There is No Sprawl Syndrome: A New Typology of Metropolitan Land Use Patterns

We investigate the spatial patterns of land use in a representative sample of 50 large U.S. metropolitan areas in 1990, computing 14 indices measuring both job and housing locations. These indices are reduced to seven independent empirical factors via principal component methods. Sampled areas may be categorized in one of four distinctive groups, based on a cluster analysis of their land use patterns: (1) deconcentrated, dense areas: intensively and continuously developed but without major clusters; (2) leapfrog areas: highly concentrated pockets amid generally low density, discontinuous development; (3) compact, core-dominant areas: development with high proximity to the central nucleus, but only moderate density and continuity; (4) dispersed areas: development extending far from the core without notable concentrations or nuclei. Since none of these types manifest uniformly sprawl-like features on all dimensions of land use, we think it inappropriate to consider sprawl as a syndrome measurable by a unidimensional scale. On the contrary, metropolitan areas manifest spatial patterns evincing four distinctive combinations of sprawl-like dimensions. This implies that anti-sprawl policies must be tailored for the particular patterns extant in the area at hand.