benefits of compact, mixed use development

This study found a statistically significant relationship between land use patterns and air quality. It defined sprawl using the metric devised by Ewing, et al., in Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact, which measured the relationship of 5 variables to air quality in 45 of the 50 largest U.S. MSAs. Those variables, defined in the linked article, are Centeredness, Connectivity, Density, Land Use Mix, and a composite of the first four. Ozone precursor emissions and meteorological conditions were needed to quantify air quality, and the data used in this task was taken from the EPA’s National Emissions Inventory. To account for the urban heat island effect, the authors took data from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center and used it as a control variable. After controlling for population size, the authors found that density and connectivity had significant effects, suggesting a significant association between air quality and land use patterns.