The issue of urban sprawl has been discussed extensively in planning circles over the past two decades. The result of sprawled cities is far-reaching. Some see it is a major contributor to air pollution and traffic congestion and it encourages development on prime agricultural land and floodplains. Others discuss the monetary implications of sprawl calculating costs of infrastructure, fuel and the time spent traveling. In South Africa, major urban areas have one important feature in common with this North American, Australian and British phenomenon- that urban growth has taken the form of dispersed residential accretion at the city edge, however, the reasons for sprawling urban areas in South Africa can be attributed to an intricate and complicated cultural and political history. Following a unique situation in South African urban areas, the Gauteng Provincial Government recognised the growing pressure to rectify the situation in order to achieve a more equitable urban environment to all its citizens. One of the initiatives proposed was the containment of urban growth inside the Province. The idea of a more compact urban environment held the promise of increased accessibility to urban opportunities, greater viability of public transport, as well as environmental advantages. Together with its three metropolitan municipalities, Gauteng province proved to be pioneer in initiating and implementing an “Urban Growth Management” approach (The Gauteng Urban Edge) in its urban areas, however, this approach remains widely debated and controversial throughout planning circles in South Africa. The study explores the reasons and rationales underpinning the implementation of a growth management approach as gathered from international literature, and whether these reasons were in fact informing the Gauteng Provincial government’s reasons for initiating an urban edge. It also considers the different tools and mechanisms available for urban growth management and how these tools and mechanisms and their respective objectives informed the idea behind an urban edge specifically. The study further reviews the opinions and ideas of role-players who were involved in delineating and implementing the urban edge and based on these factors, attempts to draw some conclusions on what could possibly have improved the process of initiating and implementing the Gauteng Urban Edge. Copyright / Dissertation (MT&RP)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted

The effects of expansion of cities on the fringe area are still the common problems of several countries as well as Turkey. The main problem stemming from rapid urban growth was described as urban sprawl that has been used as waste of land, time, and natural resources. Although sprawl becomes usually unplanned, uncontrolled, and uncoordinated, it can be claimed that some local and national government policies triggers the urban sprawl by creating planned areas more than required. The growth management policies are utilized to provide a responsible balance between development and the infrastructure needed to manage the impacts of development and to control urban sprawl. Four types of urban containment techniques have been used in several countries to control urban sprawl according to fundamental purposes of where to grow and where not to grow. These are greenbelt, urban growth boundary, urban service area and adjacent area. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the impacts of urban growth on physical development of metropolitan cities and to critically evaluate the raison d&#039 / &ecirc / tre and changing meaning of adjacent areas concept in Turkish urban planning experience in a historical context. Ankara planning experiences are examined as a case study to what extent adjacent area is a functional and effective tool to control sprawl.

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