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Developing an Index to Measure Sub-municipal Level Urban Sprawl

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Abstract

The present study aims to develop an index composed of different spatial variables to measure the urban sprawl levels of a municipality located in Southern Spain. According to the findings, urban sprawl can be measured not only on the metropolitan level but also on a more detailed and precise level, such as sub-municipal. A group of experts chosen for their suitability in measuring urban sprawl select six spatial variables (population density, net residential density, coverage ratio, land use types, percentage of residential land use, and average year of construction). These variables are aggregated using Choquet integral, a technique that combines interactions between those variables providing greater coherence to the complexity that is inherent in the creation of composite sprawl indexes. This methodology has been demonstrated to be valid and appropriate in evaluating urban expansion at sub-municipal level, but can also be applied to other scales once it is clearly a phenomenon in which interaction between criteria exists. The resulting composite index allows the assignment of different levels of sprawl to the urban areas consistent with their morphology and landscape.

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Source Prepared by authors from a Google Maps image (2016)

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Notes

  1. Takahagi (2000)—and at http://www.isc.senshu-u.ac.jp/~thc0456/Efuzzyweb/fm11.html—has been used to calculate fuzzy measures for coalitions, final values of Choquet integral, and sensitivity analysis to assign λ.

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Acknowledgements

The results of this article are part of the R&D Project entitled “Evaluation of the Impact of Urban Sprawl on the Lifestyles, Commuting and Health of the Adult Population in Spanish Metropolitan Areas (URDIS)” (CSO2014-59524-P) (Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness (Spain)/ERDF/EU), involving the Universities of Seville and the Basque Country.

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Correspondence to David Gálvez Ruiz.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Fuzzy Measures of Coalitions

See Table 6.

Table 6 Fuzzy measures of coalitions

Appendix 2: Association Between Sprawl Level an Green Zones

In order to provide an example of how the sprawl index could be used to provide some relationship between sprawl and some environmental or urbanistic variable, the number of green zones as variable with sub-municipal level data available has been selected. These green zones are those with public access, with vegetation, and for which the main purpose is leisure and recreation. The numbers of green zones have been identified using the 1:2500 Aerial Photograph of Andalucía as presented in Table 7.

Table 7 Composite sprawl index in each of the ten areas

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Gálvez Ruiz, D., Diaz Cuevas, P., Braçe, O. et al. Developing an Index to Measure Sub-municipal Level Urban Sprawl. Soc Indic Res 140, 929–952 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1801-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1801-3

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