Urban Sprawl

KA
by Kailey Arens4 views·Updated May 14, 2021

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  1. urban sprawl is a big issue in today's society and
  2. most people don't even know about it or what it
  3. is. What is urban sprawl?
  4. Urban sprawl is the unrestricted growth in many urban areas
  5. of housing, commercial developments and roads over large expanses of
  6. land, with little concern for urban planning.
  7. What are some of the side effects of urban sprawl
  8. as well as many harmful effects that are both us
  9. and the environment around us?
  10. One of these effects would be an increase in air
  11. pollution. Urban sprawl increases the need for longer car and
  12. truck traffic bike, creating longer, more frequent commutes, which has
  13. led to a major increase in air pollution.
  14. In ground level smog americans spend an equivalent of 55
  15. 8 hour work days behind the wheel every year.
  16. And as urban areas community sprawl more time has to
  17. be spent in these cars, which caused is even more
  18. traffic congestion that will occur over a larger area, which
  19. contributes to the growing emissions of greenhouse gases and continued
  20. aggression of air quality in these areas.
  21. Another effect is an increase in water pollution.
  22. Um and water pollution is caused when when roger picks
  23. up gasoline, lawn chemicals and other um Putin's and run
  24. offs from lawns, driveways, roads and parking lots.
  25. These can eventually travel in large country.
  26. It amounts pleading nearby water sources such as streams, rivers
  27. or lakes.
  28. Yeah, Every year, more than 100,000 acres of wetlands which
  29. are capable of removing up to 90 of these pollutants
  30. are being destroyed in a large part due to urban
  31. sprawl, and the destruction of these wetlands has led to
  32. a direct developed direct increase in pollute did waters.
  33. Urban sprawl has also caused a degrade digression of human
  34. health. Poor community designs such as poorly planned.
  35. A low density car dependent developments makes it difficult for
  36. people to get physically active and maintain a healthy weight.
  37. There is a clear correlation between urban sprawl and the
  38. increased levels of obesity and chronic diseases associated with physical
  39. and activity.
  40. Um, a smart growth America study compared the counties for
  41. all index to the health characteristics of more than 200,000
  42. individuals Living in 448 counties and found that people living
  43. in counties marked by scrawling developments are more likely to
  44. walk in by glass, way more, drive more and have
  45. an overall hired BME than those who lived in the
  46. last sprawling counties.
  47. Um The increase of air pollutants from urban sprawl has
  48. also manufacture in the decrease of human health by increasing
  49. respiratory ailments like asthma, bronchitis and has heightened the risk
  50. of life threatening conditions such as cancer.
  51. Urban sprawl has also caused an increase in wasted tax
  52. money and overcrowding in schools instead of improving already existing
  53. communities. Us tax money is instead spent on new sprawling
  54. developments in communities which cost counties and cities millions of
  55. dollars for new schools, water and sewer lines and increased
  56. fire and police protection, which forces higher taxes on its
  57. residents. Federal, state and local taxes are all also being
  58. increased due to homes and businesses being spread further apart,
  59. which drives up the cost of community services that are
  60. provided by the local governments.
  61. Urban sprawl creates crowding in schools in the suburbs and
  62. empty crumbling schools in the center cities.
  63. New development puts more Children into urban schools but doesn't
  64. pay for the new schools that have to be built
  65. because of this.
  66. A grant of Florida's Department of Education 17,738 temporary or
  67. trailer classrooms are currently in use in that state.
  68. And a report by the conference board claims that 20%
  69. of school kids in California all learn in temporary classrooms.
  70. A lot of open space and farmland, parks and wildlife
  71. habitats is another terrible effect of urban problem.
  72. Um, It transforms it threatens productive formally and transforms parks
  73. and open spaces into highways And strip malls and troy's
  74. more than one million acres of parts farmland and open
  75. spaces every year.
  76. Um, we're just trying farms at an alarming rate across
  77. us or to create new highways, industrial parks in new
  78. sprawling housing developments.
  79. This loss reduces our ability to grow food, fiber and
  80. timber in many areas.
  81. Urban development pressure and increased property taxes are forcing farmers
  82. out of business.
  83. Wild forest, meadows and wetlands are also disappearing and are
  84. being replaced instead by pavement, buildings and sterile urban landscaping.
  85. The remaining habitat is smaller, degraded and more fragmented, making
  86. the survival of certain wildlife species extremely difficult as they
  87. try to reach breeding ponds, hibernation sites pd locations or
  88. even to just establish a viable nesting area.
  89. Um solutions for urban sprawl.
  90. While there isn't a great solution for stopping urban sprawl,
  91. there are a few different ways because lessen the effects
  92. of it.
  93. one way is smart growth communities.
  94. Smart growth is a management strategy designed to direct the
  95. growth of urban areas.
  96. Some benefits would, and these wouldn't focus on the physical
  97. design of communities to create livable and walkable neighborhoods.
  98. Some benefits would include an increase in housing opportunities for
  99. everyone, pedestrian friendly communities, developments that are distinctive and unique
  100. and the design and construction of compact homes and businesses
  101. that use energy in an efficient way.
  102. On one way we can accomplish this by using urban
  103. growth boundaries.
  104. Urban growth boundaries involve the drawing of map lines that
  105. separate areas designated for urban expansion in areas for open
  106. space and agriculture On this boundaries typically kept in place
  107. for about 20 years to encourage the development in the
  108. already existing cities, while to discourage on land speculation and
  109. building construction outside of the boundary.
  110. Another possible solution is a transit village.
  111. Transit villages are pedestrian friendly, makes use districts that are
  112. built around um high quality transit systems like more subways
  113. and trans systems used to be another good example of
  114. this on the idea is favored by many environmentalists because
  115. they encouraged the construction of high density developments that reduce
  116. our reliance on our own private cars.
  117. A similar idea to this is equal villages and conservation
  118. developments. These include residents needing to commute to nearby towns
  119. and suburbs to participate in carpooling and ride share programs.
  120. Um Finally, another simple way to help prevent urban sprawl
  121. is simply educate our communities about the negative effects urban
  122. sprawl has.
  123. If communities are educated about the negative impacts of urban
  124. sprawl, they are more likely to take action to prevent
  125. on this irresponsible development communities need to understand the effects
  126. of rooms for all in order for them to realize
  127. how badly it's affecting um everyone, including us and the
  128. nature around us, Once the community's educated, it's more likely
  129. that they will try to act and prevent urban sprawl
  130. from occurring.
  131. What does the catechism say?
  132. There are quite a few teaching from the catechism that
  133. can be connected back to ribbons.
  134. Problem one I really liked was paragraph 339, which says
  135. man must therefore respect the particular goodness of every creature
  136. to avoid any disordered use of things which would be
  137. in contempt of the creator and would bring disastrous consequences
  138. for human beings and their environment.
  139. As Catholics were called to protect all of God's creation
  140. and urban sprawl the story so much of these, such
  141. as the land and we'll have heads and other forms
  142. of wildlife that God created.
  143. It's hard to act with stewardship, especially when it comes
  144. to these creations.
  145. And urban sprawl does the exact opposite of this.
  146. Instead of cherishing and taking care of all the beautiful
  147. things God has created.
  148. Many are are instead of being destroyed to allow for
  149. urban sprawl and development of new cities and areas actions
  150. such as implementing energy and water efficiencies in areas where
  151. Miss Raul is an issue is a great way of
  152. showing environmental stewardship towards these areas.
  153. Areas already affected by urban sprawl.
  154. An encyclical I really liked was the um a lot
  155. of scene.
  156. I thought it made some excellent points that you can
  157. relate back to urban sprawl.
  158. On one paragraph I really liked was paragraph 44 which
  159. says nowadays for example, we are conscious of the disproportionate
  160. and unruly growth of many cities which is not which
  161. have become unhealthy to live in, not only because of
  162. the pollution caused by toxic emissions, but also as a
  163. result of urban chaos, poor transportation and visible pollution and
  164. noise. Many cities are huge, inefficient structures, excessively wasteful of
  165. energy and water neighborhoods, even those recently built are congested,
  166. chaotic and lacking in sufficient green space.
  167. We are not meant to be intimidated by cement, asphalt,
  168. glass and metal and deprived of physical contact with nature.
  169. I think this paragraph top connects back a lot of
  170. the effects I talked about earlier how many of the
  171. issues caused by terribles issues caused by urban sprawl.
  172. Um it's easy to see the damage is, it's done,
  173. but many people choose to ignore it because it's easier
  174. to solve to do that.
  175. Then you solve the problem.
  176. This is especially true when it comes to the money
  177. aspect of it.
  178. Those in power often allow urban sprawl to continue because
  179. it's cheaper than attempting to solve the problem or fixing
  180. up the areas we already current have currently have.
  181. Um a lot of us.
  182. He actually connects back to this in paragraph 56, which
  183. says in the meantime, economic powers continue to justify the
  184. current global system, where a priority tends to be given
  185. to speculation in the pursuit of financial gain, which failed
  186. to take the context into account, let alone the effects
  187. on human dignity and the natural environment.
  188. In conclusion, urban sprawl to turbo issue we are facing
  189. and causes many effects such as air and water pollution,
  190. and increasing water consumption taxes in an overcrowding in schools
  191. and a decrease in human health and losses in open
  192. spaces, farmlands, parks and wildlife habitats.
  193. And there are many ways we can fix this issue.
  194. But most people elected instead pretend it's not.
  195. It's up to you to decide if it is it's
  196. not an issue.
  197. But until everyone can see the harm it is doing,
  198. there are no real trains will happen in order to
  199. help protect our nature and lands in our areas.