Urban Phenomena in Lesser Poland Through GIS-Based Metrics: An Exceptional Form of Urban Sprawl Challenging Sustainable Development

Marek Gachowski () and Łukasz Walusiak
Additional contact information
Marek Gachowski: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Applied Arts, Academy of Silesia, ul. Rolna 43, 40-555 Katowice, Poland
Łukasz Walusiak: Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Applied Arts, Academy of Silesia, ul. Rolna 43, 40-555 Katowice, Poland

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 21, 1-24

Abstract: Urban sprawl has been the subject of extensive scholarly investigation, as it is widely regarded as an unfavourable phenomenon with profound socio-economic consequences. Its fundamental forms have been delineated through specific Spatial Form Metrics (SFMs). In southern Poland, there exists a region whose dispersed development pattern is particularly distinctive. Owing to its considerable size—exceeding 5500 km 2 —it was deemed appropriate to analyse this area using the metrics and categories conventionally applied in urban sprawl research. The findings reveal a settlement pattern often described in the literature as resembling a ‘leopard skin’. Key urban parameters—such as density, intensity, dispersion, and clustering—were most effectively characterised by Shannon entropy levels calculated for these categories. In all instances, the entropy values proved to be very high, indicating minimal variation in development form across the study area. This outcome reflects the prevalence of numerous small, closely spaced building clusters, without the emergence of major concentrations capable of serving as nuclei for service centres with a developed public realm. As a result, structures that would ordinarily provide higher-order services and foster social integration fail to materialise. The implications for the open landscape are pronounced and predominantly negative: both agricultural landscapes and the still-existing, though limited, semi-natural landscapes are severely fragmented by scattered, unstructured building clusters. This fragmentation undermines rational agricultural management and impedes the conservation of self-regenerating areas that approximate the natural landscape. Against this backdrop, the present study examines the built-up structure of Area X in order to delineate pathways for a transition from environmentally detrimental settlement patterns towards forms of development that not only ensure the sustenance of urban life but also align with the broader principles of sustainable urban development, thereby safeguarding the continuity of urban life as a fundamental condition for long-term urban resilience.

Keywords: urban sprawl; urban form metrics; Shannon’s entropy; sustainable urban development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9394/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9394/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:21:p:9394-:d:1777393

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().