Sprawl, Blight and the Role of Urban Containment Policies: Evidence from US Cities

Hortas-Rico, Miriam

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2341686

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…We observed the correlation of urban blight on sprawl. This finding lends credence to theoretical discussion of sprawl as a driver of urban decay and regional inequality, characterized by blight (Calthorpe & Fulton 2001;Brueckner & Helsley 2011;Hortas-Rico 2015;Mock 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Calthorpe and Fulton (2001) argue that sprawl is systemically correlated with income inequality, also called the "twin problems" of the regional city. For further theoretical and method-ological review and discussion of the connection of sprawl and blight, see Babcock (2008), Brueckner and Helsley (2011), and Hortas-Rico (2015. However, inadequate empirical attention is given to urban blight particularly when using entropy as a measure of sprawl.…”

Section: Correlation Of Sprawl and Blightmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mapping the morphology of sprawl and blight: A note on entropy

2021

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The urban expansion from the city center to the suburb and beyond is indicated by Shannon entropy, a robust and versatile measure of sprawl. However, the metropolitan regionwide entropy masks the morphology of land cover and land use consequential to urban expansion within the city-region. To surmount the limitation, we focus on the block-group, which is a US census defined socio-spatial unit that identifies the metropolitan region’s development pattern structurally, forming tracts that comprise neighborhoods. The concentration and dispersion of land use and land cover by block-group reveals a North American metropolitan region’s commonly known but rarely measured spatial structure of its urban and suburban sprawl. We use parcel data from county assessor of property (GIS) and land cover pixel data from the National Land Cover Data (NLCD) to compute block-group land-use and land-cover entropy. The change in block group entropy over a decade indicates whether the city- region’s land use and land cover transition to a concentrated or dispersed pattern. Furthermore, we test a hypothesis that blight correlates with sprawl. Blight and sprawl are among the key factors that plague the metropolitan region. We determine the correlations with household income as well as (block group) distance from the city center. It turns out, blight is among the universally held distance-decay phenomena. The share of the block group’s blighted properties decays (nonlinearly) with distance from the city center. Highlights for public administration, management and planning: • The metropolitan region’s outward growth is highlighted by mapping the changing morphology of the block group within the city-region. • The block group entropy is computed with land use (parcel) and land cover (pixel) data. • The block group entropy change indicates the pattern of the land use and land cover transition with concentration or dispersion. • We test the hypothesis that blight correlates with sprawl with statistical models. • The block group’s blighted properties decrease (nonlinearly) with distance from the city center.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Correlation Of Sprawl and Blightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the morphology of sprawl and blight: A note on entropy

2021

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“…Another important interpretation is the possible existence of a specific policy in place at country or regional level to revitalize city centres, where people and economic activities are incentivized to locate. These policies are present in several countries, such as the US (Hortas‐Rico ) or the UK with its ‘Town Centres First’ initiative (Cheshire et al ). In many OECD countries, the effects of these anti‐sprawl policies are not entirely clear, since they often coexist with property tax systems that favour single‐family homes over multi‐occupancy dwellings, thus generating further suburbanization (OECD ).…”

Section: Core‐periphery Relationships In Oecd Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban spatial structure in OECD cities: Is urban population decentralising or clustering?

Veneri

2018

Papers in Regional Science

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This paper presents an analysis of urban spatial structure and its trends in the OECD between 2001 and 2011, by using a standardized definition of functional urban areas (FUAs) in 29 OECD countries. The prevalent trend is an increasing decentralization of the population, with growth taking place outside existing cores, but close to them. Overall, results are consistent with a pattern of contiguous growth. The population has grown more in relatively low‐density locations close to the main centres. Closeness to sub‐centres also proves to be a strong advantage for growth and suggests the emergence of new centralities shaping urban spatial structures.

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“…Alternative strategies promoted include transit-oriented development (Jones & Ley, 2016), containment policies (Hortas-Rico, 2015), and polycentric urban areas (Broitman & Czamanski, 2015) which focus on various modes of transportation to support development along or near the existing public transportation axis. Both theory and planning practice suggest that accessibility to various services is an important aspect in sustainable development which could be achieved by provision of high quality and efficient transport systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scenario Analysis of Alternative Land Development Patterns for the Leipzig-Halle Region: Implications for Transport-Land-Use Sustainability

Ustaoglu

Williams

Petrov

2017

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The objective of this paper is to present alternative land development scenarios for the sustainability impact assessment of transport-land-use relationship in the Leipzig-Halle Region. Using the MOLAND Model that was applied to a declining urban region for the first time, two different land-use scenarios were developed representing a baseline dispersed development and an alternative compact development case. The assessment of land-use-transport relationships is carried out incorporating the use of social, economic and environmental indicators. The impacts and indicators were specified and evaluated subject to a quantitative and qualitative assessment. The findings imply that a compact development scenario is preferable over dispersed development scenario in terms of potential quantitative data on the benefits to the environment and society. In contrast, dispersed development in the baseline case indicates the costs of such development exceed the benefits. The results of this type of scenario analysis provide an objective evidence basis in policy evaluation and decisions regarding future urban developments. This research was developed from several scenarios created with the key stakeholders of the Leipzig-Halle Region from research originally conducted as part of the PLUREL Project in 2012 and updated in 2016. It aims at contributing to literature by providing a sustainability assessment framework for rapid rail infrastructure provision that incorporates socio-economic and environmental impact assessment of alternative future urban form scenarios into the analysis. In addition, due to MOLAND features, it provides the opportunity for the sustainability impact assessment of different forms of urban development linked with transport infrastructure provision in the Region and compare the findings with other case study areas in Europe and internationally.

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Sprawl, Blight and the Role of Urban Containment Policies: Evidence from US Cities

Cited by 3 publications

References 68 publications

Mapping the morphology of sprawl and blight: A note on entropy

Mapping the morphology of sprawl and blight: A note on entropy

Urban spatial structure in OECD cities: Is urban population decentralising or clustering?

Scenario Analysis of Alternative Land Development Patterns for the Leipzig-Halle Region: Implications for Transport-Land-Use Sustainability

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