Urbanization has led to greater exchange of ideas, a wider availability of goods and services from a greater number of merchants, crowded living quarters and higher prices for those homes (think New York City and the high rents), to name a few.  But those are just economic and cultural effects of growing cities.

There are environmental effects as well.  For instance, as people flock to cities more roads are built which increases the percentage of the city covered in concrete rather than grass.  This heats up the area causing cities to have higher temperature than the country.  This is illustrated in the graph below.

Source: Urban Heat-Island Profile, Texas Education Agency

Often as coastal areas are built up for tourism or housing, wetlands and other wildlife habitats are lost. In the following map, you can see how the wetlands around San Francisco were lost due to increasing urbanization.

Source: Coastal Wetlands and Sediments of the San Francisco Bay System, U.S. Geological Survey

About the photos: These images of the extreme South San Francisco Bay are two-color infrared (CIR) aerial photographs taken ten years apart; these photographs are used to examine changes in the water and on land:

• Vegetation appears in various shades of red and pink, depending mostly on the type and density of the vegetation.
• Note the changes that have occurred within the wetland areas next to the water as well as the increase in housing and commercial buildings.
• The photos can also be used to map the differences in agricultural practices.
• These photos taken several years apart can be used to map land-use changes and the distribution of features such as wetlands.

Reflection:

• What differences did you notice in the 10-year span in the South San Francisco Bay?
  
• What happened to vegetation in the area? What evidence supports your answer?
  
• Is there evidence of urbanization in this area over 10 years?
  
• Do you believe there are any environmental changes over the ten years?

Watch the first 6:16 minutes of this video to see the social, economic, and environmental effects of urbanization in Baltimore.