A Climate-Sensitive Approach for Determining the Urban Growth Boundaries: Towards a Spatial Exploration for Bursa, Türkiye

Population growth is inevitable in urban areas responsible for climate crises worldwide, and urban development is affected by processes fed by many dynamics. Predicting and planning the growth limits of the city effectively is a critical issue for achieving sustainable urban growth and managing climate risks. The study used the cellular automata-Markov chain method to define development areas regarding natural structure and land use/land cover. It aimed to present a method that can be applied to different urban areas by focusing on effective urban growth management with a climate-sensitive approach. It offered a climate-sensitive approach to determining growth limits according to scenarios. The boundaries of 2030 have been determined for the city of Bursa, which exhibited an increased average summer value of the land surface temperature from 24°C to 45°C between 2012 and 2021, stands out with its natural riches, and shows a rapid urban growth trend. The proposed method modeled the limits of urban growth with a climate-sensitive approach, and the model's suitability was demonstrated by Kappa statistics (Klocation = 0.8884). The determined urban boundary will reduce the rate of the urban built-up area from 86% to 70% by 2030.