Controlling Urban Expansion: Top-down Approach

With rapid urbanisation, cities seem to expand their area to meet the needs of housing of the growing population. Yet, this urban expansion occasionally goes out of hand with oversupply of housing and depletion of green area that leads to various environmental deterioration. One approach to limit this expansion is to control the land development. There are at least five ways, cities can take this approach.

First, land-use planning as the legal basis for urban development. It sets up the guideline whether an area can be taken up for urban extension or not. Next, regional planning with establishing regional authorities or agencies. This will need strong coordination and collaboration of several local municipalities to limit the growth of the city. The third way of urban expansion control is setting urban boundaries. The promotion of compact, accessible and great urban design of open spaces can provide limitation to activities in a small area, support infill development etc. Fourth, benchmarking, that aims at limitation urban extension within a certain period of time. The limitation of land conversion can be coupled with incentives for certain urban development that discourage urban expansion. Lastly, government can establish an administrative reform that changes the jurisdiction of local government, which may include the annexation and amalgamation of local authorities and the creation of new upper-tier regional-metropolitan authorities. These administrative reforms may help to better control and manage urban expansion and to promote compact development. 

Reference:

Schiappacasse, P., Müller, B., Cai, J., & Ma, E. (2021). Managing Urban Expansion in Europe: New Impulses for People-Centred Development in China?. In Towards Socially Integrative Cities (Vol. 13). MDPI, Basel.

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