Report: How Sprawl Worsens Drought

29 August 2002 - 2:00pm

The water crisis faced by many drought-hit cities is made worse by sprawl. (Complete report).

"This new study by American Rivers, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and Smart GrowthAmerica investigated what happens to water supplies when we replace our natural areas with roads,parking lots and buildings. First, we determined which metropolitan areas have experienced the mostdevelopment over the last 20 years. We found that 11 of the 20 metro areas with the greatest landconversion rates from 1982 to 1997 are in the Southeast; the other nine are divided evenly among theremaining regions – three each in the Northeast, Midwest and West. And population growth alonedoes not explain the magnitude of the development. Indeed, in every case but one, developed landgrowth topped population growth, in many cases by a factor of two to three."

Source: Smart Growth America, August 28, 2002
Bookmark and Share
New Suburbanism is not a new design paradigm that seeks to compete with or discredit principles of New Urbanism. Instead, our perspective represents a broad-based attempt to find the best, most practical ways to develop and redevelop suburban communities.