Land use change in suburban zone: European context of urban sprawl

Abstract

Quantifying and understanding global land use change and its spatial and temporal dynamics is critical to supporting international policy debates. The main area of transformation of spatial structures nowadays are suburban areas of the largest cities. Constant land development and urbanization, including such forms as urban sprawl, influence significant changes in land use. The aim of this study was to analyse a land use change pattern in a selected rural area which is under pressure of spatial development of a regional city. Data used for a land use change detection was based opensource Urban Atlas dataset for 2006, 2012, and 2018, enriched by recent update from 2021 orthophoto map. Spatial analyses presenting statistics of land use change were conducted in QGIS. Besides analysis of land use change, the paper discusses observed spatial patterns also taking into account changing social, environmental and economic conditions and spatial policies influencing land cover complexity. Understanding these dynamics would help better spatial management of real estates for more sustainable land development.