Author:

Keywords:

residential land use, suburbanization, landscape typology, ribbon development, housing subdivision, GIS, spatial planning

Abstract:

This paper analyzes land use patterns of suburban housing in Belgium. Housing construction is traditionally dominated by private individual initiative aimed at homeownership. In order to understand residential land use in different parts of Belgium, two basic modes of development are discerned. On the one hand, ribbon development corresponds to a one-dimensional linear development pattern. Urbanization in the case of ribbon development does not require the preliminary construction of infrastructure. Residential subdivisions or allotments on the other hand are defined as two-dimensional planar developments. They require the preliminary construction of infrastructure to urbanize formerly open land. The importance of both modes of development is mapped out in GIS in four areas of about 20.000 hectares each, and for two periods (1950-1980, 1980 - 2007) based on historical cartography. The paper investigates if there is a correlation between landscape types and the distribution of the two housing development modes in the study areas through a statistical analysis of plot sizes. A qualitative analysis determines the role of spatial planning regulations and zoning plans in this distribution. The distribution of plot sizes in the areas under study for linear and planar development modes are identical, with the exception of the Polder-area where linear plots are significantly smaller than elsewhere. Variations in residential land use between areas are determined by the different shares both development modes take up in the total composition of the housing stock. These shares are determined very strongly by landscape types.