Background, harms & implications:
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. For example, in large cities like Milwaukee, there is urban sprawl in the neighboring area to the Milwaukee city.
-Residents of sprawling neighborhoods tend to live in single-family homes and commute by automobile to work. Low population density is an indicator of sprawl.
-Urban planners emphasize the qualitative aspects of sprawl such as the lack of transportation options and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods.
-Conservationists and environmentalists tend to focus on the actual amount of land that has been urbanized by sprawl
Causes and effects
Health and environmental impact - The primary cause of these negative outcomes is that sprawl leads to people having to depend on the automobile because it will be a greater distance to travel and people will not be able to walk or ride their bicycles to their destinations.
Source: Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact, a Smart Growth America (SGA) study released October 2002.
Increased pollution and reliance on fossil fuel- On average, suburban residents generate more pollution and carbon emissions than their urban counterparts because of their increased driving.
Increase in traffic and traffic-related fatalities - Residents of more sprawling areas are at greater risk of automobile accidents and dying in a car crash.
Increased obesity – Urban sprawl culture forces to drive everywhere, thus walking far less than their urban people.
Decrease in social capital - Sprawl tends to replace public spaces such as parks with private spaces such as fenced-in backyards.
Decrease in land and water quantity and quality - Due to the larger area consumed by sprawling suburbs compared to urban neighborhoods, more farmland and wildlife habitats are displaced per resident and results in more wastage of water.
Increased infrastructure costs - Living in a larger, more spread out space makes public services more expensive. City planners are forced to build large highway and parking infrastructure, which in turn decreases taxable land and revenue
Increased personal transportation costs - Residents of low density areas in urban sprawls spend a higher proportion of their income on transportation than residents of Cities .
Brainstorm possible solutions
Smart Growth America (SGA at http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/), is a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group has some of the following recommendations:
- Reinvest in neglected communities and provide more housing opportunities in urban areas and cities.
-Rehabilitate abandoned properties in cities
- Encourage new development or redevelopment in already built up areas
-Create and nurture thriving, mixed-use centers of activities in cities;"
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