The dynamics of urban growth present constant challenges to urban quality of life. In recent years urban land use change and the constant residential pressure on land consumption at the urban fringe, has been increasingly recognised as a major force challenging quality of life in metropolitan areas. EU communications and expert opinion place the issue of urban sprawl squarely in the realm of those areas where ‘the social and economic mechanisms leading to more land consumption have to be better understood’. SELMA widens this interest to include the deconcentration of economic land use (commercial, industrial and service-based) – a no less potential challenge to the rational management of European cities. In addition, the proposed project integrates this focus with a second area of EU policy interest relating to urban quality of life. SELMA attempts to translate the effects of economic land use deconcentration into quality of life outcomes.

The main expected results are:
• A common integrative theoretical and methodological framework for the   design of planning strategies to manage urban growth.
• A taxonomy of forms of economic land use deconcentration that can be   used for ranking and benchmarking in urban planning and management.

The primary goal of SELMA is to design urban planning and management strategies to ensure the maintenance of quality of life in European metropolitan areas. The evaluation of these spatial configurations will be based on quality of life, socio-economic and environmental dimensions. Two of the main deliverables will be a policy analysis and decision makers handbook of best practices and a taxonomy of forms of economic land use deconcentration that can be used for ranking and bench-marking in urban planning and management. In order to design and evaluate planning strategies a land use simulation model will developed.