Impact of Urbanization The effects of urbanization: Example: in the U.S.only【L3

Hi, good morning everyone. I’m here today to present my findings on the process of urbanization and its impact on the environment. As you know, urbanization involves the movement of people from the countryside to the cities. As this process continues, the cities of the world continue to grow. I will demonstrate how this growth is eating away at the planet’s most fertile land.
My research has focused on two studies that looked at land use in the United States. These have shown that since its independence, only three per cent of all land in the United States has been built on. However, the same studies have also shown that the resulting loss of productive land is comparatively much, much greater. This isn’t so much of a problem in America as it has a relatively low ratio of people to land. However, most other countries are not so blessed, the impact of which could have dire consequences for the future. The real danger here is if this pattern were to be repeated by developing countries, it could have a major effect on the world’s food supplies in the next 50 years.
In order to reach this conclusion, several research methods were adopted. A group of scientists in the United Statesused a weather satellite that normally maps moonly cloud cover at night. However, on nights when there were no clouds, they used the satellite to map the generation of heat from city lights. They then took the data and divided land use into three categories: urban, semi-urban and non-urban land use. Next, they calculate how active the vegetation is in each region by using different satellites. When they combined this information with previous statistics and weather conditions, they came up with a number for total productivity for all areas.
So what did the results of this process of land classification show? Well, firstly, they proved that although only a tiny percentage of the land in the United States is urbanized, and 29% of land is used for agricultural purposes, the land which has been built on actually has the best soils. These were independently cooperated by a second team of scientists in San Francisco, whose results show that this process is happening even faster in the southeastern corner of the United States. This means that land is extremely productive from an agriculture point of view, is being taken over by lawns, golf courses and a few scattered trees. As a direct result of urbanization, the researchers in San Francisco calculated that every year 1 million tonnes of plants are ’lost’ in the U.S.
So what does this mean for the future? Well, I have come up with some of my own ideas for practical solutions. Countries should calculate whether urbanization is happening on their fertile lands too especially if they have large populations compared to the amount of land available, 1ike India and China, for example. If it is, then every effort should be made to stop the process from happening This can be done in many ways. One of them is to stop investing in the infrastructure of those areas If people don’t have the facilities they need, they won’t want to live there. But in my opinion, the main solution here is to offer people financial incentives to move away from fertile land to areas that are less valuable in agricultural terms.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my presentation this morning. Thanks for your kind attention. I will now take any questions...