| Today, Flanders is a continuum of large and smaller urban cores on a small surface, which strongly expands in suburban areas. Urban sprawl is a phenomenon that already occurs dozens of years. It is sometimes said to be the cause of negative effects such as traffic congestion, the loss of outer space etc. At the end of the nineties the Flemish government took some measures. The vision of the spatial structure plan (RSV- 1997): Flanders "open and urban", with as aim supports protecting the open space by compact, vital and livable cities, is not yet fully realised. By example: increasing density is intended to decrease automobile use and save land and resources. But in several studies it has been shown that a compact city scenario is not socially preferred, the demand for rural space on the house market is large. In the context of urban and spatial policy it is important to gain insight the preferences of both the current and potential inhabitants of the cities. Much of the research on housing choices relies on examining people s revealed preferences. However, it is difficult to determine the demand for hypothetical neighbourhood types The principal research objective is to offer a methodology to examine the living environment preferences. The alternative way of looking at the market for some of these characteristics is by using the Stated Preference approach. This is a decompositional approach and involves measuring individual preferences. At a further stage a Willingness to Pay or a Willingness to Accept will be estimated for the inferred characteristics. Finally policy suggestions can be made to optimise the future living urban-rural environment. |
