Urban Sprawl

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Urban Sprawl

What is Sprawl?

The term sprawl was first introduced in 1937 by one of the first city planners in the southern United States, Earle Draperone. Sprawl is defined as the “tendency toward lower city densities as city footprints expand.” In more specific terms, the term urban sprawl as used in the pattern of land development in the United States as “spread-out” or “unlimited and noncontiguous way outward” with “one- or two-story single-family residential development on lots ranging from one-third to one acre (less on the West Coast) accompanied by strip commercial centers and industrial parks, also two stories or less in height and with a similar amount of land taking.”

Historical Perspective

When the industrial revolution transformed the United States from an agrarian based economy to a market dominated by industry and manufacturing, cities became the dominant type of settlements. In 1790 approximately five percent of the entire population of the United States lived in areas termed “urban.” However, this figured tripled to fifteen percent by 1850 and continues to increase today. In fact, figures from the 2000 Census documents almost eighty percent of all Americans indicating that they live in urban areas.

When the 1950 Census began separating central city population and those who lived in suburban areas, data which could be used to document urban sprawl became available. The data from this date (1950) show the evolution of cities and the growth and densities within both the central cities and the suburban areas. In particular, the data demonstrates that central cities have a relatively stagnant growth rates in both population and land area. On the other hand, suburban areas have experienced a large increase in the rate of growth of both. In fact the evidence shows :

Approximately 65 percent of the urbanized population lived in central cities in 1950, with the :remaining 35 percent residing in suburbs. By 1990, these percentages had flipped, with central city :populations down to 35 percent of populations within these urbanized areas. The total land occupied :by central cities has fallen from roughly 40 percent to 20 percent of urbanized areas during the :same time.

At the same time, the densities of the population in both central cities and suburban areas have displayed a steady drop elucidating to an expanding city footprint, or in other terms urban sprawl. Today, sprawl is an ever present phenomenon that occurs in not only the United States, but worldwide. Countries in Western and Eastern Europe, Latin American, as well as some parts of Asia all have experienced an increase in their cities’ footprints. Specifically, the United States experiences sprawl that is predominantly residential in form (low-density residential developments in rural and undeveloped areas).