Tätt eller brett? : en forskningsförberedande studie i effekter av kontinuerlig tätortsutglesning

Abstract: Cities are expanding at a rapid speed as the urbanisation trend continues throughout the world. Large land aerials are being claimed in favor of urban sprawl as an answer to increasing inhabitant numbers in cities. The EU has noted that urban sprawl is one of the greatest challenges to overcome right now, mainly because of the consequences caused by sealing of natural surfaces following urban expansion. The majority of the world’s population is now living in cities and Sweden is no exception. The planning culture in the latter half of the 20th century, has created sprawled and sparse urban structures due the car’s entry in society - also in Sweden. This tradition has in Sweden meant that cities have increased in size more than in population numbers. However, in recent decades, this trend has been challenged by urban planning principles aimed to reduce land use. Amongst these, densification may be the most central principle. This study aims to investigate the dichotomy of densification and urban sprawl in Sweden. It is divided into two parts - one which has the characteristics of a preparatory research paper and focuses on mapping consequences of continuous urban sprawl, and driving forces behind the urban structure and factors that affect long-term planning. The second focuses on qualitative analyses of municipal planning strategies and examines how municipalities’ preconditions seem to work for efficient land use and further limit urban sprawl of Swedish urban areas. With the municipality of Lund as a case study, the general/master plan has been investigated by qualitative text analysis and geographical information systems. The study has shown that urban sprawl has numerous societal consequences such as reduced opportunities for future food supply, increased public costs for municipalities, increased emissions and dependence on fuel, reduction of ecosystem services, etc. The qualitative analyses show that the general/master plan lacks authority as a governing document and that strategies presented in the plan may be abandoned due to a high degree of abstraction. It has also emerged from the study that evidence based methods do not seem to have an obvious place in municipal planning.