Resumen de Residential development in the peri-urban fringe: the example of Adelaide, South Australia
The peri-urban fringes of large metropolitan areas of Australia continue to experience major changes as natural and semi-natural landscapes are converted to built-up areas largely through increased residential development. These irreversible conversions are producing significant challenges for ecological and environmental protection. Yet, there has been little attempt to systematically analyse and model some of the key spatial features of these peri-urban fringes, especially in terms of examining factors underpinning new residential development. This paper attempts to fill this information gap using Adelaide, South Australia, as an exploratory case study. Using parcel-level data, we quantified spatial patterns of residential development during four consecutive periods (ten-year intervals between 1971 and 2010), revealing a gradual slow-down in the rate of new housing development after the 1980s. The effects of major roads and services, residents’ attraction to areas of high natural amenity, and previous residential development were estimated using logistic regression models and geographically weighted logistic regression models, respectively. Variation partitioning was used to examine the relative importance of three groups of predictors of residential development. Roads and services had the greatest impact on the pattern of residential development in the 1970s, while previous residential development ranked first among the three groups of forces in the last three time-periods. Influences relating to the attraction of natural amenities were of the least importance to peri-urban residential development during all four periods. These findings can help understand change mechanisms within peri-urban fringes and to develop corresponding policy responses to improve their management.
