Are Land Use Policies Preserving Farmland from Urban Sprawl?

The principal objective of this paper is to analyse if land use policies are preserving farmland from urban sprawl. Furthermore, it is analysed if a protected area, with more restricted land use legislation, is more protected from urban sprawl that an area with more flexible legislation. Using an Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, it is showed that urban sprawl is causing distortions in the desirable uses of both areas and that land use policies are not preserving them from residential uses. A revision of the land use control policies is needed to avoid the loss of their exceptional values.