Effects Of Urbanization On The Ecosystem

I chose this topic because in the past few decades, a lot of natural calamities and phenomena have taken place, e.g.: untimely floods, global warming, habitat loss, etc. And many of these have been caused by urbanization and one of the biggest threats that it poses i.e. the loss of ecosystems. Both urbanization and ecosystem loss disturb the natural balance of planet Earth. Therefore, it motivated me to take this topic.

“Urbanization is when towns and cities are formed and become larger as more people move in from rural areas to work and live.”1

“Ecosystem loss happen , when ecosystems face the threat of being endangered or extinct due to human activity.” 2

As human populations increase in cities and towns, the effect of urbanization becomes

They absorb 0.8 to 1.1 billion metric tons of CO2. Along with this, it provides us many other benefits such as timber, medicines, etc. It is a pity now this heaven is threatened by deforestation, which can have dire consequences. In the Brazilian Amazon, there has been an average forest loss of 6, 14,785 km2 from 1990-2015 due to factors such as soybean farming, cattle ranching, logging, mining, etc. This makes it difficult to maintain carbon dioxide concentrations and the greenhouse effect occurs, increasing world temperatures and altering weather patterns. Deforestation of the Amazon accounted for 1.5 % of the increase in carbon dioxide levels since the mid 19th century. Also, sea levels rise, and polar ice caps melt, causing habitat loss and catastrophic calamities in the

It’s not just extinction of animal but the pattern of migration of birds has also changed due to the urban sprawl. North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) conducted a study which came up with worring results , Over half of the Neotropical migratory birds in North America have suffered substantial declines over the past 40 years, particularly since the 1980s with one of the reason being loss of habitat that is decline in their population.

The 15th sustainable development goal to protect the biodiversity and prevent further ecosystem loss is as follows:

• To promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, Stop deforestation .

• Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species

• gather together financial resources to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and ecosystems.

Keeping these goal in mind, UN Habitat in collaboration with Brazil, China and South Africa have implemented a nation urban plan to control the effect urbanisation on the climate, such that they do not have to face ecosystem