Introduction

The urban sprawl issue has received a massive amount of academic research attention in the United States in recent years. It has become the dominant planning issue. The unique feature of this book is that it pays recognition the diffusion of this issue to Western Europe, especially France and the United Kingdom. At first sight, this is surprising. The United States is known for its settlement patterns that emphasize low-density suburban development and extreme automobile development whereas European countries are believed to emphasize higher densities (although low by Asian standards), pro-transit policies and an emphasis on more compact urban development.