Urban Sprawl in America

Vitor Giesteira, 9EMrs. Korbatits

What is Urban Sprawl ?

The outspread of the urban center towards a less populated zoned, although this zone won’t be a greater place to live forever, as what is a suburb today, soon will be a urban neighborhood.

How does it look like?

The city gets larger as it goes into rural areas, so that people can get cheaper housing and more freedom is still less dense, within a period of time. Though health care, transportation, and education are big issues in suburbs. As you can see in this picture the mountains limit the further sprawl of the city.

What causes people moving to the suburbs?

The home in a quiet neighborhood, with a low demographic density.

A large yard. Two car garage. Safety. Not as stressing as cities. Children have the opportunity to feel

freedom more often. The availability of water in some cases. It brings together businesses that depend

on auto traffic.

Disadvantages of Urban Sprawl

Pollution increases in these areas, which has serious environmental impacts.

Bad air quality can cause respiratory problems. The lack of exercise, as there aren’t walk ways

and bike ways available, therefore obesity increases.

Cars and motorbikes dependency, as these are the only way to move around, causing again a rise in obesity and an increase in health issues.

The need of purchasing new stuff every few months or so, as there aren’t many attractions.

Fewer theaters, cultural attractions, parks, etc. Worse health care and education.

Geography Within Urban Sprawl

The availability or lack of water is a major factor in allowing or limiting urban sprawl.

Oceans, mountains and other natural barriers impact how much a city grows. On the other hand flat land allows unlimited development.

The USA

Within this specific region Urban Sprawl is a big issue, not in the same amount for the whole country but it is still a national problem.

Urban Sprawl in the USA

The outward spread of cities into once rural or unpopulated areas, has become a nasty truth of modern life, in America, a good example is Los Angeles, it has reputation of being the most sprawled place in the whole world. For many Americans, Los Angeles is what their city should not become.

Why does Urban Sprawl take place in the USA

The main reason for people moving to the suburbs is population growth this is the most significant factor effecting urban sprawl, as population growth leads all the other problems related to urban growth, for example Detroit grew really fast in the last decade, causing Urban Sprawl

Also finding a better life-style as today cities such as Los Angeles, are crowded and the life there is very stressful. Many people who live in Los Angeles move to its suburbs such as Pasadena, looking for a peaceful and quiet place, or decreased traffic, pollution, and violence and etc. but still being able to go to their original jobs with a simple half hour drive. As more and more people do this, the once quiet place will become almost as “stressful and crowded as the place where the people moved from, as people’s needs are being supplied, such as building malls, and supermarkets.

Will there be Food in the Future?

Agricultural land is being replaced by buildings very quickly lately. Each year an area of about one kilometer wide and stretching from San Francisco to New York is lost to cities being built in the United States. Agriculture cannot continue if the fields are being taken over, this will eventually cause the food supply to finish. The USA has been feeding its citizens for many years, but with this loss of land due to Urban Sprawl, it won’t be able to do so in a close future. This will cause a dependency on other countries, and therefore the whole world will eventually be missing food. So in order to change this drastic future we must change the way things are going today, in order to keep the human kind alive.

Environmental Impacts of Urban Sprawl in the USA

The ecosystems in the landscapes that have been modified to fit people’s needs. These landscapes suffer from erosion and other issues, such as a lack of natural resources.

Another problem is that in other to build in these places we have to demolish forests and this affects the fauna and the flora of the region as the animals won’t have food and where to live.

Also a decrease in air and water quality, less groundwater, loss of farm and wetlands are caused by Urban Sprawl.

In Maryland, in a recent six-month period, approximately 5,000 people left Baltimore City, and nearly 10,000 acres of forests and farmlands were lost. If these patterns continue, Maryland will use as much land for development in the next 25 years as it has used until now.

The best example is Atlanta, today Atlanta is highly poluted in all aspects and has had a massive decrease in its fauna and flora, but in the past Atlanta was clean and had a rich environment, Urban Sprawl has impacted places in America such as Atlanta in such way that changes are this big.

Economic Impacts of Urban Sprawl in the USA

As cars are a need, car industry has been beneficiated in the USA.

Building and insurance companies are getting more money, as people build more houses.

More jobs are offered, as services are needed. More businesses are opened to supply needs, so due to all these

factors economy has been helped in some ways.

Loss of farmland will cause massive economical issues in the future, as there won’t be any land left for agriculture, and today the USA has a great part of its income from agriculture.

On the hand as people moved to the surroundings of the city, the estate had to spend a lot of money building infra-structure.

Many cities, such as Maryland that spent$38 million to purchase 20,000 acres of undeveloped land through 1998 to prevent Urban Sprawl. These factors are a constraint for the economy of the country.

Political Impacts of Urban Sprawl in the USA

Government has to increase taxes as houses are far apart, and roads have to be built, so more money is required by the government.

Politicians are forced to buy huge amounts of land as if they don’t the whole region will be affected by urban sprawl, this creates a huge hole in the public vaults.

Political campaigns change its focus, to satisfy people from the main city and its suburbs.

Social Impacts of Urban Sprawl in the USA

Providing better housing opportunities for poorer people and immigrants as houses are cheaper, this will also make houses in the city cheaper.

Children have more freedom, as places are generally safer. On the other hand ,less united community, as houses are far

apart. Less home time as traffic congestions increase. Schools get over-crowded, as the ratio between people moving

into the city and the city development is not fair, for example Chicago does not have enough schools for all the kids that live there.

Food gets much more expensive as farmland is drastically reduced.

Higher taxes, as land is wasted. Health issues due to air pollution caused by traffic. Less cultural attractions.

Suggestions and Recommendations to Solve the Urban Sprawl Issue

My suggestions for the government of the USA to solve the problem with Urban Sprawl are, first of all that the government allows a certain amount of land to be used to build depending on the size of the original city core, and establish a rough demographic density that applies to the whole country. Another suggestion would be taking similar actions as China controlling birth rate.

I personally recommend that other than actions being taken by the government, awareness about Urban Sprawl and its impacts should be encouraged by organizations, so that people understand what their future will be like if today’s trends remain.

Solutions for the Urban Sprawl Issue

I think that other than my suggestions and recommendations, there is a great solution for Urban Sprawl in the USA and anywhere else in the world, this solution would be enforcing birth control, but at an adequate rate as we can’t stop making babies as the economy would fail.

Try to change the way people think, people think have been thinking for thousands of years that, the bigger the better. In order to change this trend I would encourage people moving to ‘the middle of no where’ , and not just 10 miles away from the city, but this would only be possible if their jobs could be done via computer, and also their purchases. In my opinion this is very possible nowadays, as technology has advanced a lot .

Using land more efficiently is also a good solution, as it will allow more people to fit the same area.

Conclusion

After analyzing all of my data I came to a conclusion, and this is , Urban Sprawl is good until a certain point, but once this point is reached Urban Sprawl become a disaster to all the aspects of a society, this includes: Environmental, Social, Political and Economical impacts. These impacts grow at a very rapid rate once they have started to take place. So nowadays Urban Sprawl should be prevented in every single nation, or a very unpleasant future will be seen.