Introduction
Urban sprawl has turned out to be a controversial issue in recent times due to the rate at which green spaces are disappearing in most of the cities, especially in the United States. Nnaemeka-Okeke (2016) describes this phenomenon as the expansion of a community devoid of concern for the environmental impact. In other words, urban sprawl is the uncontrolled expansion of the metropolitan areas. This phenomenon primarily results in the extinction of green spaces and a variety of environmental consequences. Banai and DePriest (2010) maintain that urban sprawl is considered a cause of the climate change, with environmental effects from the water and air to land. According to Wilson and Chakraborty (2013), urban sprawl entails a remaking of the landscape. It results in negative consequences such as loss of open space and farmland, deteriorating water and air quality, and increased traffic congestion in cities. Ewing, Hamidi, Grace, and Wei (2016) and Mauerman (2016) suggest that urban sprawl causes inaccessibility of employees to jobs. As a matter of fact, urban sprawl is harmful and a significant threat to ecology and human life.
Atlanta city is one of the sprawliest cities in the United States. In fact, Hamidi and Ewing (2014) maintain that in 2000, Atlanta was the most sprawling city, and has remained that way. The continued development of this city poses a great risk to the environment as well as human health. Dablanc and Ross (2012) assert that urban sprawl is identified as a major problem in Atlanta, quickly decreasing the available land and causing traffic congestion. It is disheartening to note that the environmental consequences of urban sprawl in this city will continue to be felt by generations for many years to come if nothing is done to avert it.
Consequently, the research question that the study will attempt to answer is:
What measures can the relevant authorities in Atlantic City take to curb the ever increasing urban sprawl and prevent further detrimental effects on the environment and human health?
In particular, the study will concentrate on urban sprawl in this city as problematic and investigate the actions, which ought to be taken to combat it.
Reference List
Banai, R. and DePriest, T., 2010. Urban Sprawl: Definitions, Data, Methods of Measurement, and Environmental Consequences. Education, 2010.
Dablanc, L. and Ross, C., 2012. Atlanta: a mega logistics center in the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion (PAM). Journal of transport geography, 24, pp.432-442.
Ewing, R., Hamidi, S., Grace, J.B. and Wei, Y.D., 2016. Does urban sprawl hold down upward mobility? Landscape and Urban Planning, 148, pp.80-88.
Hamidi, S. and Ewing, R., 2014. A longitudinal study of changes in urban sprawl between 2000 and 2010 in the United States. Landscape and Urban Planning, 128, pp.72-82.
Mauerman, M., 2016. Spatial Mismatch: Understanding Differences in Income Mobility between Cities. The Journal of Undergraduate Research at Ohio State, 6.
Nnaemeka-Okeke, R., 2016. Urban Sprawl and Sustainable City Development in Nigeria. Journal of Ecological Engineering, 17(2), pp.1-11.
Wilson, B. and Chakraborty, A., 2013. The environmental impacts of sprawl: emergent themes from the past decade of planning research. Sustainability, 5(8), pp.3302-3327.
