TITLE:
Understanding the Urban Sprawl in the Mid-Size Latin American Cities through the Urban Form: Analysis of the Concepción Metropolitan Area (Chile)
AUTHORS:
Carolina Rojas, Iván Muñiz, Joan Pino
KEYWORDS:
Urban Sprawl; Latin American Cities; Metropolitan Areas; Geographical Information System
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geographic Information System,
Vol.5 No.3,
June
17,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Latin American
cities, like those from North America and Europe,
experience problems of urban sprawl. However, few studies have dedicated exclusively
to this phenomenon in specific cities, and this omission is particularly noticeable
regarding cities not considered among the megalopolis of the continent. The present
work analyzes urban sprawl through an urban form in the Concepción Metropolitan
Area, Chile,
between 1990 and 2009, considering local aspects that may have played a role in
the process. The main empirical results obtained from this study reveal a metropolitan
area that has expanded intensely over a 20-year period, growing from 9000 hectares
to more than 17,000 ha for
a 96% increment in the built-up area. The new urban surfaces consolidate a central
conurbation that strengthens the role of the main downtowns, with less-intense occupation
towards the sub-centers but in a structure that follows the transportation infrastructure.
Over the last 20 years, the distance between the shapes has grown progressively
by around 2 km, increasing
the size of the ellipse by more than 1000 km2. In particular the complexity of the
urbanized surfaces has grown, becoming
more irregular in shape and less compact as they come to occupy larger areas. So
our principal findings include: an increment of nearly 100% in the urban surface,
the importance of a polycentric urban structure in the process of consolidation
as a support for analyzing different spatial dynamics, and the growing morphological
irregularity of the territory of the sprawl.