What is Urban Sprawl

People have always desired to live comfortable lives. A life in which they have all the facilities for themselves as well as their families. In their quest for it, people have migrated from their native places to areas where they can find employment. This migration of people from one place to another, usually from villages to cities, is what is termed as urbanization. If you look at history, the biggest human migration for economic purposes, took place during the industrial revolution. As the emphasis shifted from agriculture to industry, lots of people who were employed in farms in villages, started moving to the industrial centers, in the nineteenth and the twentieth century.

Today, the scenario has not changed much. Due to globalization and other factors, people still continue to migrate and this has resulted in overpopulation in the cities. As the land in the main city area is not enough, at the same time, too expensive, the cities have started "spreading". Rampant immigration has given rise to numerous suburbs, around most of the major cities, all over the world. However, this is not where the things have stopped. Now, there is an added problem of the suburbs spilling over to the unused lands or villages adjoining the cities, to accommodate the population. This phenomenon is called urban sprawl. Let us try to understand in detail, by looking at its causes and effects.

Causes

A typical feature of an urban sprawl is families who live in their own independent houses, with all the modern facilities and own cars to travel to work in the main city area. This in fact is one of the causes of urban sprawl. The standard of living of the people has increased. Now, they can easily afford a vehicle and thus, can travel long distances to work. However, if you look at the main reason why people opt to live in sprawls, it is the high property and land prices in the city center. And it's not just families who are preferring suburbs due to this, even commercial establishments and businesses have shifted, for the very same reason i.e. high property costs.

Another important reason behind urban sprawl is the peaceful life that they promise. As the cities have become congested due to unchecked population growth, people are willingly shifting to the less populated sprawls, where they can lead a stress-free life.

If you take a specific case, the government policies in United States of America have not done much to check this phenomenon in the country. In fact, if you look at the figures, a lot more is being spent on developing infrastructure in the suburbs as compared to in the city centers. To know further about urban sprawl, let's look at some of the effects it has on the cities as well as the society.

Effects

There are both positive as well as negative effects of urban sprawls. Let's start with the problems. The major drawback of urban sprawls is that it has led to environment degradation. Since people in the suburbs travel in cars to the city centers, it raises the levels of air pollution. Secondly, lots of farming land is converted into non-farming land and used for construction. This too affects the environment adversely and raises many environmental issues.

Looking from the individual point of view, people travel long distances and hence, do not have any free time left for themselves or their families. This leads to their isolation, a feeling of loneliness and mental stress. Their health too deteriorates as there is no time to exercise. There is no sense of belonging to the society and on top of that in some cities, ghettos and slums come up, thus endangering the safety of the inhabitants.

As for the positives, there are people who link urban sprawl and development to one another. According to them, urban sprawls are an indicator of economic growth of a city. As these are typically characterized by huge houses, wide roads, malls, shopping centers, etc. they are ideal places to live a peaceful life, away from the traffic of the city.

This is in short about urban sprawl. As long as innovations, discoveries are made, the cities remain as hubs of employment, urban sprawls, suburbs and all the related problems, something people as well as cities have to live with!