An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment . This is the core of a metropolitan statistical area in the United States, if it contains a population of more than 50,000.
106-607: The Kolkata Metropolitan Area (abbreviated KMA ; formerly Calcutta Metropolitan Area ), also known as Greater Kolkata , is the urban agglomeration of the city of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal . It is the third most populous metropolitan area in India after Delhi and Mumbai . The area is administered by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). What is now
212-500: A Built-up area (BUA) as an area of built-up land of at least 20 hectares (0.077 sq mi), separated from other settlements by at least 200 metres (660 ft). For 2011 census data there are 5,493 built-up areas, of which 501 are divided into Built-up area sub-divisions (BUASD) for which data is also available. Each built-up area is named algorithmically, using Ordnance Survey place-name data. The ONS has produced census results from urban areas since 1951, since 1981 based upon
318-457: A human impact on the environment . In 1950, 764 million people or about 30 percent of the world's 2.5 billion people lived in urban areas. By 2014, it was 3.9 billion or about 53 percent of the world's 7.3 billion people that lived in urban areas. The change was driven by a combination of increased total population and increased percent of population living in urban areas. In 2009, the number of people living in urban areas (3.42 billion) surpassed
424-453: A better way to identify sprawl was to use indicators rather than characteristics because this was a more flexible and less arbitrary method. He proposed using " accessibility " and "functional open space" as indicators. Ewing's approach has been criticized for assuming that sprawl is defined by negative characteristics. What constitutes sprawl may be considered a matter of degree and will always be somewhat subjective under many definitions of
530-480: A building at least every 200 m (660 ft) and at least 200 people. To be considered a town or a city ( kaupunki ) for statistical purposes, an urban area must have at least 15,000 people. This is not to be confused with the city / town designation used by municipalities . In France , an urban area ( Fr: aire d'attraction d'une ville ) is a zone encompassing an area of built-up growth (called an "urban unit" ( unité urbaine ) – close in definition to
636-653: A densely settled core created from census blocks and contiguous qualifying territory that together have at least 2,000 housing units or 5,000 persons." There were 2,646 urban areas identified by the Census Bureau for 2020. 511 of these had a population of 50,000 or more. For the 2000 and 2010 censuses, the Census Bureau differentiated between two kinds of urban areas: urbanized areas and urban clusters. The term urbanized area denoted an urban area of 50,000 or more people. Urban areas under 50,000 people were called urban clusters . Urbanized areas were first delineated in
742-543: A density requirement of 4,000 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,000/sq mi). Seoul is the largest urban area in South Korea . For the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area is a place having a minimum population of 5,000 of density 400 persons per square kilometre (1,000/sq mi) or higher, and 75% plus of the male working population employed in non-agricultural activities. Places administered by
848-442: A destructive pattern of growth in an endless quest to move away from the sprawl that only results in creating more of it. Urban sprawl is associated with a number of negative environmental outcomes. One of the major environmental problems associated with sprawl is land consumption , habitat loss and subsequent reduction in biodiversity . A review by Brian Czech and colleagues finds that urbanization endangers more species and
954-664: A growing trend in America's metropolitan areas. The Brookings Institution has published multiple articles on the topic. In 2005, author Michael Stoll defined job sprawl simply as jobs located more than 5-mile (8.0 km) radius from the CBD, and measured the concept based on year 2000 U.S. Census data. Other ways of measuring the concept with more detailed rings around the CBD include a 2001 article by Edward Glaeser and Elizabeth Kneebone's 2009 article, which show that sprawling urban peripheries are gaining employment while areas closer to
1060-514: A large majority of the population, typically 75%, is not engaged in agriculture and/or fishing is sometimes used. Since 2000, China 's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China's urban population will increase by 292 million people by 2050, when its cities will house a combined population of over one billion. The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.6% between 1978 and 2009. Between 150 and 200 million migrant workers work part-time in
1166-407: A more or less densely populated city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for very dense urban planning . Sometimes the urban areas described as the most "sprawling" are the most densely populated. In addition to describing a special form of urbanization ,
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#17327797909421272-406: A multitude of processes and leading to inefficient resource utilization". Reid Ewing has shown that sprawl has typically been characterized as urban developments exhibiting at least one of the following characteristics: low-density or single-use development, strip development, scattered development, and/or leapfrog development (areas of development interspersed with vacant land). He argued that
1378-572: A municipal corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee are automatically considered urban areas. The Census of India 2011 also defined the term "urban agglomeration" as an integrated urban area consisting of a core town together with its "outgrowths" (contiguous suburbs). In Pakistan , an area is a major city and municipality if it has more than 100,000 inhabitants according to census results. Cities include adjacent cantonments . Urbanisation in Pakistan has increased since
1484-507: A number of large cities . The largest conurbation is the Rhine-Ruhr region (11 million in 2008 ), including Düsseldorf (the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia ), Cologne , Bonn , Dortmund , Essen , Duisburg , and Bochum . The Netherlands is the 30th-most densely populated country in the world, with 404.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,048/sq mi)—or 497 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,287/sq mi) if only
1590-408: A planning approach and those advocating the efficiency of the market". Those who criticize sprawl tend to argue that sprawl creates more problems than it solves and should be more heavily regulated, while proponents argue that markets are producing the economically most efficient settlements possible in most situations, even if problems may exist. However, some market-oriented commentators believe that
1696-641: A population centre remains unchanged from that of an urban area: a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per km . Mexico is one of many countries where the urbanization rate is at least 80%. Mexico City , its capital, is the largest urban area in the country. In the United States , the Census Bureau defines urban areas and delineates urban area boundaries after each census. The Bureau defines an urban area as "a statistical geographic entity consisting of
1802-446: A result, the places where people live, work, shop, and recreate are far from one another, usually to the extent that walking, transit use and bicycling are impractical, so all these activities generally require a car. The degree to which different land uses are mixed together is often used as an indicator of sprawl in studies of the subject. According to this criterion, China's urbanization can be classified as "high-density sprawl",
1908-429: A seemingly self-contradictory term coined by New Urbanist Peter Calthorpe . He explains that despite the high-rise buildings, China's superblocks (huge residential blocks) are largely single-use and surrounded by giant arterial roads, which detach different functions of a city and create an environment unfriendly to pedestrians. Job sprawl is another land use symptom of urban sprawl and car-dependent communities. It
2014-409: A suburb of another urban area rather than as a self-contained urban entity, or is geographically remote from other urban communities. Accordingly, the new definition set out three distinct types of population centres: small (population 1,000 to 29,999), medium (population 30,000 to 99,999) and large (population 100,000 or greater). Despite the change in terminology, however, the demographic definition of
2120-428: Is 'irreversibly urban in character', meaning that they are characteristic of a town or city. They include areas of built-up land with a minimum of 20 hectares (200,000 m ; 49 acres). Any areas [separated by] less than 200 metres [of non-urban space] are linked to become a single built-up area. Argentina and Japan are countries where the urbanization rate is over 90% while Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and
2226-417: Is a natural product of population increases, higher wages, and therefore better access to housing. Improvement in transportation also means that individuals are able to live further from large cities and industrial hubs, thus increasing demand for better housing further from the noise of cities. This leads to the creation of sprawling residential land development surrounding densely packed urban areas. Despite
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#17327797909422332-493: Is an area with a population of at least 1,000 people where the density is no fewer than 400 persons per square kilometre (1,000/sq mi). If two or more urban areas are within 2 km (1.2 mi) of each other by road, they are merged into a single urban area, provided they do not cross census metropolitan area or census agglomeration boundaries. In the Canada 2011 Census , Statistics Canada redesignated urban areas with
2438-479: Is argued that human beings, while social animals, need significant amounts of social space or they become agitated and aggressive. However, the relationship between higher densities and increased social pathology has been largely discredited. According to Nancy Chin, a large number of effects of sprawl have been discussed in the academic literature in some detail; however, the most contentious issues can be reduced "to an older set of arguments, between those advocating
2544-576: Is commonly linked to increased dependency on cars. In 2003, a British newspaper calculated that urban sprawl would cause an economic loss of £3,905 per year, per person through cars alone, based on data from the RAC estimating that the average cost of operating a car in the UK at that time was £5,000 a year, while train travel (assuming a citizen commutes every day of the year, with a ticket cost of 3 pounds) would be only £1,095. Additionally, increased density increases
2650-484: Is considered to be rural by the Census Bureau. The largest urban area in the United States is that of New York City and its surrounding suburbs. The New York– Jersey City – Newark , NY–NJ urban area had a population of 19,426,449 as of 2020, while the larger metropolitan area had a population of 20,140,470, and the combined statistical area had a population of 23,582,649. The next five largest urban areas in
2756-594: Is currently being used by the European Environment Agency . There is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sprawl and how to quantify it. For example, some commentators measure sprawl by residential density , using the average number of residential units per acre in a given area. Others associate it with decentralization (spread of population without a well-defined centre), discontinuity ( leapfrogging development, as defined below ), segregation of uses, and so forth. The term urban sprawl
2862-571: Is defined as low-density, geographically spread-out patterns of employment, where the majority of jobs in a given metropolitan area are located outside of the main city's central business district (CBD), and increasingly in the suburban periphery. It is often the result of urban disinvestment , the geographic freedom of employment location allowed by predominantly car-dependent commuting patterns of many American suburbs, and many companies' desire to locate in low-density areas that are often more affordable and offer potential for expansion. Spatial mismatch
2968-686: Is divided into 5 regions for planning purposes by the URA, even though as a city state Singapore is defined as a single continuous urban area. It is further subdivided into 55 urban planning areas , which acts as the boundaries of planned towns within the country. In Vietnam , there are six types of urban areas: Bangkok is the largest urban area in Thailand . As in other Nordic countries , an urban area ( taajama in Finnish ) in Finland must have
3074-511: Is due. Thus urban sprawl is subsidized by the tax code. In China, land has been converted from rural to urban use in advance of demand, leading to vacant rural land intended for future development, and eventual urban sprawl. Housing subdivisions are large tracts of land consisting entirely of newly built residences. New Urbanist architectural firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company state that housing subdivisions "are sometimes called villages, towns, and neighbourhoods by their developers, which
3180-419: Is highly politicized and almost always has negative connotations. It is criticized for causing environmental degradation , intensifying segregation , and undermining the vitality of existing urban areas, and is attacked on aesthetic grounds. The pejorative meaning of the term means that few openly support urban sprawl as such. The term has become a rallying cry for managing urban growth. The term urban sprawl
3286-550: Is highly urbanized. The ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population, and fewer than one in ten live in rural areas. About 3 million people live in Buenos Aires City and the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area totals around 15 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world, with a population of 18 million all up. Córdoba has around 1.5 million people living in
Kolkata metropolitan region - Misplaced Pages Continue
3392-684: Is in contrast to New York, San Francisco or Chicago which have compact, high-density cores surrounded by areas of very low-density suburban periphery, such as eastern Suffolk County in the New York metro area and Marin County in the San Francisco Bay Area . Some cases of sprawl challenge the definition of the term and what conditions are necessary for urban growth to be considered sprawl. Metropolitan regions such as Greater Mexico City , Delhi National Capital Region Beijing , and
3498-422: Is misleading since those terms denote places that are not exclusively residential". They are also referred to as developments. Subdivisions often incorporate curved roads and cul-de-sacs . These subdivisions may offer only a few places to enter and exit the development, causing traffic to use high volume collector streets. All trips, no matter how short, must enter the collector road in a suburban system. After
3604-619: Is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity. Urban sprawl is disruptive to native flora & fauna and introduces invasive plants into their environments. Although the effects can be mitigated through careful maintenance of native vegetation, the process of ecological succession and public education, sprawl represents one of the primary threats to biodiversity. Regions with high birth rates and immigration are therefore faced with environmental problems due to unplanned urban growth and emerging megacities such as Kolkata. Other problems include: At
3710-952: Is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with more than 50% of the population residing in Australia's three biggest urban centres. Statistics New Zealand defines urban areas in New Zealand, which are independent of any administrative subdivisions and have no legal basis. There are four classes of urban area: major urban areas (population 100,000+), large urban areas (population 30,000–99,999), medium urban areas (population 10,000–29,999) and small urban areas (population 1,000–9,999). As of 2021, there are 7 major urban areas, 13 large urban areas, 22 medium urban areas and 136 small urban areas. Urban areas are reclassified after each New Zealand census , so population changes between censuses does not change an urban area's classification. According to Statistics Canada , an urban area in Canada
3816-416: Is related to job sprawl and economic environmental justice . Spatial mismatch is defined as the situation where poor urban, predominantly minority citizens are left without easy access to entry-level jobs, as a result of increasing job sprawl and limited transportation options to facilitate a reverse commute to the suburbs. Job sprawl has been documented and measured in various ways. It has been shown to be
3922-649: Is the shopping mall . Unlike the strip mall, this is usually composed of a single building surrounded by a parking lot that contains multiple shops, usually "anchored" by one or more department stores . The function and size is also distinct from the strip mall. The focus is almost exclusively on recreational shopping rather than daily goods. Shopping malls also tend to serve a wider (regional) public and require higher-order infrastructure such as highway access and can have floorspaces in excess of 1 million sq ft (93,000 m ). Shopping malls are often detrimental to downtown shopping centres of nearby cities since
4028-506: Is the largest city by population and area, with a population of 19.10 million. In Bangladesh , there are total 11 City Corporations and 329 Municipal Corporations and 203 Small towns , which serves as the center for Upazilas . According to 2011 population census, Bangladesh has an urban population of 28%, with a growth rate of 2.8%. At this growth rate, it is estimated that the urban population of Bangladesh will reach 79 million or 42% of total population by 2035. In 2020, 54 percent of
4134-429: The 2000 Census , approximately 2.6 percent of the U.S. land area is urban. Approximately 0.8 percent of the nation's land is in the 37 urbanized areas with more than 1,000,000 population. In 2002, these 37 urbanized areas supported around 40% of the total American population. Nonetheless, some urban areas like Detroit have expanded geographically even while losing population. But it was not just urbanized areas in
4240-717: The 2011 census data , the total population of the Kolkata metropolitan area was 14,112,536. KMDA report states the total area is 1,888 km, making the population density 7,480 per km. 22°32′28″N 88°20′16″E / 22.5411°N 88.3378°E / 22.5411; 88.3378 This article about a location in the Kolkata district of West Bengal is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Urban agglomeration Urban areas originate through urbanization , and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs . In urbanism ,
4346-826: The Cato Institute , a libertarian think tank , has argued that sprawl, thanks to the automobile, gave rise to affordable suburban neighborhoods for middle class and lower class individuals, including non-whites. He notes that efforts to combat sprawl often result in subsidizing development in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods while condemning and demolishing poorer minority neighborhoods. The American Institute of Architects , American Planning Association , and Smart Growth America recommend against sprawl and instead endorses smart , mixed-use development , including buildings in close proximity to one another that cut down on automobile use, save energy, and promote walkable, healthy, well-designed neighborhoods. The Sierra Club ,
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4452-716: The Greater Tokyo Area are often regarded as sprawling despite being relatively dense and mixed use. Many theories speculate as to the reason for the creation of urban sprawl. The theory of "flight from blight" explains that aspects of living in urban areas, such as high taxes, crime rates, poor infrastructure and school qualities lead to many people moving out of urban areas and into surrounding suburban areas. According to The Limits to Growth , reasons why wealthier people move to suburbs include noise, pollution, crime, drug addiction, poverty, labor strikes, and breakdown of social services. Others suggest that Urban Sprawl
4558-559: The Second World War , residential lawns became commonplace in suburbs, notably, but not exclusively in North America. The development of country clubs and golf courses in the early 20th century further promoted lawn culture in the United States. Lawns now take up a significant amount of land in suburban developments, contributing to sprawl. In areas of sprawl, commercial use is generally segregated from other uses. In
4664-565: The U.S. Department of Agriculture 's natural resources inventory , urban areas are officially known as developed areas or urban and built-up areas. Such areas include cities, ethnic villages, other built-up areas of more than 10 ac (4 ha), industrial sites, railroad yards, cemeteries, airports, golf courses, shooting ranges, institutional and public administration sites, and similar areas. The 1997 national resources inventory placed over 98,000,000 ac (40,000,000 ha) in this category, an increase of 25,000,000 ac (10,000,000 ha) since 1982. Argentina
4770-419: The United States , Canada , Brazil , Mexico , Argentina , Chile , Japan and Australia and many other countries where the urbanization rate is over 80%. Unlike an urban area, a metropolitan area includes not only the urban area, but also satellite cities plus intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the urban core city, typically by employment ties through commuting , with
4876-532: The 10–35 mile ring. This compares to the year 1998 – 23.3%, 34.2%, and 42.5% in those respective rings. The study shows CBD employment share shrinking, and job growth focused in the suburban and exurban outer metropolitan rings. Sprawl often refers to low- density development . There is no precise definition of "low density", but it might commonly mean Single-family homes on large lots. Such buildings usually have fewer stories and are spaced farther apart, separated by lawns , landscaping , roads or parking lots. In
4982-463: The CBD are losing jobs. These two authors used three geographic rings limited to a 35-mile (56 km) radius around the CBD: 3 miles (4.8 km) or less, 3 to 10 miles (16 km), and 10 to 35 miles (56 km). Kneebone's study showed the following nationwide breakdown for the largest metropolitan areas in 2006: 21.3% of jobs located in the inner ring, 33.6% of jobs in the 3–10 mile ring, and 45.1% in
5088-745: The KMA was first legally defined as the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Area in the schedule of the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Area (Use and Development of Land) Control Act, 1965 (West Bengal Act XIV of 1965). After repeal of that Act, the area was redefined as the Calcutta Metropolitan Area (CMA) in the first schedule of West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act, 1979 (West Bengal Act XIII of 1979). The area covers 4 municipal corporations along with 38 Municipalities . According to
5194-663: The North American urban area) and its commuter belt ( couronne ). Americans would find the INSEE definition of the urban area to be similar to their metropolitan area . The largest cities in France, in terms of urban area population (2017), are Paris (12,628,266), Lyon (2,323,221), Marseille (1,760,653), Toulouse (1,360,829), Bordeaux (1,247,977), Lille (1,191,117), Nice (1,006,201), Nantes (972,828), Strasbourg (790,087) and Rennes (733,320). Germany has
5300-672: The Northern and Western ones. Urban areas in Sweden ( tätorter ) are statistically defined localities, totally independent of the administrative subdivision of the country. There are 1,956 such localities in Sweden , with a population ranging from 200 to 1,372,000 inhabitants. In 2013 the United Kingdom 's Office for National Statistics (ONS) published 2011 Built-up Areas – Methodology and Guidance which sets out its definition of
5406-617: The Philippine population lived in urban areas. With an estimated population of 16.3 million, Metro Manila is the most populous metropolitan area in the Philippines and the 11th in the world . However, the greater urban area is the 5th largest in the world with a population of 20,654,307 people (2010 estimate). As an island city-state , about 5.6 million people live and work within 700 square kilometres (270 sq mi). With 64 islands and islets , Singapore Island makes up
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#17327797909425512-475: The San Francisco Bay Area's Greenbelt Alliance , 1000 Friends of Oregon and counterpart organizations nationwide, and other environmental organizations oppose sprawl and support investment in existing communities. NumbersUSA , a national organization advocating immigration reduction , also opposes urban sprawl, and its founder, Roy Beck , specializes in the study of this issue. One of
5618-450: The U.S. and Canada, these often take the form of strip malls , which refer to collections of buildings sharing a common parking lot, usually built on a high-capacity roadway with commercial functions (i.e., a "strip"). Similar developments in the United Kingdom are called Retail Parks. Strip malls consisting mostly of big box stores or category killers are sometimes called "power centers" (U.S.). These developments tend to be low-density;
5724-407: The U.S. are those of Los Angeles , Chicago , Miami , Houston , and Dallas . 80.0 percent of the population of the United States lives within the boundaries of an urban area as of the 2020 census. The concept of Urbanized Areas as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau is often used as a more accurate gauge of the size of a city, since in different cities and states the lines between city borders and
5830-464: The U.S. that lost population and sprawled substantially. According to data in "Cities and Automobile Dependence" by Kenworthy and Laube (1999), urbanized area population losses occurred while there was an expansion of sprawl between 1970 and 1990 in Amsterdam , Netherlands; Brussels , Belgium; Copenhagen , Denmark; Frankfurt , Hamburg and Munich , Germany; and Zürich , Switzerland, albeit without
5936-450: The United States 2–4 houses per acre (5–10 per hectare) might be considered low-density while in the UK 8–12 per acre (or 20–30 per hectare) would still be considered low-density. Because more automobiles are used in the USA, much more land is designated for parking. The impact of low density development in many communities is that developed or "urbanized" land is increasing at a faster rate than
6042-414: The United States are countries where the urbanization rate is between 80% and 90%. There are two measures of the degree of urbanization of a population. The first, urban population, describes the percentage of the total population living in urban areas, as defined by the country. The second measure, rate of urbanization, describes the projected average rate of change of the size of the urban population over
6148-565: The United States in the 1950 census, while urban clusters were added in the 2000 census. The distinction between urbanized areas and urban clusters was removed for the 2020 census. Urban areas consist of a densely-settled urban core, plus surrounding developed areas that meet certain density criteria. Since urban areas are composed of census blocks and not cities, counties, or county-equivalents, urban area boundaries may consist of partial areas of these political units. Urban areas are distinguished from rural areas : any area not part of an urban area
6254-474: The United States was developed between 1982 and 2017. Presently, the NRI classifies approximately 100,000 more square kilometres (40,000 square miles) (an area approximately the size of Kentucky ) as developed than the Census Bureau classifies as urban. The difference in the NRI classification is that it includes rural development, which by definition cannot be considered to be "urban" sprawl. Currently, according to
6360-402: The boundaries of these towns. This distinction may give a misleading impression in some cases, since some localities with only village status may have acquired larger and denser populations than many many smaller towns with most excessive example of Poznań , most spread urban area of the country with population of the city app. 534 thousand and metropolitan area around 1 million inhabitants. On
6466-526: The buildings are single-story and there is ample space for parking and access for delivery vehicles. This character is reflected in the spacious landscaping of the parking lots and walkways and clear signage of the retail establishments. Some strip malls are undergoing a transformation into Lifestyle centers ; entailing investments in common areas and facilities (plazas, cafes) and shifting tenancy from daily goods to recreational shopping. Another prominent form of retail development in areas characterized by sprawl
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#17327797909426572-621: The capital and largest city of Russia , has a population estimated at 12.4 million residents within the city limits, while over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 20 million residents in the Moscow Metropolitan Area . It is among the world's largest cities , being the most populous city entirely within Europe , the most populous urban area in Europe, the most populous metropolitan area in Europe, and also
6678-478: The chance that people will take the bicycle for their commute which would be better for their health. Bicycles are a common mode of transportation for those living in urban centers due to many factors. One major factor many people consider relates to how, when one rides a bike to, say, their workplace, they are exercising as they do so. This multi-tasking is better for one's health than automatic transport. A heavy reliance on automobiles increases traffic throughout
6784-491: The city as well as automobile crashes, pedestrian injuries, and air pollution. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of five and twenty-four and is the leading accident-related cause for all age groups. Residents of more sprawling areas are generally at greater risk of dying in a car crash due to increased exposure to driving. Evidence indicates that pedestrians in sprawling areas are at higher risk than those in denser areas, although
6890-454: The conversion of agricultural land to urban use is not a problem due to the increasing efficiency of agricultural production; they argue that aggregate agricultural production is still more than sufficient to meet global food needs despite the expansion of urban land use. Sprawl leads to increased driving, which in turn leads to vehicle emissions that contribute to air pollution and its attendant negative impacts on human health . In addition,
6996-467: The countryside. The revenue for building and maintaining urban infrastructure in these areas are gained mostly through property and sales taxes. Most jobs in the US are now located in suburbs generating much of the revenue, although a lack of growth will require higher tax rates. In Europe , the term peri-urbanisation is often used to denote similar dynamics and phenomena, but the term urban sprawl
7102-611: The current custom of requiring a developer to provide subdivision infrastructure as a condition of development. Usually, the developer is required to set aside a certain percentage of the developed land for public use, including roads, parks and schools. In the past, when a local government built all the streets in a given location, the town could expand without interruption and with a coherent circulation system, because it had condemnation power . Private developers generally do not have such power (although they can sometimes find local governments willing to help), and often choose to develop on
7208-703: The current patterns of sprawl are in fact the result of distortions of the free market. Chin cautions that there is a lack of "reliable empirical evidence to support the arguments made either for or against sprawl". She mentions that the lack of a common definition, the need for more quantitative measures "a broader view both in time and space, and greater comparison with alternative urban forms" would be necessary to draw firmer conclusions and conduct more fruitful debates. Arguments opposing urban sprawl include concrete effects such as health and environmental issues as well as abstract consequences including neighborhood vitality. American public policy analyst Randal O'Toole of
7314-492: The desirability of the area adjacent to such structures. Providing services such as water , sewers , road maintenance, and electricity is also more expensive per household in less dense areas, given that sprawl increases lengths of power lines, roads, and pipes, necessitating higher maintenance costs. Residents of low-density areas spend a higher proportion of their income on transportation than residents of high density areas. The unplanned nature of outward urban development
7420-484: The dismantling of infrastructure that occurred in the United States. Despite its sprawl, Metropolitan Los Angeles is the densest major urban area (over 1,000,000 population) in the US, being denser than the New York urban area and the San Francisco urban area. Most of metropolitan Los Angeles is built at more uniform low to moderate density, leading to a much higher overall density for the entire region. This
7526-426: The distance between each building has to be of less than 50 m, although exceptions are made due to parks, industrial areas, rivers, and similar. Groups of houses less than 400 m from the main body of an urban area are included in the urban area. In Poland , official "urban" population figures simply refer to those localities which have the status of towns ( miasta ). The "rural" population is that of all areas outside
7632-563: The extent of irreversible urban development indicated on Ordnance Survey maps. The definition is an extent of at least 20 ha and at least 1,500 census residents. Separate areas are linked if less than 200 m (220 yd) apart. Included are transportation features. The UK has five Urban Areas with a population over a million and a further sixty nine with a population over one hundred thousand . The Australian Bureau of Statistics refers to urban areas as Urban Centres, which it generally defines as population clusters of 1,000 or more people. Australia
7738-442: The extent of modern sprawl has consumed a large amount of the most productive agricultural land, as well as forest, desert and other wilderness areas. In the United States the seller may avoid tax on profit by using a tax break exempting like-kind exchanges from capital gains tax ; proceeds from the sale are used to purchase agricultural land elsewhere and the transaction is treated as a "swap" or trade of like assets and no tax
7844-472: The field acknowledge that the term lacks precision. Batty et al. defined sprawl as "uncoordinated growth: the expansion of community without concern for its consequences, in short, unplanned, incremental urban growth which is often regarded unsustainable". Bhatta et al. wrote in 2010 that despite a dispute over the precise definition of sprawl, there is a "general consensus that urban sprawl is characterized by [an] unplanned and uneven pattern of growth, driven by
7950-650: The given period of time. According to Urbanization by sovereign state article, the world as a whole is 56.2% urbanized, with roughly one-quarter of the countries reported as greater than 80% urbanized. Data is taken from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook estimates from 2020. According to Demographia, these are the 202 largest urban areas in the world by population (as of 2023): The UN publishes data on cities, urban areas and rural areas, but relies almost entirely on national definitions of these areas. The UN principles and recommendations state that due to different characteristics of urban and rural areas across
8056-584: The global urban population comprised 3.9 billion. The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs at that time predicted the urban population would occupy 68% of the world population by 2050, with 90% of that growth coming from Africa and Asia. Urban areas are created and further developed by the process of urbanization. They are measured for various purposes, including analyzing population density and urban sprawl . Urban areas are also mostly found in
8162-403: The globe, a global definition is not possible. European countries define urbanized areas on the basis of urban-type land use , not allowing any gaps of typically more than 200 metres (220 yd), and use satellite imagery instead of census blocks to determine the boundaries of the urban area. In less-developed countries , in addition to land use and density requirements, a requirement that
8268-426: The lack of a clear agreed upon description of what defines sprawl most definitions often associate the following characteristics with sprawl. This refers to a situation where commercial, residential , institutional and industrial areas are separated from one another. Consequently, large tracts of land are devoted to a single use and are segregated from one another by open space, infrastructure, or other barriers. As
8374-494: The land area is counted. The Randstad is the country's largest conurbation located in the west of the country and contains the four largest cities: Amsterdam, Rotterdam , The Hague , and Utrecht . The Randstad has a population of 7 million inhabitants and is the 6th largest metropolitan area in Europe. Norway defines urban areas ("tettsteder") similarly to the other Nordic countries . Unlike in Denmark and Sweden,
8480-593: The larger area consumed by sprawling suburbs compared to urban neighborhoods, more farmland and wildlife habitats are displaced per resident. As forest cover is cleared and covered with impervious surfaces ( concrete and asphalt ) in the suburbs, rainfall is less effectively absorbed into the groundwater aquifers . This threatens both the quality and quantity of water supplies. Sprawl increases water pollution as rain water picks up gasoline , motor oil , heavy metals , and other pollutants in runoff from parking lots and roads. Gordon & Richardson have argued that
8586-525: The largest city by land area on the European continent. Saint Petersburg , the cultural capital, is the second-largest city, with a population of roughly 5.4 million inhabitants. Other major urban areas are Yekaterinburg , Novosibirsk , Kazan , Nizhny Novgorod , and Chelyabinsk . Spain is a very highly urbanized country. Madrid is its largest urban area. The Southern and Eastern coasts with Barcelona , Valencia and Málaga are more urbanised than
8692-617: The largest urban area in the country. According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific , the country has the highest urbanised population in Southeast Asia, with 100 percent of its population living in an urban area. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is responsible for the urban land-use planning, which designates land use and urban density of the country. The country
8798-422: The major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings. China has more cities with one million or more long-term residents than any other country, including the three global cities of Beijing , Hong Kong, and Shanghai ; by 2025, the country will be home to 221 cities with over a million inhabitants. The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of
8904-543: The most urbanised nation in South Asia. Furthermore, 50% of Pakistanis live in towns of 5,000 people or more. Karachi is the most populated city in Pakistan closely followed by Lahore according to the 2017 Census . In Bangladesh , there are total 532 urban areas, which are divided into three categories. Those are City Corporation , Municipal Corporation (Pourasova) and Upazila town . Among those urban areas, Dhaka
9010-425: The nearness of the workplace to retail and restaurant space that provides cafes and convenience stores with daytime customers is an essential component to the successful balance of urban life. Furthermore, they state that the closeness of the workplace to homes also gives people the option of walking or riding a bicycle to work or school and that without this kind of interaction between the different components of life
9116-437: The new term " population centre "; the new term was chosen in order to better reflect the fact that urban vs. rural is not a strict division, but rather a continuum within which several distinct settlement patterns may exist. For example, a community may fit a strictly statistical definition of an urban area, but may not be commonly thought of as "urban" because it has a smaller population, or functions socially and economically as
9222-409: The number living in rural areas (3.41 billion), and since then the world has become more urban than rural. This was the first time that the majority of the world's population lived in a city. By that time a high estimate calculated up to 3.5 million square kilometers of land were urban, estimates ranging from 1% of global land area. In 2014 there were 7.3 billion people living on the planet, of which
9328-530: The other hand, the Katowice urban area with numerous large and medium cities covers 1,468 km and has above 2 million people. The metropolitan areas in Poland are the biggest urban zones (e.g. Katowice metropolitan area , Łódź metropolitan area and Szczecin metropolitan area ) and have great impact on the rural surroundings, as it is around Lublin , Radom , Kielce , Tarnów and Białystok . Moscow ,
9434-435: The population is growing. Overall density is often lowered by " leapfrog development". This term refers to the relationship, or lack of it, between subdivisions. Such developments are typically separated by large green belts , i.e. tracts of undeveloped land, resulting in an overall density far lower even than the low density indicated by localized per-acre measurements. This is a 20th and 21st century phenomenon generated by
9540-635: The reduced physical activity implied by increased automobile use has negative health consequences. Sprawl significantly predicts chronic medical conditions and health-related quality of life, but not mental health disorders. The American Journal of Public Health and the American Journal of Health Promotion, have both stated that there is a significant connection between sprawl, obesity , and hypertension . Loud vehicles can cause stress, prevent sleep, and minimize social interactions in public for people living in cities (especially homeless people). In
9646-657: The relationship is less clear than for drivers and passengers in vehicles. Research covered in the Journal of Economic Issues and State and Local Government Review shows a link between sprawl and emergency medical services response and fire department response delays. Living in larger, more spread out spaces generally makes public services more expensive. Since car usage becomes endemic and public transport often becomes significantly more expensive, city planners are forced to build highway and parking infrastructure , which in turn decreases taxable land and revenue, and decreases
9752-415: The same time, the urban cores of these and nearly all other major cities in the United States , Western Europe , and Japan that did not annex new territory experienced the related phenomena of falling household size and, particularly in the U.S., " white flight ", sustaining population losses. This trend has slowed somewhat in recent years, as more people have regained an interest in urban living. Due to
9858-628: The shopping malls act as a surrogate for the city centre . Some downtowns have responded to this challenge by building shopping centres of their own. Fast food chains are often built early in areas with low property values where the population is expected to boom and where large traffic is predicted, and set a precedent for future development. Eric Schlosser , in his book Fast Food Nation , argues that fast food chains accelerate suburban sprawl and help set its tone with their expansive parking lots, flashy signs, and plastic architecture (65). Duany Plater Zyberk & Company believe that this reinforces
9964-573: The supply of housing in desirable areas, and thus, it also decreases housing prices in those areas (by the logic of supply and demand ). Urban sprawl may be partly responsible for the decline in social capital in the United States. Compact neighborhoods can foster casual social interactions among neighbors, while sprawl creates barriers. Sprawl tends to replace public spaces with private spaces such as fenced-in backyards. Critics of sprawl maintain that sprawl erodes quality of life . Duany and Plater-Zyberk believe that in traditional neighborhoods
10070-475: The term "urban area" contrasts to rural areas such as villages and hamlets ; in urban sociology or urban anthropology it contrasts with natural environment . The development of earlier predecessors of modern urban areas during the urban revolution of the 4th millennium BCE led to the formation of human civilization and ultimately to modern urban planning , which along with other human activities such as exploitation of natural resources has led to
10176-460: The term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In modern times some suburban areas described as "sprawl" have less detached housing and higher density than the nearby core city . Medieval suburbs suffered from the loss of protection of city walls, before the advent of industrial warfare . Modern disadvantages and costs include increased travel time, transport costs, pollution, and destruction of
10282-484: The term. Ewing has also argued that suburban development does not, per se , constitute sprawl depending on the form it takes, although Gordon & Richardson have argued that the term is sometimes used synonymously with suburbanization in a pejorative way. According to the National Resources Inventory (NRI), about 44 million acres (69,000 sq mi; 180,000 km ) of land in
10388-571: The time of independence and has several different causes. The majority of southern Pakistan's population lives along the Indus River . Karachi is its most populous city. In the northern half of the country, most of the population lives in an arc formed by the cities of Lahore , Faisalabad , Rawalpindi , Islamabad , Gujranwala , Sialkot , Gujrat , Jhelum , Sargodha , Sheikhupura , Nowshera , Mardan and Peshawar . During 1990–2008, city dwellers made up 36% of Pakistan's population, making it
10494-411: The tracts that happen to be for sale at the time they want to build, rather than pay extra or wait for a more appropriate location. Some research argues that religious ideas about how humans should live (and die) promote low-density development and may contribute to urban sprawl. Land for sprawl is often taken from fertile agricultural lands , which are often located immediately surrounding cities;
10600-461: The urban area, while Rosario , Mendoza and Tucumán have around 1.2 million inhabitants each and La Plata , Mar del Plata , Salta and Santa Fe have at least 500,000 people each. Urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment ) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses, dense multi–family apartments, office buildings and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near
10706-495: The urban core city being the primary labor market. The concept of an "urban area" as used in economic statistics should not be confused with the concept of the "urban area" used in road safety statistics. This term was first created by Geographer Brian Manning. The last concept is also known as " built-up area in road safety ". According to the definition by the Office for National Statistics , "Built-up areas are defined as land which
10812-603: The urban pattern quickly falls apart. James Howard Kunstler has argued that poor aesthetics in suburban environments make them "places not worth caring about", and that they lack a sense of history and identity. Urban sprawl has class and racial implications in many parts of the world; the relative homogeneity of many sprawl developments may reinforce class and racial divides through residential segregation . Numerous studies link increased population density with increased aggression. Some people believe that increased population density encourages crime and anti-social behavior. It
10918-492: The urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large " floating populations " of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult; the figures below include only long-term residents. In Japan , urbanized areas are defined as contiguous areas of densely inhabited districts (DIDs) using census enumeration districts as units with
11024-474: The urbanized area of that city are often not the same. For example, the city of Greenville, South Carolina has a city population just over 68,000 and an urbanized area population of around 400,000, while Greensboro, North Carolina has a city population just over 285,000 and an urbanized area population of around 300,000 — meaning that Greenville is actually "larger" for some intents and purposes, but not for others, such as taxation, local elections, etc. In
11130-603: The years following World War II, when vehicle ownership was becoming widespread, public health officials recommended the health benefits of suburbs due to soot and industrial fumes in the city center. However, air in modern suburbs is not necessarily cleaner than air in urban neighborhoods. In fact, the most polluted air is on crowded highways, where people in suburbs tend to spend more time. On average, suburban residents generate more per capita pollution and carbon emissions than their urban counterparts because of their increased driving, as well as larger homes. Sprawl also reduces
11236-455: Was often used in the letters between Lewis Mumford and Frederic J. Osborn, firstly by Osborn in his 1941 letter to Mumford and later by Mumford, generally condemning the waste of agricultural land and landscape due to suburban expansions. The term was used in an article in The Times in 1955 as a negative comment on the state of London 's outskirts. Definitions of sprawl vary; researchers in
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