Urban 'swallowed' 20,000 football fields every day

The pace of expansion of cities is at its highest level in human history and the world loses an area of ​​20,000 American football fields every day because of urbanization.

Yale University's urban environmental experts in the United States conduct a study of urban development prospects over the next few decades. Their models show that the growth rates of cities are reaching dizzying levels and the area of ​​urban areas around the world will triple by 2030, Livescience reported.

New York City in America in a photo
shooting from the air. (Photo: abovethecity.com)

"In the next 18 years, humanity will witness the expansion of urban areas with the greatest speed in human history," said Karen Seto, a professor at Yale University.

Urban booms will affect people across the planet as demand for raw materials and energy will increase, the team said. Raw materials and energy are two essential elements for infrastructure construction - including roads and buildings - to serve urban residents.

Humans will pay a high price for urban development. According to the team's calculations, cities will "consume" an area equivalent to South Africa (1.2 million km ² ), destroy habitats, destroy about 200 species of organisms and reduce number of plants.

"This is not a problem of a place or a country, but a global trend. Now we live in a century of cities. In the next 30 years, cities will annex a region every day. Seto is about 20,000 American football fields , " Seto said.

The research team predicts that Asia will be the continent that loses the most land for urban development (55% of the total land area that cities encroach on globally).

"We often overlook urbanization when we list the key factors that promote deforestation and the decline in ecosystem quality. Yale University's forecast models show a sad situation. They have raised urbanization from regional issues to global issues , " said Hilda Blanco, interim director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Center at the University of Southern California in the US.