Toward Sustainable Development Trajectories? Estimating Urban Footprints from High-Resolution Copernicus Layers in Athens, Greece
Alessia D’Agata,
Daniele Ponza,
Florin Adrian Stroiu,
Ioannis Vardopoulos,
Kostas Rontos,
Francisco Escrivà,
Francesco Chelli,
Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo,
Luca Salvati,
Samaneh Sadat Nickyain
Affiliations
Alessia D’Agata
Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161 Rome, Italy
Daniele Ponza
Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161 Rome, Italy
Florin Adrian Stroiu
Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161 Rome, Italy
Ioannis Vardopoulos
Department of Regional and Economic Development, School of Applied Economics and Social Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), 33100 Amfissa, Greece
Kostas Rontos
Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mitilini, Greece
Francisco Escrivà
Soil Erosion and Degradation Research Group, Department of Geography, University of Valencia, Blasco Ibàñez, 28, ES-46010 Valencia, Spain
Francesco Chelli
Department of Social and Economic Science, Polytechnic University of Marche, Piazzale Martelli 8, I-60121 Ancona, Italy
Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo
Department of Social Sciences and Economics (DISSE), Faculty of Political Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale A. Moro 5, I-00185 Rome, Italy
Luca Salvati
Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance, Faculty of Economics, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, I-00161 Rome, Italy
Samaneh Sadat Nickyain
Planning and Design Faculty, Agricultural University of Iceland, Hvanneyri, 311 Borgarbyggð, Iceland
Land imperviousness reflects settlement growth and urban sprawl. Grounded on a comparative approach, a set of multidimensional statistical techniques were adopted here to quantify the evolution of land imperviousness from Copernicus High-Resolution Layers (HRLs) in a representative case study of Southern Europe (Athens, Greece). A two-way data matrix reporting the percent share of the surface land exposed to different sealing levels (101 classes ranging continuously from 0% to 100%) in the total municipal area was computed for two years (2006 and 2018) individually for 115 municipalities in metropolitan Athens. This matrix represented the information base needed to derive place-specific urban footprints and a comprehensive (global) profile of land imperviousness. Results of a Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) delineated a metropolitan structure still organized along the density gradient, moving from dense settlements in central locations with dominant land classes sealed for more than 90% of their surface area to completely pervious land (0%) typical of rural locations. While the density gradient became less steep between 2006 and 2018, it continued to aliment a socioeconomic polarization in urban and rural districts with distinctive profiles of land imperviousness. Intermediate locations had more mixed imperviousness profiles as a result of urban sprawl. Differential profiles reflect place-specific urban footprints with distinctive land take rates.
