Spatiotemporal Approach to Assess the Impact of Urbanization Policies on Urban Expansion and Sprawl Using Remote Sensing in Tiaret, Algeria

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the spatial implications of urbanization policies on urban expansion and sprawl. While the shortcomings of urban containment policies have garnered considerable scholarly attention, policies promoting urbanization remain underexplored, with limited empirical research assessing their spatial impacts. To address this gap, we integrate key urbanization policies into a spatiotemporal analysis of 50 years, enabling a nuanced evaluation of policy interventions on urban growth and sprawl through the analysis of their rates, directions, and spatial patterns. This is accomplished using remote sensing techniques and GIS, complemented by standard deviational ellipse, multibuffer ring, landscape metrics, and other spatial indices, to quantify and analyze urban dynamics. The study focuses on Tiaret, a medium-sized Algerian city characterized by a dynamic urban governance trajectory, contributing to research on underexplored urban contexts. The findings demonstrate a significant correlation between urbanization policies and the rate, direction, and patterns of urban expansion and sprawl. Over four decades of policy-driven urbanization, the city experienced an overall average annual urban expansion rate of 28.2%, with urban sprawl dominating 99% of newly developed areas, which were marked by low density and high fragmentation. This study provides an evidence-based framework that quantifies how urbanization policies shape the extent, direction, and spatial patterns of urban growth, enabling planners to anticipate unintended consequences and design more sustainable, policy-sensitive urban strategies.