Measuring sprawl in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: An urban sprawl index for comparative purposes

Abstract

This research proposes an urban sprawl index as a tool to comparatively analyse the extent of urban sprawl between cities and towns of different sizes, making use of cadastre, land use and population data over time. The Urban Sprawl Index (USI) for the Western Cape put forward by this research will enable the comparative measurement of the extent of urban sprawl proportionately between the Metropolitan and local municipalities in the province and thereby aid in understanding trends in formal and informal development processes, as well as the spatial planning instruments applied to guide development.

Urban Sprawl and Land Cover in Post-apartheid Johannesburg and the Gauteng City-Region, 1990–2018

“…The city of Johannesburg has undergone several transformations, having been repurposed from a mining boom town to a colonial and apartheid city and later to a democratic space. South African legislation and spatial policies have been formulated to limit urban sprawl in South African cities (Horn & Van Eeden, 2017. The Gauteng Spatial Development Framework (GSDF) published in February 2011 by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG, 2011) mentioned the following:…”

“…Urban sprawl continues to manifest itself through market-driven housing, housing provision subsidized by government and the proliferation of informal settlements (Marais et al, 2020). To analyse, measure and compare the extent of urban sprawl among municipalities in the Western Cape over time, Horn and Van Eeden (2017) proposed an urban sprawl index that computes the difference between the rate of formal residential land use expansion and the population growth rate. They noted negative (or zero) values of the constructed index in all municipalities, suggesting a discrepancy between limited formal housing provisions and a steady population increase.…”

“…The city of Johannesburg has undergone several transformations, having been repurposed from a mining boom town to a colonial and apartheid city and later to a democratic space. South African legislation and spatial policies have been formulated to limit urban sprawl in South African cities (Horn & Van Eeden, 2017, 2018). The Gauteng Spatial Development Framework (GSDF) published in February 2011 by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG, 2011) mentioned the following: The municipalities in the province all have plans, strategies and frameworks in place that seek to ensure: (1) integration to redress the apartheid fragmented socio-spatial structure and space economy; (2) improving access for the poor to the benefits of urban life and urban living; (3) land-use public transport integration through nodal and corridor development; (4) growth management that seeks to advance compaction, residential densification, in-fill development and the restriction of sprawl; and (5) the development of green/open space systems.…”

Determinants of urban sprawl in Latin America: evidence from Santiago de Chile

“…Instead, it must be seen as 'a continuous process of urban transformation which functions more like a verb than a noun' (Silva 2019a, b, p. 58), and can illustrate different dynamics, even within the same city-region. As such, urban sprawl can also be observed in small towns and villages-making it a non-exclusive condition of megacities (Horn and van Eeden 2018)-which raises further reflections around its intrinsic negative connotation.…”

The Effects of Urban Sprawl and Industrial Agglomeration on Environmental Efficiency: Evidence from the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration

“…The larger the value is, the higher the degree of the urban sprawl will be. The industrial agglomeration index is measured by the location entropy index according to the studies [45][46][47].…”