Compact or dispersed? A comparative analysis of the urban sprawl across the post-socialist cities – a GIS approach

International audience; The fall of the communist regime in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe triggered changes in what concerns the urban development. The phenomenon of urban sprawl became a particularity for the post-socialist cities, which abandoned the vertical spatial expansion (a specificity of the socialist urban planning) in favor of the horizontal one. However, from the point of view of the sustainable development, the urban sprawl represents a negative externality of the urban growth. Therefore, in an international context where the sustainable urban development is promoted, how compact or dispersed are the post-socialist cities? Do they show a tendency to restrain the urban sprawl or do they extend almost uncontrollably? This paper aims to identify the dynamics of the post-socialist urban form with the aid of GIS and a quantitative methodology. Taking into account statistical data as well as spatial data for the studied cities, we aim to observe if it is possible to identify a tendency of controlling the phenomenon of urban sprawl and therefore an interest to promote sustainable urban development policies in what concerns the spatial extension in the post socialist cities.