Increase of Urban Sprawl, an Explanation
10/17/2022
Have you noticed how there are more and more apartments in our area? More businesses? This is an ever growing result of urban sprawl, and the many ways it can affect a community.
What is urban sprawl?
Urban sprawl is the rapid expansion of urban areas. The building of apartments, schools, ect., meaning more people living in that area so that leads to more drivers. More drivers lead to more gasoline consumption and that leads to more pollution. It really is just a chain reaction of the previous act.
What causes it?
Urban sprawl is caused by the rise of standard living. Urban sprawl is also caused by the rise in population growth and the need to meet what people need in order to live comfortably. As we add more people to the earth we need more houses and when we do that we need more shops and it keeps growing bigger and bigger.
How it affects our community?
Urban sprawl can affect the water quality in the community by the amount of surface runoff. Because individuals are relying on private transportation instead of public or walking, more roads, houses, and essential services are built. More electricity being used. More houses and more people bring more pollution that may be from people littering to the gasses that private vehicles give out. With the growing population we have to cut down trees and ruin natural landscapes to either make way to build or to gather resources. This is currently happening in our own community as they are building new apartments and building more restaurants. Urban Sprawl doesn’t just affect big cities, it is even affecting our home town. Ellettsville, Indiana is experiencing Urban Sprawl. There are many new apartment buildings being built in this area, meaning more people are moving to this area. Many new stores are also being put into outlets and other locations.
Some things we can do to help mitigate urban sprawl:
Some things that could help mitigate Urban Sprawl are building permit limits, investing in more public transportation. Also limiting the amount of personal auto ownership so more people are on one vehicle it reduces the amount of cars on the road.
Positives:
Urban Sprawl can also positively affect a community by bringing economic growth into an area. More money for a city or town can also bring in things like the possibility of affordable housing, groceries stores, and job opportunities for people in the area. With these things, the people of the city or town are able to have higher wages due to the abundance of jobs and businesses that are making money.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Urban Sprawl in certain situations can negatively affect a community and its people. It also can have positive effects on communities and their people.
Contributor Bio:
This article was written and edited by Mrs. Myers 8th Grade Science class, a group of students working on a project that discusses a topic on human environmental impact. THey decided to write an article to publish so that more students at EJHS are able to learn about the impact of urban sprawl.