Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Streetsblog.net

Sprawl and America’s Awful, Awful Drought

11:20 AM EDT on July 19, 2012

false

Welcome to the worst American drought in half a century. More than half the United States is considered to be in a "moderate or extreme drought." Missouri alone has recorded 50 wildfires -- since June. The corn crop is withering. Yesterday President Obama warned that hot and dry conditions threaten the nation's food supply. The Secretary of Agriculture reported a third of US counties had been labeled disaster zones.

What does this all have to do with the way we've designed our cities and towns? Kaid Benfield at the Natural Resources Defense Council's Switchboard says our sprawling development patterns are worsening a bad situation:

Now, I’m not naïve enough to claim that the way we have built suburbs and cities over the last several decades is a proximate cause of drought, but sprawling land use can exacerbate some of its impacts, in at least two ways. First, the large-lot residential development characteristic of sprawl uses significantly more water than do neighborhoods built to a more walkable scale, contributing to water shortages. According to EPA research, for example, in Utah 60 percent of residential water use is for watering lawns and landscaping; households on 0.2-acre lots use only half as much water as those on 0.5-acre lots. In Seattle during peak season, households on 0.15-acre lots use 60 percent less water than those on 0.37-acre lots.

The second way in which suburban sprawl exacerbates the impacts of drought is by spreading more pavement around watersheds, sending billions of gallons of rainwater into streams and rivers as polluted runoff, rather than into the soil to replenish groundwater. Again, EPA research is instructive:  more compact growth patterns with an average of eight houses per acre reduce runoff per household by 74 percent compared to sprawling patterns of one house per acre. This is primarily because, for a given amount of development, more compact growth requires less runoff-causing pavement for streets, roads and parking lots than does sprawl.

While sprawl may not cause drought, nor smart growth solve it, both need to be considered in the discussion of how to move toward a more resilient future.

Of course, there's also a third way our carbon-intensive living arrangements are helping to make 50-year droughts more like 10- or 5-year droughts.

Elsewhere on the Network today: World Streets says we need to be more creative and passionate in our appeals for sustainability. Stop and Move notes that ridership is up dramatically three months after the opening of LA's Expo line, despite some early doomsday predictions from anti-rail spinmeisters. And Walkable Dallas Fort Worth bravely attempts to recap the "worst urban design blunders in DFW."

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Why We Care About Some Transportation Tragedies More Than Others

Why do we respond to major transportation disasters with so much urgency — and why don't we count our collective car crash epidemic among them?

March 28, 2024

Take Thursday’s Headlines Home, Country Roads

Heat Map reports on why rural Americans are resisting electric vehicles, and why it might not matter much for the climate.

March 28, 2024

Wednesday’s Headlines Missed Connection

The Biden administration is spending billions to reconnect neighborhoods torn apart by urban freeways. But the projects seem to simply paper over the problem, Governing reports.

March 27, 2024

Mega-Cars Violate Brooklyn Bridge Weight Ban with Impunity

The city does virtually nothing to stop the onslaught of excessively heavy vehicles on our roads and bridges.

March 27, 2024

Survey Says: American Walking Data Is Getting Worse

The National Household Travel Survey has never given a full picture of how often Americans get around on foot. But a recent change in methodology may have made made matters worse.

March 27, 2024
See all posts