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Development and economic growth with less urban sprawl — simulation of urban land‑use development in the Algarve region (Portugal) Different scenarios for regional development to 2020 have been simulated to evaluate the impacts of economic trends and spatial policies on land use: • Scenario A Business as usual: continuation of current conditions, where agriculture, fisheries and tourism are the main economic activities. Internal demographic movements are the major drivers of land‑use changes. GDP increases by 2.9% per year. • Scenario S Scattered development: urban land-take is the result of high population growth, especially due to the influx of tourists, and economic growth both in the industrial and service sectors. Increase in GDP is twice that in Scenario A at 6 %. • Scenario C Compact development: spatial policies and restrictive planning aim at concentrating urbanisation in designated areas. GDP growth is as in Scenario S, 6 %.
Example of different urban patterns in the neighbouring areas of the Netherlands (rather compact) and Belgium (rather sprawled), 2006
The maps shows the exceedances of critical loads for eutrophication due to the deposition of nutrient N in the 2000 and 2010
The left diagram shows a ranking from relatively less noise problems perceived down to cities with highly perceived noise problems (dataset 2). The right diagram shows in addition the reported noise data under the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC (dataset 1). The colour of the city names indicates if the population moves rather towards the centres or to the edge or develops similarly in the centre and the edge (dataset 3)
The graph shows the proportion of cycle trips to work in relation of all trips to work in selected cities
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The left diagram shows a ranking from relatively less noise problems perceived down to cities with highly perceived noise problems (dataset 2). The right diagram shows in addition the reported noise data under the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC (dataset 1). The colour of the city names indicates if the population moves rather towards the centres or to the edge or develops similarly in the centre and the edge (dataset 3)
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For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/find/global or scan the QR code.
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