Abstract
This study aims to determine the drivers of urban sprawl, additionally environmental impacts and socio-economic impacts of urban sprawl for Konya province in terms of three central counties. A comprehensive questionnaire, consistent with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique, was designed to get the knowledge, experiences, values, interests and suggestions of experts as the key stakeholders of urban development regarding the urban sprawl problematic occur in the city. A total of 73 local authority experts participated into the survey. The findings show that urban sprawl was accepted as a threat for Konya by the experts. Macro-economic factors such as economic growth was envisaged as the primary driver of urban sprawl. The absence of upper limit for controlling urban sprawl has been highlighted. Thus, “Development of long-term integrated plans promoting sustainable development and the limitation of urban sprawl” was proposed as the most useful precaution for combating urban sprawl that could be taken by stakeholders. On the other hand, “conserving agricultural lands” was admitted as the most significant precaution at the scale of local authorities and Ministry of Environment and Urbanization for combating urban sprawl. Experts’ overall evaluations regarding the level of urban sprawl explicitly show that Karatay was the most sprawled county conversely Selçuklu. The applied methodology also separately enables the weights of urban sprawl effect factors for each county. Results revealing the drivers, effects and the dimensions of urban sprawl in Konya are useful for local municipalities to route urban expansion in a sustainable manner.
