Urban densification: Features, environmental problems, and prospects

Abstract

Aim and Scope: The article considers the ecological, social, and economic consequences of uncontrolled perimeter expansion of the city’s area. An alternative to the process of increasing the urban areas, which allows to solve the problem of land deficit, is the possibility of using the internal urban potential. One of the directions is the concept of a “compact city,†within the framework of which an effective, extremely possible use of territorial urban resources is expected. Materials and Methods: The undesirable impact from the infill construction is noted both during the construction of the facilities and in the subsequent period of their exploitation. Architectural practice shows the impossibility of infill construction neglecting within large cities; however, when implementing this process, it is necessary to take into account possible negative consequences and to make attempts to prevent and minimize them. Result and Discussion: The features, advantages, and disadvantages, as well as environmental problems of the process of urban development compaction, as one of the measures, allowing to solve the issues of land deficit, within the boundaries of the city, are considered in this paper, on the basis of the analysis and generalization of the world and Russian experience of urban development. Infill construction creates a higher anthropogenic load, leading to various negative consequences. Conclusion: In conditions of intensive urbanization of the modern world, the issues of the search for territorial reserves for the development of urban systems are topical.