The term urban sprawl can be described by a lot of characteristics that are significant for this type of suburbanization. It includes for example an excessive and uncontrolled sprawl into the surrounding landscape, an excessive occupancy of fertile soil, insufficiently regulated urban development and the development of commercial buildings near the residential areas. Urban sprawl does not always need to be considered and understood as an unfavourable or undesirable phenomenon.
The aim of this bachelor thesis was to use the GIUS (Geospatial Indices of Urban Sprawl) methodology for the identification of urban sprawl in the area of Municipality of Extended Powers Olomouc (MEP Olomouc). The thesis was focused on the identification of this phenomenon in different parts of the city and its surroundings. Available data, by means of remote sensing and GIS tools were used especially with regard to the GIUS methodology. This methodology was originally created for assessing the degree of urban sprawl in the cities of New Jersey country.
The next step was to characterize the GIUS methodology and calculation of indices. The methodology consists of twelve indicators, namely Density, Leapfrog, Segregated Land Use, Regional Planning Inconsistency, Highway Strip, Road Infrastructure Inefficiency, Transit Inaccessibility, Community Node Inaccessibility, Consumption of Important Land Resources, Sensitive Open Space Encroachment, Impervious Surface Coverage and Growth Trajectory.
Before the analysis of the areas of Olomouc that were investigated, it had been necessary to modify the data which entered the individual indices. A variety of data sets (StreetNet, CORINE Land Cover 2009, data from diploma theses, RUIAN data in format of VFR, data200 a data TSMO) were processed in the ArcGIS for Desktop 10.1 from Esri Inc. Thirteen parts of the city had been chosen and eleven out of twelve indices were applied there. As for MEP Olomouc, twelve municipalities had been chosen and nine out of twelve indices were applied there.
On the basis of the given analyses and their findings, there were made calculations of the indices in Microsoft Office Excel. The standardization of final figures which was done led to the unification necessary for an objective assessment. After that, all the results of the individual indices have been put into graphs which now show an effective comparison of results from particular municipalities and parts of the city
The overall assessment of MEP Olomouc was positive. Out of the examined parts of the city, only the area of Slavonín obtained worse results. On the other hand, the area of Nový Svět u Olomouce reached the best results. The final results of the remaining city areas were close to so called smart growth. As for the municipalities, the village of Hlušovice achieved the best results. Satisfactory results were shown in the other villages too, except for Velký Újezd. The assessment of this village was unsatisfactory in terms of all the indices and therefore we can talk about urban sprawl in this case.