Sustaining What Is Unsustainable: A Review of Urban Sprawl and Urban Socio-Environmental Policies in North America and Western Europe

Abstract

Urban sprawl and its economic, social, and environmental consequences are central issues for approaching more sustainable forms of life and production. This review provides a broad theoretical exploration of the main features of urban sprawl but also of sustainable urban policies in Western Europe and North America. Urban sprawl can be observed in both continents, as the search for higher standards of economic, social, and environmental sustainability is also an essential feature of urban governance in the last years. Urban sprawl has been slightly weaker in Western Europe, as its are cities generally more compact. Moreover, in Western Europe, urban sprawl has sometimes been confronted with ex-ante preventive policies. However, in North America, urban sprawl from the 1950s has been an essential element of the social ordering and, thus, of the American way of life. In both cases, urban sprawl has generated successive rounds of accumulation of built capital, which is currently managed in sustainable ways essentially through ex-post and palliative measures, that is, trying to “sustain what is unsustainable”. In other words, the idea is to make urban sprawl more sustainable but without altering its main morphological elements.

Soil Quality and Peri-Urban Expansion of Cities: A Mediterranean Experience (Athens, Greece)

“…This phenomenon can be more intense in peri-urban Mediterranean regions undergoing climate aridification and increasing anthropogenic pressure [54][55][56][57]. The empirical findings of our work confirm earlier evidence on urban growth as a factor of degradation and physical loss of soil [58][59][60][61]. In most socioeconomic contexts typical of advanced countries, consensus has been reached on the assumption that settlement expansion may concentrate on soils with high suitability for agriculture (e.g., [62][63][64][65]), determining cropland reduction and loss of approximately 2% of the world's current arable land [66].…”

The Role of Zoning Policies on Sustainable Development and Climate Change

“…7 Relative to urban density, urban sprawl is defined by low density, low proximity, and low centrality. 8 Low density refers to urban land developed as single-family homes with a relatively low population compared to the space they occupy characterized by high consumption of land per inhabitant. 9 Low centrality and proximity describe the large spatial distance between suburbs and central areas.…”

“…8 Low density refers to urban land developed as single-family homes with a relatively low population compared to the space they occupy characterized by high consumption of land per inhabitant. 9 Low centrality and proximity describe the large spatial distance between suburbs and central areas. 10 High urban densities and controlled urban sprawls can lead to and are characterized as compact cities that are ideal for urban sustainability due to its walkable infrastructure, abundant public transportation, and a lot of mixeduse developments that are conducive to easier access to goods, services, and information.…”

“…9 Low centrality and proximity describe the large spatial distance between suburbs and central areas. 10 High urban densities and controlled urban sprawls can lead to and are characterized as compact cities that are ideal for urban sustainability due to its walkable infrastructure, abundant public transportation, and a lot of mixeduse developments that are conducive to easier access to goods, services, and information. 11 Urban development is only sustainable when it can support social conditions and cohesion, encourage resource efficiency and economic sustainability, and provide a high quality of life for all residents.…”

The Influence of the Duration of Journey Stages on Transport Mode Choice: A Case Study in the City of Tarnow

“…Until recently, it was relatively common to believe that, in order to reduce the loss of time of road users, one should look for new transportation corridors or expand the existing street cross sections, mainly for the needs of personal car traffic [4]. However, this approach was not effective because uncritical expansion of transport systems does not solve transport problems but only increases them because, even a well-developed transport system is not able to meet the needs of travel on transit routes leading to places with a high concentration of origins and destinations of travel [5,6].…”