From Green to Grey: A Legal Analysis of EnvironmentalImpacts of Rapid Real Estate Development inUrban Fringe Areas
Keywords:
urban fringe law, peri-urban development regulation, environmental impact assessment, biodiversity legislation, sustainable urbanisation, green infrastructure law, land-use planning reformAbstract
The rapid expansion of real estate development into urban fringe areas represents not only an environmental crisis but a profound failure of legal governance in the twenty-first century. As metropolitan populations swell and housing demand intensifies, peri-urban landscapes once characterised by agricultural lands, wetlands, forests, and grasslands are being systematically converted into residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments, often in direct contravention of existing statutory protections. This article examines the legal dimensions of such transformation, interrogating the regulatory frameworks and their failures governing biodiversity loss, soil degradation, hydrological disruption, urban heat island intensification, air quality deterioration, and the fragmentation of ecological corridors. Drawing upon statutory law, judicial precedents, and comparative regulatory analysis across rapidly urbanising jurisdictions in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, this paper evaluates the legal architecture and its structural inadequacies that permit irreversible ecological harm in peri-urban zones. The discussion contextualises findings within the broader framework of environmental constitutionalism, sustainable development law, and the emerging jurisprudence of rights of nature. The article concludes with law reform recommendations grounded in rights-based environmental governance, mandatory green infrastructure standards, and ecosystembased legal frameworks aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
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