OBJECTIVE
The objective of this project is to determine the effect that retail
development is having on urban sprawl as a basis for future policy making.
BACKGROUND
Smart Growth is a program whose goal is to reduce urban sprawl by creating
compact, well-planned cities. However, a problem exists in determining the
shape that growth should take. As economic development is often an indicator
of sprawl, the temporal dispersion and density of retail businesses could be
used to see if business development is contributing to non-compact sprawl. The
information provided by this study could then in turn be used in directing the
sites for new economic growth in a compact manner.
To address this problem, several steps will be involved.
1) Determine the amount of sprawl due to retail businesses over a
pre-determined time period.
2) Determine how the city shape has changed in relation to retail
development (Area/Perimeter)
in order to examine compactness of the city.
3) Determine how consumer convenience has changed by examining the
drivetimes for consumers to retail locations
4) Examine how the density of retail establishments has changed over time
in relation to the amount of land developed