In terrestrial environments, excess noise from airplanes, heavy machinery, cars, and off-road vehicles harms wildlife especially the many species that rely on hearing to avoid predators, obtain food, and communicate.
Aquatic habitats suffer enormously from sprawl.
In undeveloped areas precipitation is more likely to be absorbed into the ground, enabling it to travel more slowly and be cleansed of contaminants. Precipitation that falls onto impervious surfaces such as roads, parking lots and driveways travels over land faster and is not filtered or absorbed by soils. Paving the landscape often comes at the expense of natural wetlands, which are filled in at a rate of 70,000-90,000 acres each year in the U.S. Healthy wetlands filter runoff for both surface waters and groundwater. By adding pavement and destroying these natural filters, sprawl devastates our waterways, lakes and wetlands, which must absorb greater intensities of runoff that is more polluted. The resulting increase in pollution leads to eutrophication of lakes, reducing oxygen levels and stressing populations of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic species.