Abstract
Urban sprawl in Israel began two decades ago, but has yet to be empirically measured or characterized. Major processes that influenced sprawl in Israel were the rise in standard of living, consumer preference for low-density and single-family housing in the suburbs, and the arrival of nearly one million immigrants from the former USSR during the 1990s. All these processes led to a massive transformation of agricultural land into urban land-uses all over the country and provide some evidence that sprawl is taking place as a pattern of development. This study attempt to measure and analyze urban sprawl in Israel, based on a large sample of urban settlements. Higher sprawl rates were found to correlate significantly with higher population and land-consumption growth rates, which implies a higher consumer preference to reside in more sprawling patterns. Variables that are linked with sprawl in Western countries were usually found to be significant in Israel, as well; however, unlike other Western countries, urban sprawl in Israel is rather spatially dispersed, and not necessarily found on the edges of metropolitan areas.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso W (1964) Location and land use towards a general theory. Harward University Press, MA
Batty M, Longley P (1994) Fractal cities: a geometry of form and function. Academic Press, London
Batty M, Xie Y, Zhanli S (1999) The dynamics of urban sprawl. Working Paper Series, paper 15, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London. http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/ sprawl.pdf
Belser K (1960) Urban dispersal in perspective. In: Engelbert EA (ed) The nature and control of urban dispersal. California Chapter of the American Institute of Planners, Berkely, pp 1–18
Benguigui L, Marinov M, Czamznski D (1998) City growth as a leap-frogging process: an application to the Tel-Aviv Metropolis. Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
Brueckner JK (2000) Urban sprawl: diagnosis and remedies. Int Reg Sci Rev 23(2):160–171
Burchell RW, Shad NA, Listokin D, Phillips H, Downs A, Seskin S, Davis J, Moore T, Helton D, Gall M (1998) The costs of sprawl-revisited. Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), Report 39. Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington DC Chaps 6–8, pp 83–125
Burton E (1996) The potential of the compact city for promoting social equity, In: Jenks M, Burton E, Williams K (eds) The compact city—a sustainable urban form. E&FN Spon, London, pp 19–29
Burton E (2000) The compact city: just or just compact? A preliminary analysis. Urban Stud 37(11):1969–2001
CBS - Central Bureau of Statistics (2004) Localities and population by municipal status and district. Statisical Annual of Israel no. 55, Jerusalem (in Hebrew)
Deakin E (1989) Growth controls and growth management: a summary and review of empirical research. In: Brower D, Godschalk D, Porter D (eds), Understanding growth management—critical issues and a research agenda. Urban Land Institute, Washington DC, pp 2–21
Downs A (1994) New visions for Metropolitan America. The Brookings Institution, Washington DC
Downs A (1998) How America’s cities are growing: the big picture. Brooking Rev 16(4):8–12
Ewing R (1994) Characteristics, causes, and effects of sprawl: A literature review. Environ Urban Issues 21(2):1–15
Ewing R (1997) Is Los Angeles-Style Sprawl Desirable?. J Am Planning Associat 63(1):107–126
Ewing R, Pendall R, Chen D (2002) Measuring sprawl and its impact, vol 1 (Technical Report). Smart Growth America, Washington DC. http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org
Fischel WA (1989) What do economists know about growth controls? A research review. In: Brower D, Godschalk D, Porter D (eds) Understanding growth management—critical issues and a research agenda. Urban Land Institute, Washington DC, pp 59–86
Frenkel A (1998) Urban densities and land uses: towards classification of urban patterns. Paper presented at the XII AESOP Congress: “Planning and Public Expectations”, Aveiro, Portugal
Frenkel A (2004a) A land consumption model: its application to Israel’s development. J Am Associat 70(4):453–470
Fulton W (1996) The new urbanism. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge
Galster G, Hanson R, Ratcliffe MR, Wolman H, Coleman S, Freihage J (2001) Wrestling sprawl to the ground: defining and measuring an elusive concept. Housing Policy Debate 12(4):681–717
Gans HJ (1967) The Levittowners: ways of life and politics in a new suburban community. Pantheon Books, New York
Gonen A (1995) Recent middle-class spread to suburbia. In: Gonen A (ed) Between city and suburb—urban residential patterns and processes in Israel, Chap 9 Avebury, England, pp 114–138
Gonen A (1996) Changing urban residential structure in Israel. In: Gradus Y, Lipshitz G (eds) The mosaic of Israeli geography, The Negev Center for Regional Development. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, Beer Sheva, pp 55–62
Gordon P, Richardson HW (1997) Are compact cities a desirable planning goal?. J Am Plann Assoc 63(1):95–106
Hadly CC (2000) Urban sprawl: indicators, causes, and solutions. Prepared for the Bloomington Environmental Commission. http://www.city.bloomington.in.us/planning/boardcomm/ec/reports/sprawl. html.p, Accessed 12/5/01
Hartshorn TA, Muller PO (1992) The suburban downtown and urban economic development today. In: Mills ES, McDonald JF (eds) Sources of metropolitan growth. Center for Urban Policy Research, New Jersey, pp 147–158
Harvey RO, Clark WAV (1965) The nature and economics of urban sprawl. Land Econo 41:1–9
Hasse JE, Lathrop RG (2003). Land resource impact indicators of urban sprawl. Appl Geograph 23(2–3): 159–175
Herold M, Menz G (2001) Landscape metric signatures (LMS) to improve urban land use information derived from remotely sensed data. In: Buchroithner MF (ed) A decade of trans-european remote sensing cooperation. Proceedings of the 20th EARSEL Symposium 14–16 June 2000, Dresden, Germany, pp 251–256
Jackson KT (1985) Crabgrass frontier: the suburbanization of the United States. Oxford University Press, New York
Jenks M, Burton E, Williams K (1996) The compact city—a sustainable Urban Form. E&FN Spon, London
Johnson MP (2001) Environmental impacts of urban sprawl: a survey of the literature and proposed research agenda. Environ Plann A 33:717–735
Kaiser EJ, Godschalk DR, Chapin FS (1995) The land planning arena. In: Kaiser EJ, Godschalk DR, Chapin FS (ed) Urban land use planning, Chap 1. University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, pp 5–34
Kim JO, Mueller CW (1978) Intoduction to factor analysis: what it is and how to do it, Paper 13. In: Series: quantitative applications in the social sciences. SAGE Publications, London
Klaassen LH, Molle WTN, Paelinck JHP (1981) The dynamics of urban development. Aldershot, Gower
Malpezzi S, Wen-Kai G (1999) Measuring “Sprawl”: Alternatives Measures of Urban Form in US Metropolitan Areas. Center for Urban Land Economics Research, University of Wisconsin. Madison
Mills ES (1972). Studies in the structure of the urban economy. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Mills ES, Hamilton BW (1994) Urban economics. Harper Collins College, New York
Nicholas JC (1989) The costs of growth: a public vs. private sector conflict or a public/private responsibility. In: Brower D, Godschalk D, Porter D (eds) Understanding growth management—critical issues and a research agenda. Urban Land Institute, Washington DC, pp 43–58
Niebank PL (1989) Growth controls and the production of inequality. In: Brower D, Godschalk D, Porter D (eds) Understanding growth management—Critical issues and a research agenda. Urban Land Institute, Washington DC, pp 105–122
O‘ Neill RV, Krummel JR, Gardner, Sugihara G, Jackson B, DeAngelis DL, Milne BT, Turner MG, Zygmunt B, Christensen SW, Dale VH, Graham RL (1998) Indices of landscape pattern. Landscape Ecology 1(3):153–162
Peiser RB (1989) Density and urban sprawl. Land Econ 65(3):193–203
Pendall R (1999) Do land-use controls cause sprawl?. Environ Plann B: Plann Des 26:555–571
Razin E, Rosentraub M (2000) Are fragmantation and sprawl interlinked? North American evidence. Urban Affairs Rev 35(6):821–836
RERC- Real Estate Research Corporation (1974) The costs of sprawl: detailed cost analysis. US Government Printing Office, Washington DC
Shahar A (1997). Metropolitan approach towards planning the tel Aviv urbanized area. In: Tel Aviv-Jaffa Researches—Public Policy and Social Processes, vol 2 (In Hebrew). Tel Aviv University Press
Schiffman I (1999a) Alternative techniques for managing growth, (2nd ed). Institute of Governmental Studies Press, University of California, Berkeley
Schiffman I (1999b) The limits of ideology: the fight for open space in Israel. In: Soden DL, Steel BS (eds) Handbook of global environment policy and administaration, Chap 29 Marcel Decker, New York, pp 559–578
Shoshany M, Goldshleger N (2002) Land-use and population density in Israel-1950 to 1990: Analysis of Regional and Local Trends Land Use Policy 19:123–133
Torrens PM, Alberti M (2000) Measuring Sprawl, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Working Paper Series, paper 27, London: University College, presented to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, Atlanta, GA, www.casa.ucl.ac.uk
Van Den Berg L, Drewett R, Klaassen LH, Rossi A, Vijverberg CHT (1982) Stages of urban development. In: Van Den Berg L, Drewett R, Klaassen LH, Rossi A, Vijverberg CHT (eds) A study of Growth and Decline, vol 1, Chap 3. New York, Pergamon Press, pp 24–45
Weitz J (2000) State Programs that Bust Sprawl and Measures that Can Be Used in Diagnosing Sprawl, 2000 APA National Planning Conference. www.asu.edu/caed/proceedings00/WEITZ/weitz.htm, Accessed 12/05/01
Wolman H, Galster G, Hanson R, Ratcliffe M, Furdell K, Sarzynski A (2005). The fundamental challenge in measuring sprawl: with land should be considered?. Profess Geograph 57(1):94–105
Wu F, Gar-On Yeh A (1997) Changing spatial distribution and determinants of land development in Chinese cities in the Transition from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy: a case study of Guangzhou. Urban Stud 34(11):1851–1880
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frenkel, A., Ashkenazi, M. The integrated sprawl index: measuring the urban landscape in Israel. Ann Reg Sci 42, 99–121 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-007-0137-3
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-007-0137-3