Atlantic Cities has some satellite photos that supposedly show the “devastating impact of urban sprawl.” But it is easy to exaggerate the supposed “impact” of sprawl.
First, pick a fast-growing region like Atlanta or Dallas. Second, pick an aerial photo of the region as it exists today. Third, overlay photos of the same land area in the past. Fourth, make sure your audience knows that development is bad so that the expansion of development to cover your entire map makes it appear there is no undeveloped land left in the universe.
When examined from a broader view–such as the entire United States–urban sprawl has almost no impact at all. The U.S. has a land area of just over 3.5 million square miles. The 2010 census found that all urbanized areas of 50,000 people or more cover less than 87,000 square miles, or less than 2.5 percent of the total. This is up from 2.0 percent in 2000, and 73 percent of that change is due to population growth in the urbanized areas including the addition of 45 areas that had less than 50,000 people in 2000.
