A Comparative Analysis of Change in Residential Acreage for Greater Vancouver, 1961 - 1976

Urban growth, measured in economic and demographic terms, is a well documented feature of Canadian society. The increasing concentration of population and the continued prosperity of large scale urban centres· are perhaps the most familiar and documented forms of this growth. There are of course many other expressions and measurements of urban growth but it was not until more widespread concern developed over the cost of urban expansion, including the loss of agricultural land, that academic attention focussed on one of these, the spatial dimension (and consequences) of urban growth. The expansion in the productive capacity of cities and the concomitant increase and/or redistribution in population all have their spatial expressions. Despite the recent interest devoted to this problem, particularly by Bourne (1973, 1974, 1976), many questions, both general to metropolitan centres and specific to Vancouver, remain unanswered. How much land is being constructed by various activities within Vancouver? In what way do the quantity and intensity of land consumed for new development vary between areas or districts of Greater Vancouver? What role do economic, demographic and institutional forces play in affecting rates of land conversion? To what degree does the spatial pattern of growth in Vancouver conform to that occurring in other metropolitan centres?