Urban Sprawl

Over the years the idea of urban sprawl and its relationship with suburbs has been under the limelight. Under the rapid urbanization, cities continue their expansion and take up lands, there are rising human activities and consumption of resources. Although urban sprawl symbolizes the success of urbanization in the modern world, on the other hands, it is a double-edged sword in regards to the environment of the suburbs. I agree that the urban sprawl poses a threat to the environment of the suburbs while the reason for this phenomenon is twofold: growing reliance on transportation and destruction cause by land.

First of all, larger scale of transportation adds burden to the environment of the suburbs. Transportation is indispensable to link citizens from work to home which travels to different parts of the city. Generally, the larger the city area is, the bigger transportation network is needed. For instance, in the late 20th century, US citizens have a greater reliance on cars as transportation when they relocate form apartments in cities to the suburbs. (Kunzig, 2011) This example suggests that urban expansion to suburbs leads to rising needs on

Under urban sprawl, there is a need of new housing, commercial and recreational land use in suburban area. So as to acquire new land, removing the woods is one of the choices. Although deforestation makes lands available for other uses, at the same time, this irreversible act poses negative influence to the environment of the suburbs. To illustrate, it possibly destroys the habitat of animals in the woods., which may lead to loss of species of animals and plants. Besides this, it affects the air quality as well as trees helps to absorb carbon dioxide and converts it to oxygen. All of the above shows that the destruction caused by land development is threatening the environment of