76
H. Nuissl and S. Siedentop
5.1 What is Urban Land Use Change and Why It is
a Relevant Issue?
Apart from cultivation, the use of land for residential and related purposes has been
part of the encroachment of human civilisation upon natural ecosystems since the
beginning. However, the amount of land covered by settlements was largely negligible
until the advent of industrialisation and the processes of massive urbanisation it
brought along. Urbanisation—understood as an increase in the urban (as compared
to rural) population and an “urban’ workforce—i.e. manufacturing as compared to
agricultural workforce—has almost always involved the conversion of land use from
non-urban to urban uses, because it requires an increased need for space in (existing)
settlement areas. The visible outcome of land use change in the wake of urbanisation
is the spatial expansion of built-up areas (which implies a significant alteration of
land cover features), accompanied by changes in the urban spatial structure and the
urban form.
The rapid conversion of open, mostly agricultural land into settlement areas has
been accompanied by pronounced criticism since the heyday of industrialisation in
the nineteenth century. Even at that time, the rapid growth of industrial urban centres
raised great suspicion and was blamed not only for the accumulation of human
disorder, vice and despair (i.e. the “traditional” anti-urban concerns), but also for
the destruction of the traditional (pastoral) landscape due to its greed for land. In
a 1937 speech to US urban planners, Earl Draper, the Director of the Tennessee
Valley Authority, became the first to use the term “sprawl” to indicate a specific
pattern of urban growth that makes the countryside—from his point of view—“ugly,
uneconomic [in terms] of services and doubtful social value” (cited in Wassmer
2002). Since then and up to today, the scientific and political discussion about the
negative impacts and drawbacks of urban land use change in both developed and
developing countries has largely been linked to the notion of urban sprawl (e.g.
Whyte 1958; Clawson 1962; Harvey 1965; Benfield et al. 1999; Burchell et al. 1998;
Burchell et al. 2002; Peiser 2001; Gillham 2002; Squires 2002; Nechyba and Walsh
2004).
More recently, and linked to a growing concern for ecological issues and the
finiteness of natural resources (Meadows et al. 1972), urban land use change has
often been labelled “land consumption” (Frenkel 2004; Köck et al. 2007; Nuissl
et al. 2009), which is a somewhat imprecise notion because the (amount of) land
does not diminish on account of altering its use. However, concepts such as urban
sprawl, land consumption and land take clearly indicate the association of urban land
use change with negative side effects.
For the period from 1990 to 2000, Angel et al. (2005: 56) estimated that the
annual increase in built-up areas in developing countries was around 3.6%, whereas it
amounted to only 2.9% on average in industrialised countries. Among world regions,
East Asia, including the Pacific, and Southeast Asia witnessed the most intensive land
consumption, with growth rates of 7.2% and 6.4%, respectively. In Europe, the annual
growth of urban land is expected to range between a maximum of 2% in rapidly
H. Nuissl and S. Siedentop
5.1 What is Urban Land Use Change and Why It is
a Relevant Issue?
Apart from cultivation, the use of land for residential and related purposes has been
part of the encroachment of human civilisation upon natural ecosystems since the
beginning. However, the amount of land covered by settlements was largely negligible
until the advent of industrialisation and the processes of massive urbanisation it
brought along. Urbanisation—understood as an increase in the urban (as compared
to rural) population and an “urban’ workforce—i.e. manufacturing as compared to
agricultural workforce—has almost always involved the conversion of land use from
non-urban to urban uses, because it requires an increased need for space in (existing)
settlement areas. The visible outcome of land use change in the wake of urbanisation
is the spatial expansion of built-up areas (which implies a significant alteration of
land cover features), accompanied by changes in the urban spatial structure and the
urban form.
The rapid conversion of open, mostly agricultural land into settlement areas has
been accompanied by pronounced criticism since the heyday of industrialisation in
the nineteenth century. Even at that time, the rapid growth of industrial urban centres
raised great suspicion and was blamed not only for the accumulation of human
disorder, vice and despair (i.e. the “traditional” anti-urban concerns), but also for
the destruction of the traditional (pastoral) landscape due to its greed for land. In
a 1937 speech to US urban planners, Earl Draper, the Director of the Tennessee
Valley Authority, became the first to use the term “sprawl” to indicate a specific
pattern of urban growth that makes the countryside—from his point of view—“ugly,
uneconomic [in terms] of services and doubtful social value” (cited in Wassmer
2002). Since then and up to today, the scientific and political discussion about the
negative impacts and drawbacks of urban land use change in both developed and
developing countries has largely been linked to the notion of urban sprawl (e.g.
Whyte 1958; Clawson 1962; Harvey 1965; Benfield et al. 1999; Burchell et al. 1998;
Burchell et al. 2002; Peiser 2001; Gillham 2002; Squires 2002; Nechyba and Walsh
2004).
More recently, and linked to a growing concern for ecological issues and the
finiteness of natural resources (Meadows et al. 1972), urban land use change has
often been labelled “land consumption” (Frenkel 2004; Köck et al. 2007; Nuissl
et al. 2009), which is a somewhat imprecise notion because the (amount of) land
does not diminish on account of altering its use. However, concepts such as urban
sprawl, land consumption and land take clearly indicate the association of urban land
use change with negative side effects.
For the period from 1990 to 2000, Angel et al. (2005: 56) estimated that the
annual increase in built-up areas in developing countries was around 3.6%, whereas it
amounted to only 2.9% on average in industrialised countries. Among world regions,
East Asia, including the Pacific, and Southeast Asia witnessed the most intensive land
consumption, with growth rates of 7.2% and 6.4%, respectively. In Europe, the annual
growth of urban land is expected to range between a maximum of 2% in rapidly