Diffusion and urban sprawl as analogous processes

Abstract

The processes of urban expansion and diffusion have been the subject of analysis in geography for several decades, but always as separate and distinct parts within the same science. As a result of research in these areas, generalizations have been made about their components and behavior, which have revealed some possible relationships between both types of processes.

These relationships between urban expansion processes and diffusion processes are the central theme of this paper, in which, through a detailed analysis of the elements involved in each of them, several analogous relationships are established. The result of the analysis between apparently different phenomena, such as the processes in question, ultimately leads to proposals for the reformulation of the theoretical-conceptual structure that supports them, thus opening a new avenue of research.