In spite of the housing crisis, urban development has managed to gobble up a lot of previously rural lands even outside the suburbs. Fragmented land use such as developments that dot the landscape of previously fully agricultural land is continuing to mar the landscape and is sign that these areas will be inter-connecting soon resulting in expansion of urban sprawl.

“We found that the areas where sprawl increased the most were in the exurban areas – out beyond even the suburbs,” said Elena Irwin, co-author of the study and associate professor of environmental economics at Ohio State University.

People are moving away from city centers in hopes of getting some feel of the green outdoors while still in touch with the conveniences of modern life. This results in more demands on the natural supply and demand structure of the natural environment raising the risks of contaminated water tables and other urban problems farther from the city centers. After neighborhoods develop, malls and other support facilities soon sprout forever changing the landscape of the land.