Urban sprawl
Topic: Human Settlements and Urbanisation in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Urban sprawl is a city spreading outward in an unplanned, thinly built way into nearby farms and villages. It often stretches along highways, which is called ribbon development. Sprawl makes trips longer. It also makes services such as water, sewers and roads cost more, because they must reach scattered homes. It swallows farmland, lakes, marshes and floodplains, and this adds to urban flooding.
Example
Bengaluru in Karnataka has lost many of its lakes to sprawl. In Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the Pallikaranai marsh has shrunk as the city spread south.
Don't confuse with
- Peri-urban area: the mixed edge zone where town meets countryside. Sprawl is the process of spreading; the peri-urban area is the zone where much of it happens.
- Satellite town: a separate town near a big city that takes some of its crowding, such as Navi Mumbai, which was planned from 1971. When it is planned, it is a way to control growth, not uncontrolled spread.