Urban

Environmental
Management
Lecture 16
 Urban Environmental
Management

Effects of Urbanization
Problems of Cities

Noise Problems
of Cities
 Noise Problems of Cities
Definition
Noise pollution
Any unwanted, disturbing or harmful
sound that:
1. impairs or interferes with
hearing,
2. causes stress,
3. hampers concentration and work
efficiency, or
4. causes accidents.
 Noise Problems of Cities

 Nearly half of urban residents are

regularly exposed to noise
pollution (US-EPA)
 Noise Problems of Cities
Harmful Effects
Harmful effects of prolonged exposure to
excessive noise include:
1.Permanent hearing loss
2.High blood pressure (hypertension)
3.Muscle tension
4.Migraine headaches
5.Gastric ulcers
6.Irritability
7.Insomnia, and
8.Physiological disorders, including
increased aggression.
 Noise Problems of Cities

Harmful Effects

 Sound pressure is measured in

decibel (db)
 Sound pressure becomes damaging
at about 75 db
 Painful around 120 db, and
 It can kill at 180 db
 Noise Problems of Cities
Harmful Effects
You are being exposed to a sound level
high enough to cause permanent hearing
damage if:
1. you need to raise your voice to be
heard above the racket
2. A noise causes your ears to ring, or
3. Nearby speech seems muffled

Prolonged exposure to lower noise level and

occasional loud sounds may not damage hearing
but can greatly increase internal stress.
 Noise Problems of Cities
There are five major ways to
control noise:
1. Modify noisy activities and devices to
produce less noise
2. Shield noise devices and processes
3. Shield workers and other receivers from the
noise
4. Move noisy operations or things away from
people, and
5. Use anti-noise, a new technology that
cancels out one noise with another
 TRANSPORTATION
AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
 How Do Transportation
Systems Affect Urban
Development?
 If a city cannot spread outward, it must grow
vertically upward and downward (below ground)
so that it occupy a small land area with a high
population density.

 Most people in such compact cities walk, ride

bicycles, or use energy efficient mass transit.

 Dispersed car-oriented cities use up to 10 times

more energy per person for transportation than
more compact cities that allow better use of
mass transit, bicycles, and walking.
 How Do Transportation
Systems Affect Urban
Development?
 In Europe, walking and bicycling are
used for 40-50% of all land-based trips
and mass transit for 10%.
 By contrast, in the United States 95%
of all trips by car, 3% by mass transit,
and 2% by walking and bicycling.
 Types of Ground Transportation
There are two types of ground
transportation:

1. Individual (such as cars, motor

scooters, bicycles and walking)

2. Mass (mostly buses and rail

systems)
1. Individual Transportation
1. Individual Transportation
 Who Has Most of the World’s
Motor Vehicles?
 Only about 10% of the world’s people (1% in
many developing countries) can afford a car.

 Between 1999 and 2025, the number of motor

vehicles in the world is expected to increase
from about 550 million to almost 1 billion, with
much of this increase in Asia, Latin America and
eastern Europe.
 Who Has Most of the World’s
Motor Vehicles?
 Despite having only 4.5% of the world’s people,
the United States has 35% of the world’s cars
and trucks (212 million vehicles in 1999)

 In the United States cars are used for 98% of

all urban transportation and 91% of travel to
work (with 80% of Americans driving to work
alone)

 Americans drive 3 billion Kilometers (2 billion

miles) each year- as far as the rest of the
world combined
 Good and Bad News About
Motor Vehicles
Pros and Cons
 The automobile provides convenience
and mobility.

 To many people, cars are also

symbols of power, style, excitement,
social status and success.

 Much of the world’s economy is built

on producing motor vehicles and
supplying roads, services and repairs
of them.
 Good and Bad News About
Motor Vehicles
Pros and Cons
In the United States,
 $1 of every $4 spent and 1 of every
6 nonfarm jobs is connected to the
automobile, and

 5 of every 7 largest U.S. industrial

firms produce either cars or their
fuel.
 Good and Bad News About
Motor Vehicles
Pros and Cons
 Despite their important benefits, motor
vehicles have many destructive effects on
people and the environment.

 Since 1885, when Carl Benz built the first

automobile, almost 18 million people have
been killed in motor vehicle accidents.

 According to the WHO, car accidents

throughout the world annually kill an
estimated 885,000 people (an average of
2,400 deaths per day), and injure or
permanently disable another 15 million
people.
 Good and Bad News About
Motor Vehicles
Pros and Cons
 Motor vehicle are also largest source of air
pollution (including 23% of global CO2
emissions).

 In the United States, motor vehicles produce

50% of the air pollution.

 Two thirds of the oil used in the U.S. and one

third of the world’s total oil consumption are
devoted to transportation.
 Good and Bad News About
Motor Vehicles
Pros and Cons
 Worldwide, at least a third of urban
land is devoted to roads, parking
lots, gasoline stations, and other
automobile related uses.
 In the U.S., more land is devoted to
cars than to housing.
 Half the land in U.S. average city is
used for cars.
 Good and Bad News About
Motor Vehicles
Pros and Cons
 In 1907, the average speed of horse-drawn
vehicles through the borough of Manhattan in New
York City was 18.5 Kilometers (11.5 miles) per
hour; today cars and trucks creep along
Manhattan streets at an average speed of 5
Kilometers (3 miles) per hour.

 If current trends continue, U.S. motorists

will spend an average of 2 years of their
lifetimes in traffic jams.
Good & Bad News About Motor Vehicles