Chapter 5
Urbanisation and Land Use Change
Henning Nuissl and Stefan Siedentop
Abstract Urbanisation is one of the major driving forces behind the formation
of today’s land use systems. It almost always involves the conversion of land use
from non-urban to urban uses. A great deal of contemporary urbanisation has been
characterised as urban sprawl, i.e. a highly extensive form of land take for urban
uses having environmentally detrimental effects. However, urban land use change
can occur in relatively diverse forms in terms of layout, building density and speed
of change, to name but a few aspects. In recent decades, researchers have made
substantial progress in empirically addressing the various forms of urban land use and
its change over time. As a consequence, the global dimension of urbanisation-related
land use change is now on the agenda of policymakers and researchers worldwide. In
order to provide an overview of the many geographical, environmental, sociological
and political aspects that are relevant with respect to urban land use change, this
contribution strives to make (1) some conceptual clarification regarding the notions
associated with urban land use change, before (2) highlighting its (economic, social
and political) drivers, as well as its (3) impacts. The text then moves on to (4) briefly
systematising the instruments and strategies that have been put in place to cope with
urban land use change. Finally, (5), we reflect on the current state of the art regarding
research and policies on urban land use change.
Keywords Urban land use change · Measurement of urban sprawl · Drivers and
impacts · Planning policy
H. Nuissl (B)
Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin,
Germany
e-mail: henning.nuissl@geo.hu-berlin.de
S. Siedentop
Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, ILS, Brüderweg 22 – 24, 44135
Dortmund, Germany
e-mail: stefan.siedentop@ils-forschung.de
© The Author(s) 2021
T. Weith et al. (eds.), Sustainable Land Management in a European Context,
Human-Environment Interactions 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50841-8_5
75
Urbanisation and Land Use Change
Henning Nuissl and Stefan Siedentop
Abstract Urbanisation is one of the major driving forces behind the formation
of today’s land use systems. It almost always involves the conversion of land use
from non-urban to urban uses. A great deal of contemporary urbanisation has been
characterised as urban sprawl, i.e. a highly extensive form of land take for urban
uses having environmentally detrimental effects. However, urban land use change
can occur in relatively diverse forms in terms of layout, building density and speed
of change, to name but a few aspects. In recent decades, researchers have made
substantial progress in empirically addressing the various forms of urban land use and
its change over time. As a consequence, the global dimension of urbanisation-related
land use change is now on the agenda of policymakers and researchers worldwide. In
order to provide an overview of the many geographical, environmental, sociological
and political aspects that are relevant with respect to urban land use change, this
contribution strives to make (1) some conceptual clarification regarding the notions
associated with urban land use change, before (2) highlighting its (economic, social
and political) drivers, as well as its (3) impacts. The text then moves on to (4) briefly
systematising the instruments and strategies that have been put in place to cope with
urban land use change. Finally, (5), we reflect on the current state of the art regarding
research and policies on urban land use change.
Keywords Urban land use change · Measurement of urban sprawl · Drivers and
impacts · Planning policy
H. Nuissl (B)
Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin,
Germany
e-mail: henning.nuissl@geo.hu-berlin.de
S. Siedentop
Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, ILS, Brüderweg 22 – 24, 44135
Dortmund, Germany
e-mail: stefan.siedentop@ils-forschung.de
© The Author(s) 2021
T. Weith et al. (eds.), Sustainable Land Management in a European Context,
Human-Environment Interactions 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50841-8_5
75