Metropolitan Sprawl

categories. Downtown became the common term used to define the area of the city where the

1. A metropolitan area is a core urban area of 50,000 or more people together with nearby counties that have mainly urban populations with close ties to core urban area as measured by traveling patterns. Its less-occupied surrounding regions, distribution business, organization, and housing.

Task #1 : Analyse the impacts of at least two urban dynamics operating in a large city of the developed world.

There is no easy way to get around in the greater Houston area; if you’re not willing to drive 20 minutes or more (plus traffic, which is horrific) on any given day you may never leave home. The city and surrounding area (from Montgomery to Galveston and Brazoria counties) are built with automobiles at the center of their design strategy, this makes driving almost an absolute necessity. An automobile centered community design such as that of the greater Houston area promotes a phenomenon called urban sprawl, the effects of which can be detrimental to the environment as well as the health of a community.

Urban sprawl was a major problem and had many negative effects. "Suburban sprawl, “called urban sprawl was a result of overpopulation. Sprawl occurred when cities spread outward. Forests and farmland were being destroyed to create new housing subdivisions, shopping centers, offices, parking areas, civic institutions and roadways. State governments built highways and roads to serve all the new commuters moving in and out of the city. Developers chose to build on less expensive land farther away from the urban core. Land prices were lower and housing in these developments was more affordable. Some people chose a longer commute in exchange for more comfortable, low-priced housing. The sprawl was a chronological process that devastated the land and life of the American people. This problem described here continues to be a problem. And many people are unaware that urban sprawl continues to be a problem. Friendly neighborhoods, traditional pedestrian have fallen victim to this problem. Environmental activists claimed that urban sprawl, was a substantial environmental threat. But activists concerned about sprawl should concentrate on existing government policies that encourage suburban development and prevent greater redevelopment of urban areas.

Due to the rapid increase in population, some past trends are reoccurring. For example, according to (Wilson, 2017) “there is some evidence that Americans are once again moving out of urban counties and into the suburbs and exurban areas, reviving a

Interstate 79 on the south end of town. The boundaries of the inner city area that were surveyed vary. On the north end of the city, the boundary is economical with more expensive housing noted while exiting the inner city area. The west side of the city has a highway that separates the inner city residential area from an industrial park. The east side of the city becomes more rural while driving further out of the city. A business district that appears more modern is the boundary for the south side of the town.

Urban sprawl has affected three major cities in many different ways. It has affected the city of Portland with wildlife being cut down for new growth. Secondly it has affected the city of Toronto with run down buildings in its urban core and the speculation on the cost of money to create things. Thirdly it affected the city of Atlanta with air pollution, people were moving out and working in the cities so that created a lot of air pollution. In this essay it addresses three cities and how urban sprawl affected them.

The convenience of living in an urban or suburban neighborhood can be appealing to many people. Choosing between areas can sometimes be overwhelming for some individual. People are not only concerned about the safety of a community, but they are also concerned about the environment. Although some neighborhoods might look attractive, people should consider the expense that comes with it, and how commuting will affect them in the long run. Nevertheless, both neighborhoods have their specific advantages and disadvantages. When choosing between an urban or suburban neighborhood, it is important for people to research the community, the expense, and convenience

For example, in both the GTA and Metro Vancouver there was a similar pattern for what individuals chose as their main mode of commuting - the most popular modes of transportations for both regions were using a vehicle such as a car, truck, or van as a driver (64.3% in Metro Vancouver, 62.4% in GTA), followed by public transportation (20.3% in Metro Vancouver, 24.2% in GTA) and walking (6.7% in Metro Vancouver, 5.2% in GTA). However, there are two key differences between the two regions, 5.6% of commuters in the GTA are passengers in a car, truck or a van as compared to Metro Vancouver where it is 5.0% and this is the third most popular mode of commuting for residents of the GTA. Cycling is much more popular in Metro Vancouver where 2.3% of the commuter chose to cycle as compared to 1.4% in the GTA. In terms of the data referring to the total commuting destination for the employed labour force, there were no clear patterns that were shared between the two regions. In the GTA, 56.4% of the population commuted within their census division and 32.9% commuted to a different census subdivision and division within the province.

Burgess’s concentric zone theory was presented in 1924. He presented a descriptive urban land use model that divided cities in a set of concentric circles expanding from downtown to the suburbs. His representation came from Burgess’ observations of various American cities, especially Chicago. Burgess model assumes a relationship between the socio-economic status of households and the distance from the Central Business District. The further from the district, the better the quality of housing, but the longer the commuting time. Making this Accessing better housing is done at the expense of longer commuting times and costs as well. According to Burgess, urban growth is a process of expansion and reconversion of land uses, with a tendency of each inner zone to expand in the outer zone. According to Burgess’ theory, a large city is divided in six concentric zones, Burgess’s model has its cons according to critics. It is said to be a product of its time. That is, it won’t work the same with present cities. The model was developed when American cities were growing very fast and when motorized transportation was still uncommon as most people used public transit. Thus the concept cannot be applied to those from the second half to the twentieth century where highways have enabled urban development to escape the reconversion process and to take place directly in the suburbs. The model in this case was developed for American cities and is limited elsewhere.

Metropolitan areas exhibit an amazing diversity of features, economic structures, amounts of infrastructure, historic roots, patterns of development, and degrees of conventional planning. Yet, lots of the problems that they deal with are strikingly acquainted. For example, as metropolitan areas grow, they grow to be increasingly diverse.

An emerging issue is that of urban sprawl. While some aspects of urban sprawl has been seen since ancient times, this phenomenon has started gaining the most momentum in the past century, aided by the advancement of technology, especially with the rise of mass produced automobiles, houses and highway systems. Many people unknowingly contribute to this environmental problem, as is the nature of it. Urban sprawl deals with the growth of the suburbs, the area between the urban and rural areas of a city. Most of America’s largest cities and states, in terms of population, are prime examples of urban sprawl. Opponents of urban sprawl usually cite the government as a major cause of sprawl. The government may be a major catalyst of

The process of people moving into cities, which is called urbanisation, was happening around the world in past decades. It causes cities to have more labourers and resources than before. This makes a big contribution to the social development of cities. Thanks to these social developments, public services are becoming better in these areas. Citizens can enjoy a better life by access these public services such as better medical care, more education resources and well-built transport. It means an equitable society can be created. An equitable society means citizens can have more opportunities to access social resources and to live a better life. This essay will argue that

This is conducted mainly to address and measure the direction and location of urban sprawl in the study area using ZonalMetrics Toolbox. ZonalMetrics toolbox is a new open source tool developed by Adamczyk and Tiede (2017) and written in python script to be added as toolbox in ArcGIS 10.2 or latest versions. It is such an important python tool with a specialized functionality for calculating spatial metrics at zonal level. The tool computes selected spatial metrics such Class Area (CA), Number of patches per class (NPC), Zone Area (ZA), Percentage of zone (PZ), Total Class Edge (TE), Edge Density (ED) and Diversity (SHDI) indices in the same way they are calculated in FRAGSTATS but here indices are calculated per class and per specified zones. The toolbox has the following 3 available utilities (Adamczyk, and Tiede, 2017): it accepts user-defined vector based categorical (polygon) layers for direct analysis; it provides landscape metrics designed to calculations within any user-defined zones for example regular gridded zones, administration zones, environmental zones, and last it provides functionalities to generate specific zone (pies, hexagons) to serve as statistical