Monday 29 October 2012

Some interesting facts on urbanization


1.The city of New York  has plans to buy USD 300 million worth of land upstate to protect the  watersheds that are used for producing city’s drinking water.This is part of a watershed protection strategy that will cost USD 1.4 Billion,but is  estimated to save the city from having to spend USD 3.8 Billion for new filtration system  to clean increasingly polluted water.
The city of  Phoenix ,USA ,has found  it cheaper to create wetlands around the city than to further invest in additional wastewater treatment facility which would cost USD 625Million.

2.The London Trust co founder,Herbert Girardet ,has tried to estimate the ecological footprint of the city of London.With 12% of the UK Population and covering 170000 hectares has a footprint of of approximately 21 million hectares equivalent to all productive land in the united kingdom so obviously London is relying on outside UK  to be able to sustain itself.aaa

3. Often ecosystem provide products to both cities and rural areas,and also impact on cities and rural areas.A good example is the Aberdares Mountain range in Kenya,just north of Nairobi.One of the major threats of the Aberdares forest is the cutting of trees for production of charcoal.Most of the charcoal is transported to the urban and peri-urban centers of Nairobi to be used for cooking .At the same time ,due to disappearing forest the provision of water to Nairobi is being threatened.

4.    Air pollution in cities in developing countries is not only a health hazard for the urban residents,but it also contributes to transboudary air pollution.Air pollutants can travel over long distances often more than 1000 kilometers.Air pollution in cities has impact at the local level as well as rural areas around the cities.

5. Acid rain that is affecting the Scandivian forests is caused by emissions of pollutants from the industrial sites in central Europe.Coal fired energy plants in Canada emit pollutants that contribute to health problems over the border in the US.On the other hand air pollution from the united states contributes to about half of the ground level  Ozone in southern Ontario and Quebec in Canada.

6. Although  sewage system in cities,especially in developed countries,have been successful in preventing the transmission of sewage –related diseases,in some cases the sewage is not treated sufficiently causing severe damage to ecosystem and water resources.This impacts not only the environment and availability of water resources for humans but it also causes diseases in rural side people .


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