Professional Documents
Culture Documents
115-124)
ON IDENTIFYING URBAN GROWTH AND LAND
COVER CHANGE IN THE POSTSOCIALIST ERA USING
GIS. CASE STUDY: FLTICENI MUNICIPALITY
Ionela GRDINARU
Universitatea Al. I Cuza Iai
Abstract: The dynamic of urban landscapes, in terms of land use/land cover change, is strongly
influenced by the underlying changes in economical processes and political factors. Consequently, in
a territory undergoing transition from state ownership and management of all resources to free market
based on individual property, such as the city of Flticeni post-1989, the likelihood of identifying
significant change in land use/land cover is high. Further, land use/land cover is highly pertinent to
urban planning regulations, economical feasibility, ownership over the land and urban growth
modelling. In order to document this hypothesis, I have studied the land cover within the urban
administrative borders in 2006 in relation to the corresponding data in 1985 at a reasonably fine scale
(1:5000) using a GIS software to create my own set of vector and raster data based on cadastral maps
(O.C.O.T. Suceava, 1985) and orthophotos (A.N.C.P.I., 2006), that were analysed according to my
research objectives. The analysis revealed that the urban landscape has been very dynamic during the
two-decade period, displaying consistent changes in most types of land cover/land use, most notably
in the case of urban built-up. Urban built-op scored a significant increase, and several agricultural
categories decreased, respectively. Given the scale of this research and the accuracy of the data, the
findings provide a solid basis for urban planners and future planning and research needs.
Rezumat: Asupra identificrii creterii urbane i a modificrii modului de utilizare a terenului
n era post socialist prin utilizarea SIG. Studiu de caz oraul Flticeni. Dinamica peisajelor
urbane din perspectiva evoluiei modului de utilizare a terenurilor este puternic direcionat de
schimbrile survenite pe plan economic i/sau politic. n aceste condiii, un teritoriu n tranziie de la
o economie n care statul deine i controleaz integral resursele ctre economia de pia bazat pe
proprietate individual, cum este i cazul municipiului Flticeni dup 1989, poate fi supus unor
schimbri consistente ale modului de utilizare a terenurilor ca efect al regndirii reglementrilor
urbanistice, a condiiilor economice, a proprietii funciare, etc., fiind de ateptat o cretere urban.
Pentru a testa aceast ipotez, am studiat modul de utilizare a terenurilor pe teritoriul administrativ al
oraului n 2006 comparativ cu 1985 cu ajutorul unui soft GIS, construind o baz de date cu layere
vector i raster, pe baza hrilor cadastrale (O.C.O.T. Suceava, 1985) i a ortofotoplanurilor
(A.N.C.P.I., 2006) disponibile, analizate ulterior n funcie de obiectivele stabilite. Studiul nostru a
scos n eviden o dinamic semnificativ a peisajului urban, cu creteri substaniale ale zonelor
construite, secondate de mutaii deloc neglijabile ale categoriilor de utilizare agricol. Avnd n
vedere scara de analiz (1:5000) i acurateea datelor spaiale, considerm c rezultatele noastre ar
putea constitui o baz solid pentru planificarea i amenajarea urban.
Keywords: Land Cover, Land Use, Urban Growth, Urban Planning, Dynamic
Cuvinte-cheie: utilizarea terenurilor, cretere urban, planificare urban, dinamic
On identifying of urban growth and land cover change in postsocialist era
116
1. INTRODUCTION
Landscapes are dynamic and their changes have been studied for a long time, with
various cognitive interests and by various scientific methods, some of these studies aiming at
understanding how land use patterns are developing (Burgi et al. 2009). Moreover, the
changes in urban landscapes are known to be fast paced, thus making it difficult for planners
to effectively manage the evolution of the urban territory. Consequently, the increasingly
complex relationship between urban function and form has lead researchers to focus on how
underlying economical and biophysical processes shape emergent urban patterns and their
dynamics, debating on how can policies most effectively shape urban morphology and
manage urban growth, expansion and decline (Irwin et al. 2009).
The overall increase in the human population and the continuous movement from
rural areas to the cities are the driving forces behind the expansion of cities worldwide,
resulting in higher human densities and changes in the landscape. Thus, a significant amount
of information on urban/urbanizing environments is in demand by natural resource
managers, scientists, planners and professionals associated with human health in order to
inform planning and management decisions required to create more sustainable cities
(McDonnell and Hahs, 2008).
In the particular case of Romanian cities after the downfall of communism, the
political and economical changes brought upon by the transition from a centrally planned
system to a more market-oriented one have had a deep impact on the urban system; albeit,
setting the grounds for significant changes in the urban land use. The replacement of state
property with individual ownership over land, the disappearance of state planned urban and
agricultural management, as well as the changes in laws and regulations concerning land use
and urban planning have acted synergistically, causing new landscape patterns to emerge.
However, these mutations have yet to be fully understood and evaluated, mainly due to a
lack in available spatial and temporal data (Kuemmerle, 2006).
This study sets out to identify the main changes in the land cover/land use within
the administrative territory of Flticeni, comprising urban (built up), agricultural (with
multiple subdivisions), forested and other classes of lands. The economical and social
characteristics of this town, previously heavily industrialized by the communist government
and also relying on its extensive state-owned fruit farms, both of which have dissolved after
1989, made it all the more vulnerable to the structural mutations that ensued. The lands have
been retroceded to their former owners according to the then newly drafted Law 18/1991,
that has been subsequently modified by a new set of regulations, thus resulting in the
disappearence of the state-owned farms (C.A.P., I.A.S.) and the division of land into
considerably smaller parcels, in an attempt to reconstitute the inter-war property over land.
One other internal force that has prompted a visible change in the urban landscape was the
replacement of older restrictive regulations concerning building with newer, more liberal
ones, aiming at allowing more freedom to the real estate market, but mostly resulting in
chaotic development that has often eluded plannning regulations (Tosics, 2005).
2. STUDY AREA
Ionela GRDINARU
117
Several traits make this medium-sized town an interesting case study for the land
cover/land use change after the collapse of communism. Flticeni is located in north-eastern
Romania, in the historical province Moldova, and is presently a part of Suceava county. Its
geographical coordinates are 47
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Ionela GRDINARU
123
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The dynamic of the various land cover/land use classes tends to confirm my initial
hypothesis stating that there has been a notable increase in the built up, as well as in arable
land percentages (approx. 42% and 22%, respectively, during the studied interval, compared
to the areas corresponding to 1985), while other uses, such as orchards and pastures, have
been subject to a significant decrease, both in terms of area and percentage of the urban
territory.
Among the trends identified by this research I mention: a) the significant growth of
the urban habitat, that occured mainly within the present day limits of the built-up area, set
by the local planning authorities, seldom exceeding those limits (e.g. in arna Mare district),
partially due to the fact that the urban tissue was sufficiently lax prior to 1989 in most
peripheral village-like districts; b) the fact that several classes of previously agricultural land
use have undergone spatial changes, either by turning the orchards into arable or building
parcels (or, in some cases, degraded orchards), by converting pastures and meadows to
arable parcels, including in geomorfologically unsuitable areas, or by building on arable
land; and c) the restoration of the inter-war cadaster and property over land that bounded
rectangular elongated parcels perpendicular to the elevation lines, leaving a lasting mark on
the urban landscape, most prominently in the marginal areas of the city, while also proving
unsuitable for soil conservation.
Overall, the city has been consistently dynamic in terms of spatial growth, while,
paradoxically, the urban population has been steadily decreasing since 1992, by an annual
rate of approx. 0,56% during the past 15 years (1992-2007). Also, several of the new
dwellings have been edified outside the urban built-up limit avoiding the planning
regulations, which now prompts the local authorities to extend these limits and update these
regulations.
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