Problem

Increasing proportion of land surface devoted to urbanization

Other Names:
Loss of agricultural land to urbanization
Competition between industry and agriculture for land
Loss of land to industrialization
Nature:

The migration to cities and the high birth rates there are creating urban sprawls and suburbanization which annually consume tens of millions of hectares of open spaces. Vast conurbations with populations of multi-millions are created and continue to increase in size.

Incidence:

In the USA, for example, 25% of the population lives on 1.8% of the country's total land surface, creating, on the eastern seaboard, a megalopolis extending from Massachusetts to Maryland. Each year, over half a million hectares (equal to the state of Delaware) are built on or surfaced with (asphalt or concrete). In Europe 60 to 80% of the population lives in dense conurbations which increasingly take land from the surrounding area. This is true around Paris, in southeast England, in the built-up areas of the Ruhr, and in the Netherlands Randstadt, for example. In England and Wales, it is calculated that 80% of the 3 million new homes required by the year 2000 will urbanize an additional 11 or 12% of the land.

Subject(s):
Agriculture, Fisheries Agriculture
Amenities Urban
Geography Land type/use
Industry Industry
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
GOAL 2: Zero HungerGOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Problem Type:
E: Emanations of other problems
Date of last update
24.11.2019 – 10:47 CET