The compact city and the environment: a review

In many Western countries the concept of the compact city has been adopted as a guiding principle for urban development. It is commonly held that the compact city is the best policy goal to prevent or reduce the negative effects of urbanisation on the environment. In this paper we investigate whether this assumption can be justified on the basis of empirical research. Four categories of environmental effects are distinguished: emissions of CO2 and NOx caused by mobility; energy use in houses; noise, odour and local air pollution; and fragmentation of natural areas. Using existing research, the paper reviews the state‐of‐the‐art knowledge about the impact of the urban structure on these aspects and deduces some implications for urbanisation policy. The conclusion is that the potential of the compact city policy to contribute significantly to the solution of environmental problems in the short term is limited. However, a policy of concentrating urbanisation may be advocated because of the flexibility it offers for different future policy options, such as providing opportunities for public transport or development of larger natural areas.