Landscape metrics in the analysis of urban land use patterns: A case study in a Spanish metropolitan area

Abstract Urban growth patterns are characteristic of spatial changes that take place in metropolitan areas (MA). They are particularly prominent in more recently formed MAs, such as those in certain locations in Spain, where the structure of the traditional city has undergone sweeping changes. Given the capacity of spatial metrics to characterize landscape structure, these metrics can be a valuable instrument to identify growth patterns in MAs and to evaluate possible urban growth options, based on spatial characteristics. This article focuses on a medium-sized MA (Granada, Spain), and explores the use of spatial metrics to quantify changes in the urban growth patterns reflected in three future scenarios (2020). The scenarios were simulated with a model based on cellular automata, which reproduced three urban growth processes (aggregation, compaction, and dispersion) and four urban growth patterns (aggregated, linear, leapfrogging, and nodal). The scenarios were evaluated with metrics that quantified changes in the spatial characteristics of urban processes. Thus, for example, the NP and AREA_MN allowed us to characterize the decreased aggregation of high-density residential land uses in one scenario (S1) and the linear growth patterns in industrial land uses in another scenario (S2). In this way, spatial metrics were found to be useful for the evaluation of urban planning.