The multi-criteria analysis for sustainable urban growth by using Fuzzy Method: case study Trikomo, Cyprus

The Urban growth in Trikomo (Yeni Iskele) region in Cyprus has dramatically increased recently. The unorganized and uncontrolled development process has started to consume land resources; loss of landcover, valuable agricultural lands, and change of wetlands of stream beds or ponds occurred. In addition, partial and fragmented housing development projects bring only housing and second housing to the coastal region. As a result, environmental and economic problems occurred in sustainable urban growth (SUG) in the Trikomo (Yeni Iskele) region. Due to the lack of planning instruments in Trikomo, urban expansion policies and alternatives have been ignored. In this regard, this research tries to investigate spatial SUG and expansion alternatives by using Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) and fuzzy logic within geographical information systems (GIS). Compact growth, environmental protection, and equal accessibility to local services were used for multi-criteria analysis to construct spatial SUG problems. Then they were converted to spatial layers within the (GIS) environment. Results show that; 6 percent of the study area is in a shallow suitability zone. Forty-four percent of it has very low and low suitability for SUG. Also, 41 percent of the area is suitable. Only 12 percent of the area has high and very high suitability values. These findings showed that approximately 118 square kilometers (56 percent) of the city is within the same level appropriate for urban development.