Cities of East Central Europe were affected by excessive suburbanisation after the fall of the communist regime in 1989-90. This was also the case in Budapest where urban sprawl became the most significant spatial phenomenon. The mass outflow of younger and better off households from the core city to the suburban with higher levels of income and consumption has substantially rearranged the spatial pattern of demand for energy, transportation, food and services within the wider metropolitan region. The main objective of this presentation is to use quantitative research method to measure the level of unsustainability of limitless urban sprawl. In the course of analysis consumption data from standard household panel survey of 2003, 2013 and 2018 were used to quantify the ecological footprint (EF) of the core city, the suburban ring and rest of Hungary. Temporal changes of EF and the underpinning factors are also investigated. At the same time longitudinal changes of biocapacity was also measured on the basis of land use data. Results show increasing unsustainability at the metropolitan region level. This research concluded that policy makers in ageing societies with a highly centralized urban system like Hungary should launch programmes targeted specifically to primary metropolitan areas to improve environmental efficiency and encourage people to change their consumption behaviour.

Kovács Zoltán
University of Szeged and Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest

 
ID Abstract: 231