Cities are growing

Urbanization is currently considered one of the most extreme human impacts on the Earth’s ecosystems. At global scale urban areas are growing faster than any other human-induced landscape change with a projected increase of 200% by the year 2030. This global process of land use transformation is associated with important environmental changes such as alteration of habitat structure, ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Its negative effects on biodiversity are particularly relevant with a perspective of aggravation in the near future. This situation yields an important trade-off for concealing urban development and biodiversity conservation.