The Trend of Urban Sprawl - Essay Example

What is the price we pay for urbanization "Our choice of lifestyle, that stubborn adherence to the wrong remains a significant barrier to the improved health and prosperity of individuals and families as well as to the viable future of our communities and country." (Farr 41) As people yearn for healthier, happier, and independent ways of living they need to look into the effects of such a resolution. A major trend that is happening now is the expansion of dwellings and man's entire future. "Land use is a human modification of land" ("Land Use") or natural environment, such as wilderness, which is turned into a built environment of pastures, residence and industrial locations, or fields. This may seem to denote progress and prosperity but it has more considerable negative results such as erosion, deforestation, salinization or the presence of high level of salts in the soil, soil degradation or simply the loss of soil stability, erosion, and urban sprawl. This extensive land use and urban sprawl have adverse effects in the environment - natural resources, animals, plants, water, and soil nutrients and it has become, in fact, a major environmental concern. Sprawl is a term used to denote the increased land use of urbanized area by lesser people compared to previous times. Before, cities were smaller and more efficient, however in the past 20 - 50 years there has been massive use of land particularly for dwelling purposes. But now there has been spreading of the cities to rural lands at the periphery of an urban area. Residents sprawling to the neighborhoods choose to live in single-family homes and use automobiles to drive to the city proper than constricting to one suitable area where everything is accessible. On a simpler picture, it means a single-family home compared to an apartment. These homes occupy more lot area taking into account not just the area where the house is built but also the parking space, yard, landscaping, and all others. Lot sizes become larger to accommodate fewer people and since there are more automobiles, parking spaces have to be built as well. The impact of low density development means that many communities are urbanized in a surprisingly faster rate. Unfortunately, low population density, or the low measurement of an area in comparison to the volume of population, is the indication of a sprawl. There are several alarming disadvantages of urban sprawling. The expansion of the urban area to create new highways, bigger and bigger shopping malls, theme parks, fast food chains, and other industrial structures causes the loss of farmlands. This loss diminishes man's provisions on food, fiber, and even lumber. It also causes property taxes to increase thus forcing the farmers to go out of business. This same trend also results to loss of wildlife habitat. Meadows, vast wild forests, and marshlands are vanishing and these happen to be the habitat of countless flora and fauna which are pushed to co-habit in smaller, fragmented, and more degraded environment. These new homes make survival harder because of the minimal accessibility to breeding grounds, feeding areas, hibernation sites, or to establish nesting areas. This unfavorable effect of urban sprawl on the flora and fauna will also cause loss of food source for human and eventually a strong contribution to global warming. With people living away from the usual urban sites, public services should also be provided extending up to where new communities are built. Take note that some local government units cannot subsidize these said services because they used to be low-income generating locales, instead, the majority of the working public are given the burden on taxes to fund these needs. Unless people rethink how they live, work, play, and even shop, there will be unnecessary spending from the government, such as building additional fire stations, construction of added storm drainages, provisions on more school buses, garbage collection services are added, and other similar maintenances. With people living farther and farther from each other and from educational and industrial establishments, they will need transportation to take them to and from their homes. More automobiles or motorized land transportations will also contribute drastically to air pollution and smog. Vehicle in fact is the greatest contributor to air pollution in urban areas which will result to a threat to the public and wildlife as well. Because of this form of pollution, airborne diseases are beginning to materialize. During those times asthma is a respiratory disease that is usually passed on from one generation to another and is first manifested from a very young age. But now, anyone of any age experiences this chronic respiratory condition due to air pollution and drastic change of weather brought about by climate change. This is just one of the many imminent dangers caused by sprawling. The breathing air is not the only facet that is affected by the expansion of urban areas but also because of this, there is a tremendous increase in the use of water. As many dwellings and people-inhabited locations are put together, there will always be the need for water may it be for drinking, washing, or flushing. Larger and more superior water systems are required and these can cause big bodies of water to dry up. Also, the spills and leakages coming out from factories and other establishments in the form of oil, fuel, or other chemicals will definitely result to water pollution. The greater need for water for human and operational survival is also the same as its need for energy. Sprawled developments increase the energy consumption per person, increase gasoline utilization, electricity use, home and building air-conditioning and ventilation, and all forms of energy sources. In a greater overview, this will also equate to so much environmental damage that people should start to be responsible for the preservation of what's left of the atmosphere. People are driven farther away from each other and so it is predictable that social fragmentation is also an effect of urban sprawling. The traditional neighborhood with residents living a porch away, with a nearby church and school, a corner store, is a more appropriate setting for social interaction. However, people now hardly interact since they only see their neighbors as they drive along. Social events hardly take place. Families are becoming more isolated from each other, and those who are living alone are marooned in a more hostile environment also taking into consideration that "one of the most distressing features of the contemporary city is the persistence of social problems." (Smith 3) It is said that as income rise and quality of life improves for the majority of city dwellers, many people all the more are left behind. Furthermore, people in a sprawled situation are subjected to more time for travel to and from their homes and less time are devoted to meaningful family bonding and responsibilities. In a compressed and well-organized city, travel time is less compared to a scattered and spread-out city where in it takes more time to navigate. This same situation will also equate to more health issues especially on weight and diet. People are no longer given the opportunity for a leisure walk to the grocery store, church, or nearby park because farther distances are covered to reach such vicinities. Children are driven to school either by a school bus or their parents' cars resulting to lack of exercise as opposed to walking or riding bikes instead. This lack of exercises for both young and old can cause obesity and other unhealthy effects. As a fact, walking is the best form of life-long exercise and to highly urbanized locations, it is outspokenly discouraged since there are less-friendly sidewalks, few pedestrians due to the usual heavy traffic and rushing passersby are abound. People may aim for progress and growth in terms of economy and lifestyle, but it should not be at the expense of the greater good. We are in a world where we, as people, are not the only living inhabitants. And for who we are, being the most superior life form, we should be able to think of better alternatives to accommodate the growing population and its needs. People need to think of sustainable practices of development that are not self destructive and can promote significant positive results in a long term basis. "Only with a concreted effort, only by fusing their various initiatives into a cooperative whole, can we forge a new framework that supports a truly sustainable lifestyle." (Farr 57) Citations: (1) Farr, Douglas. Sustainable Urbanism, urban design with nature. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2008. (2) Smith, Christopher J.. Public Problems. New York: The Guilford Press, 1988. (3) "Land Use." Wikipedia. 5 Dec 2008 . Read More