Interested in trans-disciplinary and holistic approaches to research, Dr. Jochen Jaeger teaches in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Concordia University (Montreal). He received his PhD from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in 2000. Research in his lab has a focus on landscape fragmentation, road ecology, urban sprawl, and environmental impact assessment. Examples include the effectiveness of greenbelts at mitigating urban sprawl, the effectiveness of fences and wildlife passages at reducing wildlife mortality on roads, and the connectivity of natural areas in cities as an indicator in the City Biodiversity Index (CBI). Most recently, a team of students in his lab developed a predictive model of high-risk mortality zones for turtles on roads across Quebec. He is looking forward to discussing with you on ways to address the wicked problem of the rapid increase in urban sprawl and road construction in Montreal.
Urban sprawl in Montreal has increased dramatically over the last 70 years, outpacing population growth and resulting in soil sealing, habitat loss, increased car dependency, and higher greenhouse gas emissions. Urban sprawl is the opposite of sustainability. Because traditional planning has been ineffective, this presentation proposes a framework of specific targets and limits to urban sprawl for Montreal to guide future development. By comparing seven scenarios for Montreal through 2070, the research identifies one sustainable pathway and highlights the urgent need for a greenbelt to protect agricultural lands and natural areas and slow down sprawl.
In this talk, Doctor Jaeger set the stage by describing how urban sprawl in Montreal has accelerated since the 50s, far surpassing the city’s increasing population. With consequences on natural habitats, ecological integrity, and social well-being, urban sprawl is defined as an unrestricted and unsystematic increase in the built-up area of a city at the expense of surrounding ecosystems. Though city residents require built infrastructure, when urban sprawl increases beyond a population’s needs and in an unplanned way, its harm can outweigh its benefits. To evaluate how useful infrastructure is, Dr. Jaeger highlights that we consider a) how much area the city covers, b) how dispersed buildings are, and c) how many people use it.
These three considerations enter into the Weighted Urban Proliferation (WUP) metric, a simple number that can be used to evaluate how efficiently a city is using its built-up space (Jaeger & Schwcik, 2014). Small or dispersed towns tend to have low WUP, while car-centered suburbs have high WUP. Dense downtowns in European cities (and in Montreal) have low WUP due to their density and high usage, but near the edges of a city, that density and efficiency tends to drop, leading to high WUP.
Dr. Jaeger’s research found an exponential increase in the Montreal Census Metropolitain Area’s WUP between 1981 and 2011, increasing 29-fold between 1971 and 2011. A similar concerning trend is seen in Quebec City. However, in Zurich, Switzerland, WUP has only increased by 1 % in the same time period. How is this city planning differently?
Based on European success stories, Dr. Jaeger recommends eleven measures to limit urban sprawl, from setting boundaries on a settlement, protecting the countryside, and limiting designated building zones to concentrating and bundling transport routes. Some of these measures have been in effect in Switzerland since the 13th century, and all of them focus on encouraging and enforcing moderation.
Applying these recommendations to Montreal, Dr. Jaeger proposes seven potential routes that Montreal’s urban planning could take. Unless urban sprawl only increases at half the rate that the number of inhabitants does, our city is not on a sustainable path—and the only truly green future involves completely halting construction on land not yet part of the city. In short: we need to build up and in, not out, or Montreal’s urban sprawl problem will continue to have dire ecological impacts.
Some ways to implement this bounded growth include a green belt, which would impose an outer boundary on built-up area, or green “wedges”, a technique employed in Vienna and Münster. Dr. Jaeger and colleague showed that green belts contributed to a significant reduction in urban sprawl, largely by increasing cities to densify instead of expand (Pourtaherian & Jaeger, 2022).
Lessons from urban planning research, accurate measurement of urban sprawl, and effectively-planned European cities teach us that Montreal needs to start taking its sprawl problem seriously. Unregulated, Montreal will continue expanding into valuable farmland and biodiversity habitat, two things that are already in short and essential supply in Southern Quebec. To combat this, we need a green belt boundary and intentional and collaborative urban planning to ensure new builds align with the city’s sustainability priorities.
The webinar’s question period begins at timestamp 49:05.
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