Is Urbanisation Good Or Bad Environmental Sciences Essay

Urbanization is a sign of human civilization and a centre of economy, politics and social life. When more modern buildings are being setting up, more farmers are coming into citys. It also means that more green areas and forests are disappearing. There is a series of environmental problems that have arisen. But I do not know whether urbanization is an advantage or disadvantage? This is the focus of attention in recent years for some people. The opinion of this essay is that urbanization is disadvantages out weighs its advantages.

We can see a newly emerging community now: where there are supermarkets, schools, banks and so on. Without doubt several years ago, it was still the countryside. People depended on grazing and farming for live. This is the history of social reform and it is also the history of urbanization. Actually, what are the benefits for us of urbanization?

It is firmly believe by this writer : Firstly, “deal with the income. “. The income in large areas is certainiy higher than that in small areas. Intuitively, the urban income is more than that in the countryside.For example, Shanghai residents in China, generaliy speaking, have higher living standards than those in other cities. Secondly, when incrcasing numbers of people flood into cities, the cities are often becoming larger and many people move out of the downtown area into the suburbs. This trend of urban construction is beneficial to the future cities development as whole. Thirdly, it provide development opportunities for big cities. With more people coming to the cities, urban development is experiencing a new round of leaping forward.

In general, urban development is important for national economy development approach. While the economy is the level for the indicator of a country, urbanization is beneficial for us (Debroy,2009).

Everything has two sides; as a balance, since it has a good side there must be a bad side. Then, what areas negative impact of urbanization on?

“Firstiy, a large amount of non-normal cultivated land has decreased, cities are built in the plain where has good natural conditions and it is also bulit in the best agricultural areas. By planning, Chinese urbanization will involve taking the national land 3% to 6%. The ratio seems to be small but the size is not small about 300 thousand to 600 thousand square km, which is equiralent to one-third or the half in Chinese plain of the total area. In fact, due to fast the development of urbanization, enclosure style is still prevalent. With the large number of luxury plant, buildings, various”image projects”the large fields and large tracts of former farmland disappeared, so many people in China had little arable land and the conflicts become more prominent. Only in recent years, the net loss reached 3800 million of cultivated land, this is the reason that results in a large number of landlessness, joblessness, insecure farmers and food production and successive landslide.

Second is the issue of how urbanization.Urban growth is too fast and the cities are developing even larger with excessive concentration of population moving to the city in a short time.It inevitably generates a large number of unemployment, shortage of fresh water and energy supply, traffic congestion, increased crime, environment degradation and increased risk of various crises of phenomena. Some experts say that urbanization does not necessarily have a city disease, have a disease is rooted in the guiding ideology of one-side, unreasonable industrial structure and layout,”low-density

expansion”,approach the development of city to overcome the disease,”plan to reduce urban disease”and “management and treatment the city disease”. The opinion was justified, but the problem is that can we guidelines one-side in practice? Can practive in a rational science? Can management be done strictly in place? Such as this summer in Beijing, a storm almost paralyzed the city traffic and in Shanghai, a strong wind and heavy rain that serious traffic jams and large-scale blackout happened. These incident exposed the urban construction and management of our problem is not essay.”(Bnden,2010)

the third point is the real estate”bubble”. Housing in many cities are too many and built up too quickly now. It has occupied a large number of bank funds. There will be a large number of houses left vacant and leading to economic crisis if severe over supply or the price exceed capacity of the public. Experience shows that the real estate bubble caused by the economic crisis take years to be back to life.

fourthly, last but the most important point, which is a the modern problem of human concern : “The environmental issues. Now, regardless of what is in the newspaper or on thewebsit or on TV there will always be some reports of environmental pollution that are caused by disasters. The most prominent is the issue of urban pollution: and one topic needing attention is the outstanding water pollution. Due to rapid urban population growth and rapid development of industry, a lot of water has not been properly dealt with and is put directly into the river.This causes serious damage to the water environment. The next type of pollution is the serious deterioration of air quality. The rapid development of industry, transportation and heavy use of fossil fuels has cause a serious deterioration in air quality by dust, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon oxide, ozone and other substancese into the atmosphere. The third pollution isoue is that of rubbish, were solid waste flooded and garbage is serious siege. Human life and production have created large amount of solid waste. At presently, China produces 660 million tons of industrial solid waste every year. There are 3000 to 4000 tons of hazardous waste in it, accumulated more than 64 million tons and it is occupying more than 500 million square meters land. Annual copacity of one ton of garbage and an annual groth rate is 7% to 8%.”(Wang, 2000)

From the point of views mentioned above, urbanization is like a balancing glant. On the one hand it promotes socio-economic development. On the other hand rapid urbanization will lead to the environment of human existence being devastated. It needs to find an equilibriurn that balances both sides. It not only enhances the socio-economic development but also minimize environmental pollution. But, what is the balance? And how to find the right one for effective?

In general, the pace of urbanization should be robust and should maximize the benefits of urban expansion. We should avoid careless and blind thoughts about the disadvantages. There are some methods such as : promoting cycling and reducing by cars. This will not only reduce vehicle exhaust emission but also conserve the thenon-renewable resources of oil. We should raise awareness of human pollution, recycle waste by classification and strengthening the management of waste emissions from industrial enterprises and forth.

Overall, urbanization is disadvantages more than its advantages .The government must plan for urban growth and development. It must make policies that will enhance sustainable land use and minimize ecological degradation. Urbanization is a cross-road which governments cannot ignore.