3 ECTS credits
90 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4018392EER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.
This course focuses on the problems of and methods for controlling spatial development and urbanization. Starting from the international literature on the causes and consequences of urban sprawl, we descend to the Belgian context. The phenomena of urban sprawl, suburbanization and peri-urbanization are viewed from different perspectives. Aesthetic, socio-cultural, urban-economic and ecological aspects are discussed, while connections are established with phenomena such as urban flight, social segregation, flooding, accessibility and road safety. Particular attention is paid to the interrelationships between urban form and accessibility, mobility, and sustainability.
Then, possible solutions are outlined, starting from a conceptual approach to compact development. Instruments and policies aimed at discouraging sprawl and encouraging compact development are discussed. Green belts, land use planning, urban growth boundaries, transferable development rights and transit-oriented development are explained and positioned relative to the instruments that are or have been used in planning practice in Belgium.
The course and syllabus is structured around the following themes:
• Causes and costs of sprawl
• Fragmentation and peri-urbanization in the Belgian and Flemish context
• Transport and urban form
• The compact city
• Monocentric and polycentric development
• Containing urban development
• Transit oriented development and the eco-city
From the students, a limited contribution is expected in the form of a brief plenary presentation and discussion of a form of sprawl or an example of anti-sprawl policy in a municipality or community with which they are familiar.
An electronic syllabus will be available on Canvas. The syllabus consists of book chapters and scientific articles, and should be considered together with the posted slides as the course material, which should be studied for the exam (except methodological research sections in some of the research articles, which will be specified during class).
• Students can interpret and explain problems associated with uncontrolled urbanization, and are able to translate theoretical approaches to urban sprawl into planning policy and practice.
• Students are able to recognize various forms of sprawl, and to identify and assess the causes and consequences of the phenomenon.
• Student can explain the interrelationships between accessibility, mobility, and urban form.
• Students have gained insight into the conceptual basis of various forms of compact development and into the instruments designated to facilitate compact development.
• Students can position these instruments within common planning practices in Belgium.
• Students are able to use the insights gained in drafting a regional development perspective or a spatial vision.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 80% of the final mark.
Practical Exam determines 20% of the final mark.
Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
Within the Practical Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
•Written exam determines 80% of the final mark.
•In class presentation determines 20% of the final mark.
Partial marks for the in class presentation, if the student obtains at least half of the score (for this part), are transferred to the second session. Students may not relinquish partial marks.
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Biology: Human Ecology
Master of Biology: Ecology and Biodiversity
Master of Urban Design and Spatial Planning: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)