Monitoring and forecasting land consumption along the Iberian coastlines

Abstract

Concern over land consumption is a reoccurring theme found within a wide range of urban policy documents just as much at the European level as at the national level. Ever increasingly, these documents refer to the importance of land being a finite resource and the need to protect land from uncontrolled urban development, and from expansive and disperse patterns of development. This article discusses a number of methodological issues arising from a line of research relating to the measurement of land consumption and the forecasting of future scenarios of urban development in a Southern European context, drawing upon remote sensing techniques and cellular automata. It is hoped that the outcome of this research will be useful, not just to provide empirical evidence and raise public awareness of the environmental risks deriving from expansive urban growth, but also to assist professionals and politicians alike in the public decision making process concerning future urban growth.