Tamika Gregson

By 2050, about 70% of the world's population is expected to live in urban areas. The growth of urbanisation is having extreme negative effects on the environment and we need to make a change. The growth of urbanisation has caused the fragmentation and destruction of large areas of natural habitats, deforestation and changes to the hydrologic cycle. 

From 2010-2050 urbanisation is expected to grow rapidly from 51.6% to 67.2%. The expeditious growth of urbanisation has caused an extensive amount of habitat loss, as a matter of fact New York City has lost over 750 native species due to urbanisation. Urbanisation causes the fragmentation of habitats, which heavily disrupts the essential ecosystem process. half of Australia’s native species listed threatened under the EPBC Act are considered to be at risk from habitat fragmentation. Habitat loss and fragmentation are responsible for the extinction of 11 Australian mammal species. The loss and fragmentation of natural habitats needs to be stopped. Instead of building out into these habitat areas we can build up in areas we've already taken over. We can create vertical and rooftop gardens and more regular gardens and habitat areas within urban areas. Doing this will help stop climate change and reverse some of the negative effects urbanisation has on the environment.

Over 10 million hectares of forest are destroyed every year, which is over 1.20 million ties the size of our school. Deforestation is the cause of 10% of climate change. The rapid reduction of forest isn't only for space to build these urban areas but also for the natural resources such as wood, oil, water and coal. A huge 41% of deforestation is caused by beef farming globally. The deforestation of forests needs to be rapidly reduced. The can be done with reducing meat consumption, using recycled materials, and through the arctic environment of regenerative agriculture. These small changes can help us stop climate change and reduce deforestation.

Over 150 million people live in city’s with perennial water shortages globally. Urbanisation drastically affected the hydrologic cycle through the extraction of fresh water. When water comes in contact with urban surfaces it becomes contaminated with pollutants, this is called storm water. Stormwater Dorian’s rarely have any treatment systems so pollutants are carried into our waterways, oceans and bays. High volumes of storm water impact our waterways by damaging aquatic habitats, distrusting breeding cycles, eroding stream banks, increasing pollution levels and altering natural flood cycles, which heavily affects biodiversity levels in urban areas and making some unliveable to species. Rainwater in urban areas are also prevented from soaking the soil. The low moisture within the soil negatively impacts the growth of plants, rescuing biodiversity even more in urban areas. We can reduce the biodiversity loss in urban areas by using recycled water to w water plants, and reduce chemical use. A bigger change we can make is changing our draining systems by putting the water filtration and making it less damaging to the environment by reducing the contact storm water has with urban surfaces. 

Urbanisation affects biodiversity in many ways and in more ways than we think. Reducing and changing our ways of urbanisation and restoring and maintaining natural habitats, we can help stop climate change and restore the world's biodiversity.