The Costs of Urban

Sprawl
 Let’s look at Census
Metropolitan Areas in Canada

Pg. 217
Urban planning and the
Automobile
 How far do you travel each day on your way to
school?
 Over time Canadians have left the city core to
move out to the suburbs.
 This meant more parking lots in downtown/shopping
areas
 How we arrange land use in urban places can
help determine how far people have to travel
daily and how much pollution is created.
 What are the costs and benefits of the
Automobile?
 As cities grow (urban growth), many
challenges, issues and conflicts
arise.
 List some challenges of growing cities…
 Traffic congestion
 Overburdened services (water, sewage, health care,
policing, etc)
 Air pollution
 Planning for efficient mass transit (buses, subways,
highways)
 Managing waste
 Spread of disease is faster
 More paved areas = warmer temps, increased water
runoff (flooding of local bodies of water)
 The Costs associated with additional services
All a result of URBAN SPRAWL
Urban Sprawl
 As urban areas continue to grow (sprawl) they
have an impact on the environment.

 SMOG – a “noxious mixture of air pollutants;

including gases and fine particles – that can often
be seen as a brownish-yellow or grayish-white
haze”

 95 % of smog is fed by idling cars, industrial

development and the burning of fossil fuels.
 Ontario’s Disappearing
Farmland Solution
Let’s read and think… Page 220

1. Explain two ways that urban sprawl affects agriculture.

2. Make a prediction about the future of agricultural land

in Richmond.

3. Should there be maximum size limits for cities?

Explain.

4. Should there be restrictions on the use of farmland for

development or on other land uses near urban centers?
Explain.
How can growth be managed to
ensure that our urban places are
sustainable?
SYSTEMS THINKING!!!

 HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes

 Waste management – most cities have developed

recycling and composting programs

 Ontario’s blue box program was the first of its kind!

 Where do we put our waste? There is no real answer –

the solution is to try and reduce our waste so this isn’t a
problem.
The Future of Cities
 As Canada becomes more urban, new homes
and services are required. A few of today’s
suburbs are taking on a much different
appearance than the first suburbs in the 1950s.

 Some of these new suburbs appear like small

villages where retail and living quarters share
space and pedestrian walkways function as the
main form of transportation.
Smart Growth Solutions
 The new design principles for urban planning
are called smart growth: a concept that
involves plans for urban expansion that also
preserve the natural environment.

 The idea is to design communities using

traditional features such as front porches and
back lanes with an efficient mix of land uses.
People can work and shop close to where they
live, reducing the dependency on the car.
Complete Cities

 A place where people could live, work,

and shop without ever having to get into
their car.
Smart Growth Principles
1. Make existing communities more compact
instead of sprawling out (higher population
density)

2. Mix land uses to make them within walking

distances

3. Create a range of housing opportunities to

bring together people of different ages,
household types, ethnicities and income
levels
Smart Growth Principles cont’d
4. Provide a variety of transportation choices

5. Create places and routes for safe walking and

biking

6. Protect green space, farmland, and

ecologically sensitive land (wetlands and
woodlands)

7. Protect wildlife habitat by creating natural

corridors through urban areas so wildlife can
move freely and safely.
Green Technologies

Environmentally conscious ways of

constructing buildings.
Examples:
 Solar and wind energy are used to power homes
and businesses

 Old tires are used to create rubber roofing tiles

 Green roofs (mostly on schools) are garden

rooftops that help soak up runoff that would
otherwise carry pollutants into water supply.
Telecommuting

The process of commuting electronically

to work.
 More than 1 million Canadians avoid
rush hour traffic by telecommuting.

 If 1 million telecommuters work from

home for one day a week this saves 250
million kgs of carbon dioxide, $40 million
in fuel, and over 800 fewer kms of
mileage on streets and highways.
Can this really work?

Today’s Work:

 Read pg 227 answer # 1 & 2

 Read pg 230-231 answer #1-5