The Costs of Urban Sprawl

The following characteristics are only a few of the negative characteristics of America society, high foreign oil dependency, high fuel consumption, congested traffic, strip malls, automobile dependency, loss of country, increase of fast food chains, and an increase waste lines. All of these characteristics of American society can be linked to urban sprawl! Urban sprawl is the spreading of communities to the outskirts of cities. Suburbs are products of urban sprawl. Sprawl is often used with a negative connotation. It has an especially negative impact on the environment. People often don’t realize that sprawl has huge water consequences. Sprawl allows for home owners to have more land and bigger lawns. Neighborhoods waste a ridiculous amount of clean water on watering their lawns. Also, fertilizers that are used to fertilize the lawns can seep into the ground water supply. The grass used on lawns also decreases the biodiversity of the environment. Sprawl also greatly affects the air quality. People in suburbs have bigger houses and use more energy on their houses. Also, since they live farther away from their houses, they have longer commutes to their work. This results in a greater consumption of energy. The main question here is why does America continue to sprawl from the cities when all the negative consequences seem to outweigh the positive effects?