Research on urban sprawl trends and landscape change in Pleiku city, Gia Lai province

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Vietnam Journal of Hydrometeorology, ISSN 2525-2208, 2019 (2-1): 37-47
Nguyen Ninh Hai1, Nguyen Tuan Anh1, Tran Nguyen Lam Khuong1, 
Bach Quang Dung2, Nguyen Minh Ky1*
ABSTRACT
Urban sprawl is an international phenome-
non happening principally in quickly developing
areas. A study on the spatiotemporal features of
urban sprawl is useful for the sustainable land
management, landscape and urban land plan-
ning. The present research explores the trends,
types and changes of landscape of urban sprawl
in the context of a rapid urbanization process in
Pleiku city and in the Central Highland of Viet
Nam from 2000 to 2019. The results show the ex-
pansion of the Pleiku city has witnessed a fluc-
tuation in its land uses through two decades. The
rate of land use in residential areas has been in-
creasing by 0.22 percent, infrastructures (0.61
percent), and other land (0.41 percent). This as-
sertion is further supported by the rapid reduc-
tion of the vacant land (1.14 percent) and
agriculture land (0.21%). Moreover, three types
of urban sprawl are distinguished by analyzing
covered urban area maps from the analysis of
Satellite data images and current land use maps.
Firstly, it is the outlying type with the area of
3.97 km2, almost 62.72 percent of the total newly
increased urban area. Secondly, the area of the
infilling type is 1.11 km2, which makes up 17.54
percent, and the figure for the edge-expansion
area is 1.25 km2, accounting for 19.75% of the
total urban sprawl area. Studying trends and
types of urban sprawl are useful to manage and
properly allocate for sustainable land resource
as well as urban land use planning.
Keywords: Urban sprawl, urban planning,
urbanization, Pleiku, sustainable management,
landscape.
1. Introduction
The term “sprawl” was first used by Earle
Draper of the Tennessee Valley Authority in the
context of a national conference of planners in
1937 (Maier et al., 2006). Sprawl was referred
to as an unaesthetic and uneconomic settlement
form. The term of “urban sprawl” was first used
in the opening paragraph of an article by the so-
ciologist William Whyte in Fortune magazine in
1958 (Robert, 2002). Planners have since then
used the term to categorize an urban develop-
ment, generating undesired social effects. Urban
Economists also adopted the term and added to
the debate terms like scatter, leapfrogging and
ribbon development.
Urban sprawl is a form of spatial expansion,
characterized by low densities, scattered and dis-
continuous “leapfrog” growth, and isolation of
land uses, encouraging the massive use of pri-
vate vehicles and strip-malls; the form of devel-
opment is found mainly in open, rural lands on
Research Paper
RESEARCH ON URBAN SPRAWL TRENDS AND LANDSCAPE
CHANGE IN PLEIKU CITY, GIA LAI PROVINCE
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received: August 12, 2019 Accepted: October 15, 2019 
Publish on: October 25, 2019
Nguyen Minh Ky
Corresponding author: nmky@hcmuaf.edu.vn
1Nong Lam University of Ho Chi Minh City - Gia Lai campus, Vietnam
2 Viet Nam Meteorological and Hydrometeorological Administration, Ha Noi, Vietnam
DOI: 10.36335/VNJHM.2019(2-1).37-47
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Research on urban sprawl trends and landscape change in Pleiku city, Gia Lai province 
the edge of metropolitan areas (Richard, 1989;
Ewing, 1997; Burchell et al., 1998; Hadly,
2000). The phenomenon of urban sprawl, often
known as suburbanization, started at the end of
the industrial era, and it has continued since
throughout the world, especially in Western
countries (Robert and Clark, 1965; Real Estate
Research Corporation, 1974; Edwin and Bruce,
1990). Many new urban patches have emerged
from the previous agricultural land and tremen-
dous changes of landscape pattern have taken
place within the study period (Lv et al., 2011).
In terms of different urban form, Wilson et
al. (2003) have identified three categories of
urban growth: infill, expansion, and outlying,
with outlying urban growth further separated
into isolated, linear branch, and clustered branch
growth. The relation to existing developed areas
is important when determining what kind of
urban growth has occurred. An infill growth is
characterized by a non-developed pixel being
converted to urban use and surrounded by at
least 40% existing developed pixels. It can be
defined as the development of a small tract of
land mostly surrounded by urban land-cover
(Wilson et al., 2003). Ellman (1997) defines in-
fill policies as the encouragement to develop va-
cant land in already built-up areas. Infill
development usually occurs where public facil-
ities such as sewer, water, and roads has already
existed (Wilson et al., 2003). Forman (1995) de-
scribes infill attrition as the disappearance of ob-
jects such as patches and corridors (Richard,
1995). An expansion growth is characterized by
a non-developed pixel being converted to devel-
oped and surrounded by no more than 40% ex-
isting developed pixels. This conversion
represents an expansion of the existing urban
patch (Wilson et al., 2003). Expansion-type de-
velopment has been called metropolitan fringe
development or urban fringe development (An-
derson, 2001). Forman (1995) discusses it as
edge development, defined as a land type
spreading unidirectional in more or less parallel
strips from an edge. The analogous land trans-
formation is shrinkage, defined as the decrease
in size of objects, such as patches (Richard,
1995). Outlying growth is characterized by a
change from non-developed to developed land-
cover occurring beyond existing developed
areas (Wilson et al., 2003). This type of growth
has been called development beyond the urban
fringe (Anderson, 2001). The outlying growth
designation is divided into the following three
classes: isolated, linear branch, and clustered
branch (Wilson et al., 2003).
Vietnam is entering into an important stage
of urbanization, space and population i ... framework of
Wilson et al. (2003) and Jun et al. (2011). These
three types of urban growth have been visualized
in this study including infilling type, edge ex-
pansion and outlying type.


















Fig. 6. Spatial distribution of three urban
growth types in study area in Pleiku city
Nguyen Ninh Hai et al./ Vietnam Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2019 (2-1): 37-47
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Research on urban sprawl trends and landscape change in Pleiku city, Gia Lai province 
Table 2. Land areas of urban sprawl
From Table 2, it can be seen that the whole
city has 6.33 km2 and divided into 16 urban
sprawl zones, accounting for 2.43 percent of
total land area and 22.57 percent of total resi-
dential areas.
The comparison among the three sprawl
types, as the majority sprawl - outlying sprawl
reach at 3.97 km2 and became the main sprawl
type, which makes up 62.72 percent of urban
sprawl areas. In term of edge expansion, the sec-
ond type of urban sprawl is 1.25 km2, which
makes up 19.75 percent. With regard to the in-
filling type, this type is 1.11 km2, which are the
smallest one with only 17.54 percent.
3.2.1. Infilling type
As for the infilling type, its area was smallest
in urban sprawl. It was prominent where expan-
sion occurred in the infilling of the remaining
open spaces within urban areas. 
This study has revealed that the infilling
urban sprawl regions consist of Thong Nhat,
Dong Da and Ia Kring wards with three locations
(from I1 to I3), as shown in Fig. 7, which were
transformed non-urban lands (Lands of Peren-
nial trees and Annual crops) within the urban re-
gion, made them more compact, and also slightly
changed urban boundaries between Pleiku city
and neighboring districts (Chu Pah and Ia Grai). 
In conclusion, in terms of infilling sprawl, the
relatively corresponded to sustainable sprawl
types (Roberto et al., 2002). The alternation of
dominative sprawl types indicated that urban ex-
pansion was becoming “relative” and “sustain-
able” when we consider the previous “waste”
character in land use.
3.2.2. Edge expansion
The edge enlargement sprawl, which was
practically saturated and compact, was the sec-
ond major sprawl type as shown in Fig. 8. Edge-
expansion emerged mostly in the adjacent urban
fringe (Nick et al., 2006). The most sprawl type,
which accounted for 19.75 percent of the total
sprawl areas, was the edge expansion sprawl in
Thong Nhat ward, and Dien Phu, Chu Hdrong
communes (from E1 to E3), where land was
ready to develop from the edge of the pre-devel-
oped area (Duong et al., 2018).
3.2.3. Outlying type 
The outlying sprawl, which includes inso-
lated type, linear branch and nucleated branch,
has been the summing almost 62.72 percent of
Types of 
urban 
sprawl 
Zones Area (km2) (%) 
Communes/ 
Wards 
Infilling 
type 
I1 0.56 8.85 Thong Nhat 
I2 0.3 4.74 Dong Da 
I3 0.25 3.95 Ia Kring 
Sum 1.11 17.54 
Edge 
expansion 
E1 0.35 5.53 Thong Nhat 
E2 0.35 5.53 Dien Phu 
E3 0.55 8.69 Hoa Lu 
Sum 1.25 19.75 
Outlying 
In1 0.46 7.27 Bien Ho 
In2 0.46 7.27 Yen The 
In3 0.31 4.90 Tra Da 
L1 0.52 8.21 Tan Son 
L2 0.41 6.48 Bien Ho 
L3 0.33 5.21 Dien Phu 
L4 0.42 6.64 Phu An 
L5 0.27 4.27 Chu Hdrong 
N1 0.36 5.69 Phu Dong 
N2 0.43 6.79 Phu Dong 
Sum 3.97 62.72 
Total 6.33 100.0 

 






 

 










 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

    





 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 

 






 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 








 




 


 






 

 










 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

    





 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 

 






 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 


 
 
 


 
 
 








 




 

Fig. 7. Infilling type in Thong Nhat and 
Dong Da wards
Fig. 8. . Edge type in Hoa Lu ward
the whole study area, which was considered to
be the majority sprawl type. Development out-
side the main urban region was a reflection of
rural towns adopting strategies to establish de-
velopment or industrial zones (Karen and
Michail, 2005). Outlying characterized the
newly scattered development that was far away
from the pre-developed urban zone which is de-
scribed below:
Nguyen Ninh Hai et al./ Vietnam Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2019 (2-1): 37-47
Fig. 9. Outlying types in Pleiku city (a) Insolated expansion type, (b) Linear spreading out type,
(c) Nucleated type
(a) (b) (c) 
a) Isolated type
The whole city has 1.23 km2 isolated areas,
which accounted for 20.34 percent of urban
sprawl in Bien Ho commune, Yen The and Tra
Da wards (from I1 to I3), as shown in Fig. 9a.
Dispersed settlements are ones where the houses
are spread out over a wide area. They are often
the homes of farmers and can be found in peri-
urban areas of Pleiku city.
b) Linear branch
As far as the other types of urban growth are
concerned, linear settlements in study area, the
buildings are constructed in lines shape, often
next to a geographical feature in a lake shore, a
stream or following a road in Tan Son, Bien Ho,
Dien Phu, Phu An and Chu Hdrong communes,
as shown in Fig. 9b. The number of liner settle-
ments has 1.95 km2, 30.81 percent of total urban
sprawl area, is considerably more common than
insolated type, which makes up 20.34 percent.
Most urban sprawl sites are located around
the sub-urban areas of Pleiku city, within or near
villages of ethnic minorities.
c) Nucleated or Clustered branch
The nucleated sprawl, where buildings are
close together, often clustered around a central
point, was the third sprawl type in outlying
which as shown in Fig. 9c. The area of the
sprawl type is 0.79 km2, which accounts for
12.48 percent of the total sprawl areas, was the
development sprawl in Hoa Lu ward (N1 and
N2). The location of nucleated settlement can be
determined by a range of factors, including being
easy to defend, close to a water supply or located
at main routes. This proximity makes communi-
cation quicker and easier than in linear and dis-
persed settlements. Because people are closer
together, it is also easier to do daily tasks such as
buying and selling of goods and services.
4. Conclusions and recommendations
Spatial and temporal studies on urban sprawl
or urban areas expansion are necessary for land
planning and urban planning in Viet Nam, which
is experiencing a rapid increase of land demand
for construction in the context of economic de-
velopment and population growth. Understand-
ing the change in the spatial configuration of
urban areas over time is essential for identifying
the effects of urban sprawl and landscape. 
In term of land use, the results of the assess-
ment of land use trends in the period of 2000-
2019 show that the land use and landscape of
Pleiku city has changed rapidly and significantly.
Perhaps the biggest change has been in the over-
all of settlement and infrastructures plots. Ac-
companying this shift in the composition of land
use trends has been a changing in its type, most
notably a reduction outside of agriculture in term
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Research on urban sprawl trends and landscape change in Pleiku city, Gia Lai province 
of land for cultivation of annual crops, perennial
trees and vacant land. In general, the trend of
land use fluctuations in the region is consistent
with socio-economic development of Pleiku
city.
Besides, the results revealed a remarkable ex-
pansion of urban areas between 2000 and 2019.
The different types of urban sprawl showed a
tendency of leading the shape of the whole land-
scape composed by the three different sprawl
types to become regular in outline in distribu-
tion. According to the sprawl quantifying mech-
anism, outlying sprawl was often appearing at
outside the chief inner-city area, that extended
urban coverage, have accelerated the increase of
urban size significantly. The expanse of infilling
was gradually transformed non-urban parcels
within the urban region for municipal use, the
urban patches gather gradually to be more com-
pact. The edge expansion was to develop from
the edge of the pre-developed area, the pre-con-
structed urban areas or far from the core areas.
Finally, because of the inadequate analysis of
urban sprawl and its effects, the mechanism and
manifestation of urban sprawl was not explained
in this study, thereby needing further considera-
tion. The continuing study on urban sprawl in
rapidly developing regions should concentrate
on the effects of the different sprawl types on
sustainable land use and urbanization, distribu-
tion of the different sprawl types. The links be-
tween socioeconomic driving forces and urban
sprawl configuration with social, economic, and
environmental effects have to be clearly under-
stood, which may play an important role in
urban planning in Pleiku city.
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