How Is Urban Land Use Unique?
How Is Urban Land Use Unique?
This chapter discusses current urban land use (form, size, and shape of cities and urban areas) against a global background. The specifics of urban land use (surface characteristics, dynamics of change, impacts on the environment) are examined using different conceptual approaches (e.g., ecosystem services, risk, and governance aspects). Although urban land use is a special case (i.e., small in scale, yet dominant in influence), a range of commonalities exist between urban and nonurban land use. A discussion on shrinking cities underlines that there are more pathways to urban land development than growth. The current extent and rates of urbanization force us to rethink land connectivity, competition, and decision making; the resulting knowledge can be used to generate a new concept of land use. The connections and implications of urban land-use patterns need to be examined on a global scale, as local-scale patterns may be affected by global-scale outcomes and vice versa. Published in the Strungmann Forum Reports Series.
Keywords: urban land use, ecosystem services, governance, shrinking cities, urbanization, teleconnections, land-use patterns
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