Environmental impacts of urban sprawl
Environmental impacts of urban sprawl

A lot of developmemtal credit has been given to urban sprawl such that many turn a blind eye to the crises created by this phenomenon. Environmental challenges are top of the list on the effects of urban sprawl and the consequences are more critical than we can imagine. In this article we will interact with what are 3 environmental impacts of urban sprawl?. These are the only three of urban sprawl’s consequences but I promise you when you get to the end of the article, you will realise there are more than just three.


I am passionate about ecological issues from the day I was informed gow global warming and climate change have been largely caused by mankind. Urban sprawl is just but one of the ways in which we have contributed to this crisis that will see quite a number of species seeing extinction way sooner than would have happened naturally. Here are the consequences of Urban Sprawl.


Environmental Consequences of Urban Sprawl


As I mentioned earlier, environmental consequences are more critical than all of the other consequences involved with this condition. I will touch on a few aspects of environmental consequences but there are more.


Increased air pollution: Vehicles are a major cause of air pollution in many urban areas and have serious impacts on public health, wildlife and ecosystems. Areas that contribute to increased effective gas emissions and the continued deterioration of urban air quality.


Increased Water pollution


The chaotic spread of the city eventually invades rainwater with gasoline, lawn chemicals, heavy metals, spilled paint, motor oil, pet scraps, construction site erosion, and spills from lawns, roads, roads, and parking lots. Environmental impact assessments shows, it increases water pollution because it picks up other pollutants that may be a large, concentrated amount of one pollutant that may be near water sources such as streams, rivers, and lakes.

In addition, air pollution ultimately results in water pollution, such as nitrogen and other chemical pollutants that are harmful to both air and water. For example, in the Chesapeake Bay, up to one-third of the nitrogen that pollutes the bay and its rivers comes from the atmosphere.

Runoff pollution affects about 40% of rivers, lakes and estuaries surveyed in the United States and is the greatest threat to US water quality today. Over 100,000 hectares of wetlands are destroyed each year. It is a natural water purifier that can remove up to 90% of pollutants from water, mainly by urban sprawl. As a result, the destruction of wetlands due to large-scale redevelopment leads directly to polluted water.


Health Consequences of Urban Sprawl


Amongh the consequences of urban sprawl are also health challenges. These are brought about by various service delivery shortcomings, especially water and reticulation.
Increasing water usage: The chaotic expansion of cities can create water distribution problems and excessive water usage as more water is used for lawn irrigation and other landscaping activities, leading to local water supply systems. According to the EPA, “A family of four in the United States can use 400 gallons of water a day, about 30% of which is used outdoors.

Urban Sprawl Impact on use


Inadequate planning of human health: The result are disorders, low density, and inadequate community design, such as self-dependent development, make it difficult for people to be physically active and maintain a healthy weight. There is a clear link between environmental impacts of urban sprawl and the epidemic level of obesity and the increase in chronic illnesses associated with sedentary lifestyles.

The likelihood of developing hypertension or hypertension increases by 6% for every 50 points of spread, and lack of exercise and obesity cause more than 200,000 premature deaths each year. Environmental impacts of urban sprawl includes higher air pollution levels and warmer days and nights contribute to common illnesses, dyspnea, non-fatal heat stroke, heat cramps and exhaustion, and heat-related deaths.


Economic consequences


Agreed! Urban sprawl encourages development but if not careful it comes with economic connotations that have the potential to harm nations’ coffers.

Wasted Tax Money and Crowded Schools:

U.S. taxes, instead of enhancing current groups, subsidize new significant trends and groups, spend tens of thousands and thousands of bucks on new colleges, water and sewage structures in counties and cities, firefighting and We are strengthening police safety and implementing excessive taxes on current citizens.

As housing and companies develop in addition apart, the fee of imparting network offerings increases, nearby governments are compelled to offer wide-place offerings, and citizens of these groups are better on the nearby, country, and country levels. You want to subsidize your taxes.

In addition, consistent with the Sierra Club, “Urban sprawl has created overcrowded colleges withinside the suburbs and empty, crumbling colleges withinside the metropolis center. New trends have caused extra youngsters withinside the suburbs. I’m attending college, however I’m now no longer buying a brand new college that necessarily desires to be built.

Florida’s Ministry of Education, 17,738 transient or trailer lecture rooms are presently in use withinside the country. The Council Committee reviews that 20% of California college youngsters are analyzing in transient lecture rooms.

DON'T MISS: Characteristics and Causes of Urban Sprawl


Loss in Open Space, Parks, Farmland and Wildlife Habitats: Urban sprawl threatens highly productive farmlands, turning parks and squares into highways and shopping malls, destroying more than a million acres of parks, farms and squares each year. As vast neighborhoods and highways swallow the square, natural wildlife habitats disappear under concrete, threatening important environmental ecosystems in the United States and around the world, including the Chesapeake Bay, Everglades, and San Francisco Bay.

I am. Along the way, urban sprawl consumes thousands of acres of forests and farmlands, forests and wetlands. Every year in the United States, a region about 1 km wide from San Francisco to New York is lost by Development. Throw it into forests and other vacant lots and say goodbye to more than 2 million acres (10. 8 million hectares) due to the net annual loss of open space.

“The American Farmland Trust reports that an astonishing 70% of prime or unique farmland is currently in rapid development, with 1. 4 million acres open since its loss, according to a study by the journal PLoS ONE. Space was in the United States.