The simplest measure of how much a metropolitan area sprawls is its population density - that is, the number of inhabitants per square mile. However, this can be misleading since metropolitan areas include land that has not been developed and may, in fact, not be developable, such as steep slopes, nature preserves, or land banks. This paper discusses dif-ferent measures of density, including urbanized density, centralization of employment, and densification of metropolitan areas over time. It suggests that many popular preconcep-tions about sprawl are inaccurate - that is, Western and Southern metropolitan areas do not necessarily sprawl more than areas in the Northeast. Indeed, Los Angeles and Phoenix actually have higher population densities than older metro areas such as Chicago and Boston, and older metropolitan areas in the Northeast are not necessarily denser than newer areas. Philadelphia and Detroit rank as extreme examples of low-density develop-ment according to several measures.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Wharton School Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center, University of Pennsylvania in its series Zell/Lurie Center Working Papers with number
420.
Cited by: (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.)