Analysis of Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and its Driving Factors: A Case of Small and Medium Town in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Measuring the level of urban sprawl is a challenging task that lacks a clear universal method. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate whether results differ with the methods utilized, to compute the level of urban sprawl. Consequently, this paper will also contribute to overcome the two limitations of emerging researches. Frist, Recent studies have utilized various methods to measure urban sprawl. However, the results of these studies were not compared and contrasted. Second, empirical studies have given less attention to identify the relationship between the level of urban sprawl and its driving factors such as urban form, urban landscape, population density, built-up density, accessibility, etc. Hence, this study supposes to quantify urban sprawl and identify the key factors influence on the level of urban sprawl. The study was conducted using the Expansion Intensity Index, Shannon’s Entropy value and Landscape Metrics. Ten small and medium towns were selected in the Sri Lankan context. The study able to demonstrate the influence of type of urban form, type of street pattern and changes in the accessibility of center compare to periphery area on the level of urban sprawl.