URBAN AND SUBURBAN SPRAWL

Urban and Suburban sprawl

Abstract

The term urban sprawl should be understood in the context of a deep-seated and ongoing conflict over differing visions of and priorities for the development of urban regions, between those who see contemporary suburban land development patterns as a good thing and those who see them as a major social and environmental problem. The meaning and image of urban sprawl are contested and are thus continually evolving, but most discussions of urban sprawl identify a number of common characteristics, including low-density residential development on the urban fringe, segregated land uses that give rise to long-distance travel and dependence on automobiles for mobility, and leapfrogging of development over undeveloped areas.

The ecological impacts of sprawl are widely noted. Expanding cities consume irreplaceable farmland—a real concern when so much of North America's most productive croplands are near growing cities. Lower residential densities also bring with them an expanded need for travel, mostly by private vehicle, with concomitant increases in paving, air pollution, and contaminated runoff. Such developments are also highly energy intensive, requiring greater levels of generated heating, cooling, and transport-related fuels.

However, none of these measures may be more effective in curtailing the seemingly inexorable spread of suburbia than external economic conditions. The collapse of the American housing and credit markets in 2007-08, combined with highly volatile gas prices, has resulted in abandoned housing developments and recurring speculation in the media over “the end of suburbia.” Future debates over the fate of suburban sprawl may therefore be quite different than those of the past.

Urban and Suburban sprawl

Introduction

The phrase urban and suburban sprawl is a pejorative term that has not only become part of the popular lexicon of cities but is also shorthand for all that is ugly, inefficient, crass, and dysfunctional in metropolitan areas. Although commonly discussed in a North American context, sprawling development patterns may also be found elsewhere, notably in Europe, Australia, and more recently, China. Despite its widespread use, there often is lacking in the literature proper empirical support for or sufficient definition of the term, resulting in some confusion among conditions, causes, and impacts. However, whatever imprecision may plague its definition, the land use patterns characterized as suburban sprawl are recognized as being the result of a combination of such political factors as land economics, tax policies, zoning regulations, master planning processes, and—according to some critics—exclusionary lending and insurance practices motivated by race and class. (Whyte, 1958)

Although critiques of urban sprawl have become increasingly prominent during the past three decades, concern about patterns of urban expansion was a major issue for planning advocates in Western Europe and North America in the early 20th century. Their argument was that planned suburban growth offered a chance to prevent the problems of overcrowding, disease, pollution, and congestion that plagued 19th-century industrial cities and that unplanned urbanization would merely produce more of the same. A major goal of the early planners was therefore to be able to regulate and plan for development on the fringe, to ensure ...