Costs of Sprawl

Across the nation, the debate over metropolitan sprawl and its impact has become pivotal to urban planning. A decade and a half ago, Smart Growth America and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sought to raise the level of the debate by sponsoring groundbreaking research to quantitatively measure sprawl and its quality-of-life impacts. The resulting measures are widely used in urban research and public health.

Costs of Sprawl provides a panoramic guide to urban form in America, measures sprawl for metropolitan areas, urbanized areas, and counties, and studies the relationship between sprawl and quality-of-life outcomes. From this preliminary investigation, it looks like the costs of sprawl are varied and substantial, and the alternative of compact development is far superior.

An essential read for researchers, planners, urban designers, policy makers, and smart growth advocates in the U.S. and abroad, this book provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of one of the most critical issues in planning today.

Reid Ewing, Ph.D., is a Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah, USA, chair of the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, columnist for Planning magazine, and one of the most highly cited academic planners in North America.

Shima Hamidi, Ph.D., is Director of the Institute of Urban Studies and Assistant Professor of Urban Planning. Hamidi is a transportation planner and a smart growth advocate. The results of her research have been cited in more than 100 national newspapers and magazines such as Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and CNN Money.