The Role of University Campus Locations in the City Urban Growth: the Case of German Jordanian University in Madaba

Abstract

Although there are many studies related to Madaba at an urban scale, there is no study for the examination of the relationship between university campus locations at the edges and the urban growth of Madaba in Jordan. This study is the first study investigating the impact of university campuses on the urban growth of Madaba, including a set of critical urban issues involved in the development of the city of Madaba. Due to the rapid urban sprawl of Madaba city, there is an increase in population flow towards the outer suburb of the city which includes the university campus and inequity in the distribution of services in these areas. This increases the urban intensification in the city suburbs and the surrounding areas without preserving and reservation of land uses and urban activities. However, urban changes appeared at the city's edges, which helped to form new urban areas close to the university campuses. These changes gave an opportunity to attract new activities due to the existence of university campuses, which affect the urban growth of the city. Therefore, this study aims to identify the role of university campuses localized at the city edges in developing city urban growth. It focused on investigating the relationship between the university campus locations and the urban growth of the cities. This research depends on the quantitative method. The quantitative method employs statistical data analysis using GIS and a questionnaire survey. The study concludes with a series of recommendations for future decision-makers to overcome the main problems facing the urban growth of the city including university campus localizing at the edges. The study shows that the land uses in the surrounding context of the university campus changed significantly, where it could be concluded that residential (48.88% to 79.16%), commercial (3.03% to 9.56%), and service (3.28% to 5.42%) increased at the expense of agricultural use (36.13% to 4.02%). According to this change, it can be noted that there is a slight increase in the built-up areas, which was 3.30% in 1990 then became 8.30% in 2020. The outcome of this study contributes to improving the decisions made by the parties involved in urban development in Jordan when developing the surrounding context of the university campus located at the city edges.