As populations continue to increase, the population of individuals living in urban areas has continued to rise as well, resulting in innumerable problems for economic and urban policy makers. Increasing population have meant that most cities have grown into huge metropolitan areas, capable of running their own services and governments. Metropolitan fragmentation can thus be looked at as the creation of mini governments by growing urban population, in an effort to enhance economic and social wellbeing. Fragmentation occurs when a wealth urban population ejects itself from the existing municipal or regional administration to form self-sustaining systems of governance and organization. Fragmentation is often driven by the desire to enhance administrative efficiency; however, this outcome is ultimately compromised through fragmentation. Multiple government access points mean redundancy of role, increased financial costs and more importantly compromised efficiency in various sectors.
Increase in the demand for public goods is often cited as the major reason behind increased fragmentation in South Florida. As the number of people increases so does their need for access to various services. For most municipals, fulfilling this need becomes unattainable resulting in the formation of smaller organizational bodies that offer the services. Ultimately, however, the redundancy and increased economic costs make this approach inefficient. Increased organizational and administrative duties mean that revenue collections have to be increased, a cost that has to be incurred by the citizens. One negative element associated with fragmentation is that of urban sprawl, moving away from the core cities results in reduced tax revenues and thus compromised provision of public goods, causing more migration away from the city centers. For planning policy makers, this trend compromises the societal capacity to meet its resources needs as most are depleted through settlement patterns and activities.
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Fundamentally, the decision by various individuals arise from the desire to have the best quality of life. However, by fragmenting cities, through migration this element is compromised, a factor that is least known to the public. By adopting awareness creation programs where the public can get to explore the implications of fragmentation, more sound policies can adopted by the regional governments as a way of mitigating against the inefficiencies associated with fragmentation. The political elite, whose primary goal is often economic gain, are often used as puppets by the private sector to develop policies that create profit-making loopholes for the private sector. In a technologically dominated world, accountability and transparency can be achieved through the use of online administrative platforms which can be accessed by all residents at all times.
