spatial properties of urban development, and show definitively the impacts of growth constraints imposed on expansion by topography and by local planning efforts. The SLEUTH urban growth and land use change model was calibrated using the multi-temporal data sets for the entire study region. The calibrated model allowed us to fill gaps in the discontinuous historical time series of urban spatial extent, since maps and images were available only for selected years between 1930 and 2001. The model also allowed a spatial forecast of urban growth to the year 2030. The spatial metrics provided a detailed description of the accuracy of the model's historical simulations that applied also to forecasts of future development. The results illustrate the utility of modeling in explaining the amount and spatial pattern of urban growth. Even using modeling, however, the forecasting of urban development remains problematic and could benefit from further research on spatial metrics and their incorporation into the model calibration process. The combined approach using remote sensing, spatial metrics and urban modeling is powerful, and may prove a productive new direction for the improved understanding, representation and modeling of the spatiotemporal forms due to the process of urbanization. D

The city of Puebla in the last decades has presented a slowed urban growth. Situation that has generated conurbation with contiguous rural localities, where still have agricultural zones with great productive value, as it is the case of San Bernardino Tlaxcalancingo. Place where there are still agricultural zones immersed in the locality, with cultivation of nopal and maize, that are the base of the local economy. This research analyzes the impact of the urban growth of the Atlixcáyotl Territorial Reserve on agricultural areas in order to know how this urban growth has affected the decrease of agricultural areas and thus have the basis for a proposal of urban growth, which takes into account the change of land use of the last three decades, areas of agricultural value and local uses and customs; which have predominated for generations in this locality.

This paper presents a brief introduction of rapid urbanization and its consequences for air pollution in Asia. The second section elaborates local capacity for urban air quality management (UAQM). The third section discusses the capacity building process with an emphasis on the role of international environmental cooperation. The fourth section highlights Kitakyushu Initiative as an example of international cooperation for local capacity building. The fifth section discusses two successful case studies for UAQM. The sixth section briefly captures the challenges for UAQM in Asian cities. The seventh section puts a few policy recommendations. The eighth section concludes this paper. 1. Urbanization and urban environmental challenges Urban environmental challenges have become the top priority agenda for environmental governance. The environmental challenges, as a result of rapid urbanization, coupled with lower capacity to manage these problems are drastically damaging the local as wel...

China is home to one-fifth of the world's population and that population is increasingly urban. The landscape is also urbanizing. Although there are studies that focus on specific elements of urban growth, there is very little empirical work that incorporates feedbacks and linkages to assess the interactions between the dynamics of urban growth and their environmental impacts. In this study, we develop a system dynamics simulation model of the drivers and environmental impacts of urban growth, using Shenzhen, South China, as a case study. We identify three phases of urban growth and develop scenarios to evaluate the impact of urban growth on several environmental indicators: land use, air quality, and demand for water and energy. The results show that all developable land will be urban by 2020 and the increase in the number of vehicles will be a major source of air pollution. Demand for water and electricity will rise, and the city will become increasingly vulnerable to shortages of either. The scenarios also show that there will be improvements in local environmental quality as a result of increasing affluence and economic growth. However, the environmental impacts outside of Shenzhen may increase as demands for natural resources increase and Shenzhen pushes its manufacturing industries out of the municipality. The findings may also portend to changes other cities in China and elsewhere in the developing world may experience as they continue to industrialize.

Continual, historical, and precise information about the land use and land cover (LULC) changes of the Earth's surface is extremely important for any kind of sustainable development program, in which LULC serves as one of the major input criteria. In this study, a supervised classification was applied to five types of Landsat images collected over time (1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2015) that provided recent and historical LULC conditions for the area. Four LULC categories were identified and mapped. Post-classification comparisons of the classified images indicated that the major change consisted of barren land changing into agricultural land. This analysis revealed that substantial growth of built-up areas in the south eastern part of Kolkata over the study period resulted in significant decrease in the area of water bodies, cultivated land, vegetation and wetlands. Urban land transformation has been largely driven by large number of population and high population growth rate with rapid economic and infrastructural development like the extension of metro railway, flyovers and hence huge real estate development.

Background: Urban containment policies attempt to manage the location, character, and timing of growth to support a variety of goals such as compact development, preservation of greenspace, and efficient use of infrastructure. Despite prior research evaluating the effects of urban containment policies on land use, housing, and transportation outcomes, the public health implications of these policies remain unexplored. This ecologic study examines relationships among urban containment policies, state adoption of growthmanagement legislation, and population levels of leisure and transportation-related physical activity in 63 large metropolitan statistical areas from 1990 to 2002.

Prior research developed a cellular automaton model, that was calibrated by using historical digital maps of urban areas and can be used to predict the future extent of an urban area. The model has now been applied to two rapidly growing, but remarkably di erent urban areas: the San Francisco Bay region in California and the Washington/Baltimore corridor in the Eastern United States. This paper presents the calibration and prediction results for both regions, reviews their data requirements, compares the di erences in the initial con® gurations and control parameters for the model in the two settings, and discusses the role of GIS in the applications. The model has generated some long term predictions that appear useful for urban planning and are consistent with results from other models and observations of growth. Although the GIS was only loosely coupled with the model, the model's provision of future urban patterns as data layers for GIS description and analysis is an important outcome of this type of calculation.

Air pollution has become a growing problem in megacities and large urban areas through out the globe, and transportation is recognized as the major source of air pollution in many cities, especially in developing countries. Contribution of automobiles is reported in the range of 40 to 80% of the total air pollution. The challenge facing megacities is how to reduce the adverse environmental impacts and other negative effects of transportation without giving up the benefits of mobility. The dilemma becomes most pressing under conditions of rapid urban growth, which is likely to increase travel demand significantly. The paper is aimed at understanding the problem of vehicular pollution vis-a-vis ambient air quality for a highly traffic affected megacity, Delhi, wherein, the contribution of transport sector was estimated to be as high as 72%. An effort has been made to review and evaluate the benefits (in terms of improved air quality) of the technological interventions/policies adopted for vehicular pollution control in Delhi. It also highlights the outcome of the efforts and suggests further improvements thereon. The importance of public participation and awareness are also discussed. The paper focuses on deriving the benefits of the implementation of management strategies, supported by scientific and technical data/interpretation, so that the people can realize and participate in the government's endeavor for clean city drive in a more effective manner.

The process of development control involves a technique for the systematic compilation of expert quantitative analysis and qualitative assessment of project land use and property development viability, including its effect on the surrounding area, and the presentation of results in a way that enables the importance of the predicted results, and the scope of modifying or mitigating them to be properly evaluated by the relevant decision making body before a planning permission is rendered. Taking the local authorities in Malaysia as an example, this paper will discuss and demonstrate the development of GIS database and its integration and application for development and building control. The first part of the paper examines the functions of local authorities particularly in the context of development control. In this study, the procedure involved in granting a planning permission as well as enforcement becomes the main focus because it determines the bulk of the system design. The study identifies seven sub-systems namely planning permission, building control, planning enforcement, geospatial database, information kiosk, document processing and presentation sub-systems. The system is developed using a combination of office automation, CAD, GIS, multimedia and other software packages. This paper will focus on the development of the GIS for the purpose of development control. The components of the GIS database include land information, building, existing development, planning information, development plan, utilities, community facilities, transportation, environment and socio-economy database. The GIS database will be used at every stages of development control process for example in initial discussion, registration, invitation of objection, development control process, consideration by technical committee and consideration by planning committee. It is anticipated that the GIS database could be used by many parties involve in the process as reference point in evaluating a planning submission. Having access to the database will provide the flexibility in assessing a development and deciding on the overall urban growth management programme in the most costeffective manner. The system will also provide transparency and consistency in the development control procedure.

This paper develops a vintage model of residential housing for an open city, where the utility level of residents is given by an exogenous function of time. Producers behave myopically in that they believe the future. price per unit of housing services will equal the current price. Demolition occurs when the expected present value of profits from continuing to operate an existing structure equals the expected present value of profits from redevelopment. The model is analyxed under the assumption of Cobb-Douglas utility and production functions and constant rates of growth for income, commuting cost, the utility level, and the prices of non-land capital and agricultural land. Computer simulation provides a concrete example of a city which grows according to the model. Copyright0 19KIbyAcademicI%w,Inc. Au ligbt.5 of repmduction in my form -.

The monograph addresses the factors aecting the degree of sustainability exhibited by population growth in peripheral urban settlements. Development dierentials between core and peripheral regions in countries of dierent size and various level of economic development are discussed and speci®cally, the following issues are considered: 1, core versus periphery: inequalities and development needs; 2, development peculiarities of peripheral urban settlements; 3, criteria for sustainable urban growth; 4, factors in¯uencing urban growth in peripheral areas; and 5, planning strategies for regional development. Two major theoretical considerations are posited for discussion. First, that`sustainable population growth' of an urban settlement is de®ned according to the settlement's ability to attract newcomers and retain current residents (migration attractiveness). Second, that the preconditions which are essential for sustainable population growth in peripheral areas are not identical to those in the core. A set of analytical models designed to explain development peculiarities of peripheral settlements are suggested and several planning strategies are also proposed, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic sustainability of existing settlements in peripheral areas. These include: 1, the formation of compact development clusters; 2, the concentration of state and local ®nancial resources on selected development settlements; 3, the adoption of a system of progressive economic incentives to promote private investment in peripheral areas; and 4, stricter regulation of land use in core regions. #

Accommodating urban growth in the fast growing city of Istanbul encounters several problems. This paper discusses the development of greenfield sites in Istanbul by examining the institutional structure of the land development process of some recent large-scale housing projects using a framework of institutional analysis. The result reveals that the public (through both the central government and the local municipalities) has an important role in land development by acting as both regulator and investor. These roles have been empowered by the recent changes in the law. Success has been achieved in terms of the quality and quantity of housing built on greenfield sites in Istanbul over the last decade. However, the price of serviced urban plots in the legal land market remains high, and it remains difficult for the low-and mid-income groups to gain entry to the property market.

This paper presents an integrated study of urbanization trends in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province of China, by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The study explores the temporal and spatial characteristics of urban expansion from 1934 to 2001, and land use/cover change from 1987 to 2001. Temporally, urban expansion shows fast and slow growth stages, with the high-speed growth districts shifting to the east or west side of the city. The spatial patterns of urban growth can be categorized into three types: special objectives oriented type, social-political intervention type, and normal urban growth type. The remotely detected land use/cover change from 1987 to 2001 shows that the land use/cover was largely changed. The land use/cover conversion relationship implies that these changes are governed by urban expansion, which produces a force to drive the land use changes in search of a higher return. Lastly, the major factors influencing urban expansion and land use/cover change are also discussed. In general, the population, traffic conditions, industrialization, and policy are the major factors that influenced the urban expansion.

Studies of the city traditionally posit a division between a city's economy and its culture, with culture subordinate in explanatory power to work. However, post-industrial and globalizing trends are dramatically elevating the importance of culture. Cultural activities are increasingly crucial to urban economic vitality. Models to explain the growth of cities from the era of industrial manufacturing are outmoded. Citizens in the postindustrial city increasingly make quality of life demands, treating their own urban location as if tourists, emphasizing aesthetic concerns. These practices impact considerations about the proper nature of amenities that post-industrial cities can sustain.

The combined use of allocation modeling and geographical information system (GIS) technologies for providing quantitative assessments of aggregate supply and demand is evaluated using representative data for the Front Range Urban Corridor (FRUC) in Colorado. The FRUC extends from the Colorado-Wyoming border to south of Colorado Springs, and includes Denver and the major urban growth regions of Colorado. In this area, aggregate demand is high and is increasing in response to population growth. Neighborhood opposition to the establishment of new pits and quarries and the depletion of many deposits are limiting aggregate supplies. Many sources are already covered by urban development or eliminated from production by zoning. Transport of aggregate by rail from distant resources may be required in the future.

We determined the rate of urban growth, the types of land cover that were being converted, and the spatial pattern of the urban growth in the municipality of Luquillo in Puerto Rico. Rapid population and urban growth have occurred in the last 30 years, with a signi®cant increase in urban area in the 5 years from 1988 to 1993. The urban area increased by 31%, which represented a loss of vegetated cover in 5% of the study area. Over 80% of the lost vegetation was dense forest. There was no clear pattern to the urban growth: the number of identi®able polygons of urban land-use increased by one third in the 5-year study period, and only about half the new elements were contiguous with existing ones. In summary, the municipality is growing in an undisciplined manner, and the aesthetic amenities that appear to be driving the growth are threatened as a result. #

With rapid global urban growth, the proximity between urban and protected areas will increase. We identify four categories of nations, based on the proportion of people in urban areas, the amount of protected area, and the 1995 and estimated 2030 distance between cities and protected areas: urbanized nations (>60% urban) with a high population density (>40 people/km 2 ) and close proximity between urban and protected areas (e.g., Europe); urbanized nations with a relatively low population density and moderate proximity between urban and protected areas (e.g., United States); rural nations with a lots of parks (>5% of land area), where proximity will dramatically increase (e.g., China); and rural nations with limited protected area systems (e.g., West Africa). A literature review of 163 studies identified 22 important urban effects on protected areas. Effects range from global to local, with two-thirds of the effects essentially limited to within 50 km of an urban area. We also examined conservation projects of The Nature Conservancy to determine if threats reported by conservation practitioners varied with proximity to urban area. Although many types of threats occurred at all proximities, threat types overall correlated significantly with proximity to an urban area, including more frequent problems with habitat loss due to residential development and wastewater/sewage. Thus, with the median distance from a park to an urban area already less than 50 km in many regions, we conclude that thousands of protected areas are already impacted by urban areas and many more will be impacted in the future.

El presente trabajo de tesis titulado “El proceso de crecimiento urbano en la periferia Norte de Mazatlán: caso sector Libramiento”, plantea una caracterización de las fases de expansión y consolidación del crecimiento urbano acontecido en el sector Libramiento de la periferia Norte de Mazatlán; proceso que a su vez involucra la configuración de distintas tipologías de asentamientos regulares e irregulares, lo que implica una manifestación diversa en cuanto a condiciones sociales, arquitectónicas y urbanas.

In contrast to typical urban regions dominated by a core city located in the region’s centre and a suburban fringe, the Austrian Rhine Valley, selected as the study area, can be described as a peri-urban region with some medium-sized centres and various rural villages, all developing in different ways. Thus, a simulation approach has to be applied that allows for different settlement growth and densification velocities in order to reach model results which come close to real land-use transitions. The urban growth model presented here is based on a multi-agent system which simulates location decisions of households and company start-ups within a cellular landscape driven by regional and local attractiveness patterns. The model has been applied to generate control runs for the past decade and validated by comparing its results with observed land-use changes at municipality level and at raster cell level. Scenario runs for the future have been conducted assuming suspended zoning regulations leading to a different actors’ behaviour.

Low-cost housing provision has been a major focus of government in post-apartheid urban South Africa. While successes can be noted, there is growing concern regarding the social and environmental sustainability of housing programs and the impacts upon both the surrounding environment and human health. Utilizing key informant interviews, survey research, Census data and documentary review, this essay identifies the major impediments to a sustainable low-cost housing provision in urban South Africa. The essay also points to hopeful signs in new policy directions, particularly attention to health issues and informal settlement upgrade programs. However, the major obstacles to a sustainable low-cost housing process, including macroeconomic conditions, enduring historical legacies of race and class, the scale and rapidity of urban growth and institutional challenges show little indication of abating.

Public parks as representative of urban green areas have played an excellent role to against degradation of urban environment while keeping the rapid pace of urban growth. Development, maintenance and preservation of the quality of public park service, however, are tough issues faced by many city governments and communities. An approach to valuate public park services is necessary well established to identify users' benefit through travel cost method together with total expense. This approach highlights the dominant functions of public parks from users' point of view. A case study was done to investigate recreation behavior of park users in Saga city, Japan. Furthermore, the result showed a useful issue that plays a significant role in generating valuable economic information for local government policymakers to place suitable management plans in maintaining quality of public park service in association with the preference of community to achieve the goal of livable city.

Land acquisition is the primary means used by governments to meet increasing land demand driven by rapid economic and urban growth in China. Since development is prohibited on non-state-owned land, land acquisition in which landownership is converted from collective communes to the state shall take place prior to any land construction. This paper reviews institutional structure governing land acquisition in pre-and post-reform eras and examines consequences and impacts associated with or derived from land acquisition. It is concluded that land acquisition (1) has been used heavily by local governments to fuel urban development and finance infrastructure provision and (2) has resulted in increasing social tension and injustice that may impose a long-term threat to stability and sustainable development. r

Native populations of the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), a microendemic salamander from Central Mexico, have seen alarming decline in the last decades owing to habitat loss caused by urban growth. The last remnant of its distribution is in a highly heterogeneous urban-rural water system in the Xochimilco region, at the southern edge of Mexico City. We developed a model of the species local distribution based on its ecological niche, using occurrence data and ad hoc limnetic variables via the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP), to identify suitable areas for the species and prioritize conservation efforts. Results indicated that potential distribution of the axolotl in Xochimilco is limited to 11 sites in six reduced, isolated, and scattered areas, located mostly in zones where traditional agriculture (chinampas) is the primary land use. Recent surveys found only a single organism in the whole study region, in one of the predicted sites, suggesting a critical situation for the long-term survival of the axolotl in the wild, and demanding urgent actions toward habitat and population restoration. This study also illustrates the utility of niche modeling approaches for aquatic systems at a fine scale.

Urbanization is arguably the most dramatic form of irreversible land transformation. Though urbanization is a worldwide phenomenon, it is especially prevalent in India, where urban areas have experienced an unprecedented rate of growth over the last 30 years. In this uncontrolled situation, city planners lack tools to measure, monitor, and understand urban sprawl processes. Multitemporal remote sensing has become an important data-gathering tool for analysing these changes. By using time-series of Landsat data, we classify urban footprints since the 1970s. This lets us detect temporal and spatial urban sprawl, redensification and urban development in the tremendously growing 12 largest Indian urban agglomerations. A multi-scale analysis aims to identify spatiotemporal urban types. At city level, the combination of absolute parameters (e.g. areal growth or built-up density) and landscape metrics (e.g. SHAPE index) quantitatively characterise the spatial pattern of the cities. Spider charts can display the spatial urban types at three time stages, showing temporal development and helping the reader compare all cities based on normalized scales. In addition, gradient analysis provides insight into location-based spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization. Therefore, we analyse zones defining the urban core versus the urban edges. The study aims to detect similarities and differences in spatial growth in the large Indian urban agglomerations. These cities in the same cultural area range from 2.5 million inhabitants to 20 million (in the metropolitan region of Mumbai). The results paint a characteristic picture of spatial pattern, gradients and landscape metrics, and thus illustrate spatial growth and future modelling of urban development in India.

Alexandria is the second largest urban governorate in Egypt and has seen significant urban growth in its modern and contemporary history. This study investigates the urban growth phenomenon in Alexandria, Egypt using the integration of remote sensing and GIS. The study has revealed some significant findings that can help in understanding the current and future trends of urban growth in Alexandria. The urban physical expansion and change were detected using Landsat satellite images. The satellite images of years 1984 and 1993 were first georeferenced, achieving a very small RMSE that provided high accuracy data for satellite image analysis. Then, the images were classified using a tailored classification scheme with accuracy of 93.82% and 95.27% for 1984 and 1993 images respectively. This high accuracy enabled detecting land use/cover changes with high confidence using a post-classification comparison method. One of the most important findings here is the loss of cultivated land in favour of urban expansion. If the current loss rates continued, 75% of green lands would be lost by year 2191. These hazardous rates call for an urban growth management policy that can preserve such valuable resources to achieve sustainable urban development. The starting point of any management programme will be based on the modelling of the future growth. Modelling techniques can help in defining the scenarios of urban growth. In this study, the SLEUTH urban growth model was applied to predict future urban expansion in Alexandria until the year 2055. The application of this model in Alexandria of Egypt with its different environmental characteristics is the first application outside USA and Europe. The results revealed that future urban growth would continue in the edges of the current urban extent, which means the cultivated lands in the east and the southeast of the city will continue to lose more day by day from their area.

Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) is located on the western seacoast of India on the Arabian Sea. It was originally a cluster of seven islands, which were later joined to form the present city. Greater Mumbai Region consists of 7 islands in the city area and 4 islands
in the suburbs. It has been the constant effort of natural reclamation which produced spaces in Mumbai, which can be seen today. The city population has grown exponentially and the mid-year population estimates for 2008 suggest that the population has grown to 13.4 million with the density of 30,803 per sq. km. The research study area of M-Ward is an overcrowded eastern suburb of Mumbai city. The ever growing exponential population has put an immense pressure on the already shrinking resources in the city, especially the surface water resources. This research is focused on the shrinking of the surface water bodies and wetlands due to rapid unplanned settlements in this area, as it is close to the Thane Creek having large area of mangroves. It emphasis the importance of water
bodies, which help to maintain the water cycle and the balance with the natural environment, as well as their importance in providing fresh water for drinking purpose use, which is one of the major concern in the M-Ward area. Also, the greater frequency and severity of flooding, channel erosion, and destruction of aquatic habitat commonly following watershed urbanization. The research will be useful for the land use decision makers of the city to address the relationship between land use and natural resource protection.