scholarly journals Automatic Delineation of Urban Growth Boundaries Based on Topographic Data Using Germany as a Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 353
Author(s):  
Oliver Harig ◽  
Robert Hecht ◽  
Dirk Burghardt ◽  
Gotthard Meinel

Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) is a growth management policy that designates specific areas where growth should be concentrated in order to avoid urban sprawl. The objective of such a boundary is to protect agricultural land, open spaces and the natural environment, as well as to use existing infrastructure and public services more efficiently. Due to the inherent heterogeneity and complexity of settlements, UGBs in Germany are currently created manually by experts. Therefore, every dataset is linked to a specific area, investigation period and dedicated use. Clearly, up-to-date, homogeneous, meaningful and cost-efficient delineations created automatically are needed to avoid this reliance on manually or semi-automatically generated delineations. Here, we present an aggregative method to produce UGBs using building footprints and generally available topographic data as inputs. It was applied to study areas in Frankfurt/Main, the Hanover region and rural Brandenburg while taking full account of Germany’s planning and legal framework for spatial development. Our method is able to compensate for most of the weaknesses of available UGB data and to significantly raise the accuracy of UGBs in Germany. Therefore, it represents a valuable tool for generating basic data for future studies. Application elsewhere is also conceivable by regionalising the employed parameters.

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soyoung Park ◽  
Keith C. Clarke ◽  
Chuluong Choi ◽  
Jinsoo Kim

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of a policy aimed at the removal of a greenbelt on future urban growth. The SLEUTH model was applied to the Seoul Metropolitan Area, South Korea, to predict urban growth under three different greenbelt removal scenarios. The accuracy of the model was verified using historical data with ROC and Kappa statistics of 82.6 and 76.3%, indicating reasonable accuracy. In the scenarios, suburban development grew in proportion to the degree of reduction of the greenbelt. In two of the scenarios, suburban cities in the inner part of the greenbelt were integrated into the metropolitan area. In scenario 3, a complete removal of the greenbelt resulted in the highest rate of projected urban development. The Seoul Metropolitan Area is under continuous developmental pressure, and the sacrifice of a certain amount of protected land to satisfy this demand may be inevitable. Accordingly, effective urban growth management is necessary to promote ecofriendly and sustainable development in formerly protected areas and to strengthen protection in the areas that will remain protected. The model outputs will be used by the government and policy makers to devise a more flexible and sustainable urban growth management policy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Hui Chen ◽  
Chun-Lin Lee ◽  
Guan-Rui Chen ◽  
Chiung-Hsin Wang ◽  
Ya-Hui Chen

Taiwan’s Agricultural Development Act (ADA) of 2000 relaxed farmland ownership criteria and allowed non-farmers to own farms. Although this opened up the market and induced a growth in farmland trading, relaxing these criteria without proper monitoring resulted in rapid development of farmhouses that fragmented farmlands, adversely affecting agricultural production and the quality of peri-urban environments, and increased management difficulties. Relaxing farmland ownership criteria also provided opportunities for speculation, which pushed up farmland prices, causing farmland price to deviate from its production value. We used a price:value ratio as an index of price-value distortion to explore farmland price-value distortion spatially using a geographical information system (GIS). Yilan County was used as a case study since its agricultural lands suffer high development pressure due to ready accessibility from the Taipei metropolitan area. Ordinary least square and quantile regression were used to identify factors driving distortion in Yilan County. Finally, we discuss the distortion and key factors for specific sites in Yilan to assess the urban sprawl and propose a preliminary course of action for peri-urban growth management. Our findings suggest that residential activities stimulate farmland price-value distortion but do not enhance farmland value. Designation of a land parcel as agricultural within an urban area allows for speculation and increases distortion. The land parcel’s association with infrastructure such as road and irrigation systems, and the price of agricultural products, are significantly correlated with distortion. Most of these identified factors increased farmland price because of the potential for non-agricultural land-use. We propose that to resolve farmland price-value distortion in Yilan, multi-functional values, in addition to agriculture, must be envisioned.


Land Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p43
Author(s):  
J.O. Owoeye

This study examined the Akure urban growth dynamics and the impact on agricultural land use in the region between 1985 and 2014. It makes use of Aerial Imagery Interpolation (AII) of Landsat imagery of 1986, 2002, 2007 and 2014 to determine LULC change pattern, the extent and direction of the expansion. As at 1986, only 5.1% (6384 ha.) of land area was developed while over 90% were covered with thick (64.5%) and light (30.33%) vegetation which were lands used for agricultural purposes. By 2014, the built-up area had increased to 26.33% while the thick vegetation reduced drastically to 15.6%. Further investigation revealed that the growth dynamics and loss of agricultural land use in the region were products of increased population and continued urbanization process. There were incompatible conversions in LULC and unguided expansions leading to undue encroachment into green areas at the suburbs. With the aid of Markov chain model, the trend was predicted over a period of 20 years (2014-2034). Variability in this relationship suggests the need of concerted urban growth management efforts by different stakeholders in urban planning to check the shoddy expansion with a view to securing agricultural lands for sustainable food security in the region.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Clemens de Olde ◽  
Stijn Oosterlynck

Contemporary evaluations of urban growth management (UGM) strategies often take the shape of quantitative measurements of land values and housing prices. In this paper, we argue that it is of key importance that these evaluations also analyse the policy formulation and implementation phases of growth management strategies. It is in these phases that the institutions and discourses are (trans)formed in which UGM strategies are embedded. This will enable us to better understand the conditions for growth management policies’ success or failure. We illustrate this point empirically with the case of demarcating urban areas in the region of Flanders, Belgium. Using the Policy Arrangement Approach, the institutional dynamics and discursive meanings in this growth instrument’s formulation and implementation phase are unravelled. More specifically, we explain how the Flemish strategic spatial planning vision of restraining sprawl was transformed into one of accommodating growth in the demarcation of the Antwerp Metropolitan Area, epitomised by two different meanings of the phrase “safeguarding the future.” In conclusion, we argue that, in Antwerp, the demarcation never solidified into a stable policy arrangement, rendering it largely ineffective. We end by formulating three recommendations to contribute to future attempts at managing urban growth in Flanders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 212
Author(s):  
Rana N. Jawarneh

Urban expansion and loss of primarily agricultural land are two of the challenges facing Jordan. Located in the most productive agricultural area of Jordan, Greater Irbid Municipality (GIM) uncontrolled urban growth has posed a grand challenge in both sustaining its prime croplands and developing comprehensive planning strategies. This study investigated the loss of agricultural land for urban growth in GIM from 1972–2050 and denoted the negative consequences of the amalgamation process of 2001 on farmland loss. The aim is to unfold and track historical land use/cover changes and forecast these changes to the future using a modified SLEUTH-3r urban growth model. The accuracy of prediction results was assessed in three different sites between 2015 and 2020. In 43 years the built-up area increased from 29.2 km2 in 1972 to 71 km2 in 2015. By 2050, the built-up urban area would increase to 107 km2. The overall rate of increase, however, showed a decline across the study period, with the periods of 1990–2000 and 2000–2015 having the highest rate of built-up areas expansion at 68.6 and 41.4%, respectively. While the agricultural area increased from 178 km2 in 1972 to 207 km2 in 2000, it decreased to 195 km2 in 2015 and would continue to decrease to 188 km2 by 2050. The district-level analysis shows that from 2000–2015, the majority of districts exhibited an urban increase at twice the rate of 1990–2000. The results of the net change analysis of agriculture show that between 1990 and 2000, 9 districts exhibited a positive gain in agricultural land while the rest of the districts showed a negative loss of agricultural land. From 2000 to 2015, the four districts of Naser, Nozha, Rawdah, and Hashmyah completely lost their agricultural areas for urbanization. By 2050, Idoon and Boshra districts will likely lose more than half of their high-quality agricultural land. This study seeks to utilize a spatially explicit urban growth model to support sustainable planning policies for urban land use through forecasting. The implications from this study confirm the worldwide urbanization impacts on losing the most productive agricultural land in the outskirts and consequences on food production and food security. The study calls for urgent actions to adopt a compact growth policy with no new land added for development as what is available now exceeds what is needed by 2050 to accommodate urban growth in GIM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-119
Author(s):  
Rosie Syme

An effective waste management system is, and has always been, essential infrastructure, particularly given the potential for waste to adversely impact the surrounding environment. In recent decades, however, there has been growing awareness of the scale, breadth and immediacy of those adverse impacts, and of the unsustainability of the enormous (and increasing) amount of waste society generates. Governments around the world have mobilised and there has been a widespread shift towards policies promoting circular economies, waste minimisation and maximised resource efficiency. Singapore is a case in point; despite having a traditionally high waste output and a waste management system dependent on waste incineration as the primary means of disposal, Singapore has committed to a zero waste future. This article presents a review of domestic waste management policy and law in Singapore. Several gaps in the legal framework are identified and considered against the broader context, leading to the conclusion that there is a material environmental vulnerability in the legal framework that should be redressed in order to entrench environmental protections and to align the law with Singapore's policy ambitions. Notwithstanding this deficiency, it is hard not to be optimistic about the future of domestic waste management in Singapore, as the government has made an ambitious policy commitment and appears to be pursuing it with vigour.


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