MEASURING SPRAWL AND ITS IMPACT
The Character & Consequences of Metropolitan Expansion

Executive Summary
Much as Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, most people would be hard pressed to define urban sprawl, but they know it when they see it.

Increasingly, however, that is not good enough. As more and more metropolitan areas debate the costs and consequences of poorly managed expansion there is an increasing need to be clear about the terms of the discussion. Politicians and planners aiming to contain sprawl also must have an agreed-upon way to define and measure it in order to track their progress. Beyond that, it is important for policy makers to be able to demonstrate how, and to what degree, sprawl has real implications for real people.

The study underlying this report, the product of three years of research by Reid Ewing of Rutgers University and Rolf Pendall of Cornell University, represents the most comprehensive effort yet undertaken to define, measure and evaluate metropolitan sprawl and its impacts. This report is the first in a series of findings to be issued based on the ongoing analysis of that work.

News Release                                                          
Executive Summary                                                 
Text of Entire Report (1.4mbPDF)
Ranking Table (124kbPDF)
Technical Report (1.9mbPDF)

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