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Causes of sprawl: A portrait from space

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Author Info
Marcy Burchfield
Henry G. Overman
Diego Puga
Matthew A. Turner

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Abstract

We study the extent to which US urban development is sprawling and consider what determines differences in sprawl across space. Using remote-sensing data to track the evolution of land use on a grid of 8.7 billion 30x30 metre cells, we measure sprawl as the amount of undeveloped land surrounding an average urban dwelling. On this measure, while the extent of sprawl remained roughly unchanged between 1976 and 1992, it varied dramatically across metropolitan areas. Ground water availability, temperate climate, rugged terrain, decentralized employment, early public transport infrastructure, uncertainty about metropolitan growth, and unincorporated land in the urban fringe all increase sprawl.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Toronto, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number tecipa-192.

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Length: 36 pages
Date of creation: 10 Sep 2005
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Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-192

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Related research
Keywords: urban sprawl; land development; remote sensing;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
R14 - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
O51 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - U.S.; Canada

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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Eid, Jean & Overman, Henry G. & Puga, Diego & Turner, Matthew A, 2007. "Fat City: Questioning the Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Obesity," CEPR Discussion Papers 6191, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2007. "Urban growth and transportation," Working Papers tecipa-305, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Thomas J. Holmes & Sanghoon Lee, 2007. "Cities as Six-By-Six-Mile Squares: Zipf’s Law?," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Agglomeration National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
  4. Jean Eid & Henry G. Overman & Diego Puga & Matthew A. Turner, 2006. "Fat City: The Relationship Between Urban Sprawl and Obesity," Working Papers tecipa-255, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Thomas J. Holmes & Sanghoon Lee, 2009. "Economies of Density versus Natural Advantage: Crop Choice on the Back Forty," NBER Working Papers 14704, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Matthew Allen Turner, 2006. "A Simple Theory of Smart Growth and Sprawl," Working Papers tecipa-208, University of Toronto, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Marcus Berliant, 2005. "Well Isn't That Spatial?! Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics: A View From Economic Theory," Urban/Regional 0503001, EconWPA, revised 08 Apr 2005. [Downloadable!]
  8. Henry G. Overman & Diego Puga & Matthew A. Turner, 2007. "Decomposing the growth in residential land in the United States," Working Papers 2007-02, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Nathan Nunn & Diego Puga, 2009. "Ruggedness: The Blessing of Bad Geography in Africa," NBER Working Papers 14918, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Macauley, Molly K., 2009. "Earth Observations in Social Science Research for Management of Natural Resources and the Environment: Identifying the Contribution of the U.S. Land Remote Sensing (Landsat) Program," Discussion Papers dp-09-01, Resources For the Future. [Downloadable!]
  11. David Albouy, 2008. "Are Big Cities Really Bad Places to Live? Improving Quality-of-Life Estimates across Cities," NBER Working Papers 14472, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Jan K. Brueckner & Robert W. Helsley, 2009. "Sprawl and Blight," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  13. Diego Puga, 2009. "The magnitude and causes of agglomeration economies," Working Papers 2009-09, Instituto Madrileño de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) Ciencias Sociales. [Downloadable!]
  14. Candau, Fabien, 2006. "The Spatial and Public Economics of Regions, a Theoretical and Empirical Survey," MPRA Paper 1153, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  15. Albert Solé-Ollé & Miriam Hortas-Rico, 2008. "Does urban sprawl increase the costs of providing local public services? Evidence from Spanish municipalities," Working Papers XREAP2008-10, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Nov 2008. [Downloadable!]
  16. Song, Yan & Zenou, Yves, 2008. "How Differences in Property Taxes within Cities Affect Urban Sprawl?," CEPR Discussion Papers 6842, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Edward L. Glaeser & Matthew E. Kahn, 2008. "The Greenness of Cities: Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Urban Development," NBER Working Papers 14238, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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