Urbanization and Sustainability

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Concept map_causes & impacts of deforestation

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Plastic Water Bottles Plastic water bottles are cheap and convenient products, but their production and waste have detrimental environmental costs.

Sabeh Ayoun Abdul Rahmanにより

Biodiversity Word Wall (KW6 and MG6)

Mark Giraldiにより

Naples International Airport

Martina Prodomoにより

Use less polluting cleaning substances, don't smoke in the rooms, cover ceiling tiles and AC ducts to not release harmful stuff into the air

Building more safe and affordable transportation systems

Improving the waste management and sustainable waste managements to avoid releasing toxins into the air.

Solution 2: Make more compact cities smarter cities, instead of individual housing units building condos and apartments so there isn't a need to individual energy usage.

Solution 1: Investing in Sustainable energy sources such as windmills, to not release greenhouse gasses from burning fossil fuels.

Solution 1: Organic Farming when farming it is important not to use fertilizers or do excessive farming in one area. Planning out where to plant each crop

Not building on compromised land

Monitoring grazing to make sure the animals aren't over grazing and digging into the soil.

Solution 3: Control on Mining. Mining is one of the leading causes to land degradation. Mining companies should be monitoring and closely looking at the land they are mining to make sure they save it and also for their own safety.

Solution 2: Planting trees in areas which have no tree cover. Trees help keep soil down and intact into the ground. Areas with no cover are more likely to erode.

Industrial waste and poor sewage is so harmful for water species and species living near wetlands or water bodies. Once the waste is in these streams they harm the species so much. Many people don't correctly dispose of things like oil, by putting it into the sink it is getting direct access into the water bodies.

Animals get into Landfills often mistaking them for food or getting trapped in the waste. Harming themselves.

The toxic gasses that are released into the air when transporting the garbage on ships is incredibly harmful for the species as well.

As the population increases it means there are more people; people who litter. This litter gets to the animals and harms their proper ability to thrive

Solutions to Waste Management

Buying in Bulk, Buying reusable items, Buying second hand or donated items. Buying local foods as they are not shipped or transported.

Solution 3: Solving the Root of the Problem. The best solution to poor waste management having less waste in the first place. If we invest in biodegradable packaging for items and just stop the manufacturing of items that have a lot of packaging and create a lot of waste we could help solve the root of this problem .

Solution 2: Composting composting waste would mean letting food and biodegradable waste degrade on it's own and turn into somethinghelpful for us such as fertilizer.

Solution 1: Finding ways to use the waste to create energy or something useful for us. We are already incinerating our garbage which is harmful so one way we could just adapt to this is by turning that incinerated waste into energy.

Anaerobic Digestion which is basically organisms breaking down waste and turning it into energy

Waste to Energy Incineration

Sollution 4: Not planting invasive species in our gardens or farms. They can cause the loss of biodiversity because they may disrupt the natural ecoystem/ food chain and lead to extinction of these threatened species we want to protect.

Solution 1: Growing native plants in gardens or other places which can help restore habitat for native species. Act as a buffer between them kind-of a "fake ecosystem" that can help the lost habitats. Organizations like the WWF have many programs that people may involve themselves in to help.

Solution 2: The Government needs to put in place laws and regulations when it comes to urbanizing natural areas to protect the wildlife because once there is action being taken on that level, The data is all there, yet action still isn't being taken by the government to help, if laws to protect were put in place we'd help the most.

Sollution 3: Building cities sustainably and in a way that protects the natural resources we have. Cities should be planned while thinking about things like biodiversity loss.

Providing funding for cities to participate in initiatives such as tree-planting initiatives to maybe restore the habitat lost .

Farms act as a buffer between urban and natural areas. As urbanization increases some animals struggle to find a natural habitat. Farms can act as one for species like the BOBOLINK AND MEADOWLARK. When farms are destroyed species like these are at a high risk of being extinct. Loss of farmland = loss of thriving ecosystems

Meadowlark

Bobolink

Urbanization and Sustainability

Land Degradation

Land degradation would result in a reduced food supply, lost supply of water and people may have to move into other areas as well which would just result in more need for the building of residential centers.

When land degrades the value of the land becomes cheaper which builders want to buy. But this land is not actually safe or ideal for building

Extracting resources and minerals like fresh water, or mining for things which can result in groud erosion

Land Degradation is often caused by extreme weather environments or drought. Urbanization leads to both these things. The greenhouse gasses contribute to the rapid changing of the climate and can lead to the land degrading.

When vegetation or farmland is used for construction to build roads or pavement sidewalks, the soil that is left exposed can break and is exposed to soil erosion. Urbanization causes the soil to degrade.

When the quality of soil degrades due to the construction or releasing of chemicals into the soil it is now bad for the use of farming and different species

Waste Management

When there are more people there is more waste. Collecting this waste and managing it would require more money. Which would probably lead to taxes increasing.

People who are already struggling to pay taxes may be affected worse now

Canada doesn't have a great waste management system of its own. Most of our garbage is actually put into landfills, incinerated or sent out on ships.

The ships we use to ship out our garbage also release many toxic emissions.

When we incinerate waste it is rare that we are incinerating materials that we can dispose of normally; they are going to be toxic materials which release green house gasses and emissions into the air .

People who may be living around these areas have said to have many diseases just from breathing in this air.

30% of our waste is recycled or composted and the remaining is incinerated or sent to landfills.

Landfills are built away from residential areas in open spaces...But are they really? Many Landfills are actually built near Indigenous communities in Canada. The waste in Indigenous communities is also not often prioritized or managed. Let's say they are built away from homes here in Canada, but when we send our garbage to other countries, their landfills aren't built away from homes. In fact many people live around those landfills and work in them sorting out garbage.

Lots of Indigenous community water is also affected due to poor sewer management and waste management

Food Waste: When Food is wasted it needs to be replaced. In Urban Areas people are rarely eating local foods or foods which are produced sustainably. To replace the food that is wasted it harms the environment. For example, if you throw out chicken; for that chicken to be replaced it means more chickens in the slaughter.

Supply Vs Demand in Urbanization doesn't just apply to housing it can also apply to things like food. When we waste more than we eat, it gets hard to replace.

As the population grows that means there are more people to produce waste

On average, Canada produces 720kg of waste per capita

People in urban areas rely heavily on packaged meals; packaged items which produce a lot of waste. Each household produces a ton of waste but we don't have a system to put it.

Air pollution

Wildfires. We've had wildfires in Canada when they happened you could notice the negative impact it was having. There was smog, the air was unbreathable

Household air pollution such as spraying toxic cleaning chemicals, smoking inside a room.

With more human household we require more energy for each home. To produce this energy we need to burn greenhouse gasses in order for the rising population to have energy; but in the process of doing so we release a lot of toxics into the air.

Air pollution is incredibly harmful for the health of humans and wildlife as well. When harmful toxins enter our body they tend to create problems for us.

With Urban sprawl less people end up using public transits or transportation options that produce less emissions and they end up relying on their own cars.

Urbanization causes air pollution through the emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic emissions. Through construction and industrial buildings

LOSS OF FARMLAND

Urbanization is responsible for the loss of 65% of the farmland in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. Since 1920.

At the rate we are losing farm land currently we can only use 3.2% to farm and 4.2% for pastureland in all of canada.

For every 1 million people added to Canada's population we lose 530 square km of farms

Once farmland is turned around to use for any other use it cannot be turned back into farmland. Once it has been built on and exposed to the harmful materials it isn't safe for farming anymore.

Losing farmland would also mean losing the prices we currently have on our foods. Locally grown produce wouldn't exist anymore meaning everything would be imported. IMPORTED = HIGHER PRICE

Solution 1: Instead of expanding the cities and building houses on the farmland use the space we already have; for example office space, Building up not out. If it is too expensive for builders, maybe the government should be providing funding so that we can solve the housing crisis and save farmland

Solution 3: BUY LOCALLY! Some of Ontario's farmland is actually protected by the government so it cannot be built on. This is because they bring ECONOMIC BENEFIT. Buying locally would give farmers the income and support they need which could mean farms not being sold. If we support farmers they wouldn't even need to sell their farms because they would get the income they need.

Solution 2: Working with policies or support farmers can get like the Ontario Farmers Trust or RAMP. Which encourage the governments to work along with the farmers and help with the smart development of the cities.

Some species actually rely on farmland to thrive for example the Bobolink and Eastern Meadowlark which are considered to be threatened species (provincially) to nest and forage.

In Ontario as of 2021 we have been losing around 319 acres of farmland per day which means 1 average family farm being sold daily.

Due to Urbanization we are losing farmland because they are being used to build houses and farming isn't bringing farmers the satisfaction and income it once used to bring so they have been selling their farms and moving into urbanized areas for better opportunity. Builders are taking the farmland to build houses because it is cheaper for them and easy to stay with the growing housing demand.

Loss Of Biodiversity

As more people chose to live in urban areas, they need more resources. Many times this means extracting natural resources for the use of humans. Such as fresh water or wood. Which could've been important for another species to thrive.

Urbanization leads to many toxins and pollutants which are harmful for our biodiversity being released.

More Urban areas mean more Industrial areas as well such as factories or manufacturing hubs. When these buildings are built near animal habitats, they cause the loss of those species

Industrial waste, Air/water pollutants Agricultural run-off Sewage

Most materials used by builders are brought in internationally, when bringing in materials from other countries we can introduce invasive species into our ecosystems, further leading to the loss of biodiversity.

Between 2000 and 2013, 216,000 kilometers of forests were turned into urbanized areas and 80% of wetland habitats which house more than 100 species, were also converted into urban use for the country.

In Canada Habitat loss is the main reason for loss of biodiversity. Using species' natural habitats for urban uses disrupts the ecosystem and leads to us losing important species