The Land Use Trend of Urban Sprawl

Paper Summary:

This paper examines a number of media discussions of urban sprawl in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada, in the context of scholarly analyses of this phenomenon. The paper argues that urban sprawl must be understood in terms of an economic geography analysis. It claims that this perspective would not only explain the factors contributing to this trend, but also explain its costs in environmental terms. The paper also discusses the implications for continuing change in land use and economic development in terms of Weberian locational principles. The paper contains appended original sources.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Media Representations of Urban Sprawl
Media in Context: The Scholarly Literature
Solutions
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"As we have seen, while the media representation of urban sprawl in the Greater Golden Horseshoe region have generally focused on environmental issues or associated political questions, there has been little attention paid to the broader economic forces that have shaped this land use trend. Through a review of scholarly literature combined with lecture material, it has been demonstrated how we must understand this phenomenon in terms of economic geography to appreciate its historical development as well as how the unchecked acceleration of this process risks increasing transportation costs and thereby - as Weberian locational behavior principles would suggest - undermining the economic future of the entire region. Thus, the necessity for government as a player in this process becomes clear, although the history of planning on this issue would suggest that viable solutions to the problem must incorporate a significant role for market forces as primary elements of change in the future of the region."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bourne, L.S. (1991). The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography: Recycling urban systems and metropolitan areas - A geographical agenda for the 1990s and beyond." Economic Geography, 67, 185-207.
• Cieslewicz, D. J. (2002). "The environmental impacts of sprawl." In G. D. Squires, ed. Urban sprawl: Causes, consequence and policy responses, 28-33. Washington, DC: The Urban Institute Press.
• Crandall, D. (2003). "Moraine boundaries will slow Toronto sprawl." Alternatives Journal, 29, 21-22.
• DiFrancesco, R. (2007). "GGR220Y - Lecture 6."
• Filion, P. (2003). "Towards smart growth? The difficult implementation of alternatives to urban dispersion." Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 12, 48-64.

More papers on The Land Use Trend of Urban Sprawl:

• Analytical Essay # 134056 : "The Land Use Trend of Urban Sprawl"
• Persuasive Essay # 135579 : "The Need to Curtail Urban Sprawl"
• Argumentative Essay # 57627 : "Big-Box" Retailing"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: