Urban sprawl in Europe : The ignored challenge
Dublin Core
Titre
Urban sprawl in Europe : The ignored challenge
Sujet
, étalement urbain, occupation du sol, environnement urbain, Europe, EEA, European Environment Agency, politique urbaine
Description
Extract from the introduction :
Europe is a fascinating and diverse continent, one of the most urbanised on earth. Today, approximately 75% of the European population live in urban areas, while still enjoying access to extensive natural or semi-natural landscapes. The urban future of Europe, however, is a matter of great concern. More than a quarter of the European Union's territory has now been directly affected by urban land use; by 2020, approximately 80% of Europeans will be living in urban areas, while in seven countries the proportion will be 90% or more. As a result, the various demands for land in and around cities are becoming increasingly acute.
This report is targeted at all those actively involved in the management of Europe's urban areas. The aim is to inform about the impacts of urban sprawl in Europe today and that without concerted action by all agencies to address the underlying causes, the economic social and environmental future of our cities and regions can be compromised.
Subsequent chapters of this report describe the patterns of urban sprawl that have emerged throughout Europe during the post war period (Chapter 2), which are related to the global social and economic trends that form the fundamental drivers of sprawl (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 reviews the evidence of the impacts of urban sprawl, and concludes that the sprawling city creates major and severe impacts in relation to a variety of environmental, social and economic issues affecting not only the city and its region but also the surrounding rural areas. Finally, Chapter 5 examines the principles that could underpin the framework for action at EU level to combat urban sprawl. This would include increased policy coherence built around measures to secure policy integration via close coordination between policies in different domains, better cooperation between different levels of administration, as well as policy definition according to the principles of sustainable development.
