- European urban Sprawl: Sustainability, Cultures of (Anti)Urbanism and »Hybrid Cityscapes«    354 kb by    Pichler-Milanovic, Nataša | natasa.milanovic@ff.uni-lj.si    Short Outline The aims of the paper are to provide specificities of European patterns and processes of urban sprawl and to show a small number of important »archetypical« perspectives with policy innovations regarding the sustainable management of urban sprawl. Abstract The term »urban sprawl« is often used today rather negatively, typically to describe low density, inefficient and unsustainable suburban development around the periphery of cities. Many definitions tend to emphasise urban sprawl being a type of urban form or a pattern of urbanisation, rather than a process of urban change, - as the process of sprawling leads to undesirable urban development effects, in which policy must intervene. This paper originates in a comparative research project examining aspects of urban sprawl in Europe undertaken within the 5.FP EU. The project Urban Sprawl: European Patterns, Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Development (URBS PANDENS) sought to understand recent trends in urban sprawl in a number of case study urban regions (Athens, Liverpool, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Stockholm, Vienna, Warsaw) and to advise the European Commission on policy development with regard to the control, management and amelioration of the effects of urban sprawl. The scientific results of the project are published in the book: Couch, Leontidou, Petchel-Held (Eds.) Urban Sprawl in Europe: Landscapes, Land-use Change & Policy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. The aims of the paper are to provide the extent to which common European patterns and processes of sprawl can be found, distinct from those previously identified in the USA, and to show a small number of important »archetypical« perspectives of European urban sprawl: life-style driven, infrastructure-related, state-regulated. The paper also considers new theories that can be formulated to explain urban sprawl, and policy innovation recommendations regarding the sustainable management of urban sprawl. Keywords European urban sprawl, archetypes, sustainable management of sprawl Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2008: Urban Growth without Sprawl   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper