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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: ISSUE ON URBAN SPRAWL Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl has been defined as the rapid and expansive growth of a greater metropolitan area and is used to describe urban growth. This paper looks into this issue and examines three implications that has to do with urban migration pointing to the deterioration of the quality of life in the developing world in general and in urban areas in particular as well as the environmental problems it can lead to. Three solution approaches shall be tackled in looking at these proposed solutions. Urban sprawl or suburban sprawl has been defined as the rapid and expansive growth of a greater metropolitan area and is used to describe urban growth. It is characterized by unlimited urban growth. Anni Elina Kivisaari of the University of Turku in Finland provides 10 characteristics of urban sprawl.
These are: 1. unlimited outward extension 2. low-density residential and commercial settlements 3. leapfrog development 4. fragmentation of powers over land use among many small localities 5. dominance of transportation by private automotive vehicles 6.
no centralized planning or control of land-uses 7. widespread strip commercial development 8. great fiscal disparities among localities 9. segregation of types of land uses in different zones 10. reliance mainly on the trickle-down or filtering process to provide housing to low-income (Kivisaari, Anni Elina).
I. Major World Population Problem, Where it is Leading To The developing world now accounts for four-fifths of the worlds population, a percentage that will further increase with the progression of time (Bongaarts 1). Global human population estimates of 6. 1 billion people in 2000 has the potential to increase to nine billion by 2050 (Population Reference Bureau). With the populations in the developed world expected to be stable, all of future population growth will come from growth in the developing nations (Bongaarts 1).
There are at least three implications of the population trends worldwide. One has to do with migration pressures from the developing world to the developed world, a second has to do with food security and poverty, and a third implication has to do with urban migration, and the deterioration of the quality of life in the developing world in general and in urban areas in particular. With regard to migration pressures, the population explosion is said to cause an increased pressure for international migration resulting in the influx of immigrants to the developed world at the rate of two million immigrants a year for the next fifty years (Chamie). With regard to food security and poverty, basically, the population explosion in the developing world puts pressures on poor countries to adequately provide for the food needs of its citizens as well as to enable its poorest to get access to food, with population growth also occurring in those segments of the third world that is least capable of feeding itself because of income poverty (Sustainable Development Networking Program). A third implication of the population explosion in the developing world is the resultant migration of populations to urban areas and the attendant problems of such a migration. In the Asia Pacific, for example, there has been a six-fold increase in urban population from 1950 to 2003 (Downer), with the attendant social problems of lack of housing, inadequate provision for health care and other basic services, high unemployment rates, and the inability of farmers to provide for the food needs of urban populations (Sustainable Development Networking Program).
II. Environmental Problems and Evaluation of Solutions It is said that the past two decades has seen a shift in focus from purely domestic environmental concerns to the global environmental problems of global warming or climate change, ozone depletion, water and air pollution, acid rain, deforestation, desertification, and a decline in biodiversity (Watson Institute for International Studies). Another view classifies environmental problems into land degradation that includes deforestation and desertification; and environmental pollution and degradation that includes chemical, solid waste, water and radiation pollution, as well as air pollution within which acid rain and global warming are included (Long). Three solutions approaches that have been championed to solve these problems are the Pro Business Voluntaristic Approach, The Egalitarian/Authoritarian Plan, and Control of Resource Use (Long).
Under the Pro-Business Voluntaristic Approach, the solution to environmental problems is basically left to the care of market forces. Under this thinking, supply and demand forces will drive up the price of scarce resources, giving impetus for the search for alternative sources and encouraging the preservation of remaining scarce resources (Long). The egalitarian / authoritarian plan basically aims to make polluting a crime, with attendant grave consequences and penalties for polluters (Long). The control of use approach basically gives government to determine size, extent of current use, and sustainable levels of use of finite resources, and to enforce limits based on their determined levels of use. Under this approach, government has the responsibility of pollution control, central planning, the breaking up of monopolies, mandatory conservation, and subsidizing alternative energy sources (Threats to the Environment). The three approaches have their own merits.
The Pro-Business Voluntaristic Approach seems too passive to be effective, given that environmental problems sprouted while market forces prevailed historically. The third approach seems feasible, but needs to have checks and balances set up against the power of government to regulate resource use. The second approach seems to be the most workable approach, though it has to hurdle certain implementation issues such as how to penalize polluting industries without undermining their contributions to the economy. III. Major Changes Taking Place in the US Population and Projected Problems Due to the Changes The US is said to have the highest population of the developed nations, and one of the highest population growth rates at one percent, equivalent to 2. 5 million new Americans every year (Haub).
Three national population trends that have been identified in a recent US census are changes in geographic distribution, changes in ethnic composition, and the effect of immigration on population (Haub). With regard to the changing geographic distribution of the population, the population is said to be shifting from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, both because of internal migration and immigration from other countries (Haub). With regard to ethic composition, while ethnic minorities are said to comprise 25 percent of the population currently, that percentage will increase to 50 percent in 50 years, with Asians rising in numbers from 7. 1 to 40 million by 2050, and Hispanics rising in numbers to 90 million in 2050, constituting 22 percent of the population (Haub). Immigration, on the other hand, presently accounts for a third of the population increase yearly, and is expected to be a major contributor to population growth in the future (Haub).
It naturally follows that the South and West will have to deal with the attendant problems of the shifting geographic distribution in its favor, while the change in ethnic composition can be predicted to contribute its own set of problems. IV. Problems Causing the Decline in the Quality of Life in Cities, Possible Solutions It is said that more than a billion urban dwellers, out of a total of three billion, are located in slum areas, with half living in Asia (Whelan). This is indicative of the mammoth problems of governments with regard to the provision for food (Sustainable Development Networking Program), opportunities for employment, environmental degradation, sanitation, and general quality of living in cities. Another problem causing the decline in quality of life is said to be urban sprawl, whose effects range from over-congestion to pollution (Goodwin). In the US, the states that are the destination of internal and external migration and immigration in the ongoing shift in geographic distribution of the population that will have to deal with these issues.
Proposed solutions include the revision of federal laws to limit immigration, the creation of boundaries that will redirect urban growth to places where urban services can be provided, and tighter control on allowable density and housing (Goodwin). Indeed, urban sprawl continues to be an environmental problem. Yet it is exactly the course we are taking. There is no place left on earth that is untouched by contamination caused by human activity. There is no doubt that we are at the edge. We can either continue forward or take at least one step backwards and ask how we arrived at the edge of the cliff in the first place.
REFERENCES Bongaarts, J. (2001). Future Population Trends. Sustainable Food Security for All by 2020. 6 September 2001. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Chamie, J. (2004). Coping With World Population Boom and Bust Part 1.
Yale Global Online. 19 August 2004. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Downer, A. (2003). Speech Minister for Foreign Affairs -- Population Change in Asia and the Pacific: Implications for Development Policy. Australian Government AusAID. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >.
Goodwin, A. (2003). Sprawl threatens quality of life, study says. The Spokesman Review. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >.
Haub, C. (1995). Global and US National Population Trends Consequences (1) 2. Summer 1995. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Kivisaari, A. Urban Sprawl.
Its Overall Background and Consequences in American Towns. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: web Long, R. (2004). Social Problems Chapter 4: Threats to the Environment 19 April 2004. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Population Reference Bureau. Human Population: Fundamentals of Growth Population Growth and Distribution. 2006.
Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Sustainable Development Networking Program. Food Security for a Growing World Population: 200 Years After Malthus, Still an Unsolved Problem. SDNP Bangladesh. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Threats to the Environment.
Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web > Watson Institute for Development Studies. Global Environmental Problems: Implications for US Policy Brown University. Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Whelan, S. (2004). One Third of the Worlds Urban Population Lives in a Slum World Socialist Website. 25 February 2004. 12 Accessed 19 June 2006 at: < web >. Wikipedia.
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Research essay sample on Environmental Science Issue On Urban Sprawl
