The Correlation between Urban Sprawl and Air Pollution: How Seattle and Orlando Combat Urban Sprawl’s Negative Effects

Urban sprawl is a growing phenomenon around the world. If this expansion is too rapid, perhaps without proper city planning, there can be downsides to urban sprawl. It is typically characterized by low-density, separated land-uses, inefficient use of energy, and a dependence on cars. Oftentimes, residents require a car for even a quick trip to the nearest grocery store or post office. Any person, company, or service (such as workers, shoppers, mail carriers, garbage pick-up, deliveries) that needs to travel between different areas must travel unnecessarily long distances and use larger amounts of fuel to do so. For this project, the objective is to analyze the effects of urban sprawl on air quality and to explore the solutions and policies that have been used to control and/or prevent its negative effects. A qualitative methodology will be used, including a search of the scholarly literature about the effects of urban sprawl on air quality and greenhouse gas pollution. Primary documents will be collected, such as reports and plans from metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and content analysis will be performed to explore the policies planners have implemented to combat these problems to compare and contrast strategies to mitigate urban sprawl. These strategies will then be assessed in two distinct case study metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs): Seattle-Tacoma, Washington and Orlando, Florida. Based on the reviewed scholarly literature and each metropolitan area’s plans and policies, suggestions will be made for effective mitigation of sprawl’s negative effects on air pollution