Research strategy This article reports the first two steps in a long-range research strategy. The first step, reported in the next section, identifies and develops conceptual and operational definitions of eight dimensions of sprawl (used as a noun. Each dimension consists of a continuum with low values representing more sprawl-like features. The study has not attempted to develop measures for sprawl as a process, although that is a worthy subject for further inquiry. In any event, measuring the respective dimensions of development patterns for an urban area at different times will reveal the processor progress) of sprawl. The second step tests the operational definitions by applying them to large UAs from different regions, with different economic structures and demographic composition, to determine whether they make intuitive sense. Future research contemplates making any necessary adjustments to the description or measurement of each dimension and applying the approach to the 100 largest UAs in the United States and ranking them on each of the eight dimensions, as well as any distinctive factors that emerge from the analysis. Techniques such as factor analysis can be used to determine whether distinct patterns or combinations of low values on these dimensions can be identified as different types of sprawl variables that will enable serious research on sprawl. The resulting variables could be used in models either as independent variables (What is the effect of different dimensions or types of sprawl on X?) or dependent variables (What causes particular dimensions or types of sprawl?).
