Recognition and Assessment of urban Sprawl Using factor analysis model (Case study: Shiraz city)

The growth and expansion of the city is a process that affects all city structures, directly or indirectly. So, if this process does not pass the correct flow, it has many adverse effects on the city and its components. Sprawl growth and development is one of the forms of urban growth, which cause encroachment of the open spaces of the surrounding area and agricultural and rural lands to the physical body of the city and creates sprawl, due to several factors such as the lack of urban growth management programs and lack of unified and comprehensive laws on monitoring and controlling the growth of urbanization. The negative consequences of the sprawl are the destruction of fertile lands and nonrenewable resources, the conversion of agricultural land and natural resources to urban land, the threat and reduction of social cohesion, spatial separation, the removal of open spaces, increasing the dependence on the car and increasing the fuel and energy consumption. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to analyze and identify the sprawl phenomenon and measure the effective indicators on this phenomenon in Shiraz. The research method is descriptive-analytical and the dispersion rate is assessed by using 20 indicators in six groups (density, accessibility, centering, land use mixing, abnormality of built areas and activity space) in the Arc GIS environment and based on weighting factors, the severity and weakness of the sprawl in 111 neighborhoods of the city were determined by factor analysis method. The results of the research show that the physical development process of Shiraz over the past few decades is sporadically overlooked and the highest parts are in the north-west and south-east axis of Shiraz.