• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.549-558
• /
• 2010

This study is to investigate the relative impacts of urban growth boundaries(UGBs) on metropolitan growth patterns in the United States over a period of time. Through statistical analyses, we evaluate the extent to which UGBs affect the density of residential development in metropolitan areas with UGBs. We also attempt to understand the overall impact of UGBs and the importance of UGBs relative to other determinants of urban growth patterns. Our works found that urban growth patterns differ significantly between cities with UGBs and cities without. UGBs have significant causal effect on urban housing and population densities, but are relatively less important than other factors. This implies that there are factors affecting the variation for which the given data cannot account. Despite the limitations of the data, the findings of this analysis suggest that UGBs have some positive effects on curbing urban sprawl.