Human Population Change

and
Environment
Urbanization – Urban Sprawl
• Urban sprawl is basically another word for urbanization. It refers to the migration of a population from populated towns
and cities to low density residential development over more and more rural land. The end result is the spreading of a city
and its suburbs over more and more rural areas.

• In other words, urban sprawl is defined as low density residential and commercial development on undeveloped land.
Most of the time, people will move from these areas to try to find better areas to live.
Why Urbanization
1. Lower cost land and houses in the outer suburbs of the cities.
2. Another factor that contributes to urban sprawl is the rise in population growth. As the number of people in a city grows
beyond capacity, the local communities continue to spread farther and farther from city centers.

3. There are also increases in standards of living and average family incomes, which means that people have the ability to
pay more to travel and commute longer distances to work and back home.

4. Lack of urban planning-People love to find areas that are less trafficked and more calm, which leads them to sprawl out
to other sections of the town.
5. Lower House Tax Rates in outer areas.
6. People in high-income groups have stronger preferences towards larger home. This also causes urban sprawl as this
option is not available in crowded cities. People generally look out for low-density residential areas where they can get
home according to their preferences.
Effects of Urbanization
1. People have to travel more in order to enter the city , therefore more population will use automobiles which in
turn will cause air pollution.

2. Urban sprawl threatens productive farmland, transforms parks and open spaces into highways, as sprawling
engulfs open spaces wildlife is also threatened.

3. Urban sprawl can create water distribution issues and lead to water over-consumption , the groundwater will
slowly start to decrease in urban sprawled areas.
Problems Faced by Urban Poor
1. Life Is a Desperate Struggle for the Urban Poor in Developing Countries Poverty is a way of life for many urban dwellers in
developing countries. At least 1 billion people live under crowded and unsanitary conditions in cities in developing
countries and according to a 2006 U.N. study, that number could reach 1.4 billion by 2020.

2. Some of these people live in slums—areas dominated by tenements and rooming houses where several people might live
in a single room. Others live in squatter settlements and shantytowns on the outskirts of these cities. the streets

3. They build shacks from corrugated metal, plastic sheets, scrap wood, cardboard, and other scavenged building materials,
or they live in rusted shipping containers and junked cars.

4. Still others live or sleep on Poor people living in shantytowns and squatter settlements usually lack clean water supplies,
sewers, electricity, and roads, and are subject to severe air and water pollution and hazardous wastes from nearby
factories.
Environment and Health Linkages
1. Urban air pollution – of which a significant proportion is generated by vehicles, as well as industry and energy
production – is estimated to kill some 800,000 people annually. Today, many developing world cities face very severe
levels of urban air pollution – higher than developed world counterparts.

2. Road traffic accidents contribute a further 1.2 million deaths annually; low- and middle-income countries bear 90 % of
the death and injury toll. Degradation of the built urban and rural environment – particularly for pedestrians and
cyclists – has been cited as a key risk factor.

3. Current patterns of urbanization and motorization also are associated with more sedentary lifestyles, diminished space
and opportunities for physical activity, and a consequent surge in related non-communicable diseases. Physical
inactivity is estimated to be responsible for some 1.9 million deaths globally every year, as a result of disease such as
heart ailments, cancer and diabetes.
Solutions
• Cost-effective strategies to address such linkages do exist.
• More integrated transport and land use – including the development of high capacity, dedicated busways and
pedestrian/cycle networks – have become central to policy in Latin American cities such as Bogotá and Curitiba, and similar
models are being examined/tested in other cities of Africa, the Americas and Asia.
• Reducing transport pollution emissions, and their health impacts, through the use of cleaner fuels and vehicle
technologies has been an issue addressed in the African context, and elsewhere.
Over Time
1. Over the next thirty years , most of the world’s population growth will occur in cities and towns of poor
countries. Even while population growth rates in Asia, for instance, are falling dramatically, the region will see an absolute
increase of nearly a billion people over the next three decades –growth concentrated mostly in urban areas. In Africa, the
urbanization process also is occurring apace. For example, in the United Republic of Tanzania, the population of Dar es
Salaam is doubling every 12 years.

2. Rapid, unplanned and unsustainable patterns of urban development are making developing cities focal points for many
emerging environment and health hazards. As urban populations grow, the quality of the urban environment, will play an
increasingly important role in public health with respect to issues ranging from solid waste disposal, provision of safe
water and sanitation, and injury prevention, to the interface between urban poverty, environment and health.

3. Unsustainable patterns of transport and urban land use are a driver, or root cause, of a number of significant, and
interrelated environment and health hazards faced by urban dwellers in developing countries. These health and
environment linkages cut across a range of policy sectors and thus are often overlooked in policymaking. They are a focus
of this Priority Risks section on the urban environment
Solutions To Population Growth - I
• Economic development implies an improvement in economic welfare through higher real GDP, but also through an
improvement in other economic indicators, such as improved literacy, better infrastructure, reduced poverty and improved
healthcare standards.
 WHY EXPORTING GOODS IS NOT A BETTER OPTION

• Talking about the negative impacts, economic growth resulting from trade expansion can have an obvious direct
impact on the environment by increasing pollution or degrading natural resources

• Export-led growth might be unsustainable if it contributes extraction of natural resources beyond what is required
for long term balanced growth to be maintained.

1. the impact of deforestation

2. over-fishing

3. degradation of land by industrial-scale farming

4. Common ownership of, and access to, a natural resource can lead to its overexploitation and eventual
exhaustion.

5. Free trade leads to a permanent reduction in its stock of natural resources.

 Examples
1. Trade in virtual water can have a negative impact on water conservation when the incentive structures are wrong.

1. For instance, Thailand experiences water shortages partly because too much water is used to irrigate rice crops for export.

2. In short, trade in virtual water can make it worse, rather than reduce, water scarcity problems unless exporting countries account
fully for the opportunity costs of fresh water use and address any potential negative environmental impacts.

3. A properly managed water sector is key to ensuring that virtual water trade maximizes the productivity of this scarce resource

2. Another example they cite is the opening of the Estonian coastal fishery to exporting in the 1990s, which contributed to the rapid
depletion of fish stocks.

1. The opening of western European fish markets for Estonian fish trade in the 1990s, with a relatively high price offered for
economically key species, which resulted in an increase of fishing export in the early 1990s.

2. Increasing cormorant and Gray seal populations have added additional pressure on the fish stocks in the area. The combined effects of
the factors mentioned caused a drastic and persisting drop both in stock size, resources and landings.

3. As a result, the income and social well-being of coastal communities in the region suffered substantially, generating acute social
problems such as high unemployment, decrease of coastal population, and impoverishing of structure and overall survival potential of
coastal communities and degradation of resources.
Factors that promote Economic Development

1. Policies to reduce poverty

2. Sufficient Government finances for welfare

payments

3. Reduction in waste and corruption

4. Reduction in Unemployment

5. Improved housing, sanitation, water and

power to poor communities
Solutions To Population Growth - II
• Family planning services are “the ability of individuals and couples to anticipate and attain their
desired number of children and the spacing and timing of their births.

• Family planning has been a major factor in reducing the number of births throughout most of the world. It
has also reduced the number of abortions performed each year and has decreased the numbers of mothers
and fetuses dying during pregnancy.

• Family planning may involve consideration of the number of children a woman wishes to have,
including the choice to have no children and the age at which she wishes to have them. These
matters are influenced by external factors such as marital situation, career considerations, and
financial position
Benefits

1. Improving maternal health and child survival. Helping women avoid becoming

pregnant too early, too late or too often benefits them and their children. This
reduce global rates of maternal mortality by 35%.
2. Reducing the number of abortions overall, especially unsafe abortion. 
3. Preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV/AIDS.
4. Empowering women. Women who can control the number and timing of their
children can take better advantage of educational and economic
opportunities, improving their own future and that of their families.
5. Promoting social and economic development and security. High population
growth hampers poor countries’ economic development as their expanding
populations compete for limited resources such as food, housing, schools and
jobs. Rapid and unsustainable population growth renders societies more
unstable and can lead to greater civil unrest.
6. Protecting the environment. Since so many women worldwide want fewer
children than their mothers did, increasing their access to voluntary family
planning services will further slow population growth rates. Rapidly growing
population exacerbates environmental degradation and strains the world’s
resources.
Solutions To Population Growth - III
• WOMEN EMPOWERMENT 
• “women’s empowerment” refers to the process of increasing
women’s access to control over the strategic life choices that
affect them and access to the opportunities that allow them
fully to realize their capacities.
• Types of Empowerment:
• It is evident from the above discussions that different authors
and organizations have tried to define the term ‘empowerment’
from their own perspectives. It ranges from self-strength to
efficiency building of women. However, empowerment of
women now can be categorized into five main parts – social,
educational, economic, political and psychological.
1. SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT:
• Social Empowerment refers to the enabling force that strengthens women’s social relations and their position in
social structures. Social empowerment addresses the social discriminations existing in the society based on disability,
race, ethnicity, religion, or gender.
2. EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT:
• Education is a milestone of women empowerment because it enables them to respond to challenges, to confront
their traditional role and change their life. ... Education helps a woman to understand her rights to equal treatment
like a man in the society of this nation.
3. ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT:
• Economic empowerment is the crying need of this hour. Through employment women earn money and it enables
women and girls to become ‘bread earners’, contributing members of households with a strong sense of their own
economic independence
4. POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT:
• Participation of women in the political field and in various decision-making bodies is an important tool for
empowerment. The participation of women at all levels of governance structures is the highest need of this hour for
women’s actual empowerment.
5. PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT:
• Through psychological empowerment women not only transgress the traditional and patriarchal taboos and social
obligations, they also transform their selves and subjectivities
Population and Economics - I

• The hypothesis of Population change is known as DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION, which was developed by DEMOGRAPHERS
back in 19th century in western European countries during Industrialization.
• Demographic transition is also a model used to represent the movement of high birth and death rates to low birth and
death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system. It works on the premise that
birth and death rates are connected to and correlate with stages of industrial development. The demographic transition
model is sometimes referred to as "DTM" and is based on historical data and trends.
• There are said to be 4 stages of DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION but some researchers include the 5th stage.
• But in general we talk about only 4 stages.
Population and Economics - II
• Stage 1
1. At stage 1 the birth and death rates are both high.
2. So the population remains low and stable.
3. Places in the Amazon, Brazil and rural communities of Bangladesh would be at this stage.
4. High death rates would be attributed to poor water supply, poor health care, a reliance upon subsistence farming,
disease and pests and an unreliable economy.
5. High birth rates would be attributed to a lack of knowledge of family planning, the need to have large families to
help with work, and the women’s traditional role as a mother in these societies.
• Stage 2
1. At this stage the death rate falls but the birth rate remains high.
2. Natural increase is greater so the population begins to grow rapidly.
3. An example of a country at this stage would be Sri Lanka or Peru.
4. The death rates often fall due to medical breakthroughs and new hospital services opening.
5. Improvements may have also been made to accommodation or food and water supply.
6. Birth rates remain high for religious or cultural purposes and people are still not educated to using contraception.
Population and Economics - III
• Stage 3
1. Birth rates now fall and death rates continue to fall.
2. Natural increase remains high and population growth is rapid.
3. An example of a country at this stage would be Chile or China.
4. The birth rates fall as there is better access to family planning and people have begun to appreciate the fact that
families are expensive and that women are able to work.
5. Death rates continue to fall as medical care, water supply and accommodation are improved.
• Stage 4
1. Birth rates and death rates level out.
2. The population now stabilizes as the natural increase is low.
3. An example of a country at this stage is Australia.
4. Birth rates are low as the society is advanced and therefore, women choose for careers and smaller families to
ensure that they have a better quality of life. Death rates remain low.
This is the graph which shows the demographic transition in terms of average life time births per woman in Bangladesh and
USA s
How does it effect us?
Consumerism
 A social and economic order
 Encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever increasing amounts
 Increased consumption is economically desirable

• Often the price of products does not reflect the real environmental or social cost of producing them.
 Sales growth = Planned obsolescence
 Most products end up thrown into waste/burned for energy

 Waste levels doubled over the past 30 years.

Visualizing Impact on Environment
 Increased reliance on automobiles=Increased consumption of fossil fuels and increased pollution
 Increased desire for wooden furnishing in homes=More trees chopped down.
 Shift of diet towards processed food=More use of water, raw materials and energy to prepare and
ship the processed food items

 
“First and foremost we need to reorient our way of thinking. The goal is to focus not so
much on sacrifice, but on how to provide a higher quality of life using the lowest
amount of raw materials.”
What can we do?
SUSTAINING HUMAN SOCIETIES
 Sustain – maintain, Ability-capacity
 To care about the life of all living organisms on earth (health and culture)
 To stop the activities which destroys the life of the human beings and also the environment.

 Reorganizing living conditions in the form of eco-villages, eco-municipalities, and sustainable cities

 Reappraising economic sectors (permaculture, green building, sustainable agriculture) or work

practices, such as sustainable architecture

 Developing new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy, etc.)

 Making adjustments in individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources

SUSTAINABILITY IN ENVIRONMENT:

• As we know all the people are curious to breathe fresh air and to consume natural resources without any
limitation. These dreams would explore when we create and also maintain the environment.

• When we go deep rooting in it, we can see many problems happening in the world both naturally and
anthropogenically.

• Environment is greatly contaminated than over exploitation because, we had

 Emission of GHG’s
 Toxic of industries
 Using underground source of energy. Eg: Petroleum, natural gas ,coal
 Creating products which does not have a complete cyclic process. Eg: Plastic products
ROLE OF HUMANS TO SUSTAIN THE ENVIRONMENT:

1. Reorganizing living conditions in the form of eco-villages, eco-municipalities, and sustainable cities
2. Reappraising economic sectors (permaculture, green building, sustainable agriculture) or work practices, such as
sustainable architecture
3. Developing new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy, etc.)
4. Making adjustments in individual lifestyles that conserve natural resources
Sustainability Starts with Education
How does sustainable development make economic sense
for the society?
Any sustainable development process will make economic sense in the medium and long term, provided that it:

 reduces the use of non-renewable resources (such as metals and oil) whose prices rise as they become increasingly rare;
 allows renewable resources to be used in perpetuity because they are used appropriately (forest and fishery products,
other biological resources, etc.);
 reduces the enormous costs of decontamination, clean-up and the restoration of environments disturbed by human
activity. Consider for example the economic and social costs of the recent crises in forestry and the cod fishing industry,
both being the result of dramatically unsustainable development.
It also makes economic sense for our society:

 to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life;

 to invest in training, education and quality health care;
 to reduce the consumption of junk food and encourage physical activity, thereby lowering health care costs;
 to make better use of our residual materials by turning them into new resources for our development, and by promoting
reuse, recovery and recycling in that order;
 to save water and maintain its quality, ensuring a safe supply and reducing treatment costs;
 to reduce consumption of energy. This has immediate financial impact because it lessens the need for new hydroelectric
plants and the massive costs that will come with climate change.

All of these measures contribute to sustainable development.

Conversely, there are terrible costs associated with the waste of resources, overconsumption, deterioration of the
environment, poverty, social inequality and the debts a society leaves to future generations. These costs are above all the
result of development situations that are not viable.
Thank You