Analyzing the Driving Factors of Urban Transformation in the Province of Potenza (Basilicata Region-Italy)

The main transformation dynamics in the province of Potenza territory (Basilicata region in the south of Italy) correspond to those of urban sprinkling. The urban sprinkling phenomena is typical of mainly mountainous internal areas with indices of settlement density and artificial coverage ratios very low. The temporal and spatial analysis of the urban sprinkling phenomenon gives a picture of the transformation dynamics of the territory, i.e. the phenomena of fragmentation and compaction of the urban territory. Through a logistic regression, the driving factors that have affected the dynamics of urban transformation and specifically the phenomena of fragmentation and compaction between 1998 and 2013 will be analyzed. The two transformation phenomena (dependent variables Y), will be analyzed separately and built on the basis of the variation of the sprinkling index in the analyzed period. In the model, eleven independent variables concerning physical characteristics, proximity analysis, socioeconomic characteristics and the urban policies or constraints, have been considered. The result of the logistic regression consists of two probability maps of change of the dependent variable Y from non-urban to fragmented or compacted. The indexes of the relative operational characteristic (ROC) of 0.85 and 0.84 respectively for compaction and fragmentation, testify the goodness of the model.