Spatial Planning System: The Growth of Suburbia and Sustainable Development

Spatial Planning System: The Growth of Suburbia and Sustainable Development
Name
University
Subject
Date
Spatial Planning System: The Growth of Suburbia and Sustainable Development
Introduction
One of the most alarming developments of the 21st century is the growth of the suburbia. High population increase is a major contributing factor for urban sprawl, which in turn contributes to the rapid depletion of the world’s resources due to its energy-intensive lifestyle. Suburbia is considered inappropriate in high-population countries because of its individualism and lack of community life. Within the suburbia system, people live further away from major towns, industrial centers and their places of work. As a result, suburbia systems depend on a vibrant infrastructure for people to commute daily to and fro work, as well as for the supply of social amenities and consumer goods. Similarly, the suburbia lifestyle uses more resources to serve less people, such as sewage, water and electricity infrastructure for single families, as compared to urban dwellings where compact residences share such facilities. With reference to suburban growth in the UK, this essay argues for the need to promote sustainable development in light of the government’s spatial planning system policies.
From minerals, land, natural gases to oil reserves and forests, human activities and increasing population continue to put pressure on these resources, most of which are nonrenewable. As Susan Hatfield and Susan Percy write in Constructing Local Environmental Agendas, “environments are becoming increasingly unsustainable - environmentally, socially and economically” (Hatfield & Percy, 1999, p. 1). The continued and uncontrolled use of natural resources will eventually lead to a resource crisis, such as the anticipated oil peak crisis. Land and energy are two of the resources of most concern in the UK: with a population of over 63 million people (2012 figures), the United Kingdom is one of the densely populated countries. Home to over 8 million residents, London is among the world’s most congested and expensive cities to live in. In 2006 it was ranked among the 10 most congested cities, the most expensive in the European Union and second in the world (Johnstone & Masters, 2006). High population increase is evident in other major cities like Bristol, Belfast, Liverpool, and Manchester.
Suburbia is a direct consequence of the 19th century industrial growth, which saw upper-class earners move to cleaner neighborhoods far away from industrial centers. Government investment in transport infrastructure enabled people to live away from their places of work, while accessing basic goods and services (Henderson, 2005). At the same time, the growth of the automobile industry gave rise to the personal car, which made it more convenient for workers to commute daily to work from far-flung residences. After the Second World War, the housing boom and the growing automotive industry facilitated massive development of suburban neighborhoods around major cities. Economic growth during the 20th century and the emerging ideas of “The American Dream” encouraged families to seek better living conditions; which meant the adoption of suburban lifestyles. This scenario suggests that a number of factors contributed to the resources crisis witnessed today. Government spending policies, economic growth and people’s lifestyles all converged to give rise to the suburbia culture. Likewise, a broad approach is required to transform suburban trends to environmental friendly and sustainable development. The Spatial Planning System provides a viable solution due to the integrated approach it employs (Dixon, Raco, & Catney, 2008). It encourages a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving by exploring alternative solutions and ways of promoting sharing of scarce resources. For instance, green thinking policies encourage environment friendly development by promoting the use of renewable sources of energy (Dobson, 2012). This will go a long way in reversing overreliance on oil, coal, natural gas, and other non-renewable energy sources.
The 2008 oil crisis reveals an uncomfortable truth about the state of the world’s oil resources, and by extension, the impending crisis facing suburban living. Oil and gas production has reached its peak level, while consumption is steadily increasing. Consequently, it has created a gap in the supply-demand equation. Oil is a nonrenewable resource, which means that its supply cannot be increased beyond the earth oil reserve capacity. On the other hand, demand has to give in to par with the rate of supply. The implication of this situation is that human and industrial consumption will have to adopt more economical strategies in order to survive in a low-resource environment. This makes the future of suburbia bleak, as there will be a scramble to leave suburban neighborhoods due to worsening oil crisis and plummeting property value (Lester, 2008, p. 44). Against this backdrop, current demographic trends in UK’s major cities and the clamour for single-family housing are unsustainable in the current demand levels for energy and land space. Not surprisingly, governments, institutions, and Non-Governmental organizations around the world are pushing for the adoption of sustainable development policies to mitigate the risks of global warming and environmental pollution (Reid, 1995).
The problem of resource scarcity is exacerbated by the fact that alternative sources of energy such as solar energy and biogas cannot sufficie...