Perspectives of Urban Sprawl: The Conflated Issues and Realities

Abstract

Urbanization is a continuous, universal and inevitable process of urban development. As observed by different scholars, the rapid urbanization of the world is quite alarming both in the developed and developing countries (Ewing, 1997; Sudhira et.al. 2004; Jat et.al. 2008; Olujimi, 2009). Idowu & Olaniyan (2009) considered the increasing world population and stressed that the phases of urban settlements have changed, because most of the semi-urban areas and medium-sized towns have been turned into full urban town. Urban development across the world is translated into stressful urban dynamics, with rapid development of informal households and concentration of poor families at the peri-urban areas.