Environmental

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF URBANIZATION

Introduction

Urbanization is the process of city-making and peopling . With this process come the inevitable effects to the natural environment in which urbanization has to transpire around . This phenomenon is emerging as a recognized contributor to environmental problems , as well as environmental profits , on a worldwide basis . The quality of the natural environment should concern an urban society for at least two reasons . To begin with , natural environments are essential to the functioning of cities . Second , the reduction in the ability of the natural environment

br to cope with the effects of urbanization increases costs for urban dwellers . The issue both within and as wrought by urban areas have recently become matters of public concern as a part of the generally increased awareness of the public concerning environmental issues . This PowerPoint presentation attempts to address the said issue in an unbiased manner , taking out the good with the bad , and coming up with recommendations that finds the middle ground in which urbanization can further progress with \out proving too much of a price to pay for the natural environment

Environmental Benefits of Urbanization

Despite all the unfavorable consequences of urbanization that will be referred to in the next section , the environment has gained some benefits from the phenomenon . Partly because of the demands of urban systems place on ecosystems , resources and sinks in the surrounding region , cities and towns are often presented as environmentally damaging . This is misleading . Although environmentally damaging production and consumption are often concentrated in urban areas achieving similar levels of economic production and consumption with people and enterprises in more dispersed locations can be even more environmentally damaging

Likewise , the large concentration of suitable material makes recycling economically viable because large concentrations of recyclable materials and per capita expenditures on environmental production are higher in urban areas . Urban dwellers generally have lower birth rates than rural dwellers and there are more opportunities to educate and mobilize residents on environmental issues . Biodiversity can also be potentially preserved by protecting habitats as the population is based in a circumscribed area , thereby reducing the stress on wildlife habitats although this has been balanced against the damage incurred in providing cities with resources . Cities can be more sustainable if reuse recycling , waster reduction , pollution prevention and efficient use or resources are prioritized . There is a wide scope for urban gardens , both private and communal , to provide fresh food for residents

Further in some situations , promoting urbanization may even be a part of a strategy to protect the environment from degrading rural development although much depends on the extent to which urban environmental burdens can be mitigated . In dry land areas , for example , intensive agricultural development can be very damaging to the environment . Well-managed urban systems can be far less burdensome . Moreover , if they are extremely well-managed , urban water regimes can create pockets of `green ' in dry zones , through measures which , for example , turn the relative impermeability of urban surfaces into a means of concentrating water in strategic peri-urban locations

Environmental Challenges of Urbanization

Urbanization is clearly necessary for any functioning economy , but it seems clear that urban places with mismanaged environments can create problems , both economic and physical , which may have repercussions well beyond their boundaries . Environmentalists are often speaking of impacts of circumstances where urbanization is specifically associated with increased energy use , but surely this observation deserves a more general application . With respect to increased energy use , this presentation suggests that substantial increases in the consumption of fossil fuels (presumably in Third World urban areas ) will increase the serious likelihood of climatic change , increase urban air pollution raise the prevalence of acid rains and acidification , and add to environmental problems and risks

In wealthier nations large metropolitan areas are replete with major environmental difficulties . The most visible among those may be emissions from automobiles and industrial processes . Other forms of industrial pollution , which foul river systems and water tables and land areas which have become receptors of abandoned or jettisoned wastes and industrial cast-offs , have also attracted public attention . Problems have emerged with respect to the sensible disposal of industrial waste and waste in general . In the United States , for example , the landfills which service major metropolitan areas are approaching their capacities prompting the interstate shipment of municipal waste . Beyond waste there is the problem of sewage which , in the case of the United States , has on occasion threatened both Atlantic and Pacific coastal areas , indicating that the treatment of such materials has been less than adequate

Beyond the rather obvious difficulties cited above are some that may seem less immediately or obviously worrisome . By covering surfaces with brick , concrete and metal , so that heat and atmospheric aerodynamics are affected . The emission of both solid and gaseous pollutants and the generation of large amounts of heat is also an adverse effect . This last concern is especially serious since cities tend to generate 'heat islands '--which tend to lock within them circulatory air , thus reducing the pollution-dispersing power of the atmosphere . The level of environmental difficulties facing Third World metropolitan areas would appear in part to be an increasing function of the size of the urban complexes in question . Of course , other factors may be influential as well . For example , climate and topography may have parts to play to the extent that they impact the ability of natural forces to reduce environmental difficulties . The industrial mix may also be an important factor in some cases

Recommendations

The developed world cannot ignore the environmental impact of the urbanization of the world , given the environmental global interdependence of the modern world . Assuming the accuracy of this position , it would appear that nations ignore environmental considerations associated with urbanization , at their own peril . Failure to intervene may impact health and may even adversely affect production through environmental spillovers or externalities . Faced with such unpleasant possibilities , environmental factors need to be taken into account in the planning of urban developments and in determining optimum locations , size , and rates of growth of urban areas . If this presentation 's analysis was correct , urban environmental difficulties can hardly be ignored by planners who see urbanization as the setting for expanding modern sector activities and thus both growth and development

Third World metropolitan areas are experiencing environmental difficulties in two specific areas which surpass the environmental difficulties facing large cities the world over . To ensure that their urban complexes provide healthy settings for economic expansion planners in Third World nations must solve these difficulties as well as the general difficulties associated with urban environments . A unique set of problems with environmental overtones revolves around the continuing influx of population which most major Third World urban agglomerations are facing . In terms of environmental matters , service options and priorities deserve a closer scrutiny . Abstracting from arguments couched in humanitarian terms for the moment , it should be noted that negative externalities of an environmental nature are hardly respecters of political or economic boundaries . Planners should likewise try to control the positioning of settlements in keeping with the growth and development of an economically viable metropolitan complex , so that the provision of certain services may be an effective tool . Certainly the provision of piped water and even access to electricity may serve to encourage population expansion in the areas selected by the planners

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