《How suitable is entropy as a measure of urban sprawl?》

打印
作者
来源
LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING,Vol.184,P.32-43
语言
英文
关键字
Built-up area; Compactness; Dispersion; Landscape metrics; Suitability criteria; Urban development; Urban growth; GROWTH; PATTERNS; MONTREAL; FORM
作者单位
[Nazarnia, Naghmeh; Harding, Christopher; Jaeger, Jochen A. G.] Concordia Univ Montreal, Dept Geog Planning & Environm, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd West,Suite H1255, Montreal, PQ H3G 1M8, Canada. [Jaeger, Jochen A. G.] Concordia Univ Montreal, LSRC, 7141 Sherbrooke St, Montreal, PQ H4B 1R6, Canada. Jaeger, JAG (reprint author), Concordia Univ Montreal, Dept Geog Planning & Environm, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd West,Suite H1255, Montreal, PQ H3G 1M8, Canada. E-Mail: naghmeh.nazarnia@concordia.ca; chris.harding@mail.utoronto.ca; jochen.jaeger@concordia.ca
摘要
Urban sprawl has found widespread attention among scholars, planners, and policy makers. It has been defined and measured in various ways, and there is still no general agreement on how to measure and control urban sprawl and how to prevent its many harmful effects on the natural environment and its negative socio-economic consequences. Entropy has been one of the most often used metrics for the measurement of urban sprawl. However, its suitability in terms of requirements for measuring urban sprawl has not yet been examined systematically. Therefore, our study examines the behavior and suitability of entropy as a measure of urban sprawl by applying it to seven simple model landscapes and six real-world case studies. We also investigate the influence of the choice of the city center and associated translocation of zones and assess entropy with regard to 13 suitability criteria for measures of urban sprawl. Our results show that entropy is, in many cases, not sensitive to important differences between spatial patterns of built-up areas that represent different levels of urban sprawl, e.g., dispersed vs. compact spatial arrangement of built-up areas. In addition, the value of entropy is strongly affected by changes in the choice of zones within a landscape. Finally, entropy does not meet several important suitability criteria for measuring urban sprawl; it only meets 5 out of 13 suitability criteria. We conclude that entropy is not suitable as a measure of urban sprawl. More suitable metrics of urban sprawl are available that should be used instead.