Urban Sprawl Effect on The Environment
The word Urban is not foreign to the ear. Urban generally refers to cities or people who reside within them meanwhile suburb is the term used to define an area outside of cities. Urban Sprawl is a phenomenon where an unsystematic development of land for industrial or residential purposes, which leaves spacious gaps between arrays of buildings. Commonly, sprawl would consume an exorbitant amount of land and would be feasible especially during times when land value had dropped. Sprawl is a development pattern which popularity has skyrocketed due to how it can ideally create a sustainable living community. The demand for sprawl correlated with land’s availability and pricing, overpopulation, and resident’s self-factors. Everything exemplary will however naturally come with its consequences to bear.
Ewing had theorized the 4 major factors of sprawl which were believed to attribute greatly to its existence. Albeit in his later researches, Ewing further mentioned the indicators towards sprawl were sparsely contributed by lack of functional spaces and accessibility. A resident for instance, is looking for housing which was located in the city to save commuting fees. An escalation of income also plays an active role in the demand for better lodging. A considerable example located in Europe can be seen, specifically in Portugal and Spain. Due to an inflated demand in coastal residence caused by tourism and also from the inland population, Portugal’s urban development commenced. Meanwhile in Spain, the economical growth and leisure tourism played a role in the spurt of homes. The sprawl is an international problem, it occurs in Asian countries as well. A most well-known case would be the sprawl in Beijing, China.
Urban Sprawl can play a role in increasing traffic on highways
Ideally, Sprawl gives several benefits. Housing in these developments tends to be much more acceptable and it comes with a capacious lot which suits a large family. In return, the ample spaces were hurdled by complaints. Majority of the problem arises from congested traffic on account of overabundant access towards the highway. The inefficiency in government planning and the vain ways of thwarting mayhems were posed as unsuccessful. Yet with limitations, separated access roads, the condition could be alleviated. With that said, the benefit was scarce compared to the negative impact it had. Specific policies should be induced and put into motion in order to slow down or hopefully stop urban sprawl.
Increased traffic had been stated, and was it truly all? Sprawl proliferates the amount of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide produced by the burning of fuel and its exhaustion especially at car engines. Carbon dioxide contributes to global warming which will then set the gears for climate change and severe weather such as typhoons, storms, drought, flood and many more. As for Nitrogen Oxide, it has been proven to cause damage to the human respiratory tract and increase severity towards infection and asthma. Exposure towards incessant amounts of Nitrogen Oxide at a rapid and constant rate could result in chronic lung disease hence poor air quality which in the end causes our health to deteriorate. The risk of flood, water pollution and consumption are also magnified. Chemicals in the form of liquid have high chances of polluting nearby water sources which will then lead to acid rain and death of living marine creatures. The need to water lawns could massively deplete and strain the water supply system as well.
Urban Sprawl often expands into farmland, which renders valuable land unusable for farming
That was not the worst of all. The loss of habitat and extinction of creatures is undoubtedly unavoidable if urban sprawl commerce as it is. It threatens farms, forests, every plot of land is not exempted from urban sprawl. With the lack of farms, farmers would be forced out of business and food sources will be scarce, thus inevitably leading to famine in poverty areas. Sprawl also increases the cost of infrastructure and at the same time will cause a spike in energy usage which will be connected once again to the massive emission of carbon dioxide. Everything in the end is a cycle which will eventually lead to earth conditions declining. How do we oppose this? There needs to be several policies and methods to control urban sprawl as halting urban sprawl with our ever-growing population is unlikely to occur. Creating urban boundaries to prevent overexploitation of other districts, controlling growth and establishing protection over land, restriction over urban land and encouragement of public transport, betterment of low-income households living conditions and active participation in infrastructure cost, these could reduce unwanted risk towards the environment while maintaining sustainability of housing.
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Ontario loses 175 acres of farmland to urban development a day, says farmers group [CBC]