ABSTRACT
SANNA ALA-MANTILA, JUKKA HEINONEN, AND SEPPO JUNNILA
9.1 INTRODUCTION
Warming of the global climate system is unequivocal [1]. Even though there is a scientific consensus on the existence of climate change and the human role in it [2], the role of cities and urban activities in the global warming has been hotly debated in recent years [3,4]. The general opinion is that sprawling urban development is detrimental to the environment and that the denser the structures are the better. When urban structures grow outwards, the people living in loosely populated surrounding areas are more car-dependent and tend to live in less eco-efficient apartments. Consequently, in the literature the studies on the effects of sprawl have mostly investigated emissions from driving and home heating [5,6,7].
