Urban sprawl is now a common and threatening phenomenon in Europe, severely affecting environmental and economic sustainability. An analytical characterization and measurement of urban sprawl are required to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon and to propose the possible solutions. Traditional factor analysis techniques, especially Principal Component Analysis and Factor Analysis, have been commonly used. In this paper, we additionally test Independent Component Analysis with the aim to obtain a multidimensional characterization of the sprawl phenomenon. We also use Bayesian Factor Analysis to obtain a single (unidimensional) measuring index of sprawl, which also allows us to obtain the uncertainty of the inferred index, in contrast to traditional approaches. All these techniques have been applied to study the phenomenon of urban sprawl at the municipality level in Valencia, Spain using a wide set of variables related to the characteristics and patterns of urban land use.
AbdiHWilliamsJ (2010) Principal component analysis. WIREs Computational Statistics2(4): 433–459.
2.
Arribas-BelDNijkampyPScholtenH (2011) Multidimensional urban sprawl in Europe: A self-organizing map approach. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems35(4): 263–275.
3.
BartholomewDJ (2007) Three faces of factor analysis. In: CudeckRMaccallumRC (eds) Factor Analysis at 100. Historical Development and Future Directions, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 9–21.
4.
BenitoBBastidaFGuillamónMD (2010) Urban sprawl and the cost of public services: An evaluation of Spanish local governments. Lex Localis – Journal of Local Self-Government8(3): 245–264.
5.
Burchell RW, Lowenstein G, Dolphin WR, et al. (2003) Costs of sprawl – 2000. Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). Report 74, Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
6.
CantarinoITorrijoFPalenciaSet al. (2014) Assessing residential building values in Spain for risk analyses – Application to the landslide hazard in the Autonomous Community of Valencia. Natural Hazards and Earth System Science14: 3015–3030.
7.
CarruthersJUlfarssonG (2003) Urban sprawl and the cost of public services. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design30(4): 503–522.
8.
Chin N (2002) Unearthing the roots of urban sprawl: a critical analysis of form, function and methodology. WP 47, London: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London.
9.
Colaninno N, Cerda J and Roca J (2011) Spatial patterns of land use: morphology and demography. In: A dynamic evaluation of urban sprawl phenomena along the Spanish Mediterranean Coast – ERSA conference papers, Vol. 11. Germany: ERSA GmbH p.776.
CutsingerJGalsterG (2006) There is no sprawl syndrome. A new typology of metropolitan land use patterns. Urban Geography27(3): 228–252.
12.
European Environment Agency (EEA) (2006) Urban sprawl in Europe. The ignored challenge. EEA Report No. 10/2006. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
13.
EEA (2016) Urban sprawl in Europe. Joint EEA-FOEN report. EEA. Report No. 11/2016. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
14.
EwingRH (2008) Characteristics, causes, and effects of sprawl: A literature review. In: MarzluffJMet al. (eds) Urban Ecology: An International Perspective on the Interaction Between Humans and Nature, US: Springer, pp. 519–535.
15.
EwingRPendallRChenD (2002) Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact, Washington, DC: Smart Growth America.
16.
FrenkelAAshkenaziM (2008) Measuring urban sprawl: How can we deal with it?Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design35: 56–79.
17.
FultonWPendallRNguyenMet al. (2001) Who Sprawls Most? How Growth Patterns differ across the U.S, Washington D.C.: Center on Urban & Metropolitan Policy, The Brookings Institution, Survey Series, pp. 24.
18.
GalsterGHansonRRatcliffeMet al. (2001) Wrestling sprawl to the ground: Defining and measuring an elusive concept. Housing Policy Debate12: 681–718.
19.
Garbiñe H (2007) Los costes económicos y sociales de la ciudad de baja densidad. In: Indovina F (ed.) La ciudad de baja densidad: lógicas, gestión y contención, Diputació Provincial de Barcelona, pp. 203–240.
20.
Graffelman J (2001) Factor analysis. In: El-Shaarawi AH and Piegorsch WW (eds) Encyclopedia of Environmetrics. Vol. 2, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pp. 763–767.
21.
Hortas-Rico M (2014) Urban sprawl and municipal budgets in Spain: A dynamic panel data analysis. Papers in Regional Sciences 93: 843–864.
JaegerJSchwickC (2014) Improving the measurement of urban sprawl: Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) and its application to Switzerland. Ecological Indicators38: 294–308.
24.
JohnsonM (2001) Environmental impacts of urban sprawl: A survey of the literature and proposed research agenda. Environment and Planning A33: 717–735.
KassRWassermanL (1995) A reference Bayesian test for nested hypotheses and its relationship to the Schwarz criterion. Journal of the American Statistical Association90(431): 928–934.
27.
KewBLeeBD (2013) Measuring sprawl across the urban rural continuum using an amalgamated sprawl index. Sustainability5: 1806–1828.
28.
LunnDJThomasABestNet al. (2000) WinBUGS – A Bayesian modelling framework: Concepts, structure, and extensibility. Statistics and Computing10: 325–337.
29.
MarmolejoCStallbohmM (2008) En contra de la ciudad fragmentada: ¿Hacia un cambio de paradigma urbanístico en la Región Metropolitana de Barcelona?Scripta Nova, Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias SocialesXII 270: 1–16.
30.
Marí-Dell’OlmoMMartínez-BeneitoMABorrellCet al. (2011) Bayesian factor analysis to calculate a deprivation index and its uncertainty. Epidemiology22: 356–364.
31.
MezzettiMBillariFC (2005) Bayesian correlated factor analysis of socio-demographic indicators. Statistical Methods and Applications14: 223–241.
32.
MirallesJL (2014) El darrer cicle immobiliari al País Valencià. O el progrés de la misèria, Valencia: Fundació Nexe.
33.
Miralles JL, Diaz S and Altur VJ (2012) Environmental impact on the Mediterranean Spanish coast produced by the latest process of urban developments. In: Proceedings of the sustainable city VII. Boston: WIT Press, pp. 379–389.
34.
Muñiz I, García MA and Calatayud D (2006) SPRAWL. Definición, causas y efectos. Working Papers wpdea0603, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
NtzoufrasI (2009) Bayesian Modeling using Winbugs, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
37.
PatacchiniEZenouY (2009) Urban sprawl in Europe. Papers on Urban Affairs1: 125–149.
38.
PaulsenK (2014) “Geography, policy or market? New evidence on the measurement and causes of sprawl (and infill) in US metropolitan regions. Urban Studies51: 2629–2645.
39.
PichlerN (2007) European urban sprawl: Sustainability, cultures of (Anti) urbanism and hybrid cityscapes. Dela27: 101–133.
40.
R-Development Core Team (2010) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
41.
Real Estate Research Corporation (RERC) (1974) The Cost of Sprawl, Environment and Economic Costs of Alternative Residential Development Patterns at the Urban, Fringe, Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, pp. 278.
Solé-Ollé A and Hortas-Rico M (2008) Does urban sprawl increase the costs of providing local public services? Evidence from Spanish municipalities. Working Paper 2008/6, Institute of Economy of Barcelona.
44.
SpeirCStephensonK (2002) Does sprawl cost us all?Journal of the American Planning Association68(1): 56–70.
45.
StoneJV (2004) Independent Component Analysis: A Tutorial Introduction, Boston: MIT Press.
46.
TemesRMoyaA (2016) Method of identifying urban morphologies from cadastral attributes. Evidence from the littoral municipalities of the Valencian community (Spain). International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning. 11(3, 316–324.
47.
TorrensPM (2008) A toolkit for measuring sprawl. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy1(1): 5–36.
48.
WilsonBChakrabortyA (2013) The environmental impacts of sprawl: Emergent themes from the past decade of planning research. Sustainability5: 3302–3327.
49.
ZengCHeSCuiJ (2014) “A multi-level and multi-dimensional measuring on urban sprawl: A case study in Wuhan Metropolitan Area, Central China. Sustainability6: 3571–3598.
50.
ZornozaC (2013) Crecimiento urbanístico en la zona costera de la Comunidad Valenciana (1987–2009): Análisis y Perspectivas de Futuro, València: Universitat de València, pp. 152.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
