- The Urban Sprawl as Planning Problem in the Information Age - Germany and the USA in comparison   click here to open paper content4 kb
by    Streich, Bernd & null, null & null, null | streich@rhrk.uni-kl.de   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
Environment and landscape are threatened by urban sprawl.
In the United States of America as well as in Germany we
can observe that the open space and the green areas around
the cities are disappearing. In Germany, every day more than
100 hectares open space are gobbled up for new residential
areas or infrastructure. In the USA the change of landscape
and the daily loss of open space is similar dramatic. Only
in the area of Washington D.C. the changing from open space
into other land use categories occur at a rate equal to
21 football fields a day. Furthermore, during the last
twenty years we can observe urban sprawl as an increasing
phenomenon. In the boom years of the 1980s the growth rate
of Washington D.C. was exceeded only by that of Los Angeles.

The sprawling development is reshaping the face of cities
and metropolitan areas. Suburbanization becomes a big problem.
The disappearance of open space and green areas is affecting
the regions' environment, economy and quality of life. Growth
control seems to be one of the most important tasks in urban
development for the near future. It is necessary to inform
the public and the citizens that the unsupervised converting
of the open space and the green areas are culminating to a
big problem with a lot of unwanted consequences for the
society. There is also a need to push forward political
discussions and strategies to reduce the rate of changing
landscape.

The paper gives an introduction into the urban sprawl discussion
in the USA and in Germany. Different methods of information and
of visualization the sprawling development of urban areas will
be given. New methods of graphic-based computer simulations which
can enforce the awareness of the urban sprawl problem will be
presented by examples.
Abstract
Environment and landscape are threatened by urban sprawl. The paper gives an introduction into the urban sprawl discussion in both countries. Further new methods of graphic-based computer simulations which can enforce the awareness of the urban sprawl problem will be presented by examples.
Keywords
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