Urbanization's Toll On The Environment

The general consensus is that urbanization has had a negative effect on the environment, though its extent is difficult to define. Pollution is a common measure, and though some urban areas' air qualities are improving, others are falling far behind.

1 minute read

June 24, 2006, 1:00 PM PDT

By Nate Berg

Researchers and environmentalists have long known that fuel use has been one of the most significantly concentrated problems in urban areas. But this problem, and other commonly associated with the urban experience, is not isolated to urban areas. Global warming, for example, has causes in both urban and rural areas. In many instances, the impacts of rural areas are more significant than those caused by urban areas.

" 'What is needed is research that focuses on the large-scale, long-term environmental changes, not just on the immediate impact of cities,' concludes the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), a global research alliance."

" 'Until recently, this has been quite unexplored territory,' it says. It is territory which badly needs exploration if the full impacts of 21st Century urbanisation are to be fully understood."

FULL STORY: Finding green in the concrete jungle

Monday, June 19, 2006 in BBC

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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