Low-density settlements and land use changes in a Mediterranean urban region

This article contributes to the issue of urban sprawl in the Mediterranean region. The hypothesis illus- trated here is that urban sprawl impacts directly on rural lands by triggering land cover changes (LCCs) and indirectly by fragmenting cropland and woodland patches and creating a mixed rural non farm landscape. This is mainly due to the diffusion of low-density settlements located progressively further away from the inner city. To verify this hypothesis we investigated the long-term LCCs (1960–2000) and the variation in density of buildings (1961–2001) in a large Mediterranean urban region (Rome, central Italy). The choice of our case study derives from the fact that Rome represents a paradigmatic example of semi-compact city evolving towards a dispersed urban form. A multidimensional approach was used to (i) identify the trajectories of LCCs, (ii) quantify diachronically the spatial distribution of low-density settlements, and (iii) evaluate the increase of building density within twelve basic land cover classes. We identified two axes of urban development: the former describes the urban-rural gradient determined by the traditionally compact and mono-centric spatial organization observed in the early 1960s in Rome; the latter illustrates the polycentric, dispersed urban expansion observed in the early 2000s. Taken together, our results point out the emergence of a sprawl process where low-density settlements impact on spe- cific land uses (arable lands, olive groves, and woodlands). Finally, the article discusses the environmental implications of the polycentric model to the ‘shrinking’ Mediterranean cities.