Urban sprawl containment by the urban growth boundary: the case of the Regulatory Plan of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago of Chile

Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) established by urban planning, are common containment strategies to prevent urban sprawl. We analyze the effectiveness of the UGB strategy in the case of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago de Chile, established by the land use plan in 1994. We describe and quantify the annual growth rate and the development of new built-up areas inside and outside the boundary using GIS. The results show that the expansion of built-up areas is greater outside than inside the UGB (75% vs. 49%), and with a higher annual growth rate outside the UGB (14.6% vs. 2.8%). To achieve greater effectiveness in the strategy, it is necessary to overcome those regulatory mechanisms that allow urbanization beyond the boundary, identified as a factor that promotes expansion, contradicting the objective of the plan.