Compact Development (New Urbanism)

Compact development emphasizes density of residences and businesses. It has become a commonly proposed solution to the urban sprawl and suburbanization that has marked Western development in the postwar era and to the rapid loss of open space and farmland that has accompanied this phenomenon. Compact development is seen to offer environmental and social benefits over the resource intensity, auto dependency, and social isolation of standard suburban development. New Urbanism, a more specific kind of development model that can be understood partly as a subset of compact development, is also credited with offering such benefits. However, many critiques exist as to the actual social and environmental sustainability of both compact development and New Urbanism in practice.

The most basic definition of a compact city is one ...