Sustainable quality versus quantity metropolitan area : an exploratory analysis

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding how and why cities grow and how to make this growth more economically and environmentally sustainable. This study is interested in two questions. The first question is how to trace the growth pattern among U.S metropolitan areas after 2000 based on the two types of growth strategies. The second research question is how different growth patterns affect environmental outcomes and income inequality. A quantitative study is used to measure the two faces of urban growth processes in U.S metropolitan areas. After cluster analysis, five groups are developed. Then the study moves to how these groups might impact the performances of sustainability. This thesis closes by summarizing the empirical finding and gives recommendations for future researches.