The issues of urban sprawl are current in both global research as well as the sphere of activities by public authorities in developed and developing countries. Urban sprawl is a phenomenon that goes beyond the administrative boundaries of cities, which forces monitoring of the phenomenon on a wide territorial scale, i.e., regional and national. However, assessing the level of urban sprawl on such a scale still remains a research challenge in many countries. Poland is such an example, where there is a deficit in assessing the level of the phenomenon, its spatial specificity, as well as comparisons between other national urban areas. The presented research uses the urban morphology method to assess urban sprawl in Poland. The method assumes the use of square grids and building locations for the quantification of sprawl. Based on the 14 urban areas that aggregate 296 communes, it was pointed out that the level of urban sprawl in Poland is moderate. The results indicate that there is not a significant sprawl or compact structures.
Urban sprawl is a process shaping the space of contemporary urban areas. The costs generated by this phenomenon force central and local authorities to adopt and implement a spatial policy limiting those costs. However, there is no method in Polish spatial policy that determines the extent of this phenomenon around cities, and thus identifies the area of intervention. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to propose a method of delimitation of urban areas at risk of urban sprawl. The proposed method of delimitation honors the characteristics of urban sprawl relating to spatial structure, socio-economic processes and efficiency of spatial policy. The method can be useful for conducting spatial policy aimed at reducing costs due to urban sprawl. It particularly pertains to the policy implemented at the central and regional level. Research results indicate that, in most Polish urban areas, delimitations used thus far designate too little of the area around core cities. Although the goals of reducing the negative consequences of urban sprawl are formulated at the level of national spatial policy, the methods of delimitation used thus far do not take into account the specificity of this phenomenon. Underestimating the extent of urban sprawl results in a lack of effectiveness of spatial policy due to the omission of specific areas in public intervention. This particularity is related to the fact that these are usually external areas—the most distant from the core city. These areas have the highest costs for urban sprawl. At the same time, these are areas in the early stages of spatial growth, in which a consistent spatial structure can still be kept while implementing proper spatial policy.
There are important relationships between the urban sprawl process and economic growth. They are usually expressed through spatial relations and changes taking place in the local, regional and national economy. The temporal and spatial dimension, including dispersed location, are the determinants of development and economic growth. Therefore, the urban sprawl phenomenon and the related location, hypothetically conditioning economic growth, should be subject to macroeconomic research. The article examines how urban sprawl affects the national budget and national economic growth. Unlike many studies where urban sprawl is studied by scattering the population around cities, we undertake more complex examination using buildings’ location. Urban sprawl, as we understand it, is a spontaneous spread of buildings around cities. To assess the spontaneity, we use a grid of squares with a side of 500 m. The squares are used to calculate the morphological indicators of urban sprawl. Therefore, quantified urban sprawl is one side of the equation; on the other side are macroeconomic variables. In this way, we examine the relationship between urban sprawl and the national budget and economic growth of Poland. The conclusions obtained are, e.g., urban sprawl does not have a negative effect on the national economy and the budget. This is a different conclusion from those thus far. There are also different conclusions on the regional level. Based on the research results, we formulate recommendations for national economic policy and spatial policy.
Celem artykułu jest identyfikacja różnych przejawów urban sprawl oraz prezentacja sposobów pomiaru tego zjawiska. Metodą realizacji celu stał się przegląd literatury przedmiotu, zatem prezentowane opracowanie ma charakter teoretyczno-metodyczny. Wśród wiodących teoretycznych koncepcji pomiaru zjawiska dominują trzy podstawowe, które opierają się na wskaźnikach nawiązujących do różnych sposobów zabudowy terenu. Pierwsze podejście opiera się na takich wskaźnikach, jak: gęstość, rozproszenie, estetyczność, ekologia, dostępność. Drugie podejście korzysta z takich wskaźników, jak: stopa wzrostu, gęstość, geometria przestrzenna, dostępność, estetyczność. Trzecie podejście identyfikuje rodzaje sprawlu poprzez wskaźniki: gęstość, ciągłość, skupienie, grupowanie, centralizacja, nuklearność, zróżnicowanie użytkowania, bliskość. Ważną cechą trzeciego podejścia są doświadczenia w badaniach zagranicznych w implementacji tej metody. Ponadto jest to metoda prezentująca metodologię i charakterystykę wielu przejawów sprawlu, które mogą znaleźć zastosowanie w warunkach polskich.Słowa kluczowe: urban sprawl, pomiar urban sprawlu, rozproszenie zabudowy, decentralizacja przestrzenna.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.