NEW HAVEN, Conn., Aug. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say explosive growth of cities worldwide over the next two decades poses significant risks to both people and the global environment.
Researchers from four U.S. universities predict that by 2030 urban areas will expand by 590,000 square miles to accommodate an additional 1.47 billion more people living in urban areas.
"It is likely that these cities are going to be developed in places that are the most biologically diverse," said Karen Seto, study lead author and professor of urban environment at Yale University. "They're going to be growing and expanding into forests, biological hotspots, savannas, coastlines -- sensitive and vulnerable places."
And where most of the expansion will take place -- along coastlines --puts people at risk too, she said in a Yale release Friday.
"Of all the places for cities to grow, coasts are the most vulnerable. People and infrastructure are at risk to flooding, tsunamis, hurricanes and other environmental disasters."
The study by researchers from Yale, Arizona State, Texas A&M and Stanford provides the first estimate of how fast urban areas globally are growing and how fast they may grow in the future.
"We know a lot about global patterns of urban population growth, but we know significantly less about how urban areas are changing," she said.
"Changes in land cover associated with urbanization drive many environmental changes, from habitat loss and agricultural land conversion to changes in local and regional climate."
