This talk is part of the seminar series organised by the Department of Geography, Planning & Environment.
There is growing concern about the uncontrolled spread of residential, commercial and industrial areas, which is commonly called urban sprawl. In order to develop strategies to monitor and control urban sprawl, it is essential to know its drivers and its current state. Europe is a densely build-up continent and its diversity provides the ideal region to study urban sprawl and its potential drivers.
In this study, we quantified urban sprawl in 39 European countries (excl. city states) at regional level using the classification of Nomenclature of Territorial Statistics (NUTS-2). We analyzed the role and importance of demographic, socioeconomic, and environmental drivers at the same level using Ridge Regression.
We show that population density, road and railway density, and governmental effectiveness are the most important drivers of urban sprawl in Europe at the NUTS-2 level. Household size and the number of cars owned per person are less important, but play also a significant role in driving urban sprawl. These results suggest a focus on the demographic development and the development of the infrastructure in the first place in order to control urban sprawl. Additionally, political actions should take measures against urban sprawl into account when considering ways to increase prosperity. Finally, the life style should be directed towards a more sustainable development of settlement areas by making single-family dwellings less attractive and public transport services more attractive.