“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 the conversion of open space (rural land) into built-up, developed land over time” (SprawlCity).
It starts at an urban, city base, and expands into undeveloped land, threatening animal and plant life, polluting the environment, destroying natural beauty, destroying farm land, and even affecting the humans who cause it. If left unchecked, sprawl will continue to spread and damage just about everything in its path. Urban sprawl is a relatively new phenomenon that is spreading at an alarming rate and causing a multitude of serious problems.
One of the biggest problems associated with urban sprawl is the effects it has on wildlife and nature itself.
“Urban Sprawl is gobbling up open spaces in fast-growing metropolitan areas so quickly that it could spell extinction for nearly 1,200 species of plants and animals, environmental groups say” (Associated Press). Sprawl endangers these species by destroying their natural habitats, feeding grounds, and by blocking migratory paths. Furthermore, many of these endangered species are only found in the areas that are being the most aggressively developed. Urban sprawl causes a lot damage to the natural environment by creating and furthering the spread of pollution. Sprawl is responsible for pollution in many ways. Since sprawl is spread out over vast areas of land, people rely more heavily on transportation by vehicle and spend more time driving. This, of course, increases the air emissions from cars, which pollutes the air and causes smog and damages to the ozone. More developed space means more roads and concrete, and concrete does not absorb water. The water turns into runoff, which then makes its way to polluting natural bodies of water like oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams.
Urban sprawl is negatively affecting us humans as well by doing a number on our physical and mental health, and most of us seem to be unaware of how big the problem may be. “Research at Texas A & M and the University of Delaware indicates that humans’ reactions to visual clutter may include elevated blood pressure, increased muscle tension, and impacts on mood and work performance” (Benfield). Studies have also shown that we recover from stress more efficiently in open natural environments or places of natural beauty. One study published in the American Journal of Public Health, by Russ Lopez, shows that urban sprawl actually contributes to obesity. The results for this study found that “the risk for being overweight increased by 0.2% and the risk for being obese increased by 0.5%.” Obesity, which is now an epidemic in the United States, can cause a myriad of health problems, such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and even death. Environments rich in sources of caloric food, poor street patterns, lack of pedestrian amenities, difficult-to-access destinations, and neighborhood perceptions all have been hypothesized to contribute to decreasing physical activity and to promote the development of obesity” (Lopez).
People don’t really want to lose the natural beauty of the world to suburban development. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening, and it is happening at a frightening rate. We are losing invaluable farm land and beautiful open landscapes, which once lost can never be reclaimed. “At the conclusion of exhaustive research on the subject, the American Farmland Trust has reported that from 1982 to 1992 we lost to urban and suburban development an average of 400,000 acres per year of “prime” farm land, the land with the best soils and climate for growing crops. This translates to a loss of 45.7 acres per hour, every single day” (Benfield). This hinders our ability as a country to be self reliant and develop our own resources, such as food and natural fuels. This could even cause the price of food and fuels to go up. Besides the loss of farmland, urban sprawl is also affecting tourism. One of the primary motivators for deciding on a place to vacation is natural beauty and wildlife, and most people agree that highways, billboards, strip malls, parking lots, and row upon row of cookie cutter homes are anything but beautiful.
There are many supposed reasons for urban sprawl. People want to escape the city life for several reasons. It is often cheaper to a buy home outside of the city, and usually the homes are much larger. People often feel that the city is unsafe and they want a more peaceful, less hectic environment for themselves and their families. For many people owning a nice home in a suburban area is the American Dream, but it is doubtful that many ponder the cost of fulfilling this dream. Another reason for urban sprawl is money, of course, but sprawl is often spreading faster than the actual growth of the population. What will happen when all of the space has been developed and there is nowhere left to go? Yes, there are reasons for the urban sprawl, but the negative aspects associated with it definitely outweigh any good that can come from it, and the ultimate outcome is that there will be little left of the beautiful natural world that we so desperately crave and wish to escape to.
Urban sprawl affects everything and everyone. An already tenuous relationship between humans and the natural world is further threatened by our insatiable thirst for development. Species of plants and animals face extinction, and any loss is a devastating blow to all of life. Our desire to develop and spread is even causing us harm, whether or not we realize or want to admit it. We are damaging our health and destroying our natural resources. Although little can be done individually, this problem can be combated through a country wide group effort. We have already done so much to try and clean up the messes we have made. Urban sprawl can be fought if we spread awareness of this problem, and work to change our attitudes, and realize our place in the world as a whole.
Works Cited
Associated Press. “Groups: Urban Sprawl Threatens Species.” MSNBC. 2005. The Associated Press. 5 May 2008
Benfield, F. Kaid, Matthew D. Raimi, and Donald D. T. Chen. “Paving Paradise.” New York: Natural Resources Defense Council. 1999. NRDC. 5 May 2008
Lopez, Russ. “Urban Sprawl and Risk for Being Overweight or Obese.” American Journal of Public Health. 94.9 (2004): 1574-1579.
SprawlCity. “U.S. Bureau of Census Data on Urbanized Areas.” 2007. SprawlCity Organization. 5 May 2008
