Geogaphica Timisiensis, vol. 19, nr.1, 2010 (pp.

115-124)


ON IDENTIFYING URBAN GROWTH AND LAND
COVER CHANGE IN THE POSTSOCIALIST ERA USING
GIS. CASE STUDY: FLTICENI MUNICIPALITY

Ionela GRDINARU
Universitatea Al. I Cuza Iai


Abstract: The dynamic of urban landscapes, in terms of land use/land cover change, is strongly
influenced by the underlying changes in economical processes and political factors. Consequently, in
a territory undergoing transition from state ownership and management of all resources to free market
based on individual property, such as the city of Flticeni post-1989, the likelihood of identifying
significant change in land use/land cover is high. Further, land use/land cover is highly pertinent to
urban planning regulations, economical feasibility, ownership over the land and urban growth
modelling. In order to document this hypothesis, I have studied the land cover within the urban
administrative borders in 2006 in relation to the corresponding data in 1985 at a reasonably fine scale
(1:5000) using a GIS software to create my own set of vector and raster data based on cadastral maps
(O.C.O.T. Suceava, 1985) and orthophotos (A.N.C.P.I., 2006), that were analysed according to my
research objectives. The analysis revealed that the urban landscape has been very dynamic during the
two-decade period, displaying consistent changes in most types of land cover/land use, most notably
in the case of urban built-up. Urban built-op scored a significant increase, and several agricultural
categories decreased, respectively. Given the scale of this research and the accuracy of the data, the
findings provide a solid basis for urban planners and future planning and research needs.

Rezumat: Asupra identificrii creterii urbane i a modificrii modului de utilizare a terenului
n era post socialist prin utilizarea SIG. Studiu de caz oraul Flticeni. Dinamica peisajelor
urbane din perspectiva evoluiei modului de utilizare a terenurilor este puternic direcionat de
schimbrile survenite pe plan economic i/sau politic. n aceste condiii, un teritoriu n tranziie de la
o economie n care statul deine i controleaz integral resursele ctre economia de pia bazat pe
proprietate individual, cum este i cazul municipiului Flticeni dup 1989, poate fi supus unor
schimbri consistente ale modului de utilizare a terenurilor ca efect al regndirii reglementrilor
urbanistice, a condiiilor economice, a proprietii funciare, etc., fiind de ateptat o cretere urban.
Pentru a testa aceast ipotez, am studiat modul de utilizare a terenurilor pe teritoriul administrativ al
oraului n 2006 comparativ cu 1985 cu ajutorul unui soft GIS, construind o baz de date cu layere
vector i raster, pe baza hrilor cadastrale (O.C.O.T. Suceava, 1985) i a ortofotoplanurilor
(A.N.C.P.I., 2006) disponibile, analizate ulterior n funcie de obiectivele stabilite. Studiul nostru a
scos n eviden o dinamic semnificativ a peisajului urban, cu creteri substaniale ale zonelor
construite, secondate de mutaii deloc neglijabile ale categoriilor de utilizare agricol. Avnd n
vedere scara de analiz (1:5000) i acurateea datelor spaiale, considerm c rezultatele noastre ar
putea constitui o baz solid pentru planificarea i amenajarea urban.

Keywords: Land Cover, Land Use, Urban Growth, Urban Planning, Dynamic
Cuvinte-cheie: utilizarea terenurilor, cretere urban, planificare urban, dinamic


On identifying of urban growth and land cover change in postsocialist era
116
1. INTRODUCTION

Landscapes are dynamic and their changes have been studied for a long time, with
various cognitive interests and by various scientific methods, some of these studies aiming at
understanding how land use patterns are developing (Burgi et al. 2009). Moreover, the
changes in urban landscapes are known to be fast paced, thus making it difficult for planners
to effectively manage the evolution of the urban territory. Consequently, the increasingly
complex relationship between urban function and form has lead researchers to focus on how
underlying economical and biophysical processes shape emergent urban patterns and their
dynamics, debating on how can policies most effectively shape urban morphology and
manage urban growth, expansion and decline (Irwin et al. 2009).
The overall increase in the human population and the continuous movement from
rural areas to the cities are the driving forces behind the expansion of cities worldwide,
resulting in higher human densities and changes in the landscape. Thus, a significant amount
of information on urban/urbanizing environments is in demand by natural resource
managers, scientists, planners and professionals associated with human health in order to
inform planning and management decisions required to create more sustainable cities
(McDonnell and Hahs, 2008).
In the particular case of Romanian cities after the downfall of communism, the
political and economical changes brought upon by the transition from a centrally planned
system to a more market-oriented one have had a deep impact on the urban system; albeit,
setting the grounds for significant changes in the urban land use. The replacement of state
property with individual ownership over land, the disappearance of state planned urban and
agricultural management, as well as the changes in laws and regulations concerning land use
and urban planning have acted synergistically, causing new landscape patterns to emerge.
However, these mutations have yet to be fully understood and evaluated, mainly due to a
lack in available spatial and temporal data (Kuemmerle, 2006).
This study sets out to identify the main changes in the land cover/land use within
the administrative territory of Flticeni, comprising urban (built up), agricultural (with
multiple subdivisions), forested and other classes of lands. The economical and social
characteristics of this town, previously heavily industrialized by the communist government
and also relying on its extensive state-owned fruit farms, both of which have dissolved after
1989, made it all the more vulnerable to the structural mutations that ensued. The lands have
been retroceded to their former owners according to the then newly drafted Law 18/1991,
that has been subsequently modified by a new set of regulations, thus resulting in the
disappearence of the state-owned farms (C.A.P., I.A.S.) and the division of land into
considerably smaller parcels, in an attempt to reconstitute the inter-war property over land.
One other internal force that has prompted a visible change in the urban landscape was the
replacement of older restrictive regulations concerning building with newer, more liberal
ones, aiming at allowing more freedom to the real estate market, but mostly resulting in
chaotic development that has often eluded plannning regulations (Tosics, 2005).

2. STUDY AREA

Ionela GRDINARU
117
Several traits make this medium-sized town an interesting case study for the land
cover/land use change after the collapse of communism. Flticeni is located in north-eastern
Romania, in the historical province Moldova, and is presently a part of Suceava county. Its
geographical coordinates are 47

27'27" E and 2616'18" N, respectively.

The location in a typical hilly area, namely the Flticeni Plateau (also known as
omuzurilor Plateau), is responsible for the distinct topography, comprising of a small
depression carved in the Sarmatian clayey-sandy deposits by the omuzul Mare river,
enclosed by asymmetrical hills (cuests) with a mean altitude ranging between 400 and 431
m, while the central area of the urban body is situated at approx. 350 m above sea level.
The city accommodates a population of 30.157 inhabitants (RPL, 2002), the vast
majority of which (94,3%) live in the city, while the rest of the population is divided equally
between the two component villages, arna Mare and oldneti.
The accessibility to the main regional road network is very high, considered that the
urban territory is crossed by European roads - E85 and E576, respectively -, linking the city
to the southern and western regions of Romania, while the rail network has a diminished
relevance for the urban development in this particular case, due to the fact that the
importance if this secondary route has decreased dramatically after the collapse of the local
industry that had previously created large fluxes of goods, as well as by introducing a gap in
the urban tissue.
The urban built up area has evolved from an initial nucleus that had developed on
the smooth, gently sloping SE side of Corneti Hill, later on expanding towards the higher
hillslopes to include the neighboring rural areas (villages) and the agricultural lands (mostly
pastures, orchards and arable land), as well as towards the valley of omuz that became
inhabitable subsequent to the construction of the two dams and the drainage of the
floodplain, helping to adjust the groundwater level (fig. 1).













Fig. 1 a) The location of Flticeni within Suceava county; b) The location of the
built-up area in relation to the main communications
a. Poziia oraului Flticeni n judeul Suceava. b. Pozioa ariei construite n raport cu
principalele axe de comunicaie





On identifying of urban growth and land cover change in postsocialist era
118


3. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study looks at how the urban land cover/land use has changed during a period
of roughly two decades (1985-2006), trying to identify the main trends associated to the
urban development in the postsocialist era.
The land cover data has been acquired by means of vectorizing microscale (1:5000)
topographic maps (OCOT Suceava, 1985) and orthophotos (ANCPI, 2006) using ArcGIS
9.1, thus creating polygon layers for each of the land use categories.
The land cover classes were established in accordance with the Romanian Cadaster
(ANCPI, 2009), as well as the particular traits of the region - for instance, the vast areas
occupied by orchards prompted us to furher divide this class by separating intensive and
extensive orchards, respectively. Consequently, we have obtained two vector representations
of the land cover for the 1985 and 2006, each comprising of 13 classes.
The vector files have been reclassified according to the needs of the analysis and
converted into raster representations for a better identification of the urban land cover
dynamic, by extracting solely the built up vs. agricultural and other uses and emphasizing
the developing areas.
In addition, we have digitized the elevation lines from the topographic maps as
vector layers and created a fine scale DEM, in an attempt to explain the present day land
cover in relation to the local geomorphology.

4. RESULTS

While several categories of land cover/land use were determined to have remained
virtually unmodified compared to the period pre-1989, such as the terrains covered
permanently or temporarily with waters (including the dam lakes, the channels, basins and
other categories), which is a logical evolution, considered that no measures have been taken
to alter these areas, in most of the classes the spatial dynamic has been apparent, either
positive or negative.
The highest increase percentages has been scored by built up areas, followed
closely by the the arable lands, mostly to the detriment of orchards and pastures.
The built up areas have scored a net increase of 140 ha (including solely the actual built up
parcels), or cca. 42% compared to the previous built up area (1985). While this category
comprises of several types of urban buildings, such as dwellings, industrial constructions,
public buildings, special edifices, etc., and their respective parcels, the expansion of the
inhabitable area (mostly individual dwellings) accounts for the majority of the urban growth
during the last two decades, but, as the maps below suggest, the growth has been relatively
diffuse spatially. Our statement is supported by the increase in the inhabitable area, by
39,92% in 2006 compared to 1990, as well as the annual building rate. The most dynamic
areas were the village-like districts of the city, such as Oprieni, Buciumeni, arna Mare,
etc., while the sole urban sector that has remained virtually unchanged is the east industrial
area.

Ionela GRDINARU
119

Tab. 1 The dynamic of the land cover/land use classes between 1985-2006 in
Flticeni
Evoluia categoriilor de utilizae a terenuluin Flticeni ntre 1985-2006
1985 2006 1985 2006
Built up 337,86 479,32 11,75 16,67
Arable 807,19 983,78 28,07 34,21
Pastures 595,47 417,95 20,71 14,53
Meadows 99,54 70,41 3,46 2,45
Extensive orchards 201,88 144,05 7,02 5,01
Intensive orchards 477,62 407,67 16,61 14,18
Forest and shrubland 29,2 48,36 1,02 1,68
Nonproductive land 9,86 7,86 0,34 0,27
Lakes 150,01 149,24 5,22 5,19
Channels 2,33 2,33 0,08 0,08
Basins/terrains covered by waters 31,63 29,18 1,1 1,01
Roads 111,98 125,33 3,89 4,36
Railroad 21,18 10,28 0,74 0,36
Land cover class
Area (ha) Percent from urban area (%)


0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
1985
2006
Built up Arable land
Pastures Meadow
Extensive orchards Intensive orchards
Forest and shrubland Nonproductive land
Lakes Channels
Basins/terrains covered by waters Roads
Railroad

Fig. 2 The land cover/land use percentage in 1985 and 2006 in Flticeni
Ponderea categoriilor de utilizare a terenurilor n Flticeni, n 1985 i 2006

The increase in percent arable - close to 22% compared to 1985 - is quite
remarkable, but can be explained mostly by the restitution of the land to individual owners
and re-parcelling into significantly smaller lots of the large parcels that had been managed
On identifying of urban growth and land cover change in postsocialist era
120
before 1989 by the local state-owned farms and cultivated according to solid agronomical
studies.
Due to the new property over land and the low investments in agriculture, and
subsequent to the dismantling of large parts of the fruit farms, the arable lands have
expanded in the marginal urban areas, replacing pasturelands on the hillslopes bordering the
city towards the east and the south in the districts arna Mare, oldneti and Buciumeni, as
well as orchards, both intensive and extensive, mostly in Buciumeni and Oprieni.
The most significat decrease, by over 200 ha between 1985-2006 (approx. 35%)
was scored, as mentioned above, by pastures and meadows, mostly replaced by narrow, yet
long parcels of arable land perpendicular to the elevation lines in areas with significantly
high slope gradients and prone to erosion (O.C.O.T. Suceava, 1978).
The orchards, which are considered to have a special relevance for this urban area,
given the economical profile of the city and their previous spatial extension - 19% of the city
territory in 1985 - , have been subdivided as intensive (large industrial orchards managed by
the local state farm prior to 1989, and later taken over by a private farming company) and
extensive orchards (including the parcels cultivated with trees spread between the houses,
very characteristic to the local urban morphology).
Their area has decreased by no less than 125 ha in 2006 compared to 1985, but by
different rates - 14,5% loss for the intensive plantations, as opposed to 28,7% for extensive
orchards. The latter can be explained mostly by the increase in the density of buildings or by
the conversion of some of these orchards into arable land. The areas where this is most
apparent are the marginal districts of the city, namely Buciumeni and Oprieni, but also
oldneti and arna Mare, to a lesser degree, mostly on terrains with slope gradients over
10.
The forested areas and shrubland are almost negligible in terms of spatial
expansion, occupying as little as 1,68% of the adminstrative territory of the city in 2006,
which is still an improvement compared to 1985 due to the fact that a park was set up by the
lake omuz II.
Nonproductive land only accounts for 0,27% of the total area of the city (2006),
including the local landfill, located by the extreme eastern limit of the administrative limit of
the territory (Antileti district), on one hand, and several areas on the hillsides with slope
gradienta as high as 25% or higher, undergoing severe erosion and landsliding (northern
cuest of Sptreti hill).
Finally, we have analysed the dynamic of the areas occupied by roads and railroad
(including the rail outbuildings). While the surface of the roads has slighly increased due to
the fact that new alleys have been laid down with the expansion of the built-up area, the
railroad zone has halved between 1985-2006, as a result of the elimination of several
industrial tracks that serviced the plants in the industrial area, such as the wood processing
plant, the chemical plant, etc.
Given the fine scale of the original data, the number of land cover/land use classes
(13) and the large number of polygons in my output maps, the difficulty of visualising the
data becomes apparent, so, in order to better understand the spatial spatial array of the urban
growth in terms of expansion of the built up areas, we have opted to reclassify the 13
categories listed above in just two major classes, urban and agricultural, respectively, for the
two years, and extracted the changes in a raster format.
Ionela GRDINARU
121

Fig. 3 The extension of urban built-up in 2006 and 1985 in Flticeni
Extinderea ariilor construite n Flticeni, n 2006 i 1985



On identifying of urban growth and land cover change in postsocialist era
122











































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Ionela GRDINARU
123
5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The dynamic of the various land cover/land use classes tends to confirm my initial
hypothesis stating that there has been a notable increase in the built up, as well as in arable
land percentages (approx. 42% and 22%, respectively, during the studied interval, compared
to the areas corresponding to 1985), while other uses, such as orchards and pastures, have
been subject to a significant decrease, both in terms of area and percentage of the urban
territory.
Among the trends identified by this research I mention: a) the significant growth of
the urban habitat, that occured mainly within the present day limits of the built-up area, set
by the local planning authorities, seldom exceeding those limits (e.g. in arna Mare district),
partially due to the fact that the urban tissue was sufficiently lax prior to 1989 in most
peripheral village-like districts; b) the fact that several classes of previously agricultural land
use have undergone spatial changes, either by turning the orchards into arable or building
parcels (or, in some cases, degraded orchards), by converting pastures and meadows to
arable parcels, including in geomorfologically unsuitable areas, or by building on arable
land; and c) the restoration of the inter-war cadaster and property over land that bounded
rectangular elongated parcels perpendicular to the elevation lines, leaving a lasting mark on
the urban landscape, most prominently in the marginal areas of the city, while also proving
unsuitable for soil conservation.
Overall, the city has been consistently dynamic in terms of spatial growth, while,
paradoxically, the urban population has been steadily decreasing since 1992, by an annual
rate of approx. 0,56% during the past 15 years (1992-2007). Also, several of the new
dwellings have been edified outside the urban built-up limit avoiding the planning
regulations, which now prompts the local authorities to extend these limits and update these
regulations.


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