The Social Cost of Urban Sprinkling

Abstract

Low-density dispersed urban development, known as “sprawl” or “sprinkling”, is an alternative configuration that best expresses the structure of the Italian urban system and is taking on increasingly significant dimensions. This phenomenon has increased in recent decades due to a weakening of the urban agglomeration force that had characterized the first half of the last century. Partial abandonment of agricultural activities and socio-economic changes led to the progressive urbanization of rural areas and the birth of widespread cities. This work discusses the externalities generated by sprawl, focusing on the tangible costs that this urban development model unloads on the people. In particular, the territory of the Basilicata Region is analyzed. Based on the data of some municipalities in the region, a relationship between the marginal costs relating to the greater linear infrastructure that sprinkling requires and an index already described in the literature to provide a quantitative measure of this phenomenon was built and verified with a regression model.

Why Italy First? Health, Geographical and Planning Aspects of the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…Unlike urban sprawl, sprinkling is characterized by low density settlements and a more spontaneous, dispersed and chaotic development. The cost of sprinkling is higher than that of sprawl [73,74] because this model requires a lot of small infrastructures for transport, electricity, water distribution etc. If, on the one hand, sprawl is denser than sprinkling However, the issue is more complex as the variables involved are manifold and aspects such as the scale of investigation (wind, relative humidity, more generally weather and climate conditions) and all air pollutants must be considered, for example, the PM 10 which during the lockdown exceeded the limits in numerous units of the Po Valley megalopolis [54,55].…”

“…Unlike urban sprawl, sprinkling is characterized by low density settlements and a more spontaneous, dispersed and chaotic development. The cost of sprinkling is higher than that of sprawl [73,74] because this model requires a lot of small infrastructures for transport, electricity, water distribution etc. If, on the one hand, sprawl is denser than sprinkling educing a depauperation of the landscape, on the other, this development creates more sealing of soils, generating the total loss of their natural properties.…”

Urban Sprawl Risk Delimitation: The Concept for Spatial Planning Policy in Poland

“…Inhabitants of these areas bear the highest costs of urban sprawl. Various conflicts, including social, economic, spatial, etc., are also concentrated in the outer metropolitan areas [95,96]. They are also often the areas of relatively greatest development.…”

Modeling the Determinants of Urban Fragmentation and Compaction Phenomena in the Province of Matera (Basilicata Region - Italy)

“…In the case study analyzed but, more generally, in the whole Basilicata’s regional territory, urban fragmentation is the main dynamics of transformation and, in recent years it has also been caused by other components of the settlement system such as renewable energy plants [ 15 , 27 ] and oil wells [ 16 ]. It is crucial to analyze and model urban transformation dynamics as they have a significant impact on the quality of the landscape, the supply of ecosystem services [ 28 – 30 ] and the costs to the population of transforming the city in an unsustainable way [ 31 , 32 ]. For these and other reasons, analyzing the dynamics of urban transformation is of fundamental importance since they can have a significant impact and cause significant damage to cultural heritage and, because of the dynamics that develop as a result of uncontrolled land transformation (landslide movements) can be a risk to human life [ 33 – 35 ].…”