Understanding metropolitan growth in German polycentric urban regions

Volgmann, Kati; Münter, Angelika

doi:10.1080/00343404.2020.1807491

Cited by 27 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…This dynamic is visible in marginal areas, while being occasionally observed at the fringe, for example in contexts where physical (e.g., steepness and accessibility) and/or regulatory (planning/zoning) constraints to building are more pronounced [71][72][73]. Simultaneously, our analysis establishes how agricultural landscapes do not experience homogeneous dynamics [74][75][76]. In the face of the originally dominant arable lands that systematically acted as a 'prey' between 1949-2016, other land-uses have consolidated their spatial distribution with a significant increase in per-capita surface area.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy

Bianchini

Egidi

Alhuseen

et al. 2021

Land

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The spatial mismatch between population growth and settlement expansion is at the base of current models of urban growth. Empirical evidence is increasingly required to inform planning measures promoting urban containment in the context of a stable (or declining) population. In these regards, per-capita indicators of land-use change can be adopted with the aim at evaluating long-term sustainability of urbanization processes. The present study assesses spatial variations in per-capita indicators of land-use change in Rome, Central Italy, at five years (1949, 1974, 1999, 2008, and 2016) with the final objective of quantifying the mismatch between urban expansion and population growth. Originally specialized in agricultural productions, Rome’s metropolitan area is a paradigmatic example of dispersed urban expansion in the Mediterranean basin. By considering multiple land-use dynamics, per-capita indicators of landscape change delineated three distinctive waves of growth corresponding with urbanization, suburbanization, and a more mixed stage with counter-urbanization and re-urbanization impulses. By reflecting different socioeconomic contexts on a local scale, urban fabric and forests were identified as the ‘winner’ classes, expanding homogeneously over time at the expense of cropland. Agricultural landscapes experienced a more heterogeneous trend with arable land and pastures declining systematically and more fragmented land classes (e.g., vineyards and olive groves) displaying stable (or slightly increasing) trends. The continuous reduction of per-capita surface area of cropland that’s supports a reduced production base, which is now insufficient to satisfy the rising demand for fresh food at the metropolitan scale, indicates the unsustainability of the current development in Rome and more generally in the whole Mediterranean basin, a region specialized traditionally in (proximity) agricultural productions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 55%

Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy

Bianchini

Egidi

Alhuseen

et al. 2021

Land

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“…2016). It is undisputed in the literature that both a process of concentration (in favour of large agglomeration areas) and, in parallel, a process of deconcentration into the region (within the agglomeration areas) can be observed (Cardoso & Meijers 2021; Volgmann & Münter 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metropolisation through Regionalisation? Spatial Scope and Anchor Points of Metropolitan Functions in German Urban Regions

Growe

Volgmann

2022

Tijd voor Econ & Soc Geog

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Based on topics of research examining how metropolisation processes affect the areas surrounding metropolitan centres and change the locations of metropolitan functions in urban regions, this article examines: (i) how pronounced the process of the regionalisation of metropolitan functions is; (ii) in which sub‐areas of a surrounding region the regionalisation of metropolitan functions can be observed and (iii) which places are anchor points of metropolitan regionalisation. The regionalisation processes are studied using a municipal‐level dataset of metropolitan functions from German urban regions. The findings indicate that centrifugal forces distribute metropolitan functions across the surrounding region around one or more metropolitan core cities, and that this is, for the most part, linked to medium‐sized cities and to the complementary areas of metropolitan centres.

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“…In areas, such as those of southern Europe, characterized by generally small-fragmented cities [69][70][71][72], polycentric patterns have infrequently been observed with the exception of a few limited cases. In comparison with northern and western European regions [14,16,[73][74][75], typified by polycentric modes of urban development, Mediterranean cities have experienced a partial failure of this model due to their specific socio-economic features [18,76,77]. Recently, in fact, significant changes in morphology and socio-economic structures have been found in many Mediterranean cities as a result of incoming sprawling phenomena [78][79][80] following a more dispersed (and not polycentric) pattern [42,81,82].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Happens in the City When Long-Term Urban Expansion and (Un)Sustainable Fringe Development Occur: The Case Study of Rome

Nickayin

Salvati

Coluzzi

et al. 2021

IJGI

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This study investigates long-term landscape transformations (1949-2016) in urban Rome, Central Italy, through a spatial distribution of seven metrics (core, islet, perforation, edge, loop, bridge, branch) derived from a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) analyzed separately for seven land-use classes (built-up areas, arable land, crop mosaic, vineyards, olive groves, forests, pastures). A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been finally adopted to characterize landscape structure at 1949 and 2016. Results of the MSPA demonstrate how both natural and agricultural land-uses have decreased following urban expansion. Moreover, the percent 'core' area of each class declined substantially, although with different intensity. These results clearly indicate ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ after long-term landscape transformations: urban settlements and forests belong to the former category, the remaining land-use classes (mostly agricultural) belong to the latter category. Descriptive statistics and multivariate exploratory techniques finally documented the intrinsic complexity characteristic of actual landscapes. The findings of this study also demonstrate how settlements have expanded chaotically over the study area, reflecting a progressive 'fractalization' and inhomogeneity of fringe landscapes, with negative implications for metropolitan sustainability at large. These transformations were unable to leverage processes of settlement and economic re-agglomeration around sub-centers typical of polycentric development in the most advanced socioeconomic contexts.

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Understanding metropolitan growth in German polycentric urban regions

Cited by 27 publications

References 51 publications

Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy

Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy

Metropolisation through Regionalisation? Spatial Scope and Anchor Points of Metropolitan Functions in German Urban Regions

What Happens in the City When Long-Term Urban Expansion and (Un)Sustainable Fringe Development Occur: The Case Study of Rome

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