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Influencing Factors Behind Urban Sprawl In The United States, Charles N. Cowell

Honors Program Theses

Urban sprawl concerns planners, urban economists, and city governments because of several negative side effects associated with it. Urban sprawl can be defined many ways, but the Merriam-Webster Dictionary states it as “the spreading of urban developments (as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city.” Deprivation of the environment, automobile reliance, inner city poverty, and even obesity are suggested to be linked to sprawl. In order to address urban sprawl effectively, its causes need to be identified. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis will be used to show factors that may contribute to urban sprawl in the …