The Impact of Urbanization
on
Environme
nt
Urbanization and
Environment
of Pakistan
Introduction:
Urbanization refers to general increase in population of cities
or expansion of the cities either through migration from rural areas
to urban center or the increase in population of urban centers
The last two centuries observed a rapid rise in the size of cities,
in 1800 a very small portion of world masses lived in urban areas
which was approximately 2% but now this percentage is about
50%.
The UN estimates showed that the increase in urbanization in
etrms of rising number of megacities with population of 10 million or
more, in 1975 there were only four megacities in the world, the
number rise to 18 in 2000 while it will be 22 in 2015.
It is estimated that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world
and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized
Continu
e The level and growth of urban centers differ considerably by region
to region; the east and south Asia will have the highest growing
rates in coming decades.
In future most of the world masses will grow in towns and cities
nda this redistribution of the world population will likely to further
affect the natural system of the earth.
Due to the high population influx to urban centers cause many
problems to the environment in terms of deforestation, environment
degradation due to more vehicles and industrialization, poor water
quality, food insecurity, land insecurity, air pollution, noise pollution
and excessive solid waste material.
The phenomenon is very closely related to the environment because
the problems are very complex and very difficult to observe the
overall/net impact of urbanization on environment.
Pakistan is urbanizing at an annual rate of 3 percent, the
fastest pace in South Asia, and by 2025, this figure is
expected to be nearly 50 percent (Kugelman, 2014).
Qadeer (2014) cites a raft of problems, from housing
shortages and sporadic garbage collection to traffic,
crime, and disease.
In Qadeer’s (2014) view, this explains why despite
decades of policies, master plans, community
development projects, and new urban-focused public
institutions, Pakistan’s urban problems “have continued
to balloon.”
Literature Review
Sarasvati and Mukherjee (2011) the study evaluated impact of different
population related variables by regressing the data from different states of
India and found that the effect of URBANIZATION is significantly
negative (among all variables) on environment.
Zaozo (2008) develop a framework to analyze the relationship between
urbanization and CO2 emission for different set of countries and found
that effects of urbanization is higher in developing countries.
Nyambod (2010) in this paper author selected the some urban areasand
evaluated the effect of urbanization on lifestyle and environment. He
found that human settlement conditions in the world particularly in
developing countries are deteriorating.
The rural people moving to urban areas for better living standards,
and urban areas are overcrowded and have more inhabitants than capacity.
This situation often causes loss of property or life by accidents or diseases.
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Vakkilainen and Varis (1999) study evaluated that with increase in urbanization,
hte demand for different goods will also rise. The production process will increase the
use of water and emit more pollutants. But in many developing countries due to poor
mechanism of check and balance waste water is not being treated effectively.
Many multinational companies launch their
countries because of flexible
productionplants in environmental laws and poor control systems.
developing
HABITAT (1996) study describes that with the increase in air pollution level hte
disease rate increases, this pollution comes from fossil fuels, industry, motor
vehicles, heating and electricity generation which are the main causes of greenhouse
gas emission.
In another study the author found that most of the cities in subject areas have
improper sewerage handling system. In that regions untreated garbage and toxic
water is dumped to the rivers and seas. This severely affects the marine life and
fisheries as well as the touring in beach areas.
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Ogu (2000) study found that with increase in population in cities amount of solid
waset also raises. He also found that in most of developing countries normally less than one
half of solid waste is collected, while in some poor countries (Africa) only 10% solid
waste is collected.
World Water Development Report 2012, indicated that urbanization is the main cause
of point source pollution. Particularly the condition become severe when urban
wastewater is combined with untreated industrial water. The study shows that in many
fast growing cities waste water infrastructure is non-existent, inadequate or outdated.
According to the estimates of WHO about 70 to 80% beds in hospitals are occupied
by patient suffered from waterborne diseases in urban centres of developing countries
which shows that water supply and sanitation system have strong impact on living
conditions.
Urbanization and its Impacts on
nature:
Urbanization will leads to overpopulation and major cause of most
environmental problems is the rapidly growing human population. About
90 million babies are born each year and at this rate, by the year 2050,
global population will reach 10 billion.
The population growth takes place mostly in developing countries
and these countries are the cause of 90 percent of current population growth.
It has been estimated that by the year 2025 even 84 percent of the world’s
people will live in developing regions
Growing urbanization means more consumption and need of different
products, and as a result of growing population demand for water, food,
housing, heat, energy, clothing, and consumer goods will increase
dramatically.
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At this moment world’s population is 7 billion people, and half of hte
world population is living in urban centers means urbanization is about 50
percent and remaining is living in the rural areas.
The population living in the rural area have to produce food for the urban
masses and most of the population growth takes place in urban areas,
which means more pressure to the rural people to produce food for the
growing amount of urban people.
In order to meet the increasing demand for the civic amenities, we have
to setup new industries, institutions and factories for the production of
goods and serviecs which means higher level of emission in the air and
more generation of industrial waste took place.
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Increased number of vehicles in urban cities has increased the use of fossils
fuesl and greenhouse gas emission and such type of growth in road vehicles is a big
problem to urban cities and also to the environment.
The pollution is high due to constant traffic jams and rising number of
automobiles which causes respiratory diseases to city habitants.
Industrial, hospital and institutional wastes are more problematic than household
wastes because household wastes are less hazardous as compared to industrial
waste which contains hazardous and toxic chemicals.
The garbage combustion creates yet another environmental problem. People
want to get rid of the wastes and they burn them in their backyards. The gases
produced by burning can cause different respiratory diseases also effects our
environment.
Graphical
Analysis
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Conclusio
n
Both theoretically and graphically it is found that, though urbanization
leads to economic growth through industrialization. But urbanization
severely effected the natural living environment of human beings as well
as ecological framework of the globe.
The damages of urbanization founded at large scale in developing
countries because of poor urban planning and infrastructure is
substandard, this is due to rapid urbanization in subjected regions.
the developed countries have build the infrastructure of high quality
whcihis able to overcome the negative environmental impacts of
urbanization; So impacts rising of urbanization
developing region. varies from developed to
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One of the most important implication of urbanization is that it badyl
affect those regions which heavy depends upon the agriculture economy in
terms of decrease in area of cultivation and rapidly convert into housing
societies.
Way
Forward
With proper planning and careful long run management the impacts
of urbanization could be tackled and the strong urban planning can lead to
the growth.
The public private partnership also help to reduce the effects of
urbanization on environment by setting the priorities in way to make the
environment friendly development for the people living in large cities.
