IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p16063-d1282518.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban Growth in a Mediterranean Island-State: A Data-Driven Study of Malta’s Development Permits in the Last Thirty Years

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Pace

    (Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta, MSD 2080 L-Imsida, Malta)

  • Maria Attard

    (Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Malta, MSD 2080 L-Imsida, Malta
    Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, University of Malta, MSD 2080 L-Imsida, Malta)

  • Michel Camilleri

    (Department of Computer Information Systems, Faculty of Information & Communication Technology, University of Malta, MSD 2080 L-Imsida, Malta)

  • Gianluca Valentino

    (Department of Communications and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Information & Communication Technology/Data Science Research Platform, University of Malta, MSD 2080 L-Imsida, Malta)

Abstract

Land is a natural resource, and settlement development is central for human activities. The growth of settlements comes at the expense of natural and agricultural land. Understanding urban growth dynamics, defined in this study as new urban development, can lead to an increased awareness of the stresses on land resources and the suitability of current land use policies. It can also reflect how changes in the economic cycles and planning policies can influence these dynamics. This is even more critical in small island states, where land is a scarce resource. This study uses data extracted from development-planning applications between 1993 and 2019 in order to understand urban growth in the island-state of Malta. A methodology was developed to (i) use web-scraping techniques to extract development-planning applications data from a public online database in order to define development descriptors, (ii) establish keywords that imply growth within the urban area, and (iii) analyse growth in view of local planning zones and regulations. The results show that over the years, there has been a decrease in the share of granted development-planning applications that lead to the growth of the urban area when compared to those granted applications permitting other forms of development, such as that linked to minor modifications to existing buildings and restoration works amongst others. Nonetheless, the absolute number of granted development-planning applications resulting in growth has increased, particularly in the last construction boom (post 2013). The share of applications denoting growth granted within the development zone has remained stable throughout the years. The years with the highest numbers of permits granted outside the development zone, where there was a disposition against development, were 2017 and 2018. In conclusion, the trends and patterns resulting from development cycles were analysed and discussed. The outcomes of this work will lead to better measurement of urban growth in Malta and assess the efficacy of current national development-planning policies. This is in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 11, which aims at making “cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable”. The research specifically addresses Target 11a, which is focused on supporting “positive economic, social, and environmental links between urban, peri-urban, and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning”.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Pace & Maria Attard & Michel Camilleri & Gianluca Valentino, 2023. "Urban Growth in a Mediterranean Island-State: A Data-Driven Study of Malta’s Development Permits in the Last Thirty Years," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:16063-:d:1282518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/16063/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/16063/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wegmann, Jake & Jiao, Junfeng, 2017. "Taming Airbnb: Toward guiding principles for local regulation of urban vacation rentals based on empirical results from five US cities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 494-501.
    2. Melissa Shakro, 2013. "Tracking neighborhood development and behavioral trends with building permits in Austin, Texas," Journal of Maps, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 189-197, June.
    3. Brian Micallef & Reuben Ellul & Nathaniel Debono, 2021. "A hedonic assessment of the relative importance of structural, locational and neighbourhood factors on advertised rents in Malta," International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(1), pages 203-230, April.
    4. Aaron G Grech, "undated". "The evolution of the Maltese economy since independence," CBM Working Papers WP/05/2015, Central Bank of Malta.
    5. Strauss, Jack, 2013. "Does housing drive state-level job growth? Building permits and consumer expectations forecast a state’s economic activity," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 77-93.
    6. Duong H Nong & Christopher A Lepczyk & Tomoaki Miura & Jefferson M Fox, 2018. "Quantifying urban growth patterns in Hanoi using landscape expansion modes and time series spatial metrics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Aaron G. Grech (ed.), 2015. "The evolution of the Maltese Economy since Independence," CBM Ebooks, Central Bank of Malta, edition 1, number 02.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brian Micallef, 2016. "Property price misalignment with fundamentals in Malta," CBM Working Papers WP/03/2016, Central Bank of Malta.
    2. Reuben Ellul, "undated". "Timing the Maltese business cycle: A historical perspective," CBM Working Papers WP/01/2021, Central Bank of Malta.
    3. Noel Rapa, "undated". "The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union – Its short-to-medium term impact on the Maltese economy," CBM Policy Papers PP/01/2017, Central Bank of Malta.
    4. Aaron G Grech, "undated". "Understanding the Macroeconomic Impact of Migration in Malta," CBM Policy Papers PP/04/2015, Central Bank of Malta.
    5. Reuben Ellul, 2018. "Forecasting unemployment rates in Malta: A labour market flows approach," CBM Working Papers WP/03/2018, Central Bank of Malta.
    6. Aaron G Grech & Noel Rapa, "undated". "Trends in Malta’s current account and their underlying causes," CBM Policy Papers PP/03/2016, Central Bank of Malta.
    7. Mr. Serkan Arslanalp & Mr. Marco Marini & Ms. Patrizia Tumbarello, 2019. "Big Data on Vessel Traffic: Nowcasting Trade Flows in Real Time," IMF Working Papers 2019/275, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Owen Grech & Noel Rapa, 2016. "STREAM: A structural macro-econometric model of the Maltese economy," CBM Working Papers WP/01/2016, Central Bank of Malta.
    9. William Gatt & Owen Grech, "undated". "An assessment of the Maltese housing market," CBM Policy Papers PP/02/2016, Central Bank of Malta.
    10. Ilias Georgakopoulos, 2019. "Income and wealth inequality in Malta: evidence from micro data," CBM Working Papers WP/03/2019, Central Bank of Malta.
    11. William Gatt, 2016. "Time variation, asymmetry and threshold effect in Malta's Phillips curve," CBM Working Papers WP/02/2016, Central Bank of Malta.
    12. Bruno Bruna & Faggini Marisa, 2020. "Sharing Competition: An Agent-Based Model for the Short-Term Accommodations Market," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 20(2), pages 1-13, April.
    13. d'Aspremont, Alexandre & Ben Arous, Simon & Bricongne, Jean-Charles & Lietti, Benjamin & Meunier, Baptiste, 2025. "Satellites turn “concrete”: Tracking cement with satellite data and neural networks," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 249(PC).
    14. Geoff Boeing, 2020. "Online rental housing market representation and the digital reproduction of urban inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 449-468, March.
    15. Bryan Perry & Kerk L Phillips & David E. Spencer, 2015. "State-Level Variation in the Real Wage Response to Monetary Policy," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, May.
    16. Izabela Jonek-Kowalska & Radosław Wolniak, 2022. "Sharing Economies’ Initiatives in Municipal Authorities’ Perspective: Research Evidence from Poland in the Context of Smart Cities’ Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-22, February.
    17. Zhigao Liu & Jiayi Zhang & Oleg Golubchikov, 2019. "Edge-Urbanization: Land Policy, Development Zones, and Urban Expansion in Tianjin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-16, May.
    18. Christiansen, Charlotte & Eriksen, Jonas N. & Møller, Stig V., 2019. "Negative house price co-movements and US recessions," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 382-394.
    19. Chaang-Iuan Ho & Tzong-Shyuan Chen & Chin-Pei Li, 2023. "Airbnb’s Negative Externalities from the Consumer’s Perspective: How the Effects Influence the Booking Intention of Potential Guests," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-28, May.
    20. Coble, David & Pincheira, Pablo, 2017. "Nowcasting Building Permits with Google Trends," MPRA Paper 76514, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:16063-:d:1282518. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.