Which of the following best describes suburban sprawl?

Suburban sprawl is characterized by the expansion of urban areas into rural land, leading to increased development outside city centers. This phenomenon typically involves the growth of housing, shopping centers, and other infrastructures, creating low-density residential communities that spread out from urban cores.

As cities grow, they tend to extend their boundaries into the surrounding countryside, resulting in a mix of residential, commercial, and sometimes industrial zones that can disrupt local ecosystems and agricultural land. This expansive growth pattern often reflects changes in lifestyle preferences, such as a desire for larger homes and more green space, but can also lead to issues such as increased reliance on automobiles, longer commutes, and the loss of agricultural land.

The other options refer to different urban dynamics: urban renewal focuses on revitalizing existing neighborhoods rather than expanding outward; vertical urban expansion deals with building upwards within the current urban footprint; and intensification of urban land use refers to increasing the density of use within existing urbanized areas, which contrasts with the horizontal expansion that defines suburban sprawl.