Urban Phenomena in Lesser Poland Through GIS-Based Metrics: An Exceptional Form of Urban Sprawl Challenging Sustainable Development

Urban sprawl has been the subject of extensive scholarly investigation, as it is widely regarded as an unfavourable phenomenon with profound socio-economic consequences. Its fundamental forms have been delineated through specific Spatial Form Metrics (SFMs). In southern Poland, there exists a region whose dispersed development pattern is particularly distinctive. Owing to its considerable size—exceeding 5500 km2—it was deemed appropriate to analyse this area using the metrics and categories conventionally applied in urban sprawl research. The findings reveal a settlement pattern often described in the literature as resembling a ‘leopard skin’. Key urban parameters—such as density, intensity, dispersion, and clustering—were most effectively characterised by Shannon entropy levels calculated for these categories. In all instances, the entropy values proved to be very high, indicating minimal variation in development form across the study area. This outcome reflects the prevalence of numerous small, closely spaced building clusters, without the emergence of major concentrations capable of serving as nuclei for service centres with a developed public realm. As a result, structures that would ordinarily provide higher-order services and foster social integration fail to materialise. The implications for the open landscape are pronounced and predominantly negative: both agricultural landscapes and the still-existing, though limited, semi-natural landscapes are severely fragmented by scattered, unstructured building clusters. This fragmentation undermines rational agricultural management and impedes the conservation of self-regenerating areas that approximate the natural landscape. Against this backdrop, the present study examines the built-up structure of Area X in order to delineate pathways for a transition from environmentally detrimental settlement patterns towards forms of development that not only ensure the sustenance of urban life but also align with the broader principles of sustainable urban development, thereby safeguarding the continuity of urban life as a fundamental condition for long-term urban resilience.