Report: How Sprawl Worsens Drought

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

1 minute read

August 29, 2002, 2:00 PM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"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."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: Paving Our Way To Water Shortages [PDF, 526kb, 34 pages]

Wednesday, August 28, 2002 in Smart Growth America

Land Use United States

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