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Journal of Land Use Science
Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2010, 73–104
Monitoring urban sprawl in Germany: towards a GIS-based
measurement and assessment approach
S. Siedentop* and S. Fina
Institute of Regional Development Planning, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
(Received 2 April 2008; final version received 11 December 2008)
During the 1990s, the phenomenon of urban sprawl received growing attention in the
international planning debate. However, a survey of the literature yields no agreement in
terms of defining and measuring urban sprawl. The absence of a common understanding
constrains the analysis of sprawl’s causes, costs and non-monetary consequences as well
as the formulation of planning strategies towards economically, ecologically and socially
acceptable land use patterns. On this background, we present an indicator-based
framework for the measurement and assessment of urban sprawl and the quantitative
derivation of certain sprawl types described in this article. The GIS-based tool relies on
the assumption that sprawl is a multidimensional phenomenon which can be measured
only with a multiple-indicator approach. We introduce indicators that refer to three
specific impact dimensions of urban sprawl (density, pattern and surface) and present
single-indicator and aggregated maps for the whole territory of Germany. The article ends
with some conclusions on how to effectively implement the model within the existing
national and state land use monitoring approaches.
Keywords: urban sprawl; land use; urban form; indicator; monitoring
1. Introduction
In 2002, the German federal government adopted its first sustainability strategy titled
‘Perspectives for Germany’ (Bundesregierung 2002). One of the strategy goals is to reduce
the rate of conversion of non-urban to urban land uses from 130 hectares per day in 2000 to
30 hectares per day in 2020. The government argues that land consumption and landscape
fragmentation, important aspects of ‘urban sprawl’, are to be acknowledged as key drivers of
species loss and landscape deterioration (Bundesregierung 2002, p. 99). In a subsequent
evaluation report (Bundesregierung 2004), the government further stressed the importance
of a less land-consumptive urban development.
Nevertheless, the so-called ‘30-hectare goal’ triggered an intensive and controversial
debate over the potential outcomes of restraining land consumption through governmental
growth-management policies. Critics dispute the environmental justification of the 30hectare
benchmark and point to economically and socially adverse implications of limiting
the supply of developable land (Jakubowski and Zahrt 2003; Pfeiffer 2005). In contrast, the
advocates of the 30-hectare goal reply that conventional wisdom highly underestimates the
ecological, economical and social risks of sprawl-type land use change. They point to
sprawl’s responsibility for a broad range of negative impacts such as urban air pollution,
*Corresponding author. Email: stefan.siedentop@ireus.uni-stuttgart.de
ISSN 1747-423X print/ISSN 1747-4248 online
# 2010 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/1747423X.2010.481075
http://www.informaworld.com