Measuring sprawl in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: An urban sprawl index for comparative purposes

This research proposes an urban sprawl index as a tool to comparatively analyse the extent of urban sprawl between cities and towns of different sizes, making use of cadastre, land use and population data over time. The Urban Sprawl Index (USI) for the Western Cape put forward by this research will enable the comparative measurement of the extent of urban sprawl proportionately between the Metropolitan and local municipalities in the province and thereby aid in understanding trends in formal and informal development processes, as well as the spatial planning instruments applied to guide development.