Growing compact

Sprawl affects the change of land use in the entire Western world, and now also in developing countries. The causes of the urban sprawl are varied but the main ones are attributable to economic growth, to the improvement of the economic conditions of households in particular, to the development and expansion of the transport network and to demographic factors, to the different lifestyles that have occurred over time. The choice to live in a sprawling area involves private benefits, especially in the short term and as a response to new and complex preferences, but also entails negative consequences, especially social and collective ones. Sprawl generates several pressures on the environment: soil sealing, pollutant emissions increase due to the transportation systems and domestic heating, destruction or fragmentation of ecosystems. Under the social perspective, sprawl induces social segregation, the lack of services and the loss of centrality of the urban centres, as well as relapses on the economic system, which assume a considerable importance such as the volatility of real estate prices and the high cost of investment and maintenance of urban infrastructures and services needed to ensure the same quality of life for residents of the urban centers, suburbs or sprawled outskirts. This book – result of an international conference – purposes to promote a discussion between researchers on issue concerning urban sprawl and the impacts that sprawl has on the environment, economy and society in general, as well as the costs that this urban form implies.