Suburban Patterns under the Influence of Diffused Urbanity

Abstract

Nowadays urban development has not been clearly formed. The penetration of urban uses into the rural space constitutes the modern phenomenon of urban “diffusion” and produces an indifferent landscape that leads to the exhaustion of the natural environment. In order to measure the impact of urban diffusion in the suburban landscape, the evolution over time of urban, out-of-town land uses along the main roads of Larissa during the period 1998-2015 is examined. To evaluate the impact of each sector of economic activity, as well as understand the structure of the suburban landscape in terms of land uses patterns, land uses were classified in economic sectors. According to the above processing, a rapid increase in the surface of tertiary sector activities was observed. The construction of stores shows significant growth over the period 1998-2007 and continues to develop until 2015 despite the general ec onomic recession. Furthermore, according to on-site documenting of land uses which took place during 2011-2014, new types of tertiary sector uses were id entified. Shopping centres, theme parks, hospitals and colleges located in city fringes, grouped into clusters and constitute the poles of creating new subur ban centres. To identify these “new centralities”, named as “epicentres”, a m ore detailed classification took place and the observed local clusters were illust rated. However, the epicentres don’t have a clear urban character and are less in n umber and density of uses in relation to the new urban activities of metropolitan centres. Therefore, the creation of special, organized areas for the reception of the emerging “epicentres” and randomly dispersed land uses is suggested. T wo wider areas of the suburb are considered as appropriate to install the planned areas for the reception of new developments: the area of Trikala Street and the area of Volos street.