Recent trends in population dynamics and land cover changes in metropolitan areas

Abstract

This paper presents re-analysed, updated and revisited findings of previous internal reports for the TURaS Project (published internally on the project website: Krunić, 2013; Krunić et al., 2014a) and published papers (Krunić et al., 2014b). In this contribution additional research has been undertaken for the year 2012, with a view to analyse the relationship between the dynamics of the total population change, on the one hand, and the correspondence of the land cover change, on the other. The analyses were performed at the level of administrative units at local level (“municipalities”) within the metropolitan areas, i.e. cities of Belgrade, Sofia and Rome. The following indicators have been utilized to this end, viz.: absolute (total) population; population size dynamics; population density (measured via the number of inhabitants per unit of artificial land area, that is, “land surface”); the structure of land cover by category (Corine Land Cover); changes within the abovementioned land cover categories, respectively; and the ratio between total and artificial surface of the administrative units. Also, changes within the structure of migrants and commuters have also been analysed, but only for the City of Belgrade.