Simulating greenhouse growth in urban zoning on the coast of Granada (Spain)

Abstract

Within the last 30 years, greenhouse growth on the coast of Granada has become an environmental and territorial process of extraordinary significance, which has caused a huge transformation in the landscape and the traditional irrigated crops existing in this Mediterranean area. The creation of simulation models for generating future scenarios is focused on the evaluation of the environmental consequences of the increasing greenhouse use, mainly on non-urbanizable land according to coastal urban planning. Commonly, this land has higher environmental and heritage values. A simulation model based on cellular automata has been created, similar to those widely utilized in urban processes modelling. The agricultural use of the simulation model has followed the dynamics of urban process models of recent years, for their industrial and intensive characteristics and the significant process of diffusion and spatial contagion, with hardly taking into consideration the urban planning mechanisms.