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"Although there are many definitions of sprawl, a central component of most
definitions and of most people's understanding of sprawl is this: Sprawl is the
spreading out of a city and its suburbs over more and more rural land at the
periphery of an urban area. This involves conversion of open space (rural
land) into built-up, developed land.
"For those who are concerned about the effect of sprawl upon natural
environment and agricultural resources, the more important overall measure of
sprawl
is the actual amount of land that has been urbanized. Knowing the actual square
miles of urban expansion (sprawl) provides a key indicator of the threat to
the natural environment, to the nation's agricultural productivity and to the
quality of life of people who live in cities and in the small towns and farms
that are near cities."
If you click on the "Think Environment" button, you discover four
environmental organizations which make the connection between human population
growth
and environmental degradation. Those four organizations also make a connection
between population growth and urban sprawl.
If you are concerned about what urban sprawl is doing to your community,
whether urban or rural, there is another organization you should know about,
SprawlCity.org. It emerged from the work of environmental authors Leon
Kolankiewicz and Roy Beck to help the public make more ready use of federal data
on
sprawl and rural land loss.
If you would like to learn more about this organization, please
click on SprawlCity. |
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