U1. Landscape changes in times of urbanization: processes and projections

Jasper van Vliet (VU University Amsterdam), jasper.van.vliet@vu.nl

Luis Inostroza (Ruhr-University Bochum)

Summary

Urban land is growing rapidly, thus characterizing increasing shares of the landscape. Yet, this growth is manifested in different forms, including urban densification and compact development, but also urban sprawl, peri-urbanization, and rurbanization. Managing landscapes thus requires a thorough understanding of the multitude of urban change processes affecting these landscapes. This symposium welcomes contributions that centre on understanding the processes of multiple forms of urban development affecting landscapes as well as projections of future developments.

Description

A small but rapidly increasing share of the land is covered with built-up land. Some of this built-up land is concentrated in large cities, but a large share is also distributed over villages, towns, and infrastructure in otherwise rural landscapes. This holds true across the globe, but particularly so for Europe. As a result, a large and increasing share of the landscape is to some extent characterized by built-up land. This includes large areas often referred to as peri-urban areas and also relates to processes such as rurbanization and counterurbanization.

Sprawling urban areas and the increasing presence of built-up areas in rural landscapes are often seen as undesired, because of its direct and indirect impacts on other land uses as well as on biodiversity, hydrology, and a range of ecosystem services. As a result, there is a need to better understand these processes in order to be able to manage them. Such understanding requires to go beyond merely differentiating between urban and rural land and instead needs to focus on the gradient in between, on the multiple functions and services landscapes providing to different people, and also on the acknowledgement of the connections and mutual dependency of urban and rural areas, for example in terms of flows of products, money, and people.

This symposium welcomes contributions that address urban development, in all of its forms, in landscapes. These include analyses of historical changes (preferably with an aim of understanding these processes), as well as assessments of future developments. Furthermore, we welcome submissions that analyse the impacts of these urban development processes, especially in terms of ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.