Engelstoft, Sten: Urban land-use in the Core-Area of Mediumsized
Danish towns. Geografisk Tidsskrift 84: 47-50. Copenhagen.
January 1984.

The paper attempts to discuss the dual relationship between urban
land-use changes and the social processes; examples from two
medium-sized Danish towns are demonstrated.

Sten Engelstoft. Senior lecturer. M.Sc. Geographical Institute,
University of Copenhagen, Haraldsgade 68, DK-2100 Copenhagen

Keywords: Urban geography, land-use.

THE CONCEPT OF LAND-USE

A central concept within geography is land-use. The concept of land-use may be analysed by splitting up the words (Andersson, 1971): Land, representing property, real estate, and physical resources; and use, referring to human activities as they take place on a given location due to constraints set by the social development. Land-use, and in particular urban land-use, may thus be regarded as an appearance of processes in society.

The social development or processes of society and the human activities may be regarded as decisive for the land-use; however it is important to stress that land-use as such, should not merely be regarded as a reflection of the social processes (a deterministic view); on the contrary, land-use has to be seen as dialectically tied to the human activities and the social processes, (Engelstoft, 1982a).

Investments in a given type of urban land-use, once
carried out, may to a certain extent act as a constraint
imposed on a future use of the land.

A disproportion may thus occur between an actual land-use and actual social conditions, as the landuse may reflect earlier stages of the social development. A sufficientlylarge disproportion between actual land-use and actual social development may in turn create the necessaryconditions for a change in the land-use. The dual relationshipbetwwen social processes and land-use is reflectedin the qualities observable in a give piece of land, as those qualities may be characterized as either absolute or

relative. The absolute qualities of land-use are associated with physical and morphological aspectes of the area, whereas the relative qualities are associated with social, economic and cultural features i.e. characteristics related to an interplay between space and the social world.

LAND-USE IN MEDIUM-SIZED DANISH TOWNS

The rapid economic development in the late fifties and throughout the sixties and the resulting suburbanization has increased the pressure on the core areas of most towns. By a number of regulations it has simultaneously been attempted to improve the accessibility and the capability of the core. In this context a number of general features should be mentioned (Engelstoft, 1980): Through construction of ringroads regional traffic has been led around the core; inside the core a number of street regulations have been carried through and local traffic in general has been restricted through one-way streets and the establishing of pedestrian areas.

The growing pressure on the core, primarily as a service center, has greatly increased the need for parking space. This has primarly been achieved through demolishing buildings inside blocks situated close to the main shopping

Construction, apart from infrastructure, has been relatively restricted, although where this has taken place, it has been on not fully-exploited land and with increasing plot ratios as a result.

The new buildings have primarily been designed to comply with demands for increasing needs of office space, however. In general, the result of the above-mentioned has been a land-use development in the core areas, from mixed to differentiated land-use. While the total floor space of the core has been virtually constant, studies have shown (Harrild et al, 1981, Engelsloft, 1982) that the overall allpicture has been a general trend towards a constant or stagnating land-use for retail sale, and a small increase in land-use for other services (l/2%(^l/2% annually). Residential land-use has decreased ('/2% annually), and land-use for manufacturing industry has had an even larger decrease (2'/2% annually).

Land-use surveys carried out in two medium sized
Danish towns: Slagelse with 28.000 inh. and Herning with
30.000 inh., show the same overall trends as mentioned
above (Magnussen, 1969, Magnussen, 1970, Engelstoft,
1982b), however with some individual variations.
The glaring features of the land-use figures of the core are
the huge reduction of land-use for whole-sale and manufacturing,
the increase in land-use for public and private
services and above all the very marked increase in vacant
space. In general it may be maintained that the land-use
trends are the trends of a land-use pattern in transformation,
a fact that the following remarks attempt to study
more thoroughly. Urban development and the resulting
land-use may be seen as the ultimate result of private and
public investments and their ability to pay off.

Investments in new buildings, street regulations, parkingspace etc. are reflected in generally rising land-values in the core area as such. Consequently the pay-off of the remaining economic activities is reduced. If the marginal difference in pay-off between the existing land-use and a possible future land-use is sufficiently large, a land-use shift may take place. Often, however, the remaining buildingsmay not be suited for an immediate change of activity,and by reducing the costs of maintenance of the buildings,the existing landuse may be preserved provisionally. Sooner or later, however, the buildings will be worn out,

and a stock of buildings may remain vacant until the economic conditions in society can ensure the necessary profit on investments in new buildings- and consequently a new land-use (Andersen & Engelstoft, 1982). Vacant urbanland as such, may thus be regarded as an indication of land-use transformations, and in the actual case, a transformationfrom land-use representing secondary economicactivities (i.e. manufacturing industry), to a land-use representing tertiary activities (i.e. private and public services).

In the medium-sized Danish towns this development has been particular/ significant, in that the general trends have been strengthened by the fact that these towns function as regional service centers within the urban and administrative systems (Magnussen, 1979). As for land-use within retail sales and residential purposes the pattern is a bit more complicated. The size of areas with land-use for retail sale has been rather constant throughout the period; it must be noted however that this is a gross result. A re-structuring process of retail sales in the core has gradually taken place, and as a general result land-use within retail sale of convenience goods has decreased, while retail sale of shopping goods has increased within the core. This development is due to the fact that retailing - particularly within convenience goods - is able to gain advantages of scale-economies. The new larger units are preferably located outside the core areas, and as this takes place, a basis is created for speciality shops, primarily within shopping goods (Agergaard, et al, 1968).

In land-use terms residential areas have been rather constant; however, it must be noted that a certain improvement has taken place within the housing stock and, in general, the number of inhabitants within the central urban areas has decreased. The land-use development trends as described above may be regarded as valid for the total core areas in general. However, as mentioned earlier, within the individual core areas, a tendency of land-use development towards a differentiated, rather than a mixed land-use has been prevailing; this trend is demonstrated by the land-use figures of subdivided areas of the individual cores.

Each pair of two numbered and interconnected dots on the figures represents a »sub-area« within the core, and shows the changing proportion of respectively residential and industrial land-use within a 11-12 year period. The percentage of residential and industrial land-use, as represented by each dot, does not sum up to a total 100%; the remaining share thus represents vacant land in each of the »sub-areas«. Studying the land-use development pattern as derived from the figures, the above mentioned tendencies towards differentiated land-use is evident.

CONCLUSION

Land-use and structure of Danish towns are a function of to-day's as well as earlier social conditions. In general, the medium-sized Danish town can trace its history back to the Middle Ages. Up to the middle of the 18^th century,

only few changes took place, and today's town centre is almost identical with the pre-industrial town. However, the economic and social development, which has taken place during the recent 100 years has left its trace.

Two distinct periods of restructuring may be identified: Firstly, a re-structuring period tied to the industrialisation and the improved transport facilities, primarily the development of the railway systems, in short a re-structuring closely related to the urbanization process. Secondly, a period tied to the post-war economic boom, with its immense changes in the social conditions as well as within housing, manufacturing, public- and private services, a re-structuring closely related to the suburbanization process.

The latter of the two periods has resulted in a spatial differentiation of production-, circulation-, and reproduction functions within the urban areas in general as well as within the urban areas as such.

Resumé

Arealanvendelsen i danske provinsbyers bymidte

Et centralt begreb indenfor geografi er arealanvendelse. Begrebet analyseres gennem en opsplitning af ordet: areal, der repræsenterer fast ejendom og fysiske ressourcer, samt anvendelse, der refererer til den samfundsbestemte stedbundne menneskelige aktivitet.

Dobbeltforholdet mellem samfundsudviklingen og arealanvendelsen søges dernæst eksemplificeret gennem arealanvendelsens udvikling i to mellemstore danske provinsbyer: Slagelse og Herning. Det påvises, at der gennem de seneste 11-12 år er sket store forskydninger i bymidtens arealanvendelse, og at disse forskydninger er tæt knyttet til efterkrigstidens økonomiske boom, suburbaniseringen og den deraf følgende adskildelse af bolig og erhverv. Endvidere søges det påvist, at de übenyttede (tomme) byarealer er en nøgle til forståelsen af arealanvendelsesændringer.

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