Urban Sprawl in Europe

Urban sprawl is one of the most important types of land-use changes currently affecting Europe. It increasingly creates major impacts on the environment (via surface sealing, emissions by transport and ecosystem fragmentation); on the social structure of an area (by segregation, lifestyle changes and neglecting urban centres); and on the economy (via distributed production, land prices, and issues of scale). <br /> <p><i><b>Urban Sprawl in Europe: landscapes, land-use change & policy</b></i> explains the nature and dynamics of urban sprawl. The book is written in three parts. Part I considers contemporary definitions, theories and trends in European urban sprawl. In part II authors draw upon experiences from across Europe to consider urban sprawl from a number of perspectives:</p> <ul> <li>Infrastructure-related sprawl, such as can be seen around Athens;</li> <li>Sprawl in the post-socialist city, as typified by Warsaw, Leipzig and Ljubljana;</li> <li>Decline and sprawl, where a comparative analysis of Liverpool and Leipzig shows that sprawl is not confined to expanding cities;</li> <li>Sprawl based on the development of second homes as found in Sweden, Austria and elsewhere.</li> </ul> <p>In part III a formal qualitative model of sprawl is developed. Policies for the control of urban sprawl and the roles of different stakeholders are considered. Finally, a concluding chapter raises questions about the nature and dynamics of these new urban landscapes and their sustainability.</p>