A Survey of Bulgarian(National)Planning and Regulation Acts and Documents Concerning Urban Sprawl

In the last 20 years,the built-up areas of Europe have increased by 20%,while the population increased by 6% only.Given the fact that urban sprawl occurs when the rate of land-use conversion exceeds the rate of population growth,we can now talk about the existence of urban sprawl in Europe.In Bulgaria,during the period 2004-2012,the developers’interest in agricultural and forest lands located outside the development zones of different settlements increased in parallel with the construction development of urban areas,mainly around larger towns,resort and holiday areas.The low price of agricultural lands can be seen as one of the main reasons in this regard.The issues of the utilization of agricultural lands,their conversion into urban(construction)lands,and zoning have been defined by a number of national and local legal acts,which were passed and subsequently renewed/modified in a more recent period.The main act regulating the spatial planning and construction on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria is the SPA(Spatial Planning Act).The ALPA(Agricultural Land Protection Act)and its corresponding regulations provide an appropriate legal basis for the protection of agricultural lands and their yield.Overall,as different acts and regulations concerning issues related to the conversion of agricultural,forest,and protected areas are not in conflict,they may be said to have been harmonized.There are,however,some points which leave possibilities for uncontrolled urban growth.

Study of Urban Sprawl and Its Impact on Vegetation, Land Surface Temperature and Air Pollution Using Remote Sensing and GIS in Kathmandu Valley from 2015 to 2020

The Kathmandu Valley has seen substantial urbanization over the past decades while being the nation’s economic centre. Built-up areas have expanded quickly along with the population, having a significantly negative influence on the environment. Recently, Kathmandu was named as the most polluted city in Asia. Urban sprawl has had a negative influence on Kathmandu’s residents in several ways. The state of urban sprawl and the effects it has had on the Kathmandu Valley have been examined using land sat imagery. In this study, IDW was used in GIS to analyze the pollution status using data of PM 2.5 and PM 10 obtained from various monitoring sites. A supervised classification was used to create a LULC map of Kathmandu for the years 2015, 2018, and 2020. To assess the state of the vegetation and determine whether the Kathmandu Valley is being affected by urban heat, NDVI and Land sat temperature calculations were also made. The study’s results were obtained using remote sensing and GIS technology. The built-up area in Kathmandu Valley has grown by 20% over the past five years, impacting land use patterns and deteriorating vegetation cover. Due to the rise of built-up area, which is a good heat absorber, the temperature in the Kathmandu Valley is rising along with the degradation of the vegetation cover. The pollution in the Kathmandu Valley is at its worst, and residents are compelled to breathe air that is significantly more polluted than the prescribed limit.

Measuring urban sprawl in Beijing with geo-spatial indices

Concerning about the rapid urban growth in recent China, this study takes Beijing as a case and puts forward that urban sprawl can be measured from spatial configuration, urban growth efficiency and external impacts, and then develops a geo-spatial indices system for measuring sprawl, a total of 13 indicators. In order to calculate these indices, different sources data are selected, including land use maps, former land use planning, land price and floor-area-ratio samples, digitized map of the highways and city centers, population and GDP statistical data, etc. Various GIS spatial analysis methods are used to spatialize these indices into 100mx100m cells. Besides, an integrated urban sprawl index is calculated by weight sum of these 13 indices. The application result indicates that geo-spatial indices system can capture most of the typical features and interior differentia of urban sprawl. Construction land in Beijing has kept fast growing with large amount, low efficiency and disordered spatial configuration, indicating a typical sprawling tendency. The following specific sprawl features are identified by each indicator： （1） typical spatial configuration of sprawling： obvious fragmentation and irregularity of landscape due to unsuccessful enforcement of land use planning, unadvisable pattern of typical discontinuous development, strip development and leapfrog development; （2） low efficiency of sprawl： low development density, low population density and economic output in newly developed area; and （3） negative impacts on agriculture, environment and city life. According to the integrated sprawl index, the sprawling amount in the northern part is larger than that in the southern, but the sprawling extent is in converse case; most sprawling area include the marginal area of the near suburbs and the area between highways, etc. Four sprawling patterns are identified： randomly expansion at urban fringe, strip development along or between highways, scattered development of industrial land, leapfrog development of urban residence and industrial area.

Quantification of Urban Sprawl for Past-To-Future in Abha City,Saudi Arabia

Given that many cities in Saudi Arabia have been observing rapid urbanization since the 1990s,scarce studies on the spatial pattern of urban expansion in Saudi Arabia have been conducted.Therefore,the present study investigates the evidence of land use and land cover(LULC)dynamics and urban sprawl in Abha City of Saudi Arabia,which has been experiencing rapid urbanization,from the past to the future using novel and sophisticated methods.The SVM classifier was used in this study to classify the LULC maps for 1990,2000,and 2018.The LULC dynamics between 1990–2000,2000–2018,and 1990–2018 have been analyzed using delta()change and the Markovian transitional probability matrix.Urban sprawl or urban expansion was modeled using two approaches,such as landscape fragmentation and presence frequency for the first time.The future LULC map for 2028 was predicted using the artificial neural network-cellular automata model(ANN-CA).Future LULC was analyzed using landscape fragmentation and frequency approaches.The results of LULC maps showed that urban areas increased by 334.4%between 1990 and 2018.The Delta change rate showed that 16.34%in urban areas has increased since 1990.While,the transitional probability matrix between 1990 and 2018 reported that the built-up area is the largest stable LULC,having an 83.6%transitional probability value.While 17.9%,21.8%,12.4%,and 10.5%of agricultural land,scrubland,exposed rocks,and water bodies were transformed into built-up areas.Urban sprawl models showed that 139 km^(2)of new urban areas had been set up in 2018,49 and 69 km^(2)in 1990 and 2000.Furthermore,in 2018,more than 200%of urban areas were stabilized or became core urban areas.The future LULC map(2028)showed that the built-up area would be 343.72 km^(2),followed by scrubland(342.98 km^(2))and sparse vegetation(89.96 km^(2)).The new urban area in 2028 would be 169 km^(2).The authorities and planners should focus more on the sustainable development of urban areas;otherwise,it would harm the natural and urban environment.

Urban Sprawl and Related Problems: Bibliometric Analysis and Refined Analysis from 1991 to 2011

To shed light on the general patterns and trends in urban sprawl research,and to provide reference for future study,bibliometric analysis and refined analysis are conducted for publications in this area from 1991 to 2011.The general publication output,the global geographical distribution of the authors,the funding and institutions involved,the research areas,and the source titles are analyzed and discussed.Scholars in the United States and China have produced most of the documents in urban sprawl and these two countries are also the largest contributors in terms of funding and institutions.′Environmental Sciences&Ecology′,′Urban Studies′,and′Geography′are the most common research areas,and the journal titled Urban Studies has contributed the most articles.Furthermore,the refined analyses on the 500 top-cited and most relevant publications have revealed that research on urban sprawl is closely associated with the categories of′Urban form and development′,′Land use/land development′and′environment/ecology/biology′.Conclusions are made with respect to the basic paradigm of research on urban sprawl.The multi-disciplinary research into urban sprawl are expected to be more diversified and integrated.

Understanding the Urban Sprawl in the Mid-Size Latin American Cities through the Urban Form:Analysis of the Concepcion Metropolitan Area(Chile)

Latin American cities, like those from North America and Europe, experience problems of urban sprawl. However, few studies have dedicated exclusively to this phenomenon in specific cities, and this omission is particularly noticeable regarding cities not considered among the megalopolis of the continent. The present work analyzes urban sprawl through an urban form in the Concepción Metropolitan Area, Chile, between 1990 and 2009, considering local aspects that may have played a role in the process. The main empirical results obtained from this study reveal a metropolitan area that has expanded intensely over a 20-year period, growing from 9000 hectares to more than 17,000 ha for a 96% increment in the built-up area. The new urban surfaces consolidate a central conurbation that strengthens the role of the main downtowns, with less-intense occupation towards the sub-centers but in a structure that follows the transportation infrastructure. Over the last 20 years, the distance between the shapes has grown progressively by around 2 km, increasing the size of the ellipse by more than 1000 km2. In particular the complexity of the urbanized surfaces has grown, becoming more irregular in shape and less compact as they come to occupy larger areas. So our principal findings include: an increment of nearly 100% in the urban surface, the importance of a polycentric urban structure in the process of consolidation as a support for analyzing different spatial dynamics, and the growing morphological irregularity of the territory of the sprawl.

Impact of regional human capital and urban sprawl on forest——based on a forest conservation model

Metropolitan cities in China have become a major economic hubs with an unprecedented increase of land use and decline of environmental resources. Based on a simple and abstract forest conservation model, this paper attempts to explain changes of forest resources caused by urban sprawl. Through the research, it is found that high level of regional human capital is beneficial to curb urban sprawl. In this vein the model presents the urban forest conservation cost strategy at the Nash equilibrium of varied discount factor and parameter control.

Urban Sprawl and Fertile Agricultural Lands in Iranian Cities Case Study： Tehran and Karaj

The phenomenon of disproportional expansion of urbanized areas into undeveloped area or ＂urban sprawl＂ has become a very a remarkable characteristic of urban development worldwide in the last decades. Urban sprawl is the popular media as the source of numerous social, environmental, and economic ills. One of the most evident consequences of urban sprawl is destroying agricultural lands around cities. One of the extreme expanded cities in Iran is Tehran megalopolis and cities around it. Tehran is expanding in all dimensions especially toward western side where Karaj city is located. The area of study for this research is Tehran and Karaj cities where the event of urban sprawl is happening. Materials used for achieving goal are aerial photographs, satellite images, thematic map of degree of soil and GIS software. The result of analysis shows that Tehran area has expanded from 10000 in 1956 to 80835 hectares in 2006. Area of Karaj city increased from 125 to 26000 hectare in the same period and the population density of two cities together decreased from 116 to 43 people per hectare. Sixty five percent of areas of these two cities are consisted of good fertile agricultural lands with irrigation potential. Twenty four percent of this land （14900 hectares） is classified as rank or class 1, 38.1 percent （23725 hectares） has rank 2, and 37.9 percent （23605） has rank 3 in terms of fertile land. Based on soil class and potential of production of wheat, it is estimated that if urban sprawl and expansion of these cities decreased or the direction of expansion changed to unfertile lands （class 4, 5 and 6）, and the cultivation of land had continued, 270,000,000 kilos of wheat could be produced yearly. So, urban sprawl is seen as one of the potential challenge to urban sustainable development and cannot be urban sustainable form.

Assessment of Urban Sprawl Using Geospatial Techniques in Awka Town, Anambra State, Nigeria

Cities and towns in developing countries are experiencing an unplanned and uncontrolled development known as urban sprawl. This research examines urban sprawl in Awka metropolis, between 1986 and 2016. Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) of 1986, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) data of the year 2000 and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) 2016 were used for this study. Geographic Information System was employed for the analysis of the data. Result showed that Awka metropolis witnessed a remarkable growth between 1986 and 2016 from mere 3444.48 Km2 in 1986 to about 11,452.46 Km2 in 2016. This growth contributed to the sharp decline in farmland from 25,500.51 km2 (19.13%) in 1986 to 17,848.44 km2 (13.60%) in 2000 and further declined to 10,037.07 km2 (10.01%) in 2016. Bare surfaces witnessed an increase over the years of this study. This increase is as a result of clearing of natural vegetation for urban development, thereby exposing the land to direct contact with rainfall, leading to gully erosion in the area. Light vegetation also witnessed a sharp decreased from (38.53%) in 1986 to (8.53%) in 2000. It further decreased (8.53%) to (4.62%) in 2016. Therefore, increase in population led to the increase in urban sprawl in the study area. The study recommends that there is a need for a regular monitoring of urban sprawl and development in the study area by the state government especially with the aid of geospatial techniques for better decision making.

Urban Sprawl in Wadi Goss Watershed (Jeddah City/Western Saudi Arabia) and Its Impact on Vulnerability and Flood Hazards

Today, climate change imposes enormous challenges on a global scale. The interactions of the balances between the need for development, population growth, massive urbanization generate a negative impact on the presence of these climate changes. One of the direct consequences of these changes is the phenomenon of flash floods, a phenomenon that hit the city of Jeddah (city located in west of Saudi Arabia) twice, one in 2009 and the other in 2011, causing significant human and material damage. Floods are considered as a direct result of the combination of extreme weather and hydrological phenomena;in most cases, the magnitude of these floods is magnified by anthropogenic factors, which increases the risk. According to the risk triangle, risk is defined as a probabilistic function that depends on three essential elements: exposure, vulnerability and hazard. If any of these three elements undergo growth the risk also does so and vice versa. Exposure and vulnerability will depend on the presence of human activities in the study area. This study is conducted on the Wadi Goss watershed as it was one of the most violent basins during the 2009 and 2011 floods. Indeed, we present in this study the extent of the urban extension in the Wadi Goss watershed, since 1984 to days and this by the using Landsat images. Given the nature of the study area, we present a method based on the calculation of various indices followed by a classification operation in order to define the urbanized zones inside the Wadi Goss watershed and then estimate the urban sprawl inside the watershed. We also present in this paper, the characteristics of the watershed as well as the evolution of the urbanized areas exposed to the phenomenon of floods and their contribution to the changes of the hydrological behavior of the basin, and to increase the evolution of the risk of the floods. We have shown through this study that the urban footprint has increased from 90 hectares in 1985 to 850 hectares in 2015. This urban footprint represents 12% of the total area of the watershed. Most of the urban evolution was operated on the wadi area with a concentration in the western part of the basin and especially at its outlet.

Geospatial Assessment of the Impact of Urban Sprawl in Akure, Southwestern Nigeria

This study analyzed trend and examined the factors responsible for urban sprawl in Akure with a view to develop a user-friendly geospatial database for monitoring urban sprawl in the study area. Medium resolution satellite imageries derived from Landsat (TM) and (ETM+) comprising of four dates (1986, 1991, 2002 and 2011) were analyzed. The results revealed that built-up area increased rapidly by 43.31% from 5857.54 hectares in 1986 to 8394.21 hectares in 1991. It further increased by 72.02% from 8762.76 hectares to 15073.7 hectares in 2011. Field study conducted in 2013 involved in-depth interviews and questionnaires to stakeholders and residence respectively. The analysis showed that there was a weak negative relationship (r = -0.189, p < 0.01) between gender and “house ownership”, a weak positive relationship (r = 0.343, p < 0.01) between marital status and “house ownership” and a weak negative relationship (r = -0.159, p < 0.05) between “number of children” and “house ownership” in the sprawl location. Geo-spatial database modeled was tested by subjecting it to spatial analysis to show its capability to answer question pertaining to all the entities of the database. The study concluded that urban sprawl increased and if not reversed, might constitute greater social and environmental problems in the future.

Enhanced Urban Sprawl Monitoring over the Entire District of Rome through Joint Analysis of ALOS AVNIR-2 and SENTINEL-2A Data

Based on the continuation of our past study, the present analysis is conducted to examine recent effects of the urbanization process occurring over the entire district of Rome. Overlays of ALOS AVNIR-2 and SENTINEL-2A satellite images, collected over a 6 years period, were validated via Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques, in a particular procedure applied to urban land and agricultural transformations. The use of Copernicus SENTINEL-2A imagery has improved the previous results on urban processes, by reducing the uncertainty of the discrimination of land cover classes and facilitating the photo-interpretation. Statistical analysis was performed via the Urban Area Profile index in order to quantify the sprawl phenomenon, by defining several landscape metrics. This work, to be enriched in the future by means of complementary information available from Copernicus radar sensors, like the one onboard Sentinel-1, completes the series of observations on land use published by the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, which stopped back in 2008.

Modeling and Mapping of Urban Sprawl Pattern in Cairo Using Multi-Temporal Landsat Images, and Shannon’s Entropy

Cairo city, being the Egypt’s industrial and cultural center, has a problem of rapid urban sprawl. The city has an extremely high population density which is continuously increasing through informal settlements that grow by sprawling due to migration from the Nile Delta villages and the high population growth rates. The present study attempts to understand, detect and quantify the spatial pattern of Cairo’s urban sprawl using Shannon’s entropy and multi-temporal Landsat TM and ETM images acquired for the period from 1984 to 2013. Supervised classification was applied to extract the built-up areas and to measure the changes in the urban land-use class among the city wards. Shannon’s entropy was applied to model the city’s urban sprawl, trend and spatial change. The entropy values for the city’s electoral wards were modeled and used in an interpolation function to create an entropy surface (index) for each acquired temporal image. Such index indicates the spatial pattern of the urban sprawl and provides a visual comparison of the entropy phenomenon in such wards. Results indicate that Shannon’s entropy index increased from (1.4615) in year 1984 to (2.1023) in year 2013, indicating more dispersed urban growth, a sign of urban sprawl. The maximum entropy values are found in the eastern wards namely El Nozha, Awal Nasr District, Thany Nasr-District, El Salam, El Marg and El Bassatein. A regression analysis was carried for the population growth rate and the built-up areas. Findings help in understanding the sprawl patterns and dynamics among Cairo’s electoral wards and provide a visual comparison. The applied methodology provides explanations and facilitates tracing and measuring the urban sprawl which is needed by decision makers and city planners of mega cities.

Unearthing the impact of urban sprawl on transport carbon dioxide emissions:Fresh evidence from 274 Chinese cities

Urban sprawl has been a prevailing phenomenon in developing countries like China,potentially resulting in significant carbon dioxide(CO_(2))emissions from the transport sector.However,the impact of urban sprawl on transport CO_(2) emissions(TCEs)is still not fully understood and remains somewhat rudimentary.To systematically investigate how urban sprawl influences TCEs,we employ panel regression and panel threshold regression for 274 Chinese cities(2005-2020),and obtain some new findings.Our results affirm that the degree of urban sprawl is positively associated with TCEs,and this holds true in different groups of city size and geographical region,while significant heterogeneity is observed in terms of such impact.Interestingly,we find urban sprawl nonlinearly impacts TCEs—with an equal increase in urban sprawl degree,TCEs are even lower in cities with larger population size and better economic condition,particularly in East China.Furthermore,the low-carbon city pilot policy shows potential in mitigating sprawl's impact on TCEs.Drawing on our findings,we argue that to achieve the target of TCEs reduction in China by curbing urban sprawl,more priority should be placed on relatively small,less developed,and geographically inferior cities for cost-efficiency reasons when formulating future urban development strategies.

Delineation of urban growth boundary based on FLUS model under the perspective of land use evaluation in hilly mountainous areas

With rapid economic development,the size of urban land in China is expanding dramatically.The Urban Growth Boundary(UGB)is an expandable spatial boundary for urban construction in a certain period in order to control the urban sprawl.Reasonable delineation of UGB can inhibit the disorderly spread of urban space and guide the normal development of the city.It is of practical significance for the construction of green urban space.The study utilizes GIS technology to establish a land construction suitability evaluation system for Nankang city,which is experiencing rapid urban expansion,and outlines the preliminary UGB under the future land use simulation(FLUS)model.At the same time,considering the coupled coordination of"Production-Living-Ecological Space",and based on the suitability evaluation,we revised the preliminary UGB by combining the advantages of the patch-generating land use simulation(PLUS)model and the convex hull model to delineate the final UGB.The results show that:1)the comprehensive score of the evaluation of the suitability of the construction of land from high to low shows the distribution of the center of the city to the surrounding circle type spread,the center of the city has the highest suitability score.The results of convex hull model show that the urban expansion type of Nankang is epitaxial.In the future,the urban expansion will mainly occur in the northern part of the city.The PLUS model predicts an increase of 3359.97 hm^(2)of construction land in Nankang by 2035,of which 2022.97 hm^(2)is urban construction land.2)The FLUS model has a prediction accuracy of 86.3%and delineates a preliminary UGB area of 9215.07 hm^(2).3)We used the results of the construction suitability evaluation,PLUS model simulation results,and convex hull model predictions to revise the originally delineated UGB.The final delineated UGB area is 8895.67 hm^(2)and it is capable of meeting the future development of the study area.The results of the delineation can promote sustainable urban development,and the delineation methodology can provide a reference basis for the preparation of territorial spatial planning.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of the urban sprawl in a typical urban agglomeration： a case study on Southern Jiangsu, China （1983-2007）

China has experienced urbanization at an unprecedented rate over the past decades. Against this background, this paper demonstrates the multi-level spatiotemporal urban sprawl process from 1983 to 2007 on the perspective of urban agglomeration with a case study in Southern Jiangsu. Based on a combination of eight rounds of satellite images from 1983 to 2007, the presented results suggest the following three main findings： （1） At the prefecture-city level, the urban sprawl in Southern Jiangsu has presented significantly divergent growth patterns, with more than half of this vast growth occurring in the Suzhou prefecture-level city. （2） At the county level, clear spatial differentiations exist in the direction of the urban sprawl. The centroids of all county seats in the Suzhou and Wuxi prefecture-level cities have an eastward tendency （Shanghai oriented）, while those of the county seats in the Changzhou prefecture-level city tend to be westward （Nanjing oriented）. （3） At the township level, two convergent groups have gradually formed over time; namely, the low density urban zone in the western hilly land and the high density urban zone around the three central downtown areas. The urban areas close to urban cores tend to merge, showing a high-density convergent growth pattern, as do the western and southwestern townships in Southern Jiangsu, showing a low-density convergent growth pattern. All of these findings may be valuable for researchers and local authorities in providing reference for regional coordinated growth, environmental management, and urban planning decision-making.

A gravity-spatial entropy model for the measurement of urban sprawl

Since the mid-twentieth century, most cities worldwide have undergone a rapid expansion in urban land use. Along with the expansion, several problems, such as excessive loss of prime agricultural land and increasing traffic congestion have arisen. Thus, understanding and measurements of the expansion scale and its speed are crucial to planners and officials during urban planning and management processes. To measure such geographic phenomena, Shannon first devised entropy theory, and then Batty developed it into spatial entropy. The recently developed spatial entropy model, which was used to measure urban sprawl, introduced area to represent spatial asymmetry. However, most models did not consider spatial discretization, particularly the impact of distance. This study attempted to construct an integrated gravity-spatial entropy model to delineate distance and spatial diffusion impacts on population distribution. Then, we tested the model using Shanghai's temporal land use and community statistical data. Application results for the new gravity-spatial model show that it is a useful tool for identifying spatial and temporal variations of urban sprawl.

Research on the Measurement of Urban Sprawl with a Multi-Factor Indicator in the Context of Rapid Urbanization in China

This paper attempts to create a multi-factor urban sprawl indicator containing population, economy, land use, and infrastructure by using statistical data, and empirically measures the urban sprawl level of 69 cities in China between 2000 to 2014. It then analyzes the results from regional and periodic perspectives, and divides urban sprawl into four types as well as discusses their characteristics. The main conclusions are:(1) the multi-factor indicator is applicable to measure China’s current urban sprawl level;(2) urban sprawl of large and medium-sized cities is becoming serious, while this trend has been eased in recent years;(3) the urban sprawl level and trend of large and medium-sized cities obviously differ from each other in regional perspective;(4) different types of urban sprawl present different sprawl structural characteristics.

The Use of GIS, Remote Sensing and Shannon’s Entropy Statistical Techniques to Analyze and Monitor the Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Urbanization and Sprawl in Zarqa City, Jordan

The aim of this study is to understand and quantify the urban growth and trend in Zarqa city during the period 1990 to 2014 and to produce land use and cover map for the studied area through the use of the GIS and remote sensing techniques with Shannon’s Entropy statistical method. For this purpose, three Landsat images were used for land use classification by using supervised maximum likelihood classification techniques to extract and assess the changes of urban lands. The results indicated that the urban areas in Zarqa city increased by 22.15% in the period from 1990 to 2005 and 14.86% from 2005 to 2014, with a rate of expansion of 0.96 and by 1.31 km2/ year for the two time periods respectively. The entropy value increased from 1.20 in the first period to 1.38 in the second, while the entropy value for the NE, NW, SE and SW zones showed high values, which confirmed that urban expansion and sprawling had existed in the past twenty four years in the study area. Urban expansion and sprawl cause different impacts on the natural, economic, and aesthetic aspects of the city which lead and guide government officials and planners to understand and monitor current growth and visualize future growth.

Driving mechanism and boundary control of urban sprawl

Since the reform and opening-up, China＇s economy has achieved remarkable development and so does the urbanization. However, there is an unavoidable contradiction between urban sprawl and the protection of arable land and the environment. By redefining the urban sprawl boundary, this paper is to provide a solution for the conflict above on the China＇s urbanization context. The ideal boundary, moderate boundary and limit boundary are defined for urban sprawl in space. Taking Nanjing city as a case, the three urban sprawl boundaries are estimated in this paper based on the calculation of agricultural land resources value in Nanjing. The results show that 1） the integrated value of agricultural （cultivated） land resources in Nanjing is 1.55× 10^7 CNg·hm^-2, the economic value accounts for only 8.74% of the integrated value, while 91.26% of the integrated value has not revealed itself due to the existing institutional arrangements, policy distortions, and imperfect land market; 2） it is difficult to define the ideal and moderate boundaries due to the relatively low price of North Nanjing. In South Nanjing the land price is expensive and the ideal, moderate and limit boundaries are expanded to Jiangning, Qixia, and Yuhuatai; 3） the city scale of South Nanjing should be limited within 5.82 × 10^4 hm^2, which is roughly the same as the designated size of 5.81 × 10^4 hm^2 in the urban planning. It is suggested that the rational scope of urban expansion should be controlled within the moderate boundary.