Impact of urbanization on loss of biodiversity

Impact of urbanization on loss of biodiversity

1. Module – 4 UNIT- IV – URBANIZATION & ENVIRONMENT 4.1 Urbanization 4.2 Problems of Migration in Urban Areas 4.3 Urbanization and pollution (Air and water) 4.4 Problems of soil and biodiversity in urban areas 4.5 Urbanization in relation to changing land use pattern 4.6 Urban heat islands 4.7 ‘smart cities’ in India

2. Problems related to soil in urban areas Deforestation on large scale Loss of agricultural land for urban land use Dumping yards uses large size of land which get pollutes No open soils observed. This leads to absence of micro-organisms in soil. Soil compaction Expanding deserts

3. Problems related to bio-diversity in urban areas Introduction to non- native plants and animals cause harm to native species eg . Brown rats, pigeon, rodents. Habitat in urban areas are highly fragmented (broken) from natural habitats. Extinction of species e.g. sparrow Conflict between wild animals and human due to human encroachments in neighbouring forest land. E.g. leopard in Powai (Mumbai) area. Impact of noise pollution on birds. Many birds die because of high tension electric wires. Behavioral change in birds and animals. e.g. feeding pigeon

4. Impact of changing land use pattern The largest land use change in urban areas is found to be on the peripheral area where huge amount of land is utilized for ware houses, dumping yards, parking lots, airports etc. This often results in adverse environmental impact in the peripheral zone (rural-urban-fringe). The process of urban sprawl / growth is gradual and change in land use patter many times leads to uncontrolled/unplanned growth . This results in mixing of land use. Due to uncontrolled growth of cities in surrounding areas, the rural settlements in surrounding areas are affected. The economic activities like farming, animal rearing, dairy farming etc. continues to decline due to increasing impact of urban land use.

5. Peripheral areas of the main / core city serves just as residential towns . Many people work in the city centre and live in the peripheral areas / suburbs. Such population is called ‘floating population ’ which increases population of the core city during day time and drastically decreases during night. Due to increasing influence of urban land use, the natural ecosystem such as creeks, forest, grassland, pond, mangroves etc. losses their productivity . In the phase of post globalization , the land use change has taken place in many cities. E.g. Cotton textile mill are replaced by commercial establishments , chawls are replaced by high rise buildings and infrastructure is developing rapidly. This is also called as ‘ urban renewal’.

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