Question

Why are cities not randomly located? What features (globally) do humans tend to build cities near to? What ecosystems do you think would be most heavily affected (globally) by urban development.

Answer 1

Cities seem to be located as close as possible to the sources of raw materials used by the city`s major industries and to the people who consume the products of the city. Cities are also located in places that maximize their abilities to generate a social surplus and to integrate their economic activities with the activities of the rest of society. Thus cities are not randomly located.

Urban populations interact with their environment. Urban people change their environment through their consumption of food, energy, water, and land. Increasing population and urbanisation causes pressure on natural resources and high demand for ecosystem services, which combined can lead to critical environmental degradation, such as water crisis, air pollution, microclimatic alteration and the collapse of natural resources.