In coastal areas, the tourism sector contributes to the local economy, generating income, employment, investments and tax revenues but the rapid urban expansion creates great pressure on local resources and infrastructures, with negative repercussions on the residents’ quality of life, but also compromising the visitor’s experience. These areas face problems such as the formation of meteorological effects known as heat islands, due to the soil sealing, and increased energy demand in the peak season. To evaluate the impact of urban growth spatial pattern and change, three strategic sustainable challenges—urban form, urban energy, and urban outdoor comfort—were selected. The progress towards sustainability was measured and analyzed in a tourist city in the Algarve region, Portugal, for the period 2007–2018, using geographic information. A set of 2D and 3D indicators was derived for the building and block scales. Then, a change assessment based on cluster analysis was performed, and three different trends of sustainable development were identified and mapped. Results allow detecting the urban growth patterns that lead to more sustainable urban areas. The study revealed that a high sustainable development was observed in 12% of the changed blocks in the study area. All indicators suggest that the growth pattern of the coastal area is in line with the studied sustainability dimensions. However, most of the blocks that changed between 2007 and 2018 (82%) followed a low sustainable development. These blocks had the lowest variation in the built volume and density, and consequently the lowest variations in the roof areas with good solar exposition. The urban development also privileged more detached and less compact buildings. This analysis will support the integration of 2D and 3D information into the planning process, assisting smart cities to comply with the sustainable development goals.

Coastal zones have experienced rapid urban growth over the last 50 years and this is expected to continue. The most important reasons for rapid...

The Sustainable Development Goals require us to rethink spatial planning policies’ effectiveness. This article proposes a reproducible method for assessing the effect of past planning practices and simulating future land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes with a Cellular Automata model. The originality of our approach is to systematically compare observed changes in LULC with the planning rules in force over almost a century of evolution. A quasi-exhaustive database was constructed at a very fine spatial resolution for the municipality of Portimão (Southern Portugal), including the location and changes of LULC categories, and the planning rules of the corresponding time period on nine dates between 1947 and 2018. The quantified measurement of the actual effect of planning rules enables us to identify other determinants of the evolution. Findings reveal that the policies established by the local government—which aimed to foster well-planned comprehensive urban areas—were not as effective as intended. The quantified discrepancies between planning recommendations and observed evolution help to simulate which LULC scenarios could be designed to reach the expected result in future planning policies. Our assessment method could be applied in other urban and tourist regions where land artificialization exerts strong pressure on the environment.

In this study, past and current land-use and land-cover (LULC) change trajectories between 1947 and 2018 were analysed in terms of sustainability using a unique set of nine detailed, high-precision LULC thematic maps for the municipality of Portimão (Algarve region), Portugal. Several Geographic Information System (GIS)-based spatial analysis techniques were used to process LULC data and assess the spatiotemporal dynamics of LULC change processes. The dynamics of LULC change were explored by analysing LULC change trajectories. In addition, spatial pattern metrics were introduced to further investigate and quantify the spatial patterns of such LULC change trajectories. The findings show that Portimão has been experiencing complex LULC changes. Nearly 52% of the study area has undergone an LULC change at least once during the 71-year period. The analysis of spatial pattern metrics on LULC change trajectories confirmed the emergence of more complex, dispersed, and fragmented shapes when patches of land were converted from non-built categories into artificial surface categories from 1947 to 2018. The combined analysis of long-term LULC sequences by means of LULC change trajectories and spatial pattern metrics provided useful, actionable, and robust empirical information that can support sustainable spatial planning and smart growth, which is much needed since the results of this study have shown that the pattern of LULC change trajectories in Portimão municipality has been heading towards unsustainability.

Urban development charges (UDC) are considered relevant taxation instruments that can improve the economic sustainability of urban areas and the financial health of the respective local governments. The economic formulation and justification based on the ‘direct benefit principle,’ the ‘accountability principle,’ and the ‘proportionality principle’ requires a methodology that can be supported by a geographic information system (GIS) application. This article presents the research output of a real case study – the municipality of Aljezur, Portugal – and the fundamentals of the GIS tool that was designed. This GIS-based methodology comprises a multi-annual infrastructure capital plan and an accurate zoning map for spatial differentiation of values combining municipal-wide and site-specific approaches, following ‘pay as the urban areas grow’ perspective applied to urban development and new buildings. It requires data integration of the urban planning process with infrastructure and urban growth data in order to manage and monitor the computation of this charge over time, thereby increasing the accuracy, the objectivity and the clarity of the process. The results obtained show that this UDC-GIS application seems well adapted to small municipalities. Its possible replication and use in other contexts require adaptations derived from different urban and taxation policy options and from different legal, organizational, technological, and informational local systems.

Nowadays, some European countries are facing the most complex process of land-use/landcover change – the urban sprawl, which in turn has a compound impact on the social and environmental structure of urban areas. This study intends to analyse urban sprawl in mainland Portugal through a comparison of urban land cover changes during the period of 1990-2006, using urban systems as spatial reference units. CORINE Land Cover maps were used to generate time series of urban land cover data. A methodology based on the interaction value was applied to identify the urban systems, using the commuting matrix supplied by the 2001 Census. Urban land cover change analyses, at the urban systems level, allowed for the identification of artificial areas spread patterns. Such spatial information is essential for rethinking new actions that may contribute to more efficient urban planning. Actualment, alguns països europeus estan afrontant el procés més complexa de canvi d'ús / cobertura de sòl, l' urban sprawl , que a la vegada té un impacte compost sobre l'estructura social i mediambiental de les zones urbanes. Aquest estudi té per objectiu analitzar l' urban sprawl al territori continental de Portugal a través d'una comparació dels canvis de cobertura del sòl urbà durant el període 1990-2006, utilitzant els sistemes urbans com a unitats espacials de referència. Han estat utilitzats els mapes de Corine Land Cover per generar sèries de temps de dades de cobertura de sòl urbà, i s'ha aplicat una metodologia basada en el valor d'interacció per identificar els sistemes urbans, utilitzant la matriu de desplaçaments subministrada pel Cens de 2001. Els anàlisis del canvi de cobertura de sòl, al nivell dels sistemes urbans, ha permès la identificació de patrons de difusió de zones artificials. La citada informació espacial és essencial en el replantejament d'accions que poden contribuir a una planificació urbana més eficient. Hoy en día, algunos países europeos están enfrentando el proceso más complejo de cambio uso / cobertura del suelo, el urban sprawl , que a su vez tiene un impacto compuesto sobre la estructura social y medioambiental de las zonas urbanas. Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar el urban sprawl en el territorio continental de Portugal a través de una comparación de los cambios de cobertura del suelo urbano durante el período de 1990-2006, utilizando los sistemas urbanos como unidades espaciales de referencia. Han sido utilizados los mapas de CORINE Land Cover para generar series de tiempo de datos de cobertura del suelo urbano, y se ha aplicado una metodología basada en el valor de la interacción para identificar los sistemas urbanos, utilizando la matriz de desplazamientos suministrada por el Censo de 2001. Los análisis del cambio de la cobertura del suelo, al nivel de los sistemas urbanos, han permitido la identificación de patrones de difusión de zonas artificiales. Dicha información espacial es esencial en el replanteamiento de acciones que pueden contribuir a una planificación urbana más eficiente.