Land Use, Transportation and Environmental Quality Interactions and Smart Growth Strategies

Decisions about how and where we build our communities have significant impacts on the natural environment and on human health. Cities, regions, states, and the private sector need information about the environmental effects of their land use and transportation decisions to mitigate growth-related environmental impacts and to improve community quality of life and human health. This book discusses the status of and trends in land use, development, and transportation, and their environmental implications. This book also articulates the current understanding of the relationship between the built environment and the quality of air, water, land resources, habitat, and human health and provides evidence that certain kinds of land use and transportation strategies can reduce the environmental and human health impacts of development.