TITLE:
Suburban Patterns under the Influence of Diffused Urbanity
AUTHORS:
Athina Kiakou
KEYWORDS:
Urban Diffusion, Fringe Belts, Land Use Patterns, Cluster, Epicentre
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.9 No.3,
September
27,
2021
ABSTRACT: Nowadays urban development has not been clearly formed. The penetration
of urban uses into the rural space constitutes the modern phenomenon of urban “diffusion”
and produces an indifferent landscape that leads to the exhaustion of the
natural environment. In order to measure the impact of urban diffusion in the
suburban landscape, the evolution over time of urban, out-of-town land uses
along the main roads of Larissa during the period 1998-2015 is examined. To
evaluate the impact of each sector of economic activity, as well as understand
the structure of the suburban landscape in terms of land uses patterns, land
uses were classified in economic sectors. According to the above processing, a
rapid increase in the surface of tertiary sector activities was observed. The
construction of stores shows significant growth over the period 1998-2007 and continues to develop until
2015 despite the general economic recession. Furthermore, according to
on-site documenting of land uses which took
place during 2011-2014, new types of tertiary sector uses were identified.
Shopping centres, theme parks, hospitals and colleges located in city fringes,
grouped into clusters and constitute the poles of creating new suburban centres. To identify these “new centralities”,
named as “epicentres”, a more detailed
classification took place and the observed local clusters were illustrated. However, the epicentres don’t have a clear
urban character and are less in number and density of uses in relation
to the new urban activities of metropolitan centres. Therefore, the creation of
special, organized areas for the reception of the
emerging “epicentres” and randomly dispersed land uses is suggested. Two
wider areas of the suburb are considered as appropriate to install the planned
areas for the reception of new developments: the area of Trikala Street and the
area of Volos street.