Cartography and Spatial Analysis of Urban Sprawl

This article is aimad at exploring urban sprawl as a new leading behavior pattern of cities. Undoubtedly, the traditional city is changing to a landscape dominated by new urban development of low density, road networks and shopping centers. Geographic information technologies have to face the cartographic and quantitative analysis of this new urban spatial structure This article presents a methodology to identify patterns of urban sprawl in the Concepción Metropolitan Area (CMA, Chile), based on four dimensions: Density, Continuity, Centrality and Proximity. Dispersion is defined by low values of density and continuity and high values of centrality and proximity. Its main characteristics are determined by statistical analysis, which define a spatial classification of dimensions in different urban developments and the factor or factors that affect more this hypothetical behavior.