essay on urban pollution

Urban Areas and Air Pollution: Causes, Concerns, and Mitigation

• First Online: 02 December 2023

Cite this chapter

• Shivali Gupta 5 &
• Rakesh Kumar   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4139-300X 5  

422 Accesses

Urbanization has proven to be a catalyst for global economic growth. However, the concomitant progress in economic development has led to a degradation in air quality within urban settlements, primarily attributable to copious anthropogenic sources of pollutant emissions. Air pollution has numerous negative impacts on the well-being of humans and the environment. This includes the deleterious impacts on climate change as well as the emergence of serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This chapter, therefore, discusses urban air pollution, encompassing the causal factors, associated concerns, and various strategies employed to mitigate its adverse effects. These strategies involve regulatory, technological, and behavioural responses, which are imperative to effectively address the issue of air pollution. Therefore, the examination of the complex interplay between urbanization across varying stages of development and air pollution is integral in attaining ambient air quality targets with respect to upcoming economic advancement and sustainable progression.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime
• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Durable hardcover edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Urban Air Pollution

How can urban policies improve air quality and help mitigate global climate change: a systematic mapping review.

Urban Air Pollution and Health in Developing Countries

Agarwal, P., Sarkar, M., Chakraborty, B., & Banerjee, T. (2019). Phytoremediation of air pollutants. In Phytomanagement of polluted sites: Market opportunities in sustainable phytoremediation . Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-813912-7.00007-7

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Ahmad, S. S., Urooj, R., & Nawaz, M. (2015). Air pollution monitoring and prediction. In Current air quality issues . Intech.

Google Scholar  

Alissa, E. M., & Ferns, G. A. (2011). Heavy metal poisoning and cardiovascular disease. Journal of Toxicology, 2011 , 870125.

Article   Google Scholar  

Ashmore, M. (2013). Air Pollution., 1 , 136–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384719-5.00283-5

Banerjee, T., & Srivastava, R. K. (2011). Evaluation of environmental impacts of Integrated Industrial Estate-Pantnagar through application of air and water quality indices. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 172 (1–4), 547–560. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-010-1353-3

Banerjee, T., Murari, V., Kumar, M., & Raju, M. P. (2015). Source apportionment of airborne particulates through receptor modeling: Indian scenario. Atmospheric Research, 164–165 , 167–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2015.04.017

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Barwise, Y., & Kumar, P. (2020). Designing vegetation barriers for urban air pollution abatement: A practical review for appropriate plant species selection. Climate and Atmospheric Science, 3 (1), 12.

Beaulant, A. L., Perron, G., Kleinpeter, J., Weber, C., Ranchin, T., & Wald, L. (2008). Adding virtual measuring stations to a network for urban air pollution mapping. Environment International, 34 (5), 599–605.

Bechle, M. J. (2011). Effects of income and urban form on urban {NO}. Environmental Science & Technology, 45 (11), 4914–4919.

Bikis, A., & Pandey, D. (2021). Air quality at public transportation stations/stops: Contribution of light rail transit to reduce air pollution. Aerosol Science and Engineering, 6 , 1–16.

Bozyazi, E., Incecik, S., Mannaerts, C., & Brussel, M. (2000). Analysis and mapping of air pollution using a GIS approach: A case study of Istanbul. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 42 . https://doi.org/10.2495/AIR000431

Cariolet, J. M., Colombert, M., Vuillet, M., & Diab, Y. (2018). Assessing the resilience of urban areas to traffic-related air pollution: Application in Greater Paris. Science of the Total Environment, 615 , 588–596.

Chen, H., Deng, G., & Liu, Y. (2022). Monitoring the influence of industrialization and urbanization on spatiotemporal variations of AQI and PM2.5 in three provinces, China. Atmosphere, 13 (9). https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13091377

Cheng, W. C., Liu, C. H., & Leung, D. Y. (2009). On the correlation of air and pollutant exchange for street canyons in combined wind-buoyancy-driven flow. Atmospheric Environment, 43 (24), 3682–3690.

Cope, W. G., Leidy, R. B., & Hodgson, E. (2004). Classes of toxicants: Use classes. In A textbook of modern toxicology (pp. 49–74).

Eleni, D., Dessinioti, C., & Christina, V. A. (2014). Air pollution and the skin. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2 , 11.

Ferrante, M., Fiore, M., Copat, C., Morina, S., Ledda, C., Mauceri, C., & Conti, G. O. (2015). Air pollution in high-risk sites–Risk analysis and health impact. Current Air Quality Issues . 419–442. https://doi.org/10.5772/60345

Fino, A. (2018). Air quality legislation. In Encyclopedia of environmental health (2nd ed.). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11045-0

Fortoul-van der Goes, T., Rodriguez-Lara, V., Gonzalez-Villalva, A., Colin-Barenque, L., Rojas-Lemus, M., Bizarro-Nevares, P., et al. (2015). Health effects of metals in particulate matter. In Current air quality issues .

Ghosh, S., & Maji, T. (2011). An environmental assessment of urban drainage, sewage and solid waste management in Barddhaman municipality, West Bengal. International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 2 (1), 92–104. http://www.ipublishing.co.in/jesvol1no12010/volumetwo/EIJES3010.pdf

CAS   Google Scholar  

Glaeser, E. L., & Kahn, M. E. (2003). Handbook (2003) urban sprawl. In The handbook of regional and urban economics, IV (pp. 2481–2528).

Haque, M. S., & Singh, R. B. (2017). Air pollution and human health in Kolkata, India: A case study. Climate, 5 (4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli5040077

He, C., Morawska, L., Hitchins, J., & Gilbert, D. (2004). Contribution from indoor sources to particle number and mass concentrations in residential houses. Atmospheric Environment , 38 (21), 3405–3415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2004.03.027

Heal, M. R., Heaviside, C., Doherty, R. M., Vieno, M., Stevenson, D. S., & Vardoulakis, S. (2013). Health burdens of surface ozone in the UK for a range of future scenarios. Environment International, 61 , 36–44.

Ho, B. Q. (2012). Urban air pollution. In Air pollution monitoring, modelling and health (pp. 1–38). InTech.

Kamińska, I. A., Ołdak, A., & Turski, W. A. (2004). Geographical Information System (GIS) as a tool for monitoring and analysing pesticide pollution and its impact on public health. Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine, 11 (2), 181–184.

Komar, I., & Lalić, B. (2015). Sea transport air pollution. In Current air quality issues (pp. 165–202). InTech.

Kumar, B., & Singh, R. B. (2003). Urban development and anthropogenic climate change: Experience in Indian metropolitan cities . Manak Publication Pvt Ltd..

Kumar, M., Singh, R. K., Murari, V., Singh, A. K., Singh, R. S., & Banerjee, T. (2016). Fireworks induced particle pollution: A spatiotemporal analysis. Atmospheric Research, 180 (June), 78–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2016.05.014

Leung, D. Y. C. (2015). Outdoor-indoor air pollution in urban environment: Challenges and opportunity. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 2 (JAN), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2014.00069

Li, X. X., Liu, C. H., & Leung, D. Y. C. (2009). Numerical investigation of pollutant transport characteristics inside deep urban street canyons. Atmospheric Environment, 43 (15), 2410–2418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.02.022

Liang, L., & Gong, P. (2020). Urban and air pollution: A multicity study of long-term effects of urban landscape patterns on air quality trends. Scientific Reports, 10 (1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74524-9

Manisalidis, I., Stavropoulou, E., & Stavropoulos, A. (2020). Environmental and Health Impacts of Air Pollution: A Review., 8 (February), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00014

Martínez-Bravo, M., & Martínez-del-Río, J. (2019). Urban pollution and emission reduction. Sustainable Cities and Communities. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals , 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_30-1

Memon, R. A., Leung, D. Y., & Liu, C. H. (2009). An investigation of urban heat island intensity (UHII) as an indicator of urban heating. Atmospheric Research , 94 (3), 491–500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2009.07.006

Mhawish, A., Banerjee, T., Broday, D. M., Misra, A., & Tripathi, S. N. (2017). Evaluation of MODIS Collection 6 aerosol retrieval algorithms over Indo-Gangetic Plain: Implications of aerosols types and mass loading. Remote Sensing of Environment, 201 (March), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.09.016

Milner, J., Harpham, C., Taylor, J., Davies, M., Le Quéré, C., Haines, A., & Wilkinson, P. (2019). The challenge of urban heat exposure under climate change: An analysis of cities in the Sustainable Healthy Urban Environments (SHUE) database. Climate (Basel, Switzerland), 5 (4), 93.

Mitchell, D., Heaviside, C., Vardoulakis, S., Huntingford, C., & Masato, G. (2016). Attributing human mortality during extreme heat waves to anthropogenic climate change. Environmental Research Letters, 11 , 074006.

Mo, Z., Fu, Q., Lyu, D., Zhang, L., Qin, Z., Tang, Q., et al. (2019). Impacts of air pollution on dry eye disease among residents in Hangzhou, China: A case-crossover study. Environmental Pollution, 246 , 183–189.

Pandey, M., Singh, V., Vaishya, R. C., & Shukla, A. K. (2013). Analysis & application of GIS based air quality monitoring- state of art. International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology, 2 (12), 3788–3796.

Piracha, A., & Chaudhary, M. T. (2022). Urban air pollution, urban heat island and human health: A review of the literature. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14 (15). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159234

Ramanathan, V., & Carmichael, G. (2008). Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon. Nature Geoscience, 1 (4), 221–227. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo156

Rodríguez, M. C., Dupont-Courtade, L., & Oueslati, W. (2016). Air pollution and urban structure linkages: evidence from European cities. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 53 , 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.190

Rosário Filho, N. A., Urrutia-Pereira, M., d'Amato, G., Cecchi, L., Ansotegui, I. J., Galán, C., et al. (2021). Air pollution and indoor settings. World Allergy Organization Journal, 14 (1), 100499.

Salmond, J., Sabel, C. E., & Vardoulakis, S. (2018). Towards the integrated study of urban climate, air pollution, and public health. Climate, 6 (1), 14.

Shendell, D. G. (2019). Community outdoor air quality: Sources, exposure agents and health. In Encyclopedia of environmental health (Vol. 1, Issue April, 2nd ed.). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11824-X

Singh, R. B., Haque, S., & Grover, A. (1972). Drinking water, sanitation and health in kolkata metropolitan city: Contribution towards urban. Geography Environment Sustainability, 8 (4), 64–81.

Sofia, D., Gioiella, F., Lotrecchiano, N., & Giuliano, A. (2020). Mitigation strategies for reducing air pollution. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 27 (16), 19226–19235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08647-x

Sówka, I., Badura, M., Pawnuk, M., Szymański, P., & Batog, P. (2020). The use of the GIS tools in the analysis of air quality on the selected University campus in Poland. Archives of Environmental Protection, 46 (1), 100–106. https://doi.org/10.24425/aep.2020.132531

Strosnider, H., Kennedy, C., Monti, M., & Yip, F. (2017). Rural and urban differences in air quality, 2008-2012, and community drinking water quality, 2010-2015 - United States. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 66 (13), 2010–2015. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6613a1

Tecer, L. H., & Tagil, S. (2013). Spatial-temporal variations of sulfur dioxide concentration, source, and probability assessment using a GIS-based geostatistical approach. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 22 (November 2016), 1491–1498.

UNEP, UNICEF, & WHO. (2002). Children in the new millennium: Environmental impact on health . World Health Organization.

Ung, A., Wald, L., Ranchin, T., Groupe, T., De Paris, M., Antipolis, S., Weber, C., Hirsch, J., Image, L., & Pasteur, U. L. (2002). Satellite data for air pollution mapping over a city – Virtual stations . In Observing our environment from space - new solutions for a new millennium (pp. 147–151). CRC Press.

Vaddiraju, S. C. (2020). Mapping of air pollution using GIS: A case study of Hyderabad . June 2019 . https://doi.org/10.32622/ijrat.752019328

Vallero, D. (2014a). Air pollutant hazards. In Fundamentals of air pollution (pp. 197–214). https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-401733-7.00007-4

Vallero, D. (2014b). Air pollutant kinetics and equilibrium. In Fundamentals of air pollution (pp. 437–474).

Vallero, D. (2014c). Respiratory effects of air pollutants. In Fundamentals of air pollution (pp. 247–256).

Wang, Q. (2018). Urbanization and global health: The role of air pollution. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 47 (11), 1644–1652.

Wang, S., Gao, S., Li, S., & Feng, K. (2020). Strategizing the relation between urbanization and air pollution: Empirical evidence from global countries. Journal of Cleaner Production, 243 , 118615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118615

Wargocki, P., Wyon, D. P., Sundell, J., Clausen, G., & Fanger, O. (2000). The effects of outdoor air supply rate in an office on perceived air quality, sick building syndrome (SBS) symptoms and productivity. Indoor Air, 10 (4), 222–236. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0668.2000.010004222.x

Weisskopf, M. G., Kioumourtzoglou, M. A., & Roberts, A. L. (2015). Air pollution and autism spectrum disorders: Causal or confounded? Current Environmental Health Reports, 2 , 430–439.

Weyens, N., Thijs, S., Popek, R., Witters, N., & Przybysz, A. (2015). The role of plant – microbe interactions and their exploitation for phytoremediation of air pollutants (pp. 25576–25604). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms161025576

Book   Google Scholar  

WHO global air quality guidelines: Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide [Internet]. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Table 3.26, Recommended 2021 AQG levels and 2005 air quality guidelines. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574591/table/ch3.tab 26/

World Bank. (2022). https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/overview

Download references

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Jammu, JKUT, Jammu, India

Shivali Gupta & Rakesh Kumar

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Fayma Mushtaq

Majid Farooq

LeadsConnect Services Pvt Ltd, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Alok Bhushan Mukherjee

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

Mili Ghosh Nee Lala

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Gupta, S., Kumar, R. (2023). Urban Areas and Air Pollution: Causes, Concerns, and Mitigation. In: Mushtaq, F., Farooq, M., Mukherjee, A.B., Ghosh Nee Lala, M. (eds) Geospatial Analytics for Environmental Pollution Modeling. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45300-7_7

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45300-7_7

Published : 02 December 2023

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-45299-4

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-45300-7

eBook Packages : Earth and Environmental Science Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

A cloak of smog gives Fresno, California, a hazy look. Smog, a hybrid of the words "smoke" and "fog," is caused when sunlight reacts with airborne pollution, including ash, dust, and ground-level ozone.

Urban Threats

Urbanization spurs a unique set of issues to both humans and animals.

The promise of jobs and prosperity, among other factors, pulls people to cities. Half of the global population already lives in cities, and by 2050 two-thirds of the world's people are expected to live in urban areas. But in cities two of the most pressing problems facing the world today also come together: poverty and environmental degradation.

Poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption are exacerbated by the increasing population density and demands of urban environments. Strong city planning will be essential in managing these and other difficulties as the world's urban areas swell.

• Intensive urban growth can lead to greater poverty, with local governments unable to provide services for all people.
• Concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution with significant impact on human health.
• Automobile exhaust produces elevated lead levels in urban air.
• Large volumes of uncollected waste create multiple health hazards.
• Urban development can magnify the risk of environmental hazards such as flash flooding .
• Pollution and physical barriers to root growth promote loss of urban tree cover.
• Animal populations are inhibited by toxic substances, vehicles, and the loss of habitat and food sources.
• Combat poverty by promoting economic development and job creation.
• Involve local community in local government.
• Reduce air pollution by upgrading energy use and alternative transport systems.
• Create private-public partnerships to provide services such as waste disposal and housing.
• Plant trees and incorporate the care of city green spaces as a key element in urban planning.

Related Topics

• ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
• AIR POLLUTION
• URBAN PLANNING
• WASTE MANAGEMENT

You May Also Like

Indonesia's giant capital city is sinking. Can the government's plan save it?

‘Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet’

The City Solution

How Urban Parks Are Bringing Nature Close to Home

In Uganda, a unique urban experiment is under way

• Best of the World
• Environment
• Paid Content

History & Culture

• History & Culture
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

Talk to our experts

1800-120-456-456

• Pollution Due to Urbanisation Essay

Essay on Pollution Due to Urbanisation

Below, you will find an essay on pollution due to urbanisation (long) and also a short essay on pollution due to urbanisation. While urbanisation has its positives, it is imperative to look at every object according to its pros and cons. Here are two essays on pollution due to urbanisation of 400-500 words and 100-200 words, respectively. We will discuss the importance of urbanisation for countries, and how urbanisation is polluting the world.

Long Essay on Pollution Due to Urbanisation

Urbanisation is a great concept which is required to develop any country. It refers to the concept of urbanising remote areas by building infrastructure which then brings about development. Infrastructure refers to all the buildings and institutions which are necessary for economic development to take place in an area. For example, educational institutions like schools, colleges, vocational learning centres are part of the infrastructure. Healthcare facilities such as hospitals and clinics, employment opportunities, food security, etc. are also part of the infrastructure of a country.

It is seen very often that a big corporation sets up shop in a rural area, and around this, infrastructure is built, and development and urbanisation take place. Jamshedpur is an example of such a place, where Tata Industries set up shop many years ago and made the area highly developed. Thus, urbanisation definitely encourages the people of a place to have a better life by giving them more opportunities to achieve good life through education, jobs, etc.

On the other hand, it must be duly noted that urbanisation is one of the leading causes of pollution in today’s world. There are several different kinds of pollution, such as air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution and noise pollution. The facets of urbanisation contribute to each one of these types of pollution in one way or another. Factories and mines contribute to air pollution through the fumes that each of them emits into the air. The damage done to the water and soil around factories because of their flowing septic is harmful to both humans as well as aquatic life. Additionally, the noises that come from mines, the whirring of machinery in factories, etc. contribute to noise pollution.

Additionally, it is not only big industries that contribute to pollution due to urbanisation. Part of urbanisation is also the development of roads, which means more cars, buses, two-wheelers, three-wheelers, trucks, etc. on the road. These all contribute to noise pollution because of the incessant honking, and also to air pollution, because of the fumes that all motor vehicles emit. Even when we are stuck in traffic in an auto, it becomes difficult to breathe because of the fumes which surround us on the roads. If we are finding it difficult to breathe, imagine what so many fumes are doing to our planet.

Short Essay on Pollution Due to Urbanisation

150 Words Paragraph On Pollution Due to Urbanisation

Pollution takes place when air, water or soil becomes contaminated with unwanted substances. Air pollution takes place because of the fumes of factories and motor vehicles on th e road. Soil pollution and water pollution take place due to the septic waste being released into soil or water that surrounds a factory. Even oil spills are a major reason for water pollution, and all kinds of pollution can be very dangerous for living beings. Another type of pollution is noise pollution, which comes from the honking of cars, loud sounds in factories, the passing of aeroplanes and trains, etc.

Urbanisation is a result of the need to achieve economic development. It refers to when a relatively rural or remote area is made more urban by constructing roads, hospitals, schools, offices, etc. In this way, development is a result of urbanisation, which is extremely good for all countries.

However, all the great factors that urbanisation brings in, such as factories to work in, motor vehicles to drive, and so much more, all of these contribute to pollution more and more. Even though urbanisation is very important for a country, it is important to address all the kinds of pollution

Pollution is one of the most pressing concerns confronting our civilization today. When their environment deteriorates on a daily basis, humans face major challenges. The mixing of any toxic element or contaminants in our natural environment is referred to as pollution. Many contaminants are introduced into the natural environment as a result of human activities, contaminating it too dangerous proportions. Pollution is caused by a variety of factors, one of which is urbanisation.

The negative aspect of urbanisation is the manufacturers, which emit a great deal of pollution. Their equipment emits smoke into the environment, pollutes water streams and the surrounding land, and makes a lot of noise. As a result, there is a lot of pollution as a result of urbanisation, and it is extremely destructive to the environment when it first begins.

The majority of the pollution in our environment is due to urbanisation. It's because factories are springing up all over the place, there are a lot more cars on the road now, and so on.

Pollution Due to Urbanisation

Our mother planet is choking, and we are unable to do anything about it. Today, we confront several issues, one of which is pollution. Pollution occurs when a contaminating substance is introduced into our environment and pollutes our natural resources. There are numerous causes of pollution, most of which are caused by humans. Natural resources and habitats have been depleted as a result of our activities.

Urbanisation is one of the primary causes of human pollution. Pollution levels began to rise when humans began to construct cities and industrialization developed. Human needs continue to expand, and we loot our mother planet to meet them. As a result of development, many beautiful valleys, mountains, hilltop stations, and woods have become pollution carriers. Trees have been felled, rivers and lakes have been poisoned, and natural reserves have been exploited.

As a result, we now live in severely polluted cities where daily life has become increasingly challenging. As a result of urban pollution, we are experiencing a variety of health issues, the worst part of which is that we are fully unconscious of it. It is past time for us to take steps to reduce pollution and make the world a better place for future generations.

Urbanisation is a really great step forward for any country, and it is and should be the main aim of all countries. All people around the world should have access to proper healthcare, education, sanitation, nourishment and safety, and urbanisation is how we can help achieve this goal. However, in the process of meeting this goal, we cannot forget that pollution due to urbanisation does take place, and is very dangerous for the planet and, therefore, all species living on earth in the long run.

FAQs on Pollution Due to Urbanisation Essay

1. What are the pros and cons of urbanisation according to the essay on pollution due to urbanisation?

The essay on pollution due to urbanisation says that urbanisation is good and is vital for a country, but can also be harmful for the environment. Urbanisation brings in better education, better healthcare facilities, better roads, and better infrastructure in general. However, it improves the lifestyles of human beings at the cost of hurting the environment by putting more contaminants into air, water and soil in the form of toxic fumes and septic waste. Thus, urbanisation is important, but it has to be brought about in a more sustainable manner.

2. How can we reduce pollution due to urbanisation?

At the individual level, there are some very simple ways to reduce pollution due to urbanisation. To reduce air pollution, we can choose to walk, carpool, or use public transport instead of taking a taxi. Garbage should not be thrown on roads and in water bodies, in order for us to stop soil and water pollution. We should also not honk on roads unnecessarily, to curb noise pollution. Unless the big companies and industries do not decide to take a stand and do what’s good for the environment, we will have to keep relying only on individual measures.

3. What are the different types of pollution and their causes?

Pollution in Cities: Types and Causes

Air Pollution: The air in metropolitan places is constantly polluted with harmful compounds, making breathing increasingly dangerous. The air in cities is suffocating. The air is polluted by smoke from autos, factories, and power plants. There are also other contaminants in the air, such as chemical spills and other harmful substances.

Water Pollution: Natural water supplies are becoming increasingly scarce in metropolitan areas, and those that do exist are becoming progressively contaminated. There is a lot of waste dumping in lakes and rivers, such as residential and industrial waste. A lot of trash is washed into the rivers when it rains.

Soil Pollution: Toxic mixtures in the soil are causing ecosystem disruption.

Noise Pollution: Cities are among the noisiest places on the planet. Noise pollution is caused by a variety of sources, including traffic noises, loudspeakers, and other undesirable noises, which cause a variety of health problems.

Radioactive Pollution:   Nuclear power facilities' unintentional leaks represent a serious concern.

Visual Pollution: Signs, billboards, screens, high-intensity lights, and other forms of overexposure to sights in cities can also be highly unsettling.

There is also ' Thermal pollution ,' which is created by an excess of heat trapped in the earth's atmosphere.

4. How can pollution due to urbanisation be controlled?

One can implement the following methods to reduce pollution caused by urbanisation: 

Conserve Energy: People in urban areas always use more energy than people in rural areas. The use of energy results in numerous types of pollution. One of the most effective strategies to reduce pollution is to conserve energy wherever possible. When you are not using an electrical appliance, turn it off. This tiny step can make a tremendous difference.

Reduce water waste: We waste a lot of water on a daily basis, which might have negative implications. We must make every effort to utilize as little water as possible.

Plant more trees: Urban areas are the ones with the least amount of greenery. It's a good idea to have a kitchen garden and a little lawn near your house.

Green belts: The government can assist by declaring specific sections in each city as green belts, allowing trees and other plants to flourish freely.

Use fewer loudspeakers: Using fewer loudspeakers can significantly minimise noise pollution. It's also a good idea to turn down the music level at functions after a specific amount of time has passed.

Indoors: In cities, home interiors are likewise heavily contaminated. We must also have some plants inside our homes to filter the polluted indoor air.

Industrial trash: Factory owners must make every effort to avoid dumping industrial waste in lakes or rivers. The government can also enact legislation in this regard.

5.  What problems are caused due to Urbanization?

The necessity for open space to develop roads, buildings, and bridges, among other things, resulted in widespread deforestation. To accommodate the ever-increasing population, trees were cut down, fields were cleared, and built new space. It goes without saying that tree cutting is a major source of pollution. The high population density resulted in a scarcity of everything, including space and natural resources such as water and coal.

A number of serious challenges have arisen as a result of the interaction of the urban population with the environment. The spending habits and lifestyles of the urban people had a significant impact on the environment. Consumption of food, energy, and water is all higher in cities. Cities have much more filthy air than rural areas. This is mainly due to the increased use of automobiles and the expansion of industries and factories that pollute the air.  We utilise electricity to power almost all of our equipment.

6. What is urbanisation, and how is it caused?

The population shift from rural to urban regions, the resulting decline in the number of people living in rural areas, and the methods in which societies adjust to this transition are all referred to as urbanisation. It is basically the process by which towns and cities evolve and grow as more people choose to live and work in central locations.

Individual, community and state activity result in either organic or planned urbanisation. Living in a city can be culturally and economically advantageous since it can provide more options for access to the labour market, better education, housing, and safety conditions, as well as lower commute and transit time and costs. A healthy urban environment is characterised by density, proximity, diversity, and marketplace rivalry. However, there are also negative social consequences associated with urban living, such as alienation, stress, higher living costs, and mass marginalisation. Suburbanization, which is occurring in the greatest developing countries' cities, can be seen as an attempt to balance these negative aspects of city living while still giving access to a huge number of shared resources.

7. What is the Impact of Urbanisation in Indian Cities?

The following are the main effects of urbanisation on environmental quality in Indian cities:

According to the entire slum population in India in 1991, 41 per cent of the overall slum population lived in cities with populations of one million or more, which account for 27 percent of the country's total population.

According to the current situation of municipal solid trash creation and collection situation in Indian metropolitan cities, Maharashtra creates the most municipal solid garbage (11,000 tonnes per day), followed by Delhi (8700 tonnes per day) in 2019, both of which are expected to rise in the near future.

In India and other Metropolitan Cities, the number of automobiles on the road is increasing.

In India and other metropolitan cities, the number of automobiles on the road has increased. The usage of vehicles has increased by 10% or more on average, posing a significant threat to air pollution.

Water resources are dwindling day by day as a result of rising population, wasteful usage, and a lack of conservation. Huge amounts of wastewater enter rivers as cities and industries grow, contaminating river streams that are used for drinking and other reasons.

Essay on Pollution for Students and Children

500+ words essay on pollution.

Pollution is a term which even kids are aware of these days. It has become so common that almost everyone acknowledges the fact that pollution is rising continuously. The term ‘pollution’ means the manifestation of any unsolicited foreign substance in something. When we talk about pollution on earth, we refer to the contamination that is happening of the natural resources by various pollutants . All this is mainly caused by human activities which harm the environment in ways more than one. Therefore, an urgent need has arisen to tackle this issue straightaway. That is to say, pollution is damaging our earth severely and we need to realize its effects and prevent this damage. In this essay on pollution, we will see what are the effects of pollution and how to reduce it.

Effects of Pollution

Pollution affects the quality of life more than one can imagine. It works in mysterious ways, sometimes which cannot be seen by the naked eye. However, it is very much present in the environment. For instance, you might not be able to see the natural gases present in the air, but they are still there. Similarly, the pollutants which are messing up the air and increasing the levels of carbon dioxide is very dangerous for humans. Increased level of carbon dioxide will lead to global warming .

Further, the water is polluted in the name of industrial development, religious practices and more will cause a shortage of drinking water. Without water, human life is not possible. Moreover, the way waste is dumped on the land eventually ends up in the soil and turns toxic. If land pollution keeps on happening at this rate, we won’t have fertile soil to grow our crops on. Therefore, serious measures must be taken to reduce pollution to the core.

Get English Important Questions here

Types of Pollution

• Air Pollution
• Water Pollution
• Soil Pollution

How to Reduce Pollution?

After learning the harmful effects of pollution, one must get on the task of preventing or reducing pollution as soon as possible. To reduce air pollution, people should take public transport or carpool to reduce vehicular smoke. While it may be hard, avoiding firecrackers at festivals and celebrations can also cut down on air and noise pollution. Above all, we must adopt the habit of recycling. All the used plastic ends up in the oceans and land, which pollutes them.

So, remember to not dispose of them off after use, rather reuse them as long as you can. We must also encourage everyone to plant more trees which will absorb the harmful gases and make the air cleaner. When talking on a bigger level, the government must limit the usage of fertilizers to maintain the soil’s fertility. In addition, industries must be banned from dumping their waste into oceans and rivers, causing water pollution.

To sum it up, all types of pollution is hazardous and comes with grave consequences. Everyone must take a step towards change ranging from individuals to the industries. As tackling this problem calls for a joint effort, so we must join hands now. Moreover, the innocent lives of animals are being lost because of such human activities. So, all of us must take a stand and become a voice for the unheard in order to make this earth pollution-free.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

FAQs on Pollution

Q.1 What are the effects of pollution?

A.1 Pollution essentially affects the quality of human life. It degrades almost everything from the water we drink to the air we breathe. It damages the natural resources needed for a healthy life.

Q.2 How can one reduce pollution?

A.2 We must take individual steps to reduce pollution. People should decompose their waster mindfully, they should plant more trees. Further, one must always recycle what they can and make the earth greener.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

• Skip to main content
• Skip to secondary menu
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer

A Plus Topper

Improve your Grades

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanisation for Students and Children in English

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanisation: Pollution is a problem that has become more and more pressing over the last few decades. There are different kinds of pollution, which are air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, and soil pollution, all of which are incredibly harmful to the environment. These refer to contamination of the air by fumes or unwanted noise, contamination of water bodies and that of land, respectively. It is needless to say that these are rigid examples of pollution due to urbanisation.

You can read more  Essay Writing  about articles, events, people, sports, technology many more.

Long and Short Essays on Pollution due to Urbanisation for Children and Kids in English

Read below to find two essays about pollution due to urbanisation. The first essay is a long essay of 500 words, and the second is a short essay of 200 words. The former is suitable for class 7-10 students as well as for those aspiring for competitive exams. The latter essay is ideal for kids of class 6 and below.

Long Essay on Pollution due to Urbanisation 500 words in English

Long Essay on Pollution due to Urbanisation in English for classes 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Competitive Exam Aspirants

Below we have given a long essay about pollution due to urbanisation 500 words and is suitable for students of class 7 to 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants.

Pollution has been a long-standing problem in our world for a few decades now. It is something that poses harm to the environment, and also to us humans as a result of that. Pollution refers to when there are contaminants that pose harm to the environment, and there are four main types of it. Air pollution refers to the harmful and toxic fumes in the air produced by vehicles, factories, smoking, etc. Water pollution refers to the contamination of water bodies by toxic substances, plastic, oil spills, etc. Soil or land pollution refers to the wastage we leave on the land, and also toxic substances that seep into the soil and ruin its fertility. Noise pollution refers to unwanted and unpleasant noises; all the types of pollution are incredibly detrimental to the planet.

Urbanisation refers to the concept of rural towns and villages developing into urbanised towns and cities. Urban localities are characterised by having good infrastructure and prevalence of industry, both of which are almost undoubtedly linked to each other. A lot of venture capitalists and multinational corporations select smaller, rural towns to start manufacturing businesses because the factors of production most often come cheaper there. This means that the rent is lower, labour costs less, etc. thus, it makes for a convenient place to open up good-manufacturing factories there.  Urbanization has demerits more than merits.

When a factory opens in a rural area, it paves the way for the people living in and around the area to avail employment there. Since there will be many raw material trucks coming in and goods trucks leaving from the factory site, there is a requirement for paved roads. More and more facilities and infrastructure come up around the lands surrounding the factory, resulting in the development of the area. This process is called urbanisation, and it is important to know about so you can understand how pollution due to urbanisation takes place.

Where there is a factory, while a lot of infrastructure and development follows it, there is also a lot of waste produced there. Many factories may not follow the correct procedure for the disposal of waste, which can be dangerous as factory waste can sometimes be toxic. This toxic waste seeps into neighbouring soil, close-by water bodies, and poisonous fumes from the factories into the air. Aside from these forms of pollution, factories can also be noisy due to the machinery used inside. Thus it causes all four types of pollution. In this way, industries produce air, water, noise, and soil pollution due to urbanisation.

While pollution on its own is a pressing problem for our world, pollution due to urbanisation is a huge problem. Adding to that, it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem as urbanisation is taking over even the smallest areas. Yes, development is something to applaud, but not when it goes to the extent of causing harm to or destroying the environment.

Short Essay on Pollution due to Urbanisation 200 words in English

Short Essay on Pollution due to Urbanisation in English for Classes 6 and Below

Below we have given a short essay about pollution due to urbanisation of 200 words. This long essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 6 and below.

Pollution is a severe problem in today’s world. There are four kinds of pollution (air, water, soil and noise pollution) and they are all dangerous. When there are unwanted objects, smells or anything like that in the air, water, or soil, they are called pollutants. Some examples of pollutants are plastic in oceans, smoke in the air from vehicles, etc.

When industries decide to make factories in rural areas like villages and small towns, they also build good roads and other proper buildings around the factory. This is so that people can do work in factories with ease. When industries do this, it is called urbanisation. Many small towns have become big centres of development and factory work.

The bad part about urbanisation is that the factories which create a lot of pollutants. They release smoke into the air, harmful waste into water streams and surrounding land, and also make a lot of noise because of their machines. Thus there is a lot of pollution due to urbanisation, and it is very harmful to the environment when urbanisation starts.

Urbanisation is the cause of most of the pollution that there is our environment. It is because factories are everywhere, there are many more vehicles on the roads now, etc.

10 Lines on Pollution due to Urbanisation Essay in English

• Pollution refers to when any of our surroundings have contaminants, toxins, pollutants and harmful substances.
• There are four types of pollution, namely, air, water, soil, and noise pollution, which you find in those places, respectively.
• Air pollution refers to when there are contaminants such as smoke, smells, fumes from vehicles, etc. in the air, which may even make it hard for us to breathe.
• Water pollution refers to when there are unwanted substances in Earth’s water bodies, such as plastic, toxic chemicals from industries, oil from oil spills, etc. This is harmful to aquatic life, and also for the other life, including humans’ who drink this water.
• Soil pollution refers to when toxins seep into the land or soil because of factory waste, untreated garbage and sewage, etc.
• Noise pollution refers to when there are unwanted and disturbing noises, such as the sound of blaring horns in traffic, the loud whirring of machinery, etc.
• Urbanisation brings infrastructure and employment opportunities, among various other forms of development.
• Factories and industries do more harm to the environment than good for the people.
• Factories let untreated waste into water streams and surrounding land sometimes, which causes soil and water pollution due to urbanisation. They also release toxic fumes into the air and jarring noises due to the heavy machinery, which is also pollution.
• While development is a good thing as it brings in opportunities for thousands of people, it is not worth it if it causes uncontrollable levels of pollution which are highly detrimental to the environment.

FAQ’s on Pollution due to Urbanisation Essay

Question 1. What does it mean by urbanisation?

Answer: Urbanisation refers to the concept of a rural area becoming developed as factories, good roads, good schools, etc. are built there. An urban or urbanised city is one where there are great infrastructure and sizeable employment opportunities.

Question 2. What does it mean by pollution?

Answer: Pollution refers to the presence of toxic substances or pollutants in the environment, such as in the air, water, and soil. When harmful substances get into the air, water, or land, it means that they are polluted.

Question 3. What are the four main types of pollution in simple words?

Answer: The four main types of pollution are air, water, soil and land pollution – when there are intoxicants in the air, water, or soil, we name them as such, respectively.

Question 4. How is pollution linked to the concept of urbanisation?

Answer: With urbanisation, polluting factories come up, more fuming vehicles are on the road and other similar situations. Thus, pollution due to urbanisation is a sad but truthful reality.

• Picture Dictionary
• English Speech
• English Slogans
• English Letter Writing
• English Essay Writing
• English Textbook Answers
• Types of Certificates
• ICSE Solutions
• Selina ICSE Solutions
• ML Aggarwal Solutions
• HSSLive Plus One
• HSSLive Plus Two
• Kerala SSLC
• Distance Education

Essay on Pollution in Cities

Students are often asked to write an essay on Pollution in Cities in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Pollution in Cities

Introduction.

Pollution in cities is a major concern worldwide. It affects our health and environment, making city life challenging.

Types of Pollution

Cities face various types of pollution like air, water, noise, and land. Cars, factories, and waste contribute to this problem.

Effects of Pollution

Pollution harms our health, causing diseases like asthma. It also affects plants, animals, and our climate.

We can reduce pollution by using public transport, recycling, and planting trees. Governments should also enforce strict pollution control laws.

250 Words Essay on Pollution in Cities

Pollution in cities has emerged as a significant concern, causing detrimental effects on both human health and the environment. Rapid urbanization, industrialization, and overpopulation have exacerbated the issue, making it a pressing challenge for the modern world.

The Root Causes

The primary sources of urban pollution consist of vehicular emissions, industrial waste, and improper waste disposal. The rising number of vehicles in cities contributes significantly to air pollution, releasing harmful gases such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Industrial units, on the other hand, discharge toxic effluents into water bodies, causing water pollution. In addition, the lack of effective waste management systems results in the accumulation of solid waste, leading to soil pollution.

Health and Environmental Impacts

The adverse health effects of urban pollution are alarming. Exposure to polluted air can lead to respiratory disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and even cancer. Water pollution, meanwhile, can cause waterborne diseases and disrupt aquatic ecosystems. Soil pollution affects agricultural productivity and can lead to food contamination.

In conclusion, pollution in cities is a multifaceted issue that requires comprehensive strategies for mitigation. This includes promoting sustainable transportation, implementing stringent regulations on industrial waste, and improving waste management systems. Collective efforts from governments, industries, and individuals are crucial to combat this urban menace and ensure a healthier and safer environment for future generations.

500 Words Essay on Pollution in Cities

Urban pollution is a critical issue that has been escalating at an alarming rate. Cities, being the epicenters of human civilization, industrialization, and modernization, are grappling with numerous pollution-related challenges. The severity of pollution in cities is a result of various factors, including rapid urbanization, increased industrial activities, and population growth.

The Nature of Urban Pollution

Water pollution in cities is often due to the improper disposal of industrial waste into water bodies, leading to their contamination. This pollution not only affects aquatic life but also poses a significant risk to human health when contaminated water is used for consumption or irrigation. Land pollution, on the other hand, is mainly due to improper waste management, leading to the accumulation of solid waste, which can contaminate the soil and groundwater.

The Impact of Urban Pollution

The impacts of pollution in cities are far-reaching and multifaceted. On a health level, exposure to pollutants can lead to a myriad of diseases and health complications, ranging from respiratory problems to cardiovascular diseases. Economically, pollution can lead to decreased productivity due to health-related work absences and increased healthcare costs.

Addressing Urban Pollution

Addressing urban pollution necessitates a multi-pronged approach. Regulatory measures, such as enforcing strict emission standards for industries and vehicles, can help reduce air pollution. Improved waste management systems can help mitigate land pollution, while stricter regulations on waste disposal can help curb water pollution.

Public awareness and education are also crucial in combatting urban pollution. People need to understand the impacts of their actions on the environment and be encouraged to adopt greener lifestyles. Technological innovations, such as renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, and sustainable waste management solutions, can also play a vital role in mitigating urban pollution.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in English

Table of Contents

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization: Pollution is one of the biggest issues that we as a society face today. The everyday deteriorating environment is a big challenge for humans. The mixing of any harmful substance or pollutants in our natural environment is called pollution. It is due to human activity, many contaminators get introduced into the natural environment thereby polluting it to harmful levels. There are many reasons why pollution occurs and one of the major one is urbanization.

Fill Out the Form for Expert Academic Guidance!

Please indicate your interest Live Classes Books Test Series Self Learning

Verify OTP Code (required)

I agree to the terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Fill complete details

Target Exam ---

Long and Short Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in English

In this section we have tried to cover all aspects of pollution due to urbanization in varying lengths to help you with the same in your exam. You can select any Pollution due to Urbanization essay as per your need:

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization – Essay 1 (200 words)

Our mother earth is choking and we are helpless. We face many challenges today and one of them is pollution. When any contaminating substance is added in our environment and pollutes our natural resources called pollution. There are many reasons of pollution and human beings are responsible for most of it. Our activities have depleted our natural resources and our natural habitat.

One of the main reasons of human pollution is urbanization. When human being started establishing cities and industrialization happened than the level of pollution started increasing. The harsh reality of urbanization is that many beautiful valleys, mountains, hills stations and forests have been converted into vessels of pollution. The needs of human beings kept on increasing day by day and to satisfy those needs we exploited our mother earth. Trees were cut down, rivers and lakes were contaminated and natural reserves were misused.

Best Health Slogan

The result today is that we live in highly polluted cities where day to day life is becoming increasingly tuff. We face many health issues due to this urban pollution and the worst part is that we do not even realize that. It is high time that we must now adopt ways to curb this pollution and create a better world for our future generations.

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in India – Essay 2 (300 words)

Introduction

The days are gone when kids would roam freely on streets and birds would fly in the sky. Such a nice scene has been very rare to see, nowadays. We should blame ourselves only! India was a land of villages; our culture arose from villages only. But than we did something so bad that we are paying the price of it even today. We have replaced the major part of earth with factories, mills and building causing pollution .

There are Various Levels at which Urban Pollution is happening like:

Types and Causes of Urban Pollution

• Air Pollution: The air in the urban areas is always polluted with harmful substances and it is becoming hazardous day by day to breathe. The air in the cities is choking. The smoke from automobiles, factories and power generators make the air unhealthy. There are other factors also like chemical spills and other toxic gases that contaminate the air.
• Water Pollution: As it is there are very less natural water sources in the urban areas and the ones that are there are getting increasingly polluted. There is a lot of disposal in the lakes and rivers like household & industrial disposal. A lot of waste gets mixed with rain and washed into the waters .
• Soil Pollution: The mixing of toxins in the soil is disturbing the eco-system.
• Noise Pollution: Urban areas are one of the noisiest ones. Various sources of noise pollution include traffic noises, loud-speakers and other unwanted noises cause many health issues .
• Radioactive Pollution: The accidental leakage by nuclear power plants poses a big threat.
• Visual Pollution: The over exposure of visuals in the cities in the form of signs, billboards, screens, high intensity lights etc. are also quite disturbing .
• Other than these there is also ‘Thermal pollution’ that is caused by excessive amount of heat trapped in earth’s atmosphere.

Conclusion:

The various means of pollution in urban areas can lead to many health issues in the people living in cities. We are everyday exposed to more than one of these health issues sources.

Essay about Problems Due To Urbanization – Essay 3 (400 words)

We achieved a big step when we urbanized our villages but it came with a price. We surely have a luxurious and a comfortable life in the modern day cities and towns but it has dent a big hole in the health of our environment. It has brought with it many problems that we face. The developing cities saw a rapid growth and this urbanization brought with it a web of difficulties and we seem to be stuck in them.

Problems Due to Urbanization

The need of free space to build roads, buildings and bridges etc made a massive deforestation happen. The trees were cut down, the fields were cleared and space was created to accommodate the ever rising population. It is a no-brainer that cutting of trees is a major reason of pollution. The high density of population created a lack of everything like space, natural resources like water, coal etc.

The interaction of urban population with environment caused some serious problems. The consumption patterns and the lifestyle of urban population changed the environment massively. The urban population consumes more food, energy and water. The air in urban areas is much more polluted than the rural ones. This is mainly because of the use of automobiles and building up of industries and factories that pollute the air at an increasing rate. Almost everything that we use works on electricity. The need for electricity in the cities is always rising and to meet that more power plants are build and that pollutes the air.

The lakes, rivers and any other water bodies in urban areas is always polluted by the dump of industrial waste and sewage. The marine life faces a lot of danger. We cannot ignore that noise pollution is one of the major causes of stress related issues in urban population. More and more trees are cut down to meet the needs of urban people and in exchange very less tress are planted. The use of plastic is another major reason of degradation of environment .

Studies show that urbanization is one of the major causes of depleting natural resources. We are constantly damaging our mother earth and the result is high pollution levels in the cities and towns. It is not possible to reverse the damage that we have already done but we can surely take some preventive measures and control the further damage. It is high time that we take some serious steps to save our planet and leave a better tomorrow .

Essay on Pollution Caused by Urbanization and Its Solutions – Essay 4 (500 words)

The advancement of technology and industrialization has caused the rapid growth in our lifestyle. Long back we started developing cities that are well equipped with all the facilities. The process of urbanization created a big dent in the health of our environment. The natural resources were depleted and this excessive use of technology and energy became a major source of pollution and today we live in a world that is highly polluted and unfit living .

Pollution Caused by Urbanization

There are various pollution that are caused by urbanization like air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, thermal pollution, global warming, deforestation etc. It is high time that now we must adopt ways and means by which we can improve the health of the environment.

There is a Number of Solutions that we can apply and create a Better Tomorrow.

Solutions and Prevention of Urban Pollution

• Conserve Energy: The urban area’s people always use more energy than the rural area’s people. The consumption of energy causes various kinds of pollution. Saving energy wherever possible is one of the best ways to curb pollution. Turn off the electrical appliances when they are not being used. This small step can help in a big way.
• Use less water: We waste a lot of water daily and this can lead to bad consequences. We must try and use as less water as possible .
• Plant more trees: The urban areas are the ones that have less greeneries. Try to plant many trees and vegetation as much as possible in your surrounding areas. Kitchen garden and small lawn near home is a good idea .
• Green belts: Government can help and declare some areas in every city as green belts so that trees and other plants can be grown there without any obstruction .
• Use less loudspeakers: The minimum use of loud speakers can reduce the noise pollution a lot. Decreasing the volume of music at functions after a certain time is also a good move.
• Indoors: The indoors of the homes are also highly polluted in cities. We must have some plants inside the homes also, that can filter the indoor polluted air.
• Industrial waste: The factory owners must try and make possible that industrial waste is not dumped in the lakes or rivers. Government can also make laws for the same.
• Say no to plastic: Plastic is one of the most harmful substances that can pollute air, water and soil all together. We must try and minimize the use of plastic as much as possible. Use just cloth bags instead of plastic.
• Use Public transport: Avoid using cars and bikes for daily use. Try to use public transport, bicycle and car pools. This will not only curb air pollution but will also decrease the traffic on roads.
• Walk: Try to go to nearby areas on foot i.e. walking, this will reduce pollution and will also improve your health .
• Better garbage disposal: Use the structural methods of garbage disposal in cities.

A small step can help in a big way and contribution of every citizen will make the urban areas more livable. Following these simple steps and with a little help from the government, we can definitely reduce the city pollution a lot. If we do not wake up today and do not realize the worst condition of natural resources then after some time our future generations will not be able to survive, It’s far to enjoy the environment .

Essay on Pollution Due To Urbanization and Digital India – Essay 5 (600 words)

In order to create a better tomorrow we have created a difficult toady. We have urbanized our villages and made them into hi-tech cities that have all the modern facilities and everyday we are creating something or the other new. Today we all dream of a digital India. In a country every citizen uses technology for his/her betterment. We aim to create a world where everything is just a button push away. Everyday more and more Indians are using technology for making their day to day life easy. Today we have become the slaves of technology and cannot live without technology even for a minute. We need to be connected all the time. Even our government is trying to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.

Digital India and Environmental Importance

We see a smart phone in the hands of everybody even a labor of these days. Everybody understands the power and the reach of the internet. We no more call, now video call our loved ones. Any information can reach to any corner of the world in seconds now. We cannot ignore the power of digitalization. But what is the important question here is that can digitization of the digital movement be ‘environmental substantial’. We must ask this question to the founding fathers of digital India; can they assure that through this digitization our precious environment will not be harmed? Is it possible to move forward with modernization without harming the natural resources and without disturbing the ecological balance?

The digital revolution is such thing which touches every aspect of our life as it connects us to the rest of the world all the time. We all know that the digital appliances have carbon emissions and that has harmful effects on our eco system. We are also aware that these appliances emit radiations that are very harmful for humans. It is also advised not to keep mobile phones very near to your head or heart at night.

So in short, these digital devices are more harmful than helpful. We are also consuming power at a rapid speed and soon all the power will be exhausted. We are creating new and more advanced devices day by and day and we forget that all these use power and more devices means more use of power. The consumption is increasing day by day but what we do not realize that natural resources are scarce. There will be a day when they will not be able to satisfy our power needs. Soon there will be a time when these devices will become uncontrollable and we will then suffer from the harmful effects.

The digital India comes with a cost. It can have effects on us at many levels like, it pollutes our environment, it degrades our ecosystem and most importantly it causes many harmful effects on our physical health. The radiations cause vision problems, headaches and many other such issues. What we lack are the tools of awareness that can tell us how to control these effects. Do we really need a digital India today that cannot promise a better tomorrow?

There is a strong need to create a mass concern effort that can bring awareness about these problems. Digitization is good but it must be in controlled levels so that we can move forward but also make sure that our environment is safe. It is our duty to leave a pollution free environment and safe world for our future generations.

Noise Pollution Related Helpful Resources

Related content

Get access to free Mock Test and Master Class

Register to Get Free Mock Test and Study Material

Offer Ends in 5:00

Select your Course

Please select class.

Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Environmental pollution is the unwarranted discharge of mass or energy into the planet’s natural resource pools, such as land, air, or water, which detriments the environment’s ecological stability and the health of the living things that inhabit it. There is an intensified health risk and pollution in middle and low-income countries due to the increased use of pesticides, industrialization, the introduction of nitrogen-based fertilizers, forest fires, urbanization, and inadequate waste management (Appannagari, 2017). Air pollution, lead and chemicals exposure, hazardous waste exposure, and inappropriate e-waste disposal all result in unfavorable living conditions, fatal illnesses, and ecosystem destruction. The essay will provide an overview of pollution and proffer solutions to combating pollution for a sustainable environment and health.

In addition to hindering economic development and considerably accelerating climate change, pollution exacerbates poverty and inequality in urban and rural areas. The most pain is always experienced by the poor, who cannot afford to protect themselves against pollution’s harmful effects. The main environmental factor contributing to sickness and early mortality is pollution due to premature deaths resulting from pollution (Appannagari, 2017). Due to the unacceptably high cost to human capital and health, as well as the resulting GDP losses, pollution must be addressed. Through initiatives like reducing black carbon and methane emissions, which are responsible for air pollution and climate change, pollution management can also significantly contribute to climate change mitigation (Appannagari, 2017). Additionally, pollution control can promote competitiveness through, for instance, job growth, increased energy efficiency, better transportation, and sustainable urban and rural development. Below are the various approaches for solutions to health and pollution problems.

First, governments should evaluate pollution as a national and international priority and integrate it into the city and country planning process. Pollution affects the health and well-being of societies and, as such, cannot be solely viewed as an environmental issue (The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, 2017). All levels of government should give pollution prevention a high priority, incorporate it into development planning, and tie it to commitments regarding climate change, SDGs, and the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Some options are both affordable and offer good returns on investment.

Secondly, governments should increase funding for pollution control and prioritize it by health impacts. There should be a significant increase in the financing for pollution management in low- and middle-income nations, both from national budgets and international development organizations (The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, 2017). The most effective international support for pollution reduction is when it mobilizes additional actions and funding from others. Examples include helping towns and nations that are quickly industrializing concerning technical capacity building, regulatory and enforcement support, and support for direct actions to save lives. Monitoring financing initiatives are necessary to determine their cost-effectiveness and to raise accountability.

Thirdly, organizations should work to build multicultural partnerships for pollution control. Public-private partnerships and interagency cooperation can be powerful tools in creating clean technology and energy sources that will ultimately prevent pollution at its source (The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, 2017). Collaborations between ministries that include the ministries of finance, energy, development, agriculture, and transport, as well as the ministries of health and the environment, are crucial in pollution control. Governments should promote monitoring systems that could identify and apportion pollution sources, measure pollution levels, guide enforcement, and assess progress toward goals. The use of new technology in pollution monitoring, such as data mining and satellite images, can boost effectiveness, broaden the monitoring area, and cut costs.

One of the main issues facing the world in the current period is pollution. Natural resources are depleting daily due to car emissions, new technologies, factories, and chemicals added to food. All of these factors seriously harm the world. However, the problems caused by pollution can be prevented by building multicultural partnerships, increasing funding for pollution control, integrating it into the country’s planning process, and adopting new technology for monitoring pollution. Preventing pollution lowers the cost to the environment and the economy.

Appannagari, R. R. (2017). Environmental pollution causes and consequences: A study . North Asian International Research Journal of Social Science and Humanities , 3 (8), 151-161. Web.

Excell High School. (2018). Environmental Science . Excel Education Systems, Inc. Web.

The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. (2017). Pollution and health: Six problems and six solutions. Knowledge, Evidence, and Learning for Development.

• Environment in the Novel “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn
• The Article "Where the Water Goes" by David Owen
• Climate Change: Reducing Industrial Air Pollution
• Air Pollution Effects on the Health and Environment
• Pollution & Climate Change as Environmental Risks
• The Santa Ana Sucker as an Endangered Organism
• Climate Crisis and Wildlife in Danger
• Red and Blue Ocean: Oklahoma City Case
• Water's Role in Society and Its Applications
• The Decline in Shark Population in Trinidad and Tobago
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, December 18). Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-pollution-causes-and-consequences/

"Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences." IvyPanda , 18 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-pollution-causes-and-consequences/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences'. 18 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences." December 18, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-pollution-causes-and-consequences/.

1. IvyPanda . "Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences." December 18, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-pollution-causes-and-consequences/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Environmental Pollution: Causes and Consequences." December 18, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/environmental-pollution-causes-and-consequences/.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 27 April 2021

Urbanization: an increasing source of multiple pollutants to rivers in the 21st century

• Maryna Strokal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8063-7743 1 ,
• Zhaohai Bai   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7685-5441 2 ,
• Wietse Franssen 1 ,
• Nynke Hofstra 1 ,
• Albert A. Koelmans 3 ,
• Fulco Ludwig 1 ,
• Lin Ma   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1761-0158 2 ,
• Peter van Puijenbroek   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6370-2411 4 ,
• J. Emiel Spanier 1 ,
• Lucie C. Vermeulen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8403-2442 5 ,
• Michelle T. H. van Vliet   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2597-8422 6 ,
• Jikke van Wijnen 7 &
• Carolien Kroeze 1  

npj Urban Sustainability volume  1 , Article number:  24 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

20k Accesses

113 Citations

66 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Element cycles
• Science, technology and society

Most of the global population will live in urban areas in the 21st century. We study impacts of urbanization on future river pollution taking a multi-pollutant approach. We quantify combined point-source inputs of nutrients, microplastics, a chemical (triclosan) and a pathogen ( Cryptosporidium ) to 10,226 rivers in 2010, 2050 and 2100, and show how pollutants are related. Our scenarios consider socio-economic developments and varying rates of urbanization and wastewater treatment. Today, river pollution in Europe, South-East Asia and North America is severe. In the future, around 80% of the global population is projected to live in sub-basins with multi-pollutant problems in our high urbanization scenarios. In Africa, future river pollution is projected to be 11–18 times higher than in 2010, making it difficult to meet Sustainable Development Goals. Avoiding future pollution is technically possible with advanced wastewater treatment in many regions. In Africa, however, clean water availability is projected to remain challenging. Our multi-pollutant approach could support effective water pollution assessment in urban areas.

Similar content being viewed by others

Current wastewater treatment targets are insufficient to protect surface water quality

Chemical pollution imposes limitations to the ecological status of European surface waters

Domestic waste emissions to European waters in the 2010s

Introduction.

Urban areas currently accommodate more than half of the global population 1 and generate over two-thirds of the world gross domestic products (GDP) 2 , 3 . In 2050, more than two-thirds of the global population will live in cities 1 , 4 , 5 . Rapid urbanization creates opportunities for economic developments 6 , but may also increase the use of freshwater resources 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 . This will increase competition for water between cities and agriculture 4 . More urban waste is likely to result in contamination of water with multiple pollutants such as nutrients 10 and pathogens 11 , 12 from human excretion, plastics 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , and chemicals 19 , 20 from personal care products. River pollution poses a threat to the availability of clean water in large parts of the world 7 , 21 , challenging the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG, clean water for all) and 11 (sustainable cities). Recent studies on impacts of rapid urbanization on water stress or water scarcity worldwide exist 4 , but often ignore water quality 7 .

Previous global studies likely underestimate the impact of urbanization on water pollution because of their strong focus on single pollutants 10 , 16 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 24 (Fig. 1 ). Urbanization (e.g., sewer connections in cities) is, however, often a common, point source of multiple pollutants in rivers, contributing to multiple impacts. Examples are eutrophication problems caused by nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in many world regions 25 , 26 , and diarrhea caused by pathogens (e.g., Cryptosporidium ) especially in developing countries 11 , 27 . A multi-pollutant approach is, thus, urgently needed to account for interactions between drivers of urbanization (e.g., population, economy) and pressures such as emissions of different pollutants 21 . This can help to identify effective solutions accounting for synergies and trade-offs in pollution control. Furthermore, reducing multiple pollutants in rivers from urban-related sources might be easier (e.g., improved wastewater treatment) than from diffuse sources such as agricultural runoff (e.g., delay effects of reduction options due to accumulation of substances in soils). This may have a positive effect on the overall water quality status depending on diffuse sources.

The figure shows a difference between single-pollutant approaches (most existing studies) and a multi-pollutant approach (this study) to assess the impacts of the rapid urbanization on future global river quality. We take N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus), pathogens and plastics as examples. Advances of the multi-pollutant approach are discussed in the main text.

In this paper, we study the impacts of urbanization on river pollution in the 21st century, taking a multi-pollutant perspective. We define multi-pollutant problems as increasing levels of more than one pollutant to rivers in future decades. We analyze, simultaneously, the following groups of pollutants: nutrients (N and P), pathogens (such as Cryptosporidium ), microplastics and chemicals (such as triclosan). These pollutants are selected because of their increasing pollution in many rivers worldwide 18 , 20 , 23 , 28 , 29 , 30 . Yet, these pollutants have common urban sources such as sewer systems (worldwide) and open defecation. We quantify point-source inputs of the pollutants to 10,226 rivers for 2010, 2050 and 2100 associated with urbanization: sewer systems and open defecation. For this, we use a global model of Strokal et al. 31 that takes the sub-basin scale modelling approach of Strokal et al. 32 for nutrients and integrates modelling approaches for other pollutants 18 , 20 , 23 (Supplementary Tables 1 , 2 and 3 ). We develop this model further for multiple-pollutants and future analyses based on evaluated, modelling approaches (see the “Methods” section).

To assess the impacts of urbanization, we develop five scenarios with different levels of urbanization and wastewater treatment rates (Fig. 2 ). The storylines are interpretations of the five Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 (Supplementary Tables 4 , 5 and 6 ). These SSPs are five pathways with different levels of socio-economic challenges for mitigation and adaptation 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 . SSP1 is a Green Road pathway with low socio-economic challenges (e.g., low population growth), but with high economic and urbanization development. It is largely oriented towards achieving sustainable goals (see Supplementary Tables 4 , 5 and 6 ). SSP2 is a middle of the road pathway with medium challenges to mitigation and adaptation. Future trends will not be very different from historical trends. SSP3 is a Rocky Road pathway with high challenges to mitigation and adaptation. It is a world with difficulties to control the population growth and has low economic and urbanization development (see Supplementary Tables 4 , 5 and 6 ). SSP4 is a Road Divided pathway with high challenges to mitigation and low to adaptation. It has a large gap between urban and rural development with the high urbanization rates especially in urban areas. SSP5 is a taking the highway pathway with high challenges to mitigate, but low challenges to adapt. It is a word with priorities towards economy (see Supplementary Tables 4 , 5 and 6 ).

Low, moderate and high urbanization is defined here as the increasing number of urban people and total people with sewer connections (see a and b panels and Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). The number of people opens defecating directly to water is assumed to decrease with sewer connection. Higher sewer connections imply that more wastewater treatment plants will be constructed to maintain the increasing volumes of the waste (see the “Methods” section). Low, moderate and high wastewater treatment levels refer here to a shirt (low, moderate, high) towards a next treatment type: e.g., from primary to secondary to tertiary ( a , b , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). This implies the low, moderate and high ambitions to improve wastewater treatment ( b ). Future years are 2050 and 2100. Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 give quantitative interpretations of the storylines for our multi-pollutant model (see also the “Methods” section). GDP is the gross domestic product. Sources for the technologies are in the main text and in Supplementary Table 3 .

Our five scenarios incorporate socio-economic pathways of SSPs, but with quantitative interpretations of aspects related to urbanization and wastewater treatment (see the “Methods” section). Our scenarios aim to show the impact of urbanization on multiple pollutants in rivers. Thus, the names of our five scenarios correspond to the different levels of urbanization and wastewater treatment: from low urbanization and low wastewater treatment rates towards high urbanization and high wastewater treatment rates. This results in the following scenarios: low urbanization and low wastewater treatment rates (Low urb –Low wwt , based on SSP3), moderate urbanization and moderate wastewater treatment rates (Mod urb –Mod wwt , based on SSP2), high urbanization and low wastewater treatment rates (High urb –Low wwt , based on SSP4), high urbanization and moderate wastewater treatment rates (High urb –Mod wwt , based on SSP5), and high urbanization and high wastewater treatment rates (High urb –High wwt , based on SSP1) (Fig. 2 ). The five scenarios consider interactions between global change (socio-economic pathways), urbanization, sanitation and wastewater treatment.

Low, moderate and high urbanization reflect different levels of increases in urban population, and, indirectly, people with sewer connections between 2010 and future years (see the “Methods” section). As a net effect, the number of people practicing open defecation (direct inputs of human waste to rivers) may decrease. Increasing sewer connections assume higher capacities of treatment plants to manage increasing volumes of the wastewater. Low, moderate and high rates of wastewater treatment are defined based on a shift towards a next treatment type: e.g., from primary (technologies with <10% removal rates 10 , 18 , 20 , low) to secondary (50% removal rates 10 , 18 , 20 , 37 , moderate) or to tertiary (>75% removal rates 10 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , high, see the “Methods” section). The differences between the Low urb –Low wwt, and High urb –Low wwt scenarios indicate the impact of urbanization in terms of increasing numbers of people with sewer connections with low ambitions to improve the wastewater treatment under different socio-economic developments. The Mod urb –Mod wwt scenario could be considered business as usual. The differences between the High urb –Low wwt , High urb –Mod wwt and High urb –High wwt scenarios indicate the impact of improving the wastewater treatment in highly urbanized areas. Details are given in the “Methods” section on qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the five urbanization scenarios.

River pollution today

River pollution in Europe, South-East Asia and North America is already severe today. For these regions, we calculate high inputs of N (>50 kg km −2  year −1 ), P (>30 kg km −2  year −1 ), triclosan (>10 g km −2  year −1 ), microplastics (>5 kg km −2  year −1 ) and Cryptosporidium (>100 × 10 17 oocysts km −2 year −1 ) to many rivers in 2010 (Fig. 3 ). These regions experience severe water pollution problems 9 , 16 , 21 , 25 , 45 , contributing to negative impacts 21 such as eutrophication 45 and waterborne diseases (South-East Asian countries). For African sub-basins, pollution levels are not as high as in those regions (Fig. 3 ). However, some impacts of polluted water on children’s health are already indicated 21 . Globally, 9.5 Tg of N, 1.6 Tg of P, 0.45 Tg of microplastics, 0.72 kton of triclosan and 1.6 × 10 17 oocysts of Cryptosporidium entered rivers in 2010 (Fig. 4 , Supplementary Table 7 ). More than half of these inputs are to rivers in South-East Asia. Most of the pollutants in rivers are from sewer systems (see details in Supplementary Figs. from 1 to 29 ). Exceptions are some sub-basins in Africa and South-East Asia where open defecation contributes to over 20% of N, P and Cryptosporidium to their rivers. Existing assessments 9 , 10 , 13 , 20 , 23 reveal similar global estimates, but with diverse spatial scales. Our consistent spatial and temporal scales increase the robustness of our comparisons between multiple pollutants worldwide (e.g., Fig. 4 ).

Units are kg km −2 of sub-basin area year −1 for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and microplastics (MP), g km −2 of sub-basin area year −1 for triclosan (TCS) and 10 17 oocysts km −2 of sub-basin area year −1 for Cryptosporidium . Source: the global multi-pollutant model (model description is provided in the “Methods” section, and in Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 , model inputs are in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). Model uncertainties are discussed in the “Methods” section.

a – e Future trends for individual pollutants. Pies show the shares of the surface areas by region as % of the global surface area. Spatially explicit results are shown in Fig. 3 for 2010 and Fig. 5 for the future. The description of the scenarios is in Fig. 2 , in the “Methods” section and Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 . Source: the global multi-pollutant model (model description is provided in the “Methods” section, and in Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 , model inputs are in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). Model uncertainties are discussed in the “Methods” section.

High pollution levels result from the net effect of population densities, sewer connection rates (Supplementary Figs. 1 , 2 and 3 ), production of pollutants in human waste (Supplementary Figs. 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 and 8 for individual pollutants) and wastewater treatment efficiencies (Supplementary Figs. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 and 13 for individual pollutants) in countries (Supplementary Figs. 14 and 15 ). For South-East Asia, high pollution levels are driven by high population densities (Supplementary Figs. 3 and 16 ). This region accommodates approximately half of the global population (3 billion people, Supplementary Fig. 1 ) on 12% of the global surface area (Fig. 4 ). For comparison, sub-basins of Europe (excluding Russia) and North America accommodate around 10% of the global population (0.8 billion people, Supplementary Fig. 1 ) on 20% of the global surface area (Fig. 4 ). Approximately 20% of the total population in 2010 was connected to sewer systems (Supplementary Fig. 1 ) with relatively low wastewater treatment efficiencies (removal levels <50% for most pollutants, Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). For Europe and North America, the high pollution levels per km 2 of sub-basins are driven by high connection rates to sewer systems especially in urban areas. Here, over two-thirds of the population live in urban areas and are largely connected to sewer systems with removal efficiencies above 50% for the studied pollutants (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). Supplementary Fig. 17 shows the results of the sensitivity analysis indicating the importance of wastewater treatment and human development in river pollution (see the “Discussion” section).

Future river pollution globally

In the future, ~80% of the global population is projected to live in sub-basins with multi-pollutant problems (Figs. 5 and 6 ). These sub-basins cover over half of the global surface area (Fig. 6 ) for which inputs of more than one pollutant will increase at least 30% (Fig. 5 ) between 2010 and 2050 or 2100. This is for all scenarios, except for High urb –High wwt . In the scenario assuming low urbanization and low wastewater treatment (Low urb –Low wwt ), global inputs of most pollutants will less than double between 2010 and 2050 (Fig. 4 ). In this scenario, the population growth is high, and almost doubles between 2010 and 2100 (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). Approximately one-third of the total population globally will be connected to sewer systems. This number is much lower than in the other scenarios in 2100 (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). As a net effect of the low sewer connection (Supplementary Fig. 3 ) and low wastewater treatment (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ), future inputs of pollutants to rivers from sewage are lower in the Low urb –Low wwt scenario than in the others (Fig. 3 ). However, as a trade-off, more nutrients and Cryptosporidium are projected to enter rivers from open defecation, mainly in developing countries (see Supplementary Figs. 14 and 15 ) compared to the other scenarios.

Maps show changes in inputs of pollutants to rivers during the periods of 2010–2050, 2010–2100 and 2050–2100 according to the five scenarios. We classify sub-basins based on the number of pollutants for which the increases are higher or lower than 30% (Note: 30% is arbitrary; see Supplementary Figs. 18 and 20 for results based on 10 and 50% thresholds). The pollutants include Cryptosporidium , microplastic, triclosan, nitrogen and phosphorus. More information is available in Supplementary Figs. 18 – 29 . The description of the five scenarios is in Fig. 2 , in the “Methods” section and Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 . Results for 2010 are in Fig. 3 . Source: the global multi-pollutant model (model description is provided in the “Methods” section, and in Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 , model inputs are in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). Model uncertainties are discussed in the “Methods” section.

Sub-basins are classified based on the number of pollutants for which the increases are higher or lower than 30% during the periods of 2010–2050, 2010–2100 and 2050–2100 according to the five scenarios. Graphs show the number of sub-basins ( a ), sub-basin areas ( b ), total population ( c ) and urban population ( d ) for the sub-basins with the increases of higher or lower than 30% (Note: 30% is arbitrary; see Supplementary Figs. 19 and 21 for results based on 10% and 50% thresholds). More information is available in Supplementary Figs. 18 – 29 . See Fig. 5 for the changes in inputs of pollutants during the periods of 2010–2050, 2010–2100 and 2050–2100. The description of the scenarios is in Fig. 2 , in the “Methods” section and Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 . Results for 2010 are in Fig. 3 . Source: the global multi-pollutant model (model description is provided in the “Methods” section, and in Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 , model inputs are in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). Model uncertainties are discussed in the “Methods” section.

The future inputs of most pollutants to rivers are projected to be higher in the scenarios with moderate (Mod urb –Mod wwt ) and high urbanization (High urb –Low wwt , High urb –Mod wwt , Fig. 4 ). The population grows not as fast as in the Low urb –Low wwt scenario, but the rate of urbanization is much higher, especially in the High urb –Low wwt and High urb –Mod wwt scenarios (Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). As a result, over two-thirds of the global population is projected to be connected to sewer systems in 2100 (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). Wastewater treatment efficiency is slightly improved (Mod urb –Mod wwt , High urb –Mod wwt ) depending on the economic development (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). As a net effect, the High urb –Low wwt and High urb –Mod wwt scenarios project, generally, higher inputs of most pollutants to rivers than the Low urb –Low wwt and Mod urb –Mod wwt scenarios (Fig. 4 ).

Pollutants differ in their future trends. For example, High urb –Low wwt projects the highest inputs of Cryptosporidium , microplastics and triclosan globally in 2100 compared to the other pollutants and scenarios (Fig. 4 ). For N and P, High urb -Low wwt and High urb -Mod wwt project somewhat similar amounts globally (Fig. 4 ). All these differences between pollutants and scenarios are a net effect of three important factors: socio-economic development (e.g., population, GDP), urbanization rates (population connected to sewer systems) and treatment efficiencies. For example, higher GDP results generally in higher N and P excretion rates per capita because of changes towards protein-rich diets 31 , 46 (Supplementary Figs. 4 – 5 ). Developed countries (Human Developing Index, HDI > 0.785) have generally lower infection rates, leading to less per capita excretion of Cryptosporidium 23 (Supplementary Fig. 8 ), but may lead to higher production of microplastics from car tyres 31 (Supplementary Fig. 7 ) as a result of industrialization. All these interactions are considered together with different trends in the population growth (Supplementary Fig. 3 ), urbanization rates (Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2 ) and treatment levels (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ) among scenarios and regions.

Future river pollution in Africa

Future river pollution is projected to be 11–18 times higher than in 2010 in the scenario with high urbanization and low wastewater improvements (High urb –Low wwt ). This range is for increasing inputs of the five pollutants by at least 30% during the period of 2010–2100 (Fig. 5 ). Africa may become a major contributor to river pollution in the world (Fig. 4 ). For example, by 2100, up to half of the global inputs of multiple pollutants are projected in Africa in High urb –Low wwt (Fig. 4 ). For comparison: in 2010 the contribution of African rivers to the global river pollution was <5% (Fig. 4 ). All scenarios project increasing river pollution in the future for Africa (Figs. 5 and 6 ). This is largely associated with the projected population growth and assumed wastewater treatment. The African population is projected to more than double in many sub-basins during 2010–2100 in all scenarios (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). Many people will live in urban areas (High urb –Low wwt and High urb –Mod wwt , Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ). More people will inevitably generate more waste, and this may not be treated effectively enough (e.g., High urb –Low wwt ). This all explains the large future increases in river pollution in Africa (Fig. 5 ). In the low urbanization scenario (Low urb –Low wwt ), less people will live in urban areas, and a lower percentage of people will be connected to sewer systems. Thus, open defecation may continue in Low urb –Low wwt especially by 2050. This is an important source of nutrients and Cryptosporidium to African rivers in this scenario. Supplementary Figs. 18 , 19 , 20 and 21 show results for increasing inputs of the five pollutants by at least 10% and 50% during the period of 2010–2100. Supplementary Figs. 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 and 26 show future trends in river pollution by individual pollutants. Supplementary Figs. 27 , 28 and 29 show scenarios and sub-basins where open defecation is an important source of P, N and Cryptosporidium in rivers.

Future river pollution in Asia

Future river pollution is projected to be 2–3 times higher than in 2010 in the scenario with high urbanization and low wastewater improvements (High urb –Low wwt ). This range is for at least 30% increases in inputs of the five pollutants for the period 2010–2100 (Fig. 5 ). Exceptions are rivers in sub-basins of China (Fig. 5 ). These rivers are projected to be cleaner in 2100 than in 2050, but inputs of the pollutants may still be higher in 2100 than in 2010 in the urbanized scenarios with the low (High urb –Low wwt and Low urb –Low wwt ) and moderate (Mod urb –Mod wwt and High urb –Mod wwt ) wastewater treatment improvements (Fig. 5 ). The Chinese population is projected to decrease in the future in all scenarios (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). However, with the rapid urbanization (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 2 ), the wastewater treatment (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ) may not keep up with the pollution loads. This explains higher river pollution levels. This is different for some other Asian countries such as India and Pakistan. By 2050, the total population of India and Pakistan will have increased (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). By 2100, the total population will have decreased or increased depending on the socio-economic development in the scenarios (Supplementary Fig. 3 , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 for the scenario description). However, the wastewater treatment is poorer or absent compared to the Chinese sub-basins (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ), resulting in more pollutants in rivers (Fig. 5 , Supplementary Figs. 18 – 21 ).

Future river pollution in Europe and North America

Many rivers in Europe and North America may be cleaner in the future. European rivers (Western, Northern and Southern) may get cleaner in the future because of high removal efficiencies to treat wastewater (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). However, in the High urb –Mod wwt scenario, high wastewater treatment efficiencies (>50% for all pollutants) may not be enough to reduce future pollution to the level below 2010. For American rivers, future trends differ largely between South and North in the scenarios with the low (Low urb –Low wwt ) and high (High urb –Low wwt ) urbanization trends. In the Low urb –Low wwt scenario, lower increases (<30%) in inputs of pollutants are projected for many Northern rivers whereas higher increases (>30%) for most Southern rivers (Fig. 5 , Supplementary Figs. 18 – 21 ). This difference can be explained by the higher population growth (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ) and less efficient wastewater treatment (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ) in South America compared to North America. In the High urb –Low wwt scenario, higher increases in river pollution are projected for South America by 2050, but lower by 2100. This is associated with the decreased population (Supplementary Fig. 3 ) and with the increased efficiencies of wastewater treatment between 2050 and 2100 (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). Rivers in Australia may be more polluted in the future (Fig. 5 ). Exceptions are the Low urb –Low wwt and High urb –Low wwt scenarios with less pollution in 2100 than in 2050. This is largely associated with the decreasing population during 2050–2100 (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 13 , 18 – 21 ).

Reducing future river pollution

Advanced wastewater treatment can reduce future river pollution in many world regions, but not in Africa (High urb –High wwt ). In High urb –High wwt, all developed countries (HDI > 0.785) will shift completely towards tertiary treatment with enough capacities and high efficiencies to remove pollutants from the wastewater (>75% for all pollutants, Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). Examples of such technologies are annomox 47 for N, calcium precipitation for P 48 , disinfection by Ultraviolet radiation for Cryptosporidium 42 , reverse osmosis for nutrients 41 and microplastics 49 . Developing countries (HDI < 0.785) will also shift towards tertiary technologies, but in combination with secondary technologies 10 , 46 (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). Open defecation will stop by 2100. Thus, High urb –High wwt shows the technical potential of advanced technologies with enough treatment capacities to reduce future pollution from highly urbanized areas.

It will be difficult to reduce future river pollution in Africa to the level of 2010, even with advanced technologies (High urb –High wwt , Fig. 5 ). Inputs of most pollutants to many African rivers are projected to increase by at least 30% during 2010–2100 in High urb –High wwt (Fig. 5 ). The main reason is an increase in the total population, which is much higher (>doubling) than in other world regions (Supplementary Fig. 3 ). As a result, implementing advanced technologies in 2100 may help to reduce inputs of most pollutants to the level of 2050, but not to the level of 2010. For many other world’s rivers, advanced technologies with enough treatment capacities are projected to lower future inputs of pollutants in High urb –High wwt (Fig. 5 , Supplementary Fig. 20 ). This may have a positive impact on the overall pollution status depending also on the contribution of diffuse sources from agriculture. However, for some rivers in Asia (e.g. India, Pakistan), inputs of most pollutants from point sources will still increase by 2050, but may be lower by 2100 in High urb –High wwt (Fig. 5 ). Some rivers in North America, Middle Asia and Australia are projected to have higher inputs of pollutants in 2100 than in 2050, but lower than in 2010 (Fig. 5 , Supplementary Fig. 20 ). These trends are the net effect of the population growth, urbanization and wastewater treatment in High urb –High wwt (Figs. 2 , 5 and 6 ).

Scenario analyses are widely used to explore possible futures 1 , 34 , 36 , 50 , 51 , 52 . Our five scenarios are a combination of possible trends in urbanization, socio-economic development (existing SSPs 1 , 36 , 53 ) and our assumptions on sanitation, wastewater treatment capacities and removal efficiencies of pollutants. Our assumptions may, however, seem ambitious (Supplementary Tables 5 and 6 ). For example, we assume the full implementation of advanced technologies with enough treatment capacities in High urb –High wwt for all developed countries. We did this to show the effects of sustainable practices in urban areas on increasing the availability of clean water for people and nature. This assumption, however, might be ambitious to achieve. In our scenarios, we reflect a relation between urbanization (e.g., more urban people) and sewer connections (see High urb –Low wwt, High urb –Med wwt ) with sustainable urbanization practices (see High urb –High wwt ). This relation may, however, not emerge everywhere in the world. On the other hand, we explore possible futures; we do not state how likely or desirable these futures are. Our scenarios aim to identify impacts of future urbanization (e.g., differences between Low urb –Low wwt and High urb –Low wwt ) and the technical potentials of proven wastewater treatment technologies to reduce future river pollution from point sources (e.g., differences between High urb –Low wwt and High urb –High wwt ). Our insights may contribute to the formulation of sustainable urbanization practices where wastewater treatment is effective enough to reduce pollutants in the urban waste (e.g., SDG11) and thus to increase the availability of clean water in the future (e.g., SDG6).

Our global multi-pollutant model quantifies, simultaneously, five pollutants in rivers with consistent datasets in space and time. However, uncertainties exist. The model is developed based on existing, evaluated models for pollutants 11 , 18 , 20 , 23 , 29 , 32 (e.g., comparisons with observed concentrations and sensitivity analyses). We further evaluate our combined model using five approaches 54 (see the “Methods” section). First, we compare our model outputs with existing studies (see the “Methods” section, Supplementary Table 7 ), showing a good agreement for the five pollutants. Second, we compare the spatial pattern of pollution problems with existing models 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 16 , 55 , 56 , indicating the river pollution in densely populated and highly urbanized areas (Figs. 3 – 5 , Supplementary Tables 7 and 8 ). However, existing studies did not focus on a simultaneous reduction of the five pollutants from urbanized activities in the 21st century, which is a multi-pollutant perspective of our study. Third, we performed a sensitivity analysis for pollution hotspots. We define multi-pollutant hotspots as places with >30% increases in two or more pollutants between 2010 and future years (Fig. 5 ). This is an elegant way to combine the five pollutants. We realize that the 30% threshold is arbitrary. The results should, therefore, be interpreted as warning signals of future river pollution. In the sensitivity analysis, we changed the 30% threshold to 10% (Supplementary Figs. 18 – 19 ) and 50% (Supplementary Figs. 20 – 21 ). The results confirm the robustness of our main messages about future multi-pollutant hotspots. Fourth, we performed a sensitivity analysis for all important model inputs underlying the calculations (Supplementary Tables 9 , 10 , 11 and 12 , Supplementary Fig. 17 ). In total, 25 model inputs are changed with ±10%, resulting in 50 model runs for 10,226 sub-basins and five pollutants. The results show that the model is not very sensitive to changes in most model inputs. For most sub-basins, the model outputs are relatively sensitive to changes in <5 model inputs. These inputs are related to HDI, wastewater treatment types and removal efficiencies. The 10% changes in these inputs, resulted in up to 5% change in model output for sub-basins covering over two-thirds of the global surface area (see details in the “Methods” section for all sub-basins). Fifth, we compare model inputs with independent datasets (Supplementary Table 8 , Supplementary Figs. 15 and 16 ). All this gives trust in the model performance (see the “Methods” section).

Our results are future oriented. We focus on trends in future hotspots of multi-pollutant problems in the world. We believe that not all model uncertainties affect our main messages about trends. We also realize that our results are relatively sensitive to the assumptions on future HDI and wastewater treatment (see Approach 4 in the “Methods” section and sensitivity analysis). For HDI, we assumed an increase of 0, 10 and 20% between 2010 and 2050 and further increase by 2100 depending on scenario (Supplementary Tables 5 – 6 ). For wastewater treatment rates, we assumed a shift towards a next treatment type between 2010 and future years (e.g., 0–50% shift depending on scenario). To increase trust in our assumptions for future trends, we compared our model inputs with other independent studies. We did this for our five scenarios (Supplementary Table 8 , Supplementary Fig. 15 ). For example, future trends in our HDI between 2010 and future years are strongly in line with an independent study 57 ( R 2 above 0.88, see Supplementary Fig. 15 ). Crespo Cuaresma and Lutz 57 took into account differences in human development and their socio-economic wealth in projecting future HDI. Our wastewater treatment types in 2050 are also well compared with an independent study 10 (Supplementary Table 8 ).

Another potential source of uncertainties relates to the local variation in pollution levels. For example, sewage overflows may happen under heavy rain events, causing local peaks in water pollution. Such events are time dependent and may also contribute to global pollution levels 58 . We do not account for such local events in our model. We, however, believe that such omissions of events do not affect our messages for the multi-pollutants worldwide. This is because we explore future trends in the multi-pollutant hotspots worldwide that are influenced by global change, urbanization and wastewater treatment. Local analyses should, however, account for the impact of local events on local water quality (e.g., cities).

Our study aims to analyze the impact of the socio-economic drivers (e.g., GDP) and urbanization on future inputs of pollutants to rivers from point sources worldwide. However, we do not consider the transport of pollutants to rivers from agricultural fields, nor the impact of climate change on future river pollution. Next steps could be to further develop our global multi-pollutant model by calculating inputs of pollutants from agricultural fields and associated river export of pollutants. This will allow to explicitly combine the impact of both climate change and of socio-economic developments.

A multi-pollutant approach supports the search for effective solutions. A multi-pollutant approach might be more effective in reducing river pollution than a single-pollutant approach (Fig. 1 ). For example, reducing one pollutant may reduce (synergies) or increase (trade-offs) another pollutant. Our study serves as an illustrative example for the five pollutants. For example, increasing sewer connections may increase inputs of the five pollutants to rivers, but decrease inputs of N, P and Cryptosporidium from open defecation (Low urb –Low wwt ; trade-off). Higher economic developments may lead to less excreted Cryptosporidium per capita because of lower infection risks in developed countries 11 , 23 (Supplementary Fig. 8 ), but may generate more N and P in human excreta (Supplementary Figs. 4 – 5 ) as a result of protein-rich food consumption 10 , 46 (trade-off). Synergies also exist. For example, increasing sewer connections with advanced technologies and sufficient wastewater treatment capacities is projected to decrease the inputs of all five pollutants to many rivers in the future (High urb –High wwt ). This is also associated with synergies in treatment technologies to remove multiple pollutants. Some technologies are developed to target specific pollutants (e.g., N 47 , P 48 , Cryptosporidium 42 ). This implies that implementing technologies for one pollutant may not strongly influence another pollutant. However, technologies exist to treat more than one pollutant (e.g., 10 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 59 ). For example, secondary treatment with removal efficiencies of around 40–50% (assumed in Mod urb –Mod wwt and High urb –Mod wwt ) converts organic N into inorganic and gas, removing N from the waste 10 . They can also facilitate the biodegradation of triclosan 59 . Microplastics can host microorganisms (e.g., Cryptosporidium ) and serve as vectors for chemicals 15 , 49 , 60 . As a result, biofilms and flocs can form in, for example, activated sludge ponds and then settle down 49 . Triclosan can sorb to large particles and also settle down with other pollutants 38 , 39 , 59 . Advanced technologies (assumed in High urb –High wwt ) such as efficient ultrafiltration methods can reduce Cryptosporidium 42 and microplastics 49 , and reverse osmosis can recover nutrients 41 and reduce microplastics 49 . Nature-based solutions such as stabilization ponds and constructed wetlands are largely effective to reduce Cryptosporidium 42 and nutrients 61 . Accounting for synergies and trade-offs is essential to identify effective solutions for multiple pollutants. This can support the achievement of SDG11 for sustainable cities and SDG6 for clean water.

Our results can support policy assessment of water pollution in urban areas, and form the basis for actionable and region-specific solutions. We identify hotspots of urban-related river pollution and show possible effects of future urbanization on river quality under global change. This could help to prioritize short-term actions to avoid river pollution in the 21st century. Improving wastewater treatment is important to avoid multi-pollutant problems in an urbanized world (Fig. 5 , differences between High urb –High wwt and High urb –Low wwt ). Our sensitivity analysis indicates where improved wastewater treatment could have a larger impact (Supplementary Fig. 17 ). Our model indicates that water pollution is related to human development (expressed as human development index). This is important to realize when reducing Cryptosporidium and microplastics. Some countries in the world already introduced policies such as a ban of detergents and triclosan in products. Combing such policies with improved wastewater treatment may contribute to synergetic solutions for achieving SDGs and reducing river pollution from urban waste. For Africa, improving wastewater treatment may not be enough. Controlling the African population growth to reduce waste production in the future may be needed in urban and water policy assessments.

Our study quantifies future trends in inputs of five pollutants to rivers for five scenarios. We argue that a multi-pollutant perspective is needed in quantitative analyses of future trends in global change, urbanization, sanitation and wastewater treatment. We analyzed multiple pollutants simultaneously in a consistent way. We did this for 10,226 sub-basins for 2010, 2050 and 2100. Our insights are in how future trends differ between pollutants, sub-basins and how hotspots of multi-pollutant problems change in the 21st century. Our study provides an example of multi-pollutant problems from urban point sources. We show that future inputs of pollutants are projected to increase with increasing urbanization. We also show that it is technically possible to avoid these increases with advanced proven technologies to treat wastewater, except in Africa. In Africa, clean water availability is projected to remain a challenge because of the fast increasing population. This will consequently challenge the achievement of SDGs 6 and 11 in Africa. Our model may serve as an example for multi-pollutant modelling of diffuse sources such as agricultural runoff and other pollutants, such as pesticides 62 , antibiotics 24 and antimicrobial resistance. Another opportunity is to analyze the economic (e.g., costs), societal, institutional and political feasibilities of future pollution reduction options. This is important to identify region-specific solutions. Our long-term projections can help to increase the awareness of society and decision makers about pollution hotspots in the 21st century. This can facilitate short-term actions in different regions to avoid pollution in the future and contribute to achieve SDGs 6 and 11.

Model description and inputs

We used a model of Strokal et al. 31 that takes the sub-basin scale modelling approach of Strokal et al. 32 for nutrients and integrates modelling approaches for other pollutants 18 , 20 , 23 . We developed it further for future analyses of point-source inputs of pollutants to rivers (Supplementary Table 1 ). Our model quantifies inputs of five pollutants to 10,226 rivers: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), microplastics, triclosan and Cryptosporidium for 2010, 2050 and 2100. The model of Strokal et al. 31 was developed for 2010 taking the sub-basin modelling approach of Strokal, et al. 32 for N 29 , 32 , P 29 , 32 and integrating the existing modelling approaches for microplastics 18 , triclsan 20 and Cryptosporidium 23 . We developed the model for the years 2050 and 2100 based on the urbanization storylines of the SSPs and our assumptions. Our multi-pollutant model quantifies simultaneously annual inputs of the five pollutants to rivers at the sub-basin scale using the consistent spatial and temporal dataset for model inputs for 2010, 2050 and 2100. The model quantifies inputs of the five pollutants from sewer systems and open defecation. These are the point sources of the pollutants in rivers. Sewer systems discharge five pollutants to rivers. Open defecation is a point source of N, P and Cryptosporidium in our model. Model evaluation is presented below after the scenario descriptions.

Inputs of the pollutants to rivers from open defecation are quantified as a function of the population that is open defecating and the excretion or consumption rates of pollutants per person per year (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 ). Inputs of pollutants from sewer systems are quantified as a function of the population that is connected to sewer systems, the excretion or consumption rates of pollutants per person per year and removal efficiencies of pollutants during treatment. We quantified inputs of the pollutants at 0.5° grid and then aggregate the results to 10,226 river sub-basins (Supplementary Table 1 ). Model inputs for 2010 are directly from Strokal, et al. 31 . Model inputs for 2050 and 2100 are based on the SSPs with different trends in urbanization and wastewater treatment (see scenario descriptions below).

Below, we explain how model inputs were derived (Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 ). Population for 2010, 2050 and 2100 are aggregated to 0.5° grid from the global, 0.125 degree cell database of Jones and O’Neill 53 . The number of people with sewer connections and open defecation are quantified at 0.5° grid using the population map of 0.5° grid and the fraction of people with sewer connections or open defecation. For 2010, the fraction of urban and rural people with sewer systems and open defecation were available by country from the Joint Monitoring Program (see details in Strokal et al. 31 and Hofstra and Vermeulen 11 ). We assigned the national values to grids of 0.5° grid. Then, we multiplied the number of people per grid (aggregated from Jones and O’Neill 53 ) with the fraction of people connected to sewer systems or open defecating (based on Hofstra and Vermeulen 11 ). For 2050 and 2100, we made assumptions for the fractions of people connected to sewer systems and with open defecation. These assumptions were based on storylines of SSPs for economy, population and urbanization (Fig. 2 , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). Our assumptions differ among urban and rural people, and among developing and developed countries (see scenario descriptions below).

Excretion or consumption rates of pollutants were largely derived based on existing, evaluated approaches and sources. Excretion rates of N and P in human waste per person are quantified as a function of GDP (gross domestic product) at purchasing power parity, following the approach of Van Drecht et al. 46 , but adjusted to the unit of 2005 (see details in Strokal et al. 31 , Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 ). For 2010, 2050 and 2100, GDP at 0.5° grid was derived from the global SSP database with the projections from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA, 63 ). P in detergents was from Van Drecht et al. 46 for the world regions (Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 ).

Excretion rates of Cryptosporidium were quantified based on the infection rate in developed (5%) and developing (10%) countries and the excretion rate per ill person (10 9 oocysts) according to Hofstra et al. 23 . For 2010, developed and developing countries were defined based on the Human Development Index (HDI), following the approach of Hofstra et al. 23 : HDI > 0.785 (developed) and HDI < 0.785 (developing). For 2050 and 2100, we made assumptions for HDI for countries depending on SSP storylines for the economy, population growth and urbanization (see scenario descriptions below and Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ).

Consumption rates of microplastics per person per year were derived directly from Siegfried et al. 18 , but with some modifications (details are in Strokal et al. 31 ). Microplastics in sewer systems result from car tyres, PCPs (personal care products), household dusts and laundry. For PCPs, dust and laundry, consumption rates are 0.071, 0.08 and 0.12 kg of microplastics per person per year according to Siegfried, et al. 18 . We assumed that these values do not change over time. For tyres, this is different. Strokal et al. 31 assumed that developed countries will contribute more microplastics to sewage from car tyres as a side-effect of economic and infrastructural developments. Thus, we assigned 0.18 kg of microplastics from tyres per person for developed countries (HDI > 0.785) and 0.018 kg of microplastics from tyres per person for developing countries (HDI < 0.785) according to Strokal et al. 31 . We assumed changes in HDI by country in the future based on the SSPs storylines (see scenario descriptions below and Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 ).

Consumption rates of triclosan per person in the world were directly taken van Wijnen et al. 20 (0.5 kg per person per year for 2010). We assumed that the consumption rate will not change largely in the future and thus will remain as in 2010.

Removal efficiencies of pollutants during treatment were derived based on the existing studies. For N, P and Cryptosporidium , removal efficiencies were quantified by country using the national distribution of wastewater treatment types (primary, secondary, tertiary, no treatment) and their treatment efficiencies for pollutants, following the approaches of 11 , 23 , 46 (see Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 , Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 ). The quantified national removal efficiencies were then assigned to corresponding grids of 0.5°. For 2010, national distributions of wastewater treatment types were derived from Hofstra and Vermeulen 11 with a few corrections for countries with missing data (details are in Strokal et al. 31 ). For 2050 and 2100, we assumed changes (low, moderate, high) in the distribution of the treatment types depending on the storylines of SSPs (see scenario descriptions below). These changes imply a shift towards a next treatment type: e.g., from primary to secondary to tertiary (Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 ). Removal efficiencies of pollutants for different treatment types were taken directly from literature (see Supplementary Table 3 ) and do not vary among years.

For triclosan and microplastics, removal efficiencies were quantified based on the approaches of van Wijnen et al. 20 and Siegfried et al. 18 (details are in Strokal et al. 31 ). We used the known removal rate of phosphorus to assume the removal of triclosan and microplastics. For our assumptions, we used data about the removal of triclosan and microplastics from literature 39 , 59 , 64 , 65 , 66 . Based on these data, we related average phosphorus removal in a watershed to triclosan removal. We formulated three classes of triclosan removal (0, 60 or 90%) and related these to known phosphorus removal in each sub-basin (details are in van Wijnen et al. 20 ). A similar approach was carried out for microplastics. We formulated four microplastics removal classes based on literature and related those to the known average phosphorus removal in each sub-basin 18 , 30 . These classes represent an average microplastics removal in each sub-basin. Microplastic removal depends on the size and density of the microplastics. Therefore, the removal at each individual WWTP will be dependent on these and other characteristics. In our study, on a global scale, we chose to assume average removal for each sub-basin.

Scenario description

Storylines of the five scenarios are summarized in Fig. 2 , Supplementary Tables 1 – 6 and Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 . Our five scenarios are with low urbanization and low wastewater treatment rates (Low urb –Low wwt ), moderate urbanization and moderate wastewater treatment rates (Mod urb –Mod wwt ), high urbanization and low wastewater treatment rates (High urb –Low wwt ), high urbanization and moderate wastewater treatment rates (High urb –Mod wwt ), and high urbanization and high wastewater treatment rates (High urb –High wwt ) (Fig. 2 ). These scenarios follow future trends in the socio-economic development based on the existing SSPs 1 , 63 , combined with our assumptions for population with sewer connections, open defecation and for wastewater treatment capacities and technologies (Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). Below, we describe each scenario. Quantitative interpretations of the scenario assumptions are presented in Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 for 2050 and 2100, and inputs are given in Supplementary Figs. 1 – 14 .

The Low urb -Low wwt scenario is based on SSP3 projections for the socio-economic development (Fig. 2 , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). The scenario assumes a fragmented world with difficulties to control population growth. In this world, It is projected a low economic development with low urbanization rates and high population growth. For example, a global population of approximately 12 billion people is projected for 2100, of which 58% will be urban (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ). Low economic developments will not allow to develop technologies largely. For 2050, HDI is assumed to stay as in 2010 and increase by 10% between 2050 and 2100 on a county level (Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). The society will not focus on reducing or avoiding future river pollution. As a result, the fraction of the population with sewer connections (around one-third of the global population) and the treatment efficiencies of wastewater (e.g., 14–18% globally depending on pollutant) will remain in 2050 as in 2010 (Supplementary Figs. 3 , 9 – 13 ). The same holds for the wastewater treatment capacities. However, by 2100 more people may be connected to sewer systems (above one-third of the global population). This will result in higher capacities of the wastewater treatment plants with slightly improved treatment technologies (e.g., 21–24% of removal efficiencies globally depending on pollutant). However, future wastewater treatment efficiencies vary largely among world countries: e.g., 0–96% in 2100 depending on region and pollutant. In general, higher wastewater treatment efficiencies are projected for Europe, North America and Australia (Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ),

The Mod urb -Mod wwt scenario is based on SSP2 projections of the middle of the road for the socio-economic development (Fig. 2 , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). The scenario assumes a moderate economic development, moderate urbanization rates and moderate population growth compared to the other scenarios. For example, 9 billion people are projected globally for 2100 and 80% will be urban (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ). From 2010, HDI is assumed to increase by 10% by 2050 and further increase by 10% by 2100 on a county level (Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). Technological development follows the business as usual trends. As a result, more people will be connected to sewer systems than today (45% in 2050 and 68% in 2100 globally, Supplementary Fig. 3 ). A number of wastewater treatment plants will be constructed to maintain the increasing volume of the wastewater from connected population to sewer systems. The amount of waste that is collected will be treated with slightly improved wastewater treatment. For example, on average, 33–42% of removal efficiencies globally are projected for 2100. This range is for the five pollutants. The removal efficiencies vary largely among regions (0–97% depending on region and pollutant, Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). The number of people connected to sewer systems will be larger for urban (over two-thirds) than for rural (less than one-third) population. Some people may still experience open defecation in 2050. By 2100, all people who opened defecated in 2050 will become connected to sewer systems.

The High urb -Low wwt scenario is based on SSP4 projections for the socio-economic development (Fig. 2 , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). The scenario assumes a large gap between urban and rural developments. The economic development is projected to be moderate compared to the other scenarios. HDI is projected to increase as in the Mod urb –Mod wwt scenario (Supplementary Tables 1 – 3 , Supplementary Fig. 14 ). The population is projected to increase in the future, but not largely: e.g., around 30% between 2010 and 2100 globally. By 2100, the global population is projected to reach 9.3 billion people (Supplementary Fig. 3a ). However, the urban population will develop faster than the rural. Urbanization will be high: e.g., 76% and 90% of the global population will be urban in 2050 and 2100, respectively. As a result, the connection rate of the population to sewer systems will increase in the future for urban areas. For example, 80% of urban and 11% of rural population globally is projected to be connected to sewer systems in 2100 (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ). Wastewater treatment capacities will be enough to maintain the waste from sewer systems and treatment will be improved as in the Mod urb -Mod wwt scenario. For rural areas, the fraction of people connected to sewer systems in 2050 may remain the same as in the Low urb -Low wwt scenario and will be improved by 2100 (Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). By 2050, some rural people may still open defecate. By 2100, all rural people who opened defecated in 2050 will become connected to sewer systems with better treatment.

The High urb –Mod wwt scenario is based on SSP5 projections for the socio-economic development (Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 , Fig. 2 ). The scenario assumes a high economic development with high urbanization and low population growth (Fig. 2 , Supplementary Table 4 ). For example, the total population globally is projected to increase by less than 10% between 2010 and 2100, reaching 7.4 billion people in 2100 (Supplementary Fig. 3a ). However, more than 90% of the global population will be urban in 2100. From 2010, HDI is assumed to increase by 20% by 2050 and further increase by 20% by 2100. The technological development is relatively high compared to the Mod urb -Mod wwt scenario. This will lead to a higher population with sewer connections. More than half of the global population will be connected to sewer systems in 2050. For 2100, this number is over two-thirds of the global population (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ). The capacities of the wastewater treatment plants will be enough to manage the amount of waste from sewer systems. However, people will invest less in improving wastewater treatment. People will focus more on the economy rather than on reducing river pollution. As a result, wastewater treatment may follow the business as usual trends. For example, on average, 34–44% of the wastewater treatment efficiencies are projected globally for 2100. However, these efficiencies vary largely among regions (0–97% depending on area and pollutant, Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ). Furthermore, some people may still open defecate in nearby water systems in the future. By 2100, all people who opened defecated in 2050 will become connected to sewer systems.

The High urb –High wwt scenario is based on SSP1 projections for the socio-economic development (Fig. 2 , Supplementary Tables 4 – 6 ). The society will develop fast with high urbanization rates as comparable to the High urb –Mod wwt scenario. The global population is projected to reach 6.9 billion people in 2100 (Supplementary Fig. 3a ). The share of urban people globally is projected to be 77% in 2050 and 92% in 2100 (Supplementary Figs. 1 – 3 ). The share of the total connected people to sewer systems is projected to be 55% in 2050 and 82% in 2100. HDI is projected to increase in the same rate as in the High urb –Mod wwt scenario. However, in this world, a strong focus is on reducing or avoiding river pollution by using the best available advanced technologies in all areas. Technological development is high because of the high economic development. People will invest in improving technologies to treat wastewater with multiple pollutants. There will be opportunities to develop technologies for multiple pollutants and combine them with nature-based solutions. As a result, the wastewater treatment is assumed to be improved largely with high removal efficiencies (60–98% depending on year, area and pollutant, Supplementary Figs. 9 – 13 ).

Model evaluation

We evaluated the uncertainties in our model using four approaches following a building trust circle method 54 . This method has been applied in several water quality studies 32 , 67 , 68 . First, we compare model outputs with existing studies. Second, we compare the spatial pattern of the pollution problems with existing models for individual pollutants. Third, we perform a sensitivity analysis for pollution hotspots. Fourth, we perform a comprehensive sensitivity analysis for all important model inputs underlying the calculations. Fifth, we compare model inputs with independent datasets. Model validation against observed concentrations is, unfortunately, challenging. This is because our model does not quantify concentrations. Some of the existing global models calculate concentrations and were evaluated against observations (Supplementary Tables 7 – 8 ). Thus, we used those models to compare their results with ours for individual pollutants. Below, we elaborate on these five approaches. Details are in Supplementary Tables 7 – 12 and Supplementary Figs. 15 , 17 .

Approach 1: evaluating model outputs by comparing them with other models and studies for individual pollutants. This comparison is presented in Supplementary Table 7 . The results show that our model outputs for global inputs of nitrogen, phosphorus, microplastics, triclosan and Cryptosporidium are generally in line with other models and studies. For example, our model quantified 9.5 Tg of nitrogen to rivers from point sources in 2010. Other models quantified 6.4–10.4 Tg of nitrogen to rivers from points sources during 2000–2010 10 , 46 , 69 (Supplementary Table 7 ). For phosphorus, we quantified 1.6 Tg in 2010 whereas the other models quantified 1.0–1.5 Tg for the period of 2000–2010 10 , 46 , 69 . For 2050, we quantified 5.4–21.0 Tg of nitrogen and 0.6–3.5 Tg of phosphorus in 2050 (ranges for the five scenarios). van Puijenbroek et al. 10 quantified 13.5–17.9 Tg of nitrogen and 1.6–2.4 Tg of phosphorus in 2050 under the five SSPs. For Cryptosporidium , our model quantified 1.6 × 10 9 oocysts in 2010 which is 1.1–1.4 × 10 9 oocysts in another model in 2000–2010 11 , 23 (Supplementary Table 7 ). For 2050, our model quantified 0.4–2.9 × 10 9 oocysts (range for the five scenarios). For the Low urb -Low wwt scenario, this value is 2.44 × 10 9 oocysts, which is comparable with 2.28 × 10 9 oocysts from the other model 11 , 23 . To our knowledge, van Wijnen, et al. 20 is the only study quantifying triclosan export by rivers. Our estimates for Danube, Zhujiang and Ganges are comparable with estimates of van Wijnen et al. 20 (Supplementary Table 7 ). For microplastics, our model quantified 0.45 Tg entering rivers globally in 2010. Best 9 indicated loads of 0.41–4.00 Tg of plastics in 32 world’s rivers. This is higher than our estimate because Best 9 accounts for macro- and microplastics whereas we only consider microplastics. Avio et al. 13 indicated 0.27 Tg of plastics to oceans in some regions in the world. This is lower than our estimate because we quantify inputs of plastics to rivers and not to the oceans. The other reasons for the differences between our model and other studies are in data inputs and the spatial level of detail. We focus on sub-basin analyses with the consistent model inputs for multiple pollutants (Supplementary Table 7 , Supplementary Figs. 1 – 13 ).

Approach 2: evaluating model outputs by comparing the spatial variability in pollution hotspots with other studies. We reviewed the literature on pollution hotspots in the world for individual pollutants 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 16 , 55 , 56 , 70 . Our pollution hotspots for multiple pollutants are in line with the existing studies for individual pollutants. For example, most pollution often happens in densely populated and highly urbanized areas 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 16 , 55 , 56 . For example, Best 9 indicated over 80% of large transboundary rivers in the world with multiple pollutants. For many large cities in polluted regions, the demand for water already exceeds its availability. For example, water scarcity (ratio between the water demand and availability) has been already reported for cities in countries such as China (e.g., Shanghai, Beijing), India (e.g., Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad), Mexico, North America (e.g., Los Angeles) 70 . In the future, river pollution will further decrease the availability of clean water in many urban regions 4 , 7 , 8 , 71 . We show that it is technically possible to increase the availability of clean water with implementing advanced technologies (High urb _High wwt , Figs. 3 – 6 ). However, future analyses for multi-pollutant hotspots are lacking in the existing literature. A few global models performed future analysis for individual pollutants 10 , 11 , 18 , 20 where urbanization was taken into account by 2050. Their results indicate pollution hotspots where human activities are most intensive, which is in line with our study. However, studies exploring trends in multi-pollutant hotspots by 2100 do not exist. We explore trends in pollution hotspots for multi-pollutant problems covering the entire 21st century under the five scenarios with different socio-economic developments and levels of wastewater treatment.

Approach 3: evaluating model outputs for pollution hotspots by sensitivity analysis. In Fig. 5 , we showed multi-pollutant hotspots. These hotspots were defined as at least a 30% increase in inputs of more than one pollutant to rivers during 2010–2050, 2010–2100 and 2050–2100. This definition is modest and easier to understand and interpret. We checked if the pollution hotspots remain the same by changing a 30% increase to 10% (Supplementary Figs. 18 – 19 ) and 50% (Supplementary Fig. 20 – 21 ). Results of this sensitivity analysis indicate that our main messages stay the same: Africa will become a hotspot region with multiple pollutants in rivers in the 21st century and advanced technologies may help to reduce pollution in many rivers of the world.

Approach 4: evaluating model inputs by a sensitivity analysis. We performed a comprehensive sensitivity analysis for all important model inputs underlying the calculations. In total, there are 25 model input parameters included in this analysis. Every model input was changed by +10% and −10%. As a result, we did 50 runs of the model for the year 2010. We analyzed the results of the 50 runs for 10,226 sub-basins and five pollutants: Cryptosporidium , nitrogen, phosphorus, triclosan and microplastics. Details can be found in Supplementary Tables 9 – 12 and Supplementary Fig. 17 .

In general, increasing the model inputs (13 out of 25) that are responsible for excretion or consumption rates of pollutants in urban waste lead to more pollutants in rivers (Supplementary Tables 10 – 12 ). The opposite is observed when these model inputs are decreased. An exception is HDI for Cryptosporidium and microplastics. Model inputs that are responsible for wastewater treatments (6 out of 25) have the following effect on the model outputs: increases in these inputs lead to less pollutants in rivers and vice versa. Model inputs (6 out of 25) that are responsible for the number of people (urban and rural) connected to sewage systems have the following effect on the model outputs: increases in these inputs lead to more pollutants in rivers and vice versa (Supplementary Tables 10 – 12 ).

We find that model outputs are most sensitive to changes in 2–5 out of the 25 model inputs. The sensitivities vary among sub-basins and pollutants. These model inputs are HDI (sensitive for Cryptosporidium and microplastics), the fractions of secondary (sensitive for triclosan and microplastics) and tertiary (sensitive for all five pollutants) treatment, and the removal efficiencies of secondary (sensitive for triclosan and microplastics) and tertiary (sensitive for all five pollutants) treatment. We analyze model outputs for 10,226 sub-basins that are sensitive to changes in those 2–5 model inputs. Supplementary Tables 11 – 12 show the percentages of the sub-basin areas where model outputs for the five pollutants change by: <5%, 5–10%, 10–50% and >50%. Supplementary Fig. 17 shows the location of the sub-basins for which model outputs are sensitive to one or more model inputs.

The model results for sub-basins covering over two-thirds of the global surface area changed by less than 5% (Supplementary Tables 11 – 12 ). For ≤13% of the global surface area the model outputs changed between 5–10%. This is for all pollutants. For ≤8% of the global area, the changes are between 10–50% in the model outputs. Exceptions are Cryptosporidium and microplastics, which are relatively sensitive for HDI. In one-third of the sub-basin area the model output for Cryptosporidium changed 10–50% as a result of changes in HDI. For microplastic, the changes may be even higher. However, the number of basins with changes above 50% is small. These results show that HDI is an important model input for Cryptosporidium and microplastics (see Supplementary Tables 1 , 9 – 12 ).

Approach 5: evaluating model inputs by comparing them with independent datasets. We provide this comparison in Supplementary Table 8 , Supplementary Figs. 15 and 16 . Comparison results build trust in our model inputs. We compared the following important model inputs for 2010 and 2050 scenarios: total population, population with sewer connections, distribution of treatment types, removal efficiencies of pollutants, nutrients in human excretion (Supplementary Table 8 ). We compared these inputs with van Puijenbroek et al. 10 who recently published global analyses of nutrient inputs to rivers from point sources. We also compared our population from Jones and O’Neill 53 with another global dataset from Kc and Lutz 34 (Supplementary Fig. 16 ). Our model inputs are well compared with the mentioned studies. Furthermore, we compared our HDI index for 2010 and 2050 with the HDI index from Crespo Cuaresma and Lutz 57 (Supplementary Fig. 15 ). HDI is an important input in our model to quantify the excretion of Cryptosporidium . HDI influences the treatment developments and consumption of microplastics associated with the use of car tyres. Our values for HDI under the five scenarios are well compared with the values of Crespo Cuaresma and Lutz 57 ( R 2  > 0.88 for the five scenarios).

Results of these five approaches give us trust in using our multi-pollutant model to explore future trends in inputs of multiple pollutants to rivers from urbanization activities. All data are available in Strokal et al. 72 and Strokal et al. 73 .

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

All the datasets generated and analysed during this study are publicly available in the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS Easy) repository: https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zyx-jce3 73 . The data will be available for download from 01–04–2021. The data supporting the findings of this study are described in the following metadata record: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13333796 72 .

Code availability

All equations to the model are provided in the supplementary information files of this study and in the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS Easy) repository: https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zyx-jce3 . The data will be available for download from 01–04–2021.

Jiang, L. & O’Neill, B. C. Global urbanization projections for the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Glob. Environ. Change 42 , 193–199 (2017).

Article   Google Scholar  

Acuto, M., Parnell, S. & Seto, K. C. Building a global urban science. Nat. Sustain. 1 , 2–4 (2018).

Seto, K. C., Golden, J. S., Alberti, M. & Turner, B. L. Sustainability in an urbanizing planet. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114 , 8935–8938 (2017).

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Flörke, M., Schneider, C. & McDonald, R. I. Water competition between cities and agriculture driven by climate change and urban growth. Nat. Sustain. 1 , 51–58 (2018).

Li, X., Zhou, Y., Eom, J., Yu, S. & Asrar, G. R. Projecting global urban area growth through 2100 based on historical time‐series data and future Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Earth’s Future 7 , 351–362 (2019).

Keeler, B. L. et al. Social-ecological and technological factors moderate the value of urban nature. Nat. Sustain. 2 , 29–38 (2019).

Van Vliet, M. T. H., Florke, M. & Wada, Y. Quality matters for water scarcity. Nat. Geosci. 10 , 800–802 (2017).

Nagendra, H., Bai, X., Brondizio, E. S. & Lwasa, S. The urban south and the predicament of global sustainability. Nat. Sustain. 1 , 341–349 (2018).

Best, J. Anthropogenic stresses on the world’s big rivers. Nat. Geosci. 12 , 7–21 (2018).

Van Puijenbroek, P. J. T. M., Beusen, A. H. W. & Bouwman, A. F. Global nitrogen and phosphorus in urban waste water based on the Shared Socio-economic Pathways. J. Environ. Manage. 231 , 446–456 (2019).

Hofstra, N. & Vermeulen, L. C. Impacts of population growth, urbanisation and sanitation changes on global human Cryptosporidium emissions to surface water. Int. Hyg. Envir. Heal. 219 , 599–605 (2016).

Vermeulen, L. C., de Kraker, J., Hofstra, N., Kroeze, C. & Medema, G. Modelling the impact of sanitation, population growth and urbanization on human emissions of Cryptosporidium to surface waters—A case study for Bangladesh and India. Environ. Res. Lett. 10 , 094017 (2015).

Avio, C. G., Gorbi, S. & Regoli, F. Plastics and microplastics in the oceans: from emerging pollutants to emerged threat. Mar. Environ. Res. 128 , 2–11 (2017).

Boucher, J., Friot, D. & Boucher, J. Primary Microplastics in the Oceans: A Global Evaluation of Sources . (IUCN Gland, Switzerland, 2017).

Koelmans, A., Bakir, A., Burton, G. & Janssen, C. Microplastic as a vector for chemicals in the aquatic environment: critical review and model-supported reinterpretation of empirical studies. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50 , 3315–3326 (2016).

Lebreton, L. C. et al. River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans. Nat. Commun. 8 , 15611 (2017).

Schmidt, C., Krauth, T. & Wagner, S. Export of Plastic Debris by Rivers into the Sea. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 , 12246–12253 (2017).

Siegfried, M., Koelmans, A. A., Besseling, E. & Kroeze, C. Export of microplastics from land to sea. A modelling approach. Water Res. 127 , 249–257 (2017).

Diamond, J. et al. Use of prospective and retrospective risk assessment methods that simplify chemical mixtures associated with treated domestic wastewater discharges. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 37 , 690–702 (2018).

Van Wijnen, J., Ragas, A. & Kroeze, C. River export of triclosan from land to sea: a global modelling approach. Sci. Total Environ. 621 , 1280–1288 (2017).

Damania, R., Desbureaux, S., Rodella, A.-S., Russ, J. & Zaveri, E. Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis. Washington, DC: World Bank. © World Bank, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/32245 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32245 , 142 pp., (2019).

Seitzinger, S. P. et al. Global river nutrient export: a scenario analysis of past and future trends. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 24 , GB0A08 (2010).

Hofstra, N., Bouwman, A. F., Beusen, A. H. W. & Medema, G. J. Exploring global Cryptosporidium emissions to surface water. Sci. Total Environ. 442 , 10–19 (2013).

Font, C., Bregoli, F., Acuña, V., Sabater, S. & Marcé, R. GLOBAL-FATE: A GIS-based model for assessing contaminants fate in the global river network. Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss. 2019 , 1–30 (2019).

Google Scholar  

Breitburg, D. et al. Declining oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters. Science 359 , eaam7240 (2018).

Diaz, R. J. Overview of hypoxia around the world. J. Environ. Qual. 30 , 275–281 (2001).

Kiulia, N. M. et al. Global occurrence and emission of rotaviruses to surface waters. Pathogens 4 , 229–255 (2015).

Beusen, A., Bouwman, A., Van Beek, L., Mogollón, J. & Middelburg, J. Global riverine N and P transport to ocean increased during the twentieth century despite increased retention along the aquatic continuum. Biogeosci. Discuss. 12 , 20123–20148 (2015).

Mayorga, E. et al. Global Nutrient Export from WaterSheds 2 (NEWS 2): model development and implementation. Environ. Modell. Softw. 25 , 837–853 (2010).

Van Wijnen, J., Ragas, A. M. J. & Kroeze, C. Modelling global river export of microplastics to the marine environment: Sources and future trends. Sci. Total Environ. 673 , 392–401 (2019).

Strokal, M. et al. Global multi-pollutant modelling of water quality: scientific challenges and future directions. Curr. Opin. Env. Sust. 36 , 116–125 (2019).

Strokal, M., Kroeze, C., Wang, M., Bai, Z. & Ma, L. The MARINA model (Model to Assess River Inputs of Nutrients to seAs): model description and results for China. Sci. Total Environ. 562 , 869–888 (2016).

Dellink, R., Chateau, J., Lanzi, E. & Magné, B. Long-term economic growth projections in the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Glob. Environ. Change 42 , 200–214 (2017).

Kc, S. & Lutz, W. The human core of the shared socioeconomic pathways: population scenarios by age, sex and level of education for all countries to 2100. Glob. Environ. Change 42 , 181–192 (2017).

Leimbach, M., Kriegler, E., Roming, N. & Schwanitz, J. Future growth patterns of world regions – A GDP scenario approach. Glob. Environ. Change 42 , 215–225 (2017).

O’Neill, B. C. et al. The roads ahead: narratives for shared socioeconomic pathways describing world futures in the 21st century. Glob. Environ. Change 42 , 169–180 (2017).

Zhao, Y. & Xu, L. Analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus removal operation in biological systems in sewage treatment plant (in Chinese). Environ. Ecol. Three Gorges 2 , 29–31 (2009).

Halden, R. U. & Paull, D. H. Co-occurrence of triclocarban and triclosan in US water resources. Environ. Sci. Technol. 39 , 1420–1426 (2005).

Thompson, A., Griffin, P., Stuetz, R. & Cartmell, E. The fate and removal of triclosan during wastewater treatment. Water Envion. Res. 77 , 63–67 (2005).

Chen, X. et al. Ozonation products of triclosan in advanced wastewater treatment. Water Res. 46 , 2247–2256 (2012).

Mondor, M., Masse, L., Ippersiel, D., Lamarche, F. & Masse, D. Use of electrodialysis and reverse osmosis for the recovery and concentration of ammonia from swine manure. Bioresour. Technol. 99 , 7363–7368 (2008).

Nasser, A. M. Removal of Cryptosporidium by wastewater treatment processes: a review. J. Water Health 14 , 1–13 (2016).

Liao, P., Chen, A. & Lo, K. Removal of nitrogen from swine manure wastewaters by ammonia stripping. Bioresour. Technol. 54 , 17–20 (1995).

Liu, Y., Kwag, J.-H., Kim, J.-H. & Ra, C. Recovery of nitrogen and phosphorus by struvite crystallization from swine wastewater. Desalination 277 , 364–369 (2011).

Selman, M., Greenhalgh, S., Diaz, R. & Sugg, Z. Eutrophication and hypoxia in coastal areas: a global assessment of the state of knowledge. World Resources Institute 284 , 1–6 (2008).

Van Drecht, G., Bouwman, A. F., Harrison, J. & Knoop, J. M. Global nitrogen and phosphate in urban wastewater for the period 1970 to 2050. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 23 , GB0A03 (2009).

Kartal, B., Kuenen, J. & Van Loosdrecht, M. Sewage treatment with anammox. Science 328 , 702–703 (2010).

Jaffer, Y., Clark, T. A., Pearce, P. & Parsons, S. A. Potential phosphorus recovery by struvite formation. Water Res. 36 , 1834–1842 (2002).

Sun, J., Dai, X., Wang, Q., van Loosdrecht, M. C. & Ni, B.-J. Microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: detection, occurrence and removal. Water Res. 152 , 21–37 (2019).

Kok, K., Pedde, S., Gramberger, M., Harrison, P. A. & Holman, I. P. New European socio-economic scenarios for climate change research: operationalising concepts to extend the Shared Socio-economic Pathways. Reg. Environ. Change 19 , 643–654 (2019).

Ma, L. et al. Exploring future food provision scenarios for China. Environ. Sci. Technol. 53 , 1385–1393 (2019).

Pedde, S. et al. Bridging uncertainty concepts across narratives and simulations in environmental scenarios. Reg. Environ. Change 19 , 655–666 (2019).

Jones, B. & O’Neill, B. Spatially explicit global population scenarios consistent with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. Environ. Res. Lett. 11 , 084003 (2016).

Strokal, M. River Export of Nutrients to the Coastal Waters of China: The Marina Model to Assess Sources, Effects and Solutions (PhD thesis). Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands 235 pp, (2016).

UNEP. A Snapshot of the World’s Water Quality: Towards a Global Assessment . 162pp (United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya, 2016).

Vörösmarty, C. J. et al. Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity. Nature 467 , 555–561 (2010).

Crespo Cuaresma, J. & Lutz, W. The demography of human development and climate change vulnerability: a projection exercise. Vienna Yearb Popul. Res. 1 , 241–261 (2016).

McClain, M. E. et al. Biogeochemical hot spots and hot moments at the interface of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Ecosystems 6 , 301–312 (2003).

Butler, E., Whelan, M. J., Sakrabani, R. & van Egmond, R. Fate of triclosan in field soils receiving sewage sludge. Environ. Pollut. 167 , 101–109 (2012).

Kooi, M., Van Nes, E. H., Scheffer, M. & Koelmans, A. A. Ups and downs in the ocean: effects of biofouling on the vertical transport of microplastics. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 , 7963–7971 (2017).

Vymazal, J. Removal of nutrients in various types of constructed wetlands. Sci. Total Environ. 380 , 48–65 (2007).

Ippolito, A. et al. Modeling global distribution of agricultural insecticides in surface waters. Environ. Pollut. 198 , 54–60 (2015).

Crespo Cuaresma, J. Income projections for climate change research: a framework based on human capital dynamics. Glob. Environ. Change 42 , 226–236 (2017).

Heidler, J. & Halden, R. U. Mass balance assessment of triclosan removal during conventional sewage treatment. Chemosphere 66 , 362–369 (2007).

Von der Ohe, P. C. et al. A new risk assessment approach for the prioritization of 500 classical and emerging organic microcontaminants as potential river basin specific pollutants under the European Water Framework Directive. Sci. Total Environ. 409 , 2064–2077 (2011).

Dann, A. B. & Hontela, A. Triclosan: environmental exposure, toxicity and mechanisms of action. J. Appl. Toxicol. 31 , 285–311 (2011).

Wang, M. et al. Excess nutrient loads to Lake Taihu: Opportunities for nutrient reduction. Sci. Total Environ. 664 , 865–873 (2019).

Wang, M., Kroeze, C., Strokal, M., van Vliet, M. T. & Ma, L. Global change can make coastal eutrophication control in China more difficult. Earth’s Future 8 , 1–19 (2020).

Morée, A., Beusen, A., Bouwman, A. & Willems, W. Exploring global nitrogen and phosphorus flows in urban wastes during the twentieth century. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 27 , 1–11 (2013).

McDonald, R. I. et al. Water on an urban planet: Urbanization and the reach of urban water infrastructure. Glob. Environ. Change 27 , 96–105 (2014).

West, P. C. et al. Leverage points for improving global food security and the environment. Science 345 , 325–328 (2014).

Strokal, Maryna; et al. Metadata supporting the article: Urbanization: an increasing source of multiple pollutants to rivers in the 21st century. figshare https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13333796 (2020).

Strokal, M. et al. Urbanization: an increasing source of multiple pollutants to rivers in the 21st century. Wageningen University & Research https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zyx-jce3 (2021).

Download references

Acknowledgements

M.S. (the corresponding author) was financially supported by a Veni-grant (0.16.Veni.198.001) and a KNAW-MOST SURE + project (5160957392).

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Water Systems and Global Change group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Maryna Strokal, Wietse Franssen, Nynke Hofstra, Fulco Ludwig, J. Emiel Spanier & Carolien Kroeze

Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hebei, China

Zhaohai Bai & Lin Ma

Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands

Albert A. Koelmans

PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the Hague, the Netherlands

Peter van Puijenbroek

Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands

Lucie C. Vermeulen

Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

Michelle T. H. van Vliet

Open University, Faculty of Science - Environmental Sciences Dept, Heerlen, the Netherlands

Jikke van Wijnen

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

M.S. led this manuscript. M.S. was responsible for designing the manuscript, developing a multi-pollutant model, and analyzing and writing the manuscript. C.K. substantially assisted in designing the manuscript, developing the model and analyzing the results. Z.B., W.F., N.H., A.A.K., L.V., M.T.H.V., J.E.S. and J.W., contributed largely in developing the global multi-pollutant model that was used in the manuscript for future analyses of the impact of urbanization on river pollution. They and other authors provided information to the manuscript and advised on the analyses. All authors assisted the interpretations of the Shared Socio-economic Pathways. These pathways are used in the manuscript for multiple pollutants. All authors read and commented on the text. All authors approved the final version and were involved in the accountability for all aspects of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryna Strokal .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information, reporting summary, rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Strokal, M., Bai, Z., Franssen, W. et al. Urbanization: an increasing source of multiple pollutants to rivers in the 21st century. npj Urban Sustain 1 , 24 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-021-00026-w

Download citation

Received : 04 December 2019

Accepted : 20 August 2020

Published : 27 April 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-021-00026-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Water quality management could halve future water scarcity cost-effectively in the pearl river basin.

• Safa Baccour
• Gerwin Goelema
• Maryna Strokal

Nature Communications (2024)

Globally elevated greenhouse gas emissions from polluted urban rivers

• Gongqin Wang
• Xinghui Xia

Nature Sustainability (2024)

A triple increase in global river basins with water scarcity due to future pollution

• Mengru Wang
• Benjamin Leon Bodirsky

Sustainability of global small-scale constructed wetlands for multiple pollutant control

• Guogui Chen
• Yuanyuan Mo

npj Clean Water (2024)

Effect of urbanization and water quality on microplastic distribution in Conceição Lagoon watershed, Brazil

• Daniela Grijó de Castro
• Aurea Luiza Lemes da Silva
• Nei Kavaguichi Leite

Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2024)

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Introductory essay

Written by the educators who created Ecofying Cities, a brief look at the key facts, tough questions and big ideas in their field. Begin this TED Study with a fascinating read that gives context and clarity to the material.

Right now, our economy operates as Paul Hawken said, "by stealing the future, selling it in the present and calling it GDP." And if we have another eight billion or seven billion people, living on a planet where their cities also steal the future, we're going to run out of future really fast. But if we think differently, I think that, in fact, we can have cities that are not only zero emissions, but have unlimited possibilities as well. Alex Steffen

The urgency of urban planning today

Within a few decades' time, we can expect the planet to become more crowded, resources more precious, and innovative urban planners increasingly important. By midcentury, the global population will likely top nine billion, and more than half will live in cities. What will these cities look like? Will we have the resources to power them and comfortably provide for their residents? Will global urbanization harmonize with efforts to curb climate change and secure a sustainable future, or are these forces hurtling towards a head-on collision?

The TED speakers featured in Ecofying Cities underscore the urgency, but also suggest that some optimism's in order as they outline the issues and offer imaginative solutions.

There's no single reason for or response to the complex environmental, economic and social challenges that are part of our future in cities. They call for multiple approaches, originating from different sources — individuals, communities, governments, businesses — and deployed at different levels — in the home, the neighborhood, the city, region, nation and across the globe — to respond to the challenges at hand. As Alex Steffen reminds the urban planners, architects, designers, elected leaders and others involved in the effort, "All those cities are opportunities."

Urbanism and the environment: A brief history

For centuries, successful city-building has required careful attention to the environmental consequences of urban development. Without this, as Jared Diamond demonstrated in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed , a city inevitably ended up fouling its nest, thus entering a spiral of epidemics, economic hardship, decline and, ultimately, oblivion. Civilizations evolved different ways of dealing with environmental considerations — some with more success than others. For example, thanks to elaborate aqueducts and sewer systems, the Romans were able to build and sustain for centuries large cities that featured a reliable public water supply and state-of-the-art public health conditions.

In other civilizations, however, residents simply abandoned cities when they could no longer rely on their environment to supply the resources they needed. Often this was a direct result of their own activities: for example, deforestation and the attendant erosion of fertile soil, epidemics due to contaminated water and, with the advent of coal-fired industrialization, air pollution.

Urban planning got its start as a profession largely dedicated to averting different types of crises arising from urban growth and providing conditions for public health. This was particularly true in the many 19th century European and North American cities transformed by industrialization and unprecedented rates of population growth. Rapidly deteriorating air and water quality made it necessary to introduce regulations to protect the health of the residents of these cities.

The planners' first-generation improvements included sewers, water treatment and distribution, and improved air quality through building codes and increased urban green space. It's especially remarkable today to think that these interventions were adopted in response to observable health consequences, but without knowledge of the contamination mechanisms at work: germ theory didn't arrive on the scene until Louis Pasteur published his work in the 1860s. From the late 19th century onward Pasteur's findings bolstered the case for even more urban sanitation improvements, particularly those designed to improve water quality.

Starting in the 1950s, however, planners no longer narrowly targeted immediate health effects on urban residents as their chief environmental concern. Their work also absorbed and reflected Western society's deeper understanding of, and respect for, natural processes and growing awareness of the long-term environmental impacts of cities from the local to the planetary scale.

Rachel Carson is often credited as the first to popularize environmentalism. Published in 1962, her landmark book Silent Spring sounded a warning call about how pesticides endanger birds and entire ecological systems. Soon after, air pollution became a rallying point for environmentalists, as did the loss of large tracks of rural and natural land to accelerated, sprawling development. Today, sustainable development and smart growth, which largely overlap and address multiple environmental considerations, enjoy wide currency; most urban planning is now based on these principles.

Today, as we reckon with population growth, advancing rates of urbanization, and widespread recognition of climate change, we know that the cities of the future share a common destiny. The choices we make about how we build, inhabit and maintain these cities will have global and long-term effects.

Sustainable development: Two schools of thought

In modern urban planning, there are two general categories of sustainable development. The first doesn't challenge the present dynamics of the city, allowing them to remain largely low-density and automobile-oriented, but still makes them the object of measures aimed to reduce their environmental load (for example, green construction practices). Ian McHarg spearheaded this approach as a way to develop urban areas in harmony with natural systems; the planning principles he formulated gave special care to the preservation of water and green space. His lasting influence is visible in many of the more enlightened suburban developments of recent decades which respect the integrity of natural systems. Today, the Landscape Urbanism movement promotes these same ideas.

A second school of urban development focuses on increasing urban density and reducing reliance on the automobile. This approach advocates transit-oriented and mixed-use development along pedestrian-friendly "complete streets." On a regional scale, it aims to reduce sprawl by creating a network of higher-density multifunctional centers interconnected by public transit. Today, it's common for plans with a metropolitan scope to follow this approach.

Studying the city: About these materials

Cities are arguably the most complex human creation (with the possible exception of language) so it's not surprising that we study them at multiple scales and from diverse perspectives. We can approach cities through a narrow focus on an individual building or a neighborhood, expand the investigation to consider a metropolitan region in its entirety, or study the global system of cities and its interconnections. What's more, we can think about cities as built environments, social networks, modified ecologies, economic systems and political entities. Aware of the multiple ways that we engage with cities, the Romans had two words to refer to them: urbs referred to the physical city with its wall and buildings, and civitas , the city as a collection of residents.

Ecofying Cities explores urban areas at different scales. In some cases, the TED speaker focuses on a neighborhood project, like The High Line in Manhattan; others describe city-wide transformation, as in Curitiba, Brazil, or a regional or national initiative like China's plan for a network of eco-cities to house its growing urban population. Likewise, the talks explore cities from different disciplinary perspectives including urban planning, urban design, transportation planning, architecture, community organization and environmental science. What unites them all? A commitment to sustainability and a belief that sustainability is more about creating positive effects rather than reducing negative impacts.

The message emanating from Ecofying Cities is one of complexity, optimism and uncertainty. We can't be sure that the changes these speakers suggest will be enough to help us balance supply and demand in the sustainability equation. But we can expect that their ideas and efforts will improve the built environment — as well as quality of life — in cities, thereby providing hopeful perspectives for a sustainable future.

Let´s begin with writer and futurist Alex Steffen´s TEDTalk "The Sharable Future of Cities" for a look at the interplay between increasing urban density and energy consumption.

Alex Steffen

The shareable future of cities, relevant talks.

Ellen Dunham-Jones

Retrofitting suburbia.

Jaime Lerner

A song of the city.

James Howard Kunstler

The ghastly tragedy of the suburbs.

Majora Carter

Greening the ghetto.

Michael Pawlyn

Using nature's genius in architecture.

Robert Hammond

Building a park in the sky.

William McDonough

Cradle to cradle design.

Urban noise pollution found to have significant negative impact on heart health

• Download PDF Copy

Research from two studies in different European cities1,2 highlights that urban noise pollution has a significant negative impact on heart health, according to data presented at ESC Congress 2024. 

"The DECIBEL-MI study shows that young patients aged 50 years or less who had a myocardial infarction (MI) had been exposed to higher levels of noise than the general population. The study demonstrates that urban noise could significantly increase the risk of early-onset MI in young people with low traditional risk factors. Including noise exposure in risk prediction models helps accurately identify at-risk individuals, leading to better-targeted prevention. 

The DECIBEL-MI study included 430 consecutive patients living in Bremen, Germany, aged 50 years or younger with acute MI who were admitted to a local heart centre. When levels of residential noise exposure were calculated, the researchers observed a higher incidence of noise exposure compared to the general population in the same region. Patients with MI and a low LIFE-CVD score (≤2.5%), indicating a low level of traditional risk factors, such as smoking or diabetes, exhibited significantly higher noise exposure compared to those with a high LIFE-CVD score. This is crucial because traditional risk assessment models might underestimate the cardiovascular risk in young individuals who are otherwise considered low risk. By incorporating noise exposure into these models, it is possible to more accurately identify those at elevated risk for MI, allowing for better-targeted preventive measures and interventions. 

A separate study in France assessed the impact of environmental noise exposure on prognosis after a first MI.

In the ENVI-MI study, we found a strong association between urban noise exposure, particularly at night, and worse prognosis at 1 year after a first MI." Marianne Zeller, Study Investigator, Professor from the University of Burgundy and Hospital of Dijon, France

Related Stories

• Engineered heart tissues uncover new mechanisms in lupus-related heart damage
• Python's remarkable physiology could lead to new medical breakthroughs
• Engineered human cardiac tissue reveals how lupus autoantibodies damage the heart

Data from the French observatory database (RICO) were collected for 864 patients hospitalised for an acute MI who survived at least 28 days after the MI. At 1-year follow-up, 19% presented with a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE; cardiac death, rehospitalisation for heart failure, recurrent MI, emergency revascularisation, stroke, angina and/or unstable angina). The daily noise exposure levels measured at each patient's home address (average noise level in A-weighted decibels [dB(A)]: 56.0 over 24 hours and 49.0 at night) were considered as moderate and representative of a large part of the European population. Of note, there was a 25% increased risk of MACE for each 10 dB(A) increase in noise during the night (hazard ratio 1.25; 95% confidence interval 1.09–1.43), independent of air pollution, socio-economic levels and other confounding factors. 

"These data provide some of the first insights that noise exposure can affect prognosis. If confirmed by larger prospective studies, our analysis could help to identify new opportunities for environment-based secondary-prevention strategies, including noise barriers for high-risk MI patients," added Professor Zeller. 

European Society of Cardiology

Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Healthcare News

Tags: Air Pollution , Angina , Cardiology , Cardiovascular Disease , Chronic , Diabetes , Healthcare , Heart , Heart Failure , Hospital , Medicine , Myocardial Infarction , Pollution , Research , Smoking , Stroke

Suggested Reading

Cancel reply to comment

• Trending Stories
• Latest Interviews
• Top Health Articles

Global and Local Efforts to Take Action Against Hepatitis

Lindsey Hiebert and James Amugsi

In this interview, we explore global and local efforts to combat viral hepatitis with Lindsey Hiebert, Deputy Director of the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination (CGHE), and James Amugsi, a Mandela Washington Fellow and Physician Assistant at Sandema Hospital in Ghana. Together, they provide valuable insights into the challenges, successes, and the importance of partnerships in the fight against hepatitis.

Addressing Important Cardiac Biology Questions with Shotgun Top-Down Proteomics

In this interview conducted at Pittcon 2024, we spoke to Professor John Yates about capturing cardiomyocyte cell-to-cell heterogeneity via shotgun top-down proteomics.

A Discussion with Hologic’s Tim Simpson on the Future of Cervical Cancer Screening

Tim Simpson

Hologic’s Tim Simpson Discusses the Future of Cervical Cancer Screening.

Latest News

Newsletters you may be interested in

Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant

Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net.

A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue.

• Use of “Azthena” is subject to the terms and conditions of use as set out by OpenAI .
• Content provided on any AZoNetwork sites are subject to the site Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy .
• Large Language Models can make mistakes. Consider checking important information.

Great. Ask your question.

Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms .

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions .

Provide Feedback

Your Article Library

Essay on environmental pollution in urban areas (357 words).

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Here is your essay on environmental pollution in Urban Areas!

An environment is made-up of the circumstances, objects or conditions by which a human, animal, plant or object is surrounded. The term environment’ generally refers to the natural world as perceived by humans.

‘Pollution’ refers to harmful environmental contaminants and to the act or the process of polluting the environment. Generally, the process needs to concern human activity, which results in pollution. Even relatively benign products of human activity are liable to be regarded as pollution, if they precipitate negative effects later on.

Image Courtesy : upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Litter.JPG

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines pollution as ‘the presence of a substance in the environment that because of its chemical composition or quality prevents the functioning of natural processes and produces undesirable environmental and health effects.’ Any material that causes the pollution is called a ‘pollutant.’

Pollution can be defined according to its contextual efficacy (use). Blooms of algae and the resultant eutrophication (the enrichment of an aquatic system by the addition of nutrients primarily caused by leached phosphorous or nitrogen containing compounds in lakes, rivers, bays or other semi-enclosed waters) of lakes and coastal ocean is con­sidered as pollution, when it is fuelled by the nutrients from industrial, agricultural or residential run-off.

Although carbondioxide (CO 2 ) is not toxic and actually stimulates plant growth but because it is a greenhouse gas that fosters global warming, it is sometimes referred to as pollution. More often and more properly, CO 2 from such sources as combustion of fuels is labelled neutrally as ’emission.’

Traditional forms of pollution include air pollution, water pollution, while a broader interpretation of the word has led to the ideas of ship pollution, light pollution and noise pollution.

Serious pollution sources include chemical plants, oil refineries, nuclear waste dumps, regular garbage dumps (many toxic substances are illegally dumped there), incinerators, PVC factories, corporate animal farms creating huge amounts of animal waste. Some of the more common contaminants are lead (like in lead paint), chromium, zinc, arsenic and benzene.

Pollutants are thought to play a part in a variety of maladies including cancer, lupus, immune diseases, allergies and asthma.

Related Articles:

• Environmental Pollution: Speech on Environmental Pollution
• Essay on Housing Problems in Urban Areas (1683 Words)

No comments yet.

Leave a reply click here to cancel reply..

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization

Pollution is one of the biggest issues that we as a society face today. The everyday deteriorating environment is a big challenge for humans. The mixing of any harmful substance or pollutants in our natural environment is called pollution. It is due to human activity, many contaminators get introduced in the natural environment thereby polluting it to harmful levels. There are many reasons why pollution occurs and one of the major one is urbanization.

Long and Short Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in English

In this section we have tried to cover all aspects of pollution due to urbanization in varying lengths to help you with the same in your exam. You can select any Pollution due to Urbanization essay as per your need:

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization – Essay 1 (200 words)

Our mother earth is choking and we are helpless. We face many challenges today and one of them is pollution. When any contaminating substance is added in our environment and pollutes our natural resources called pollution. There are many reasons of pollution and human beings are responsible for most of it. Our activities have depleted our natural resources and our natural habitat.

One of the main reasons of human pollution is urbanization. When human being started establishing cities and industrialization happened than the level of pollution started increasing. The harsh reality of urbanization is that many beautiful valleys, mountains, hills stations and forests have been converted into vessels of pollution. The needs of human beings kept on increasing day by day and to satisfy those needs we exploited our mother earth. Trees were cut down, rivers and lakes were contaminated and natural reserves were misused.

The result today is that we live in highly polluted cities where day to day life is becoming increasingly tuff. We face many health issues due to this urban pollution and the worst part is that we do not even realize that. It is high time that we must now adopt ways to curb this pollution and create a better world for our future generations.

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in India – Essay 2 (300 words)

Introduction

The days are gone when kids would roam freely on streets and birds would fly in the sky. Such a nice scene has been very rare to see, nowadays. We should blame ourselves only! India was a land of villages; our culture arose from villages only. But than we did something so bad that we are paying the price of it even today. We have replaced the major part of earth with factories, mills and building causing pollution .

There are Various Levels at which Urban Pollution is happening like:

Types and Causes of Urban Pollution

• Air Pollution: The air in the urban areas is always polluted with harmful substances and it is becoming hazardous day by day to breathe. The air in the cities is choking. The smoke from automobiles, factories and power generators make the air unhealthy. There are other factors also like chemical spills and other toxic gases that contaminate the air.
• Water Pollution: As it is there are very less natural water sources in the urban areas and the ones that are there are getting increasingly polluted. There is a lot of disposal in the lakes and rivers like household & industrial disposal. A lot of waste gets mixed with rain and washed into the waters .
• Soil Pollution: The mixing of toxins in the soil is disturbing the eco-system.
• Noise Pollution: Urban areas are one of the noisiest ones. Various sources of noise pollution include traffic noises, loud-speakers and other unwanted noises cause many health issues .
• Radioactive Pollution: The accidental leakage by nuclear power plants poses a big threat.
• Visual Pollution: The over exposure of visuals in the cities in the form of signs, billboards, screens, high intensity lights etc. are also quite disturbing .
• Other than these there is also ‘Thermal pollution’ that is caused by excessive amount of heat trapped in earth’s atmosphere.

Conclusion:

The various means of pollution in urban areas can lead to many health issues in the people living in cities. We are everyday exposed to more than one of these health issues sources.

Essay about Problems Due To Urbanization – Essay 3 (400 words)

We achieved a big step when we urbanized our villages but it came with a price. We surely have a luxurious and a comfortable life in the modern day cities and towns but it has dent a big hole in the health of our environment. It has brought with it many problems that we face. The developing cities saw a rapid growth and this urbanization brought with it a web of difficulties and we seem to be stuck in them.

Problems Due to Urbanization

The need of free space to build roads, buildings and bridges etc made a massive deforestation happen. The trees were cut down, the fields were cleared and space was created to accommodate the ever rising population. It is a no-brainer that cutting of trees is a major reason of pollution. The high density of population created a lack of everything like space, natural resources like water, coal etc.

The interaction of urban population with environment caused some serious problems. The consumption patterns and the lifestyle of urban population changed the environment massively. The urban population consumes more food, energy and water. The air in urban areas is much more polluted than the rural ones. This is mainly because of the use of automobiles and building up of industries and factories that pollute the air at an increasing rate. Almost everything that we use works on electricity. The need for electricity in the cities is always rising and to meet that more power plants are build and that pollutes the air.

The lakes, rivers and any other water bodies in urban areas is always polluted by the dump of industrial waste and sewage. The marine life faces a lot of danger. We cannot ignore that noise pollution is one of the major causes of stress related issues in urban population. More and more trees are cut down to meet the needs of urban people and in exchange very less tress are planted. The use of plastic is another major reason of degradation of environment .

Studies show that urbanization is one of the major causes of depleting natural resources. We are constantly damaging our mother earth and the result is high pollution levels in the cities and towns. It is not possible to reverse the damage that we have already done but we can surely take some preventive measures and control the further damage. It is high time that we take some serious steps to save our planet and leave a better tomorrow .

Essay on Pollution Caused by Urbanization and Its Solutions – Essay 4 (500 words)

The advancement of technology and industrialization has caused the rapid growth in our lifestyle. Long back we started developing cities that are well equipped with all the facilities. The process of urbanization created a big dent in the health of our environment. The natural resources were depleted and this excessive use of technology and energy became a major source of pollution and today we live in a world that is highly polluted and unfit living .

Pollution Caused by Urbanization

There are various pollution that are caused by urbanization like air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, thermal pollution, global warming, deforestation etc. It is high time that now we must adopt ways and means by which we can improve the health of the environment.

There is a Number of Solutions that we can apply and create a Better Tomorrow.

Solutions and Prevention of Urban Pollution

• Conserve Energy: The urban area’s people always use more energy than the rural area’s people. The consumption of energy causes various kinds of pollution. Saving energy wherever possible is one of the best ways to curb pollution. Turn off the electrical appliances when they are not being used. This small step can help in a big way.
• Use less water: We waste a lot of water daily and this can lead to bad consequences. We must try and use as less water as possible .
• Plant more trees: The urban areas are the ones that have less greeneries. Try to plant many trees and vegetation as much as possible in your surrounding areas. Kitchen garden and small lawn near home is a good idea .
• Green belts: Government can help and declare some areas in every city as green belts so that trees and other plants can be grown there without any obstruction .
• Use less loudspeakers: The minimum use of loud speakers can reduce the noise pollution a lot. Decreasing the volume of music at functions after a certain time is also a good move.
• Indoors: The indoors of the homes are also highly polluted in cities. We must have some plants inside the homes also, that can filter the indoor polluted air.
• Industrial waste: The factory owners must try and make possible that industrial waste is not dumped in the lakes or rivers. Government can also make laws for the same.
• Say no to plastic: Plastic is one of the most harmful substances that can pollute air, water and soil all together. We must try and minimize the use of plastic as much as possible. Use just cloth bags instead of plastic.
• Use Public transport: Avoid using cars and bikes for daily use. Try to use public transport, bicycle and car pools. This will not only curb air pollution but will also decrease the traffic on roads.
• Walk: Try to go to nearby areas on foot i.e. walking, this will reduce pollution and will also improve your health .
• Better garbage disposal: Use the structural methods of garbage disposal in cities.

A small step can help in a big way and contribution of every citizen will make the urban areas more livable. Following these simple steps and with a little help from the government, we can definitely reduce the city pollution a lot. If we do not wake up today and do not realize the worst condition of natural resources then after some time our future generations will not be able to survive,  It’s far to enjoy the environment .

Essay on Pollution Due To Urbanization and Digital India – Essay 5 (600 words)

In order to create a better tomorrow we have created a difficult toady. We have urbanized our villages and made them into hi-tech cities that have all the modern facilities and everyday we are creating something or the other new. Today we all dream of a digital India. In a country every citizen uses technology for his/her betterment. We aim to create a world where everything is just a button push away. Everyday more and more Indians are using technology for making their day to day life easy. Today we have become the slaves of technology and cannot live without technology even for a minute. We need to be connected all the time. Even our government is trying to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.

Digital India and Environmental Importance

We see a smart phone in the hands of everybody even a labor of these days. Everybody understands the power and the reach of the internet. We no more call, now video call our loved ones. Any information can reach to any corner of the world in seconds now. We cannot ignore the power of digitalization. But what is the important question here is that can digitization of the digital movement be ‘environmental substantial’. We must ask this question to the founding fathers of digital India; can they assure that through this digitization our precious environment will not be harmed? Is it possible to move forward with modernization without harming the natural resources and without disturbing the ecological balance?

The digital revolution is such thing which touches every aspect of our life as it connects us to the rest of the world all the time. We all know that the digital appliances have carbon emissions and that has harmful effects on our eco system. We are also aware that these appliances emit radiations that are very harmful for humans. It is also advised not to keep mobile phones very near to your head or heart at night.

So in short, these digital devices are more harmful than helpful. We are also consuming power at a rapid speed and soon all the power will be exhausted. We are creating new and more advanced devices day by and day and we forget that all these use power and more devices means more use of power. The consumption is increasing day by day but what we do not realize that natural resources are scarce. There will be a day when they will not be able to satisfy our power needs. Soon there will be a time when these devices will become uncontrollable and we will then suffer from the harmful effects.

The digital India comes with a cost. It can have effects on us at many levels like, it pollutes our environment, it degrades our ecosystem and most importantly it causes many harmful effects on our physical health. The radiations cause vision problems, headaches and many other such issues. What we lack are the tools of awareness that can tell us how to control these effects. Do we really need a digital India today that cannot promise a better tomorrow?

There is a strong need to create a mass concern effort that can bring awareness about these problems. Digitization is good but it must be in controlled levels so that we can move forward but also make sure that our environment is safe. It is our duty to leave a pollution free environment and safe world for our future generations.

Related Information:

National Pollution Control Day

Pollution Essay

Speech on Pollution

Speech on Pollution Caused by Firecrackers

Slogans on Pollution

Article on Pollution

Paragraph on Water Pollution

Paragraph on Air Pollution

Essay on Urbanization

Essay on Pollution and its Effects

Essay on Pollution due to Festivals

Essay on Pollution Due to Firecrackers

Essay on Environmental Pollution

Essay on Vehicle Pollution

Related Posts

Money essay, music essay, importance of education essay, education essay, newspaper essay, my hobby essay.

Essay on Pollution Due to Urbanisation

Introduction.

We often consider urbanisation to be a positive phenomenon. To a large extent, it is rightly so. We know how remote areas get developed, and huge infrastructure is set up as part of urbanisation. This leads to the creation of many educational and job opportunities so that people can lead better lives. Well, urbanisation sounds really interesting, right? But we must also be aware of how it contributes to pollution, and this essay on pollution due to urbanisation will be helpful to know more about it.

Children are familiar with air pollution , water pollution, and land pollution. It is time that we teach them how urbanisation leads to pollution and causes harm to the environment. Like building schools, hospitals and factories, and roads are also developed as part of urbanisation, increasing the chances of pollution by air, water or land. This short essay on pollution due to urbanisation will delve more into this topic.

Negative Effects of Urbanisation

Due to urbanisation, factories and industries are springing up in different places, and the number of vehicles on the road is increasing. The air and gases emitted from factories and vehicles contaminate the atmosphere, thus leading to pollution. In this essay on pollution due to urbanisation, we will see how urbanisation is a major threat to the environment .

The air in cities has become toxic due to the harmful gases and smoke given out by automobiles and factories. Besides, household and industrial wastes are dumped into the water bodies, thus making them unsafe for consumption and use.

We will also see other ways in which urbanisation is causing pollution in the environment through this short essay on pollution due to urbanisation. Trees are cut down to build houses and buildings, and there is a significant rise in noise pollution and land pollution because of urbanisation. Eventually, people will struggle to get clean food and water for survival and suffer from many health issues. Moreover, our environment will deteriorate as all our natural resources will get depleted, resulting in phenomena like global warming , deforestation and acid rain, among others.

Ways to Reduce Pollution Due to Urbanisation

We dream of making every village a city by constructing schools, buildings, offices and roads. Urbanisation is seen as a sign of development, and hence, we believe it to be good for us. But it is equally important to address the issues of pollution to truly enjoy the benefits of urbanisation. This essay on pollution due to urbanisation will now discuss some effective measures to curb pollution by various means.

By fixing leaky pipes, segregating dry/wet and paper/plastic waste, reusing plastic bottles, and using biogas for cooking, we can limit the pollution from households. Besides, we can ensure proper disposal of industrial waste without dumping it in water or land. Industries must also take care to use non-toxic chemicals or materials and set up efficient machines. Thus, this short essay on pollution due to urbanisation emphasises taking active steps to reduce pollution.

Urbanisation is an important developmental measure for any country, but we must ensure that it takes place without damaging the environment. Let us also make our children aware of this problem through this essay on pollution due to urbanisation. You can check out more amazing essays, stories , GK questions, and worksheets for kids on our website.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is urbanisation.

Urbanisation is the process of turning rural villages and areas into modern cities by constructing roads, buildings, schools and offices.

Does urbanisation cause pollution?

Since urbanisation involves setting up factories and building roads, pollution is bound to happen through the air, water, soil, land, and noise.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your Mobile number and Email id will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Request OTP on Voice Call

Post My Comment

Register with BYJU'S & Download Free PDFs

Register with byju's & watch live videos.

See How the World’s Most Polluted Air Compares With Your City’s

By Nadja Popovich Blacki Migliozzi Karthik Patanjali Anjali Singhvi and Jon Huang Dec. 2, 2019

• Share full article

We visualized the damaging, tiny particles that wreak havoc on human health. From the Bay Area to New Delhi, see how the world’s worst pollution compares with your local air.

Air quality based on particulate pollution

The floating particles on this page depict microscopic particulate pollution called PM2.5. The number of particles you see here represents the upper limit for “good” air quality , as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency: 12 micrograms per cubic meter over 24 hours.

We made our best guess for your location, or you can pick another. This is pollution in New York City on the worst air quality day this year. Particulate concentrations reached 41 µg/m 3 during the highest hour, a level that would be considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”

Compare that to the air in California last year, when a thick blanket of smoke from the Camp Fire descended across the Bay Area . Particulate pollution hit nearly 200 µg/m 3 , well within the “very unhealthy” range when people are advised to limit outdoor activity.

But that spike pales in comparison with the recent air quality crisis in northern India: On the most polluted day last month, fine particulate levels in New Delhi reached over 900 µg/m 3 , blowing past the E.P.A.’s definition of “hazardous” air (which maxes out at 500) and into extreme territory.

Outdoor particulate pollution was responsible for an estimated 4.2 million deaths worldwide in 2015, with a majority concentrated in east and south Asia. Millions more fell ill from breathing dirty air.

This fine pollution mainly comes from burning things: Coal in power plants, gasoline in cars, chemicals in industrial processes, or woody materials and whatever else ignites during wildfires. The particles are too small for the eye to see — each about 35 times smaller than a grain of fine beach sand — but in high concentrations they cast a haze in the sky. And, when breathed in, they wreak havoc on human health.

PM2.5 can evade our bodies’ defenses, penetrating deep into the lungs and even entering the bloodstream. It has been shown to exacerbate asthma and other lung disorders, and increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. This microscopic pollution, named because each particle is smaller than 2.5 micrometers across, has also been linked to developmental problems in children and cognitive impairment in the elderly, as well as premature labor and low birth weights.

Under high levels of particulate pollution, “you can’t function, you can’t thrive,” said Alexandra Karambelas, an environmental analyst and research scientist affiliated with Columbia University. “Having access to clean air is kind of a basic human right.”

Developing and newly industrialized regions experience some of the worst particulate pollution today. But even high-income, developed economies, which have made big strides in reducing such pollution, continue to struggle with the quality of their air.

In the United States, which has some of the cleanest air in the world, fine particulate matter still contributed to 88,000 premature deaths in 2015 — making this pollution more deadly than both diabetes and the flu. And pollution in America has worsened since 2016, reversing years of decline .

Before governments can decide how best to tackle unhealthy air, Dr. Karambelas said, they need to better understand the causes of pollution. “Is it lax standards? No enforcement of the standards?” she asked. “Is something happening regionally that plays a large role?”

The city-level data shown here focuses on average particulate pollution, allowing you to compare air quality across the world. But the amount of pollution you breathe also varies within a city, from neighborhood to neighborhood and block to block.

And pollution does not affect all groups equally.

A recent study found that in the United States, people of color tend to breathe dirtier air than white Americans, despite contributing far less to overall pollution. Around the world, the poorest suffer most from unhealthy air.

Wildfires Increase Pollution in California and the Western U.S.

DAILY Air quality based on PM2.5

500 µ g/m 3

Last year’s deadly Camp Fire engulfed Paradise, Calif. , in the Sierra Nevada foothills, causing 85 deaths and destroying nearly 19,000 buildings. Smoke from the fire blanketed much of northern California for nearly two weeks, prompting health warnings.

In San Francisco, nearly 200 miles south of Paradise, fine particulate pollution reached nearly 200 micrograms per cubic meter at the worst hour, according to Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit research group that aggregates data from air-quality monitoring sites. Average daily air quality hovered between “unhealthy” and “very unhealthy” for 11 days. Schools were closed and cable car service suspended; protective face masks and air filters sold out at local stores .

Further inland, Sacramento temporarily earned the unwelcome title of most polluted city in the world .

Such large, high-pollution fires have become more common across the West in recent years, said Daniel Jaffe, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.

“2018 had some of the worst ever air quality in Seattle, where I live,” he said. That year, smoke from fires in both eastern Washington and north of the border in British Columbia clouded the city’s skies for more than a week.

Climate change, and the hot, dry conditions it creates, has led to more catastrophic Western fires and, with them, more air pollution. But fire hazards are also increasing because of greater development in areas abutting wildlands , the over-suppression of natural wildfires, and aging electrical infrastructure ( broken power lines were identified as the cause of California’s deadly Camp Fire ).

Average air pollution in both Seattle and the Bay Area remains relatively low outside of large fire events, but even periodic exposure to such high levels of PM2.5 pollution can have lasting health consequences .

Air Quality: A Public Health Emergency in Northern India

Last month, particulate pollution soared to apocalyptic highs in New Delhi, a city that struggles with air quality throughout the year. On the most polluted day, PM2.5 readings pushed past the limit of “hazardous” air and remained dangerously high over the following weeks.

Officials declared a public health emergency , shutting down schools and distributing millions of protective face masks to residents. Hundreds of flights into and out of the city were canceled or delayed because of low visibility.

In an effort to clear the hazy skies, the government temporarily halted all construction projects and restricted the number of cars on the road, requiring vehicles with odd- and even-numbered license plates to drive on alternate days. But critics said those measures only scratched the surface of the broader air quality crisis.

The early winter surge in air pollution has become “ depressingly predictable ” over the past decade, said Joshua Apte, an air quality scientist and assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Starting in late October and early November, smoke from upwind agricultural burning combines with Delhi’s year-round urban pollution — a toxic mix of vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions and construction dust — to create an eye-watering smog. Fireworks from Diwali celebrations worsen the city’s hazardous air.

At the same time, cold winter air coming down the Himalayan Mountains traps pollution near the surface, creating a belt of haze that can be seen from space. Cities across Northern India, from nearby Agra all the way east to Kolkata, see similar seasonal patterns of pollution.

“Extremes catch the headlines and everyone talks about it,” Dr. Apte said. “But levels of pollution across the region are very high on a normal winter day. Even when the sky appears to be blue in Delhi, pollution concentrations often exceed what we know to be healthy.”

Last week, India’s Supreme Court criticized state governments for repeatedly failing to resolve the regional air pollution crisis and for ignoring the court’s previous orders to limit agricultural burning.

Calling clean air and water a constitutional right, the court said the local governments should pay their citizens compensation if they fail to clean up the environment and gave authorities six weeks to respond. “Human life and health have been put in danger,” the court wrote in its order .

China’s ‘War Against Air Pollution’

Beijing was once synonymous with dirty air. But in 2014, the government announced a “war against pollution,” pledging to clean up the dangerous haze hanging over many of China’s major cities.

“We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty,” Premier Li Keqiang announced in front of 3,000 delegates at the National People’s Congress in an address broadcast on state television.

The country set strict limits on burning coal and implemented new emissions standards for power plants and heavy industry. It also banned the construction of new coal plants surrounding Beijing and other highly polluted areas and shut down some of the oldest, most polluting plants.

Beijing, Shanghai and other large cities restricted the number of high-polluting vehicles on their roads and heavily subsidized electric buses .

Today, air quality in Beijing has improved, though skies remain far from clear. Average daily particulate pollution hovers in the “moderate” to “unhealthy” range. The maximum hourly reading reached nearly 250 micrograms per cubic meter last November. But that’s vastly lower than the levels of pollution that were once common in the city. In 2013, Beijing recorded concentrations from 700 to 900 µg/m 3 of PM2.5, not unlike the air in New Delhi last month.

In 2016, a report from the environmental group Greenpeace warned that pollution controls enacted in eastern China were pushing investment in polluting industries to the west, making the air there more dangerous. Western China is also prone to large seasonal sandstorms from April through June, which contribute to unhealthy air.

Last year, two cities in the west — Hotan and Kashgar, in Xinjiang province — still ranked among the most polluted in the world.

Methodology

The E.P.A.’s Air Quality Index is a tool for helping the public understand air pollution hazard. It is based on average daily (24-hour) pollution exposure. In the top visualization, the hourly maximum particulate levels are translated to the Air Quality Index in order to make the concentration values easier to understand. In the charts, the A.Q.I. categories are applied to daily average pollution.

The data for the top visualization and bar charts comes from Berkeley Earth . Reported values are aggregated at a regional scale from thousands of surface station measurements from around the world.

The map reflects satellite-derived estimates for particulate air pollution from the European Union's Earth Observation Programme, Copernicus. Air pollution is not reliably measured on the ground in many parts of the world, including much of Africa and South America. Station coverage is reflected in Berkeley Earth’s real-time air pollution map .

Advertisement

Pollution is the introduction of harmful materials into the environment. These harmful materials are called pollutants.

Biology, Ecology, Health, Earth Science, Geography

Loading ...

Pollution is the introduction of harmful materials into the environment . These harmful materials are called pollutants . Pollutants can be natural, such as volcanic ash . They can also be created by human activity, such as trash or runoff produced by factories. Pollutants damage the quality of air, water, and land. Many things that are useful to people produce pollution. Cars spew pollutants from their exhaust pipes. Burning coal to create electricity pollutes the air. Industries and homes generate garbage and sewage that can pollute the land and water. Pesticides —chemical poisons used to kill weeds and insects— seep into waterways and harm wildlife . All living things—from one-celled microbes to blue whales—depend on Earth ’s supply of air and water. When these resources are polluted, all forms of life are threatened. Pollution is a global problem. Although urban areas are usually more polluted than the countryside, pollution can spread to remote places where no people live. For example, pesticides and other chemicals have been found in the Antarctic ice sheet . In the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean, a huge collection of microscopic plastic particles forms what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch . Air and water currents carry pollution. Ocean currents and migrating fish carry marine pollutants far and wide. Winds can pick up radioactive material accidentally released from a nuclear reactor and scatter it around the world. Smoke from a factory in one country drifts into another country. In the past, visitors to Big Bend National Park in the U.S. state of Texas could see 290 kilometers (180 miles) across the vast landscape . Now, coal-burning power plants in Texas and the neighboring state of Chihuahua, Mexico have spewed so much pollution into the air that visitors to Big Bend can sometimes see only 50 kilometers (30 miles). The three major types of pollution are air pollution , water pollution , and land pollution . Air Pollution Sometimes, air pollution is visible . A person can see dark smoke pour from the exhaust pipes of large trucks or factories, for example. More often, however, air pollution is invisible . Polluted air can be dangerous, even if the pollutants are invisible. It can make people’s eyes burn and make them have difficulty breathing. It can also increase the risk of lung cancer . Sometimes, air pollution kills quickly. In 1984, an accident at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released a deadly gas into the air. At least 8,000 people died within days. Hundreds of thou sands more were permanently injured. Natural disasters can also cause air pollution to increase quickly. When volcanoes erupt , they eject volcanic ash and gases into the atmosphere . Volcanic ash can discolor the sky for months. After the eruption of the Indonesian volcano of Krakatoa in 1883, ash darkened the sky around the world. The dimmer sky caused fewer crops to be harvested as far away as Europe and North America. For years, meteorologists tracked what was known as the “equatorial smoke stream .” In fact, this smoke stream was a jet stream , a wind high in Earth’s atmosphere that Krakatoa’s air pollution made visible. Volcanic gases , such as sulfur dioxide , can kill nearby residents and make the soil infertile for years. Mount Vesuvius, a volcano in Italy, famously erupted in 79, killing hundreds of residents of the nearby towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Most victims of Vesuvius were not killed by lava or landslides caused by the eruption. They were choked, or asphyxiated , by deadly volcanic gases. In 1986, a toxic cloud developed over Lake Nyos, Cameroon. Lake Nyos sits in the crater of a volcano. Though the volcano did not erupt, it did eject volcanic gases into the lake. The heated gases passed through the water of the lake and collected as a cloud that descended the slopes of the volcano and into nearby valleys . As the toxic cloud moved across the landscape, it killed birds and other organisms in their natural habitat . This air pollution also killed thousands of cattle and as many as 1,700 people. Most air pollution is not natural, however. It comes from burning fossil fuels —coal, oil , and natural gas . When gasoline is burned to power cars and trucks, it produces carbon monoxide , a colorless, odorless gas. The gas is harmful in high concentrations , or amounts. City traffic produces highly concentrated carbon monoxide. Cars and factories produce other common pollutants, including nitrogen oxide , sulfur dioxide, and hydrocarbons . These chemicals react with sunlight to produce smog , a thick fog or haze of air pollution. The smog is so thick in Linfen, China, that people can seldom see the sun. Smog can be brown or grayish blue, depending on which pollutants are in it. Smog makes breathing difficult, especially for children and older adults. Some cities that suffer from extreme smog issue air pollution warnings. The government of Hong Kong, for example, will warn people not to go outside or engage in strenuous physical activity (such as running or swimming) when smog is very thick.

When air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide mix with moisture, they change into acids . They then fall back to earth as acid rain . Wind often carries acid rain far from the pollution source. Pollutants produced by factories and power plants in Spain can fall as acid rain in Norway. Acid rain can kill all the trees in a forest . It can also devastate lakes, streams, and other waterways. When lakes become acidic, fish can’t survive . In Sweden, acid rain created thousands of “ dead lakes ,” where fish no longer live. Acid rain also wears away marble and other kinds of stone . It has erased the words on gravestones and damaged many historic buildings and monuments . The Taj Mahal , in Agra, India, was once gleaming white. Years of exposure to acid rain has left it pale. Governments have tried to prevent acid rain by limiting the amount of pollutants released into the air. In Europe and North America, they have had some success, but acid rain remains a major problem in the developing world , especially Asia. Greenhouse gases are another source of air pollution. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane occur naturally in the atmosphere. In fact, they are necessary for life on Earth. They absorb sunlight reflected from Earth, preventing it from escaping into space. By trapping heat in the atmosphere, they keep Earth warm enough for people to live. This is called the greenhouse effect . But human activities such as burning fossil fuels and destroying forests have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has increased the greenhouse effect, and average temperatures across the globe are rising. The decade that began in the year 2000 was the warmest on record. This increase in worldwide average temperatures, caused in part by human activity, is called global warming . Global warming is causing ice sheets and glaciers to melt. The melting ice is causing sea levels to rise at a rate of two millimeters (0.09 inches) per year. The rising seas will eventually flood low-lying coastal regions . Entire nations, such as the islands of Maldives, are threatened by this climate change . Global warming also contributes to the phenomenon of ocean acidification . Ocean acidification is the process of ocean waters absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Fewer organisms can survive in warmer, less salty waters. The ocean food web is threatened as plants and animals such as coral fail to adapt to more acidic oceans. Scientists have predicted that global warming will cause an increase in severe storms . It will also cause more droughts in some regions and more flooding in others. The change in average temperatures is already shrinking some habitats, the regions where plants and animals naturally live. Polar bears hunt seals from sea ice in the Arctic. The melting ice is forcing polar bears to travel farther to find food , and their numbers are shrinking. People and governments can respond quickly and effectively to reduce air pollution. Chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are a dangerous form of air pollution that governments worked to reduce in the 1980s and 1990s. CFCs are found in gases that cool refrigerators, in foam products, and in aerosol cans . CFCs damage the ozone layer , a region in Earth’s upper atmosphere. The ozone layer protects Earth by absorbing much of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation . When people are exposed to more ultraviolet radiation, they are more likely to develop skin cancer, eye diseases, and other illnesses. In the 1980s, scientists noticed that the ozone layer over Antarctica was thinning. This is often called the “ ozone hole .” No one lives permanently in Antarctica. But Australia, the home of more than 22 million people, lies at the edge of the hole. In the 1990s, the Australian government began an effort to warn people of the dangers of too much sun. Many countries, including the United States, now severely limit the production of CFCs. Water Pollution Some polluted water looks muddy, smells bad, and has garbage floating in it. Some polluted water looks clean, but is filled with harmful chemicals you can’t see or smell. Polluted water is unsafe for drinking and swimming. Some people who drink polluted water are exposed to hazardous chemicals that may make them sick years later. Others consume bacteria and other tiny aquatic organisms that cause disease. The United Nations estimates that 4,000 children die every day from drinking dirty water. Sometimes, polluted water harms people indirectly. They get sick because the fish that live in polluted water are unsafe to eat. They have too many pollutants in their flesh. There are some natural sources of water pollution. Oil and natural gas, for example, can leak into oceans and lakes from natural underground sources. These sites are called petroleum seeps . The world’s largest petroleum seep is the Coal Oil Point Seep, off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The Coal Oil Point Seep releases so much oil that tar balls wash up on nearby beaches . Tar balls are small, sticky pieces of pollution that eventually decompose in the ocean.

Human activity also contributes to water pollution. Chemicals and oils from factories are sometimes dumped or seep into waterways. These chemicals are called runoff. Chemicals in runoff can create a toxic environment for aquatic life. Runoff can also help create a fertile environment for cyanobacteria , also called blue-green algae . Cyanobacteria reproduce rapidly, creating a harmful algal bloom (HAB) . Harmful algal blooms prevent organisms such as plants and fish from living in the ocean. They are associated with “ dead zones ” in the world’s lakes and rivers, places where little life exists below surface water. Mining and drilling can also contribute to water pollution. Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a major contributor to pollution of rivers and streams near coal mines . Acid helps miners remove coal from the surrounding rocks . The acid is washed into streams and rivers, where it reacts with rocks and sand. It releases chemical sulfur from the rocks and sand, creating a river rich in sulfuric acid . Sulfuric acid is toxic to plants, fish, and other aquatic organisms. Sulfuric acid is also toxic to people, making rivers polluted by AMD dangerous sources of water for drinking and hygiene . Oil spills are another source of water pollution. In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, causing oil to gush from the ocean floor. In the following months, hundreds of millions of gallons of oil spewed into the gulf waters. The spill produced large plumes of oil under the sea and an oil slick on the surface as large as 24,000 square kilometers (9,100 square miles). The oil slick coated wetlands in the U.S. states of Louisiana and Mississippi, killing marsh plants and aquatic organisms such as crabs and fish. Birds, such as pelicans , became coated in oil and were unable to fly or access food. More than two million animals died as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Buried chemical waste can also pollute water supplies. For many years, people disposed of chemical wastes carelessly, not realizing its dangers. In the 1970s, people living in the Love Canal area in Niagara Falls, New York, suffered from extremely high rates of cancer and birth defects . It was discovered that a chemical waste dump had poisoned the area’s water. In 1978, 800 families living in Love Canal had to a bandon their homes. If not disposed of properly, radioactive waste from nuclear power plants can escape into the environment. Radioactive waste can harm living things and pollute the water. Sewage that has not been properly treated is a common source of water pollution. Many cities around the world have poor sewage systems and sewage treatment plants. Delhi, the capital of India, is home to more than 21 million people. More than half the sewage and other waste produced in the city are dumped into the Yamuna River. This pollution makes the river dangerous to use as a source of water for drinking or hygiene. It also reduces the river’s fishery , resulting in less food for the local community. A major source of water pollution is fertilizer used in agriculture . Fertilizer is material added to soil to make plants grow larger and faster. Fertilizers usually contain large amounts of the elements nitrogen and phosphorus , which help plants grow. Rainwater washes fertilizer into streams and lakes. There, the nitrogen and phosphorus cause cyanobacteria to form harmful algal blooms. Rain washes other pollutants into streams and lakes. It picks up animal waste from cattle ranches. Cars drip oil onto the street, and rain carries it into storm drains , which lead to waterways such as rivers and seas. Rain sometimes washes chemical pesticides off of plants and into streams. Pesticides can also seep into groundwater , the water beneath the surface of the Earth. Heat can pollute water. Power plants, for example, produce a huge amount of heat. Power plants are often located on rivers so they can use the water as a coolant . Cool water circulates through the plant, absorbing heat. The heated water is then returned to the river. Aquatic creatures are sensitive to changes in temperature. Some fish, for example, can only live in cold water. Warmer river temperatures prevent fish eggs from hatching. Warmer river water also contributes to harmful algal blooms. Another type of water pollution is simple garbage. The Citarum River in Indonesia, for example, has so much garbage floating in it that you cannot see the water. Floating trash makes the river difficult to fish in. Aquatic animals such as fish and turtles mistake trash, such as plastic bags, for food. Plastic bags and twine can kill many ocean creatures. Chemical pollutants in trash can also pollute the water, making it toxic for fish and people who use the river as a source of drinking water. The fish that are caught in a polluted river often have high levels of chemical toxins in their flesh. People absorb these toxins as they eat the fish. Garbage also fouls the ocean. Many plastic bottles and other pieces of trash are thrown overboard from boats. The wind blows trash out to sea. Ocean currents carry plastics and other floating trash to certain places on the globe, where it cannot escape. The largest of these areas, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. According to some estimates, this garbage patch is the size of Texas. The trash is a threat to fish and seabirds, which mistake the plastic for food. Many of the plastics are covered with chemical pollutants. Land Pollution Many of the same pollutants that foul the water also harm the land. Mining sometimes leaves the soil contaminated with dangerous chemicals. Pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural fields are blown by the wind. They can harm plants, animals, and sometimes people. Some fruits and vegetables absorb the pesticides that help them grow. When people consume the fruits and vegetables, the pesticides enter their bodies. Some pesticides can cause cancer and other diseases. A pesticide called DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was once commonly used to kill insects, especially mosquitoes. In many parts of the world, mosquitoes carry a disease called malaria , which kills a million people every year. Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize for his understanding of how DDT can control insects and other pests. DDT is responsible for reducing malaria in places such as Taiwan and Sri Lanka. In 1962, American biologist Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring , which discussed the dangers of DDT. She argued that it could contribute to cancer in humans. She also explained how it was destroying bird eggs, which caused the number of bald eagles, brown pelicans, and ospreys to drop. In 1972, the United States banned the use of DDT. Many other countries also banned it. But DDT didn’t disappear entirely. Today, many governments support the use of DDT because it remains the most effective way to combat malaria. Trash is another form of land pollution. Around the world, paper, cans, glass jars, plastic products, and junked cars and appliances mar the landscape. Litter makes it difficult for plants and other producers in the food web to create nutrients . Animals can die if they mistakenly eat plastic. Garbage often contains dangerous pollutants such as oils, chemicals, and ink. These pollutants can leech into the soil and harm plants, animals, and people. Inefficient garbage collection systems contribute to land pollution. Often, the garbage is picked up and brought to a dump, or landfill . Garbage is buried in landfills. Sometimes, communities produce so much garbage that their landfills are filling up. They are running out of places to dump their trash. A massive landfill near Quezon City, Philippines, was the site of a land pollution tragedy in 2000. Hundreds of people lived on the slopes of the Quezon City landfill. These people made their living from recycling and selling items found in the landfill. However, the landfill was not secure. Heavy rains caused a trash landslide, killing 218 people. Sometimes, landfills are not completely sealed off from the land around them. Pollutants from the landfill leak into the earth in which they are buried. Plants that grow in the earth may be contaminated, and the herbivores that eat the plants also become contaminated. So do the predators that consume the herbivores. This process, where a chemical builds up in each level of the food web, is called bioaccumulation . Pollutants leaked from landfills also leak into local groundwater supplies. There, the aquatic food web (from microscopic algae to fish to predators such as sharks or eagles) can suffer from bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals. Some communities do not have adequate garbage collection systems, and trash lines the side of roads. In other places, garbage washes up on beaches. Kamilo Beach, in the U.S. state of Hawai'i, is littered with plastic bags and bottles carried in by the tide . The trash is dangerous to ocean life and reduces economic activity in the area. Tourism is Hawai'i’s largest industry . Polluted beaches discourage tourists from investing in the area’s hotels, restaurants, and recreational activities. Some cities incinerate , or burn, their garbage. Incinerating trash gets rid of it, but it can release dangerous heavy metals and chemicals into the air. So while trash incinerators can help with the problem of land pollution, they sometimes add to the problem of air pollution. Reducing Pollution Around the world, people and governments are making efforts to combat pollution. Recycling, for instance, is becoming more common. In recycling, trash is processed so its useful materials can be used again. Glass, aluminum cans, and many types of plastic can be melted and reused . Paper can be broken down and turned into new paper. Recycling reduces the amount of garbage that ends up in landfills, incinerators, and waterways. Austria and Switzerland have the highest recycling rates. These nations recycle between 50 and 60 percent of their garbage. The United States recycles about 30 percent of its garbage. Governments can combat pollution by passing laws that limit the amount and types of chemicals factories and agribusinesses are allowed to use. The smoke from coal-burning power plants can be filtered. People and businesses that illegally dump pollutants into the land, water, and air can be fined for millions of dollars. Some government programs, such as the Superfund program in the United States, can force polluters to clean up the sites they polluted. International agreements can also reduce pollution. The Kyoto Protocol , a United Nations agreement to limit the emission of greenhouse gases, has been signed by 191 countries. The United States, the world’s second-largest producer of greenhouse gases, did not sign the agreement. Other countries, such as China, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, have not met their goals. Still, many gains have been made. In 1969, the Cuyahoga River, in the U.S. state of Ohio, was so clogged with oil and trash that it caught on fire. The fire helped spur the Clean Water Act of 1972. This law limited what pollutants could be released into water and set standards for how clean water should be. Today, the Cuyahoga River is much cleaner. Fish have returned to regions of the river where they once could not survive. But even as some rivers are becoming cleaner, others are becoming more polluted. As countries around the world become wealthier, some forms of pollution increase. Countries with growing economies usually need more power plants, which produce more pollutants. Reducing pollution requires environmental, political, and economic leadership. Developed nations must work to reduce and recycle their materials, while developing nations must work to strengthen their economies without destroying the environment. Developed and developing countries must work together toward the common goal of protecting the environment for future use.

How Long Does It Last? Different materials decompose at different rates. How long does it take for these common types of trash to break down?

• Paper: 2-4 weeks
• Orange peel: 6 months
• Milk carton: 5 years
• Plastic bag: 15 years
• Tin can: 100 years
• Plastic bottle: 450 years
• Glass bottle: 500 years
• Styrofoam: Never

Indoor Air Pollution The air inside your house can be polluted. Air and carpet cleaners, insect sprays, and cigarettes are all sources of indoor air pollution.

Light Pollution Light pollution is the excess amount of light in the night sky. Light pollution, also called photopollution, is almost always found in urban areas. Light pollution can disrupt ecosystems by confusing the distinction between night and day. Nocturnal animals, those that are active at night, may venture out during the day, while diurnal animals, which are active during daylight hours, may remain active well into the night. Feeding and sleep patterns may be confused. Light pollution also indicates an excess use of energy. The dark-sky movement is a campaign by people to reduce light pollution. This would reduce energy use, allow ecosystems to function more normally, and allow scientists and stargazers to observe the atmosphere.

Noise Pollution Noise pollution is the constant presence of loud, disruptive noises in an area. Usually, noise pollution is caused by construction or nearby transportation facilities, such as airports. Noise pollution is unpleasant, and can be dangerous. Some songbirds, such as robins, are unable to communicate or find food in the presence of heavy noise pollution. The sound waves produced by some noise pollutants can disrupt the sonar used by marine animals to communicate or locate food.

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Illustrators

Educator reviewer, last updated.

March 6, 2024

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service .

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

Related Resources

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization

Essay on pollution due to urbanization in english for students and others.

Pollution is one of the biggest issues that we as a society face today. The everyday deteriorating environment is a big challenge for humans. The mixing of any harmful substance or pollutants in our natural environment is called pollution. It is due to human activity, many contaminators get introduced in the natural environment thereby polluting it to harmful levels. There are many reasons why pollution occurs and one of the major one is urbanization.

Long and Short Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in English

In this section we have tried to cover all aspects of pollution due to urbanization in varying lengths to help you with the same in your exam. You can select any Pollution due to Urbanization essay as per your need:

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization – Essay 1 (200 words)

Our mother earth is choking and we are helpless. We face many challenges today and one of them is pollution. When any contaminating substance is added in our environment and pollutes our natural resources called pollution. There are many reasons of pollution and human beings are responsible for most of it. Our activities have depleted our natural resources and our natural habitat.

One of the main reasons of human pollution is urbanization. When human being started establishing cities and industrialization happened than the level of pollution started increasing. The harsh reality of urbanization is that many beautiful valleys, mountains, hills stations and forests have been converted into vessels of pollution. The needs of human beings kept on increasing day by day and to satisfy those needs we exploited our mother earth. Trees were cut down, rivers and lakes were contaminated and natural reserves were misused.

The result today is that we live in highly polluted cities where day to day life is becoming increasingly tuff. We face many health issues due to this urban pollution and the worst part is that we do not even realize that. It is high time that we must now adopt ways to curb this pollution and create a better world for our future generations.

Essay on Pollution due to Urbanization in India – Essay 2 (300 words)

Introduction

The days are gone when kids would roam freely on streets and birds would fly in the sky. Such a nice scene has been very rare to see, nowadays. We should blame ourselves only! India was a land of villages; our culture arose from villages only. But than we did something so bad that we are paying the price of it even today. We have replaced the major part of earth with factories, mills and building causing pollution .

There are Various Levels at which Urban Pollution is happening like:

Types and Causes of Urban Pollution

• Air Pollution:  The air in the urban areas is always polluted with harmful substances and it is becoming hazardous day by day to breathe. The air in the cities is choking. The smoke from automobiles, factories and power generators make the air unhealthy. There are other factors also like chemical spills and other toxic gases that contaminate the air.
• Water Pollution:  As it is there are very less natural water sources in the urban areas and the ones that are there are getting increasingly polluted. There is a lot of disposal in the lakes and rivers like household & industrial disposal. A lot of waste gets mixed with rain and washed into the waters .
• Soil Pollution:  The mixing of toxins in the soil is disturbing the eco-system.
• Noise Pollution:  Urban areas are one of the noisiest ones. Various sources of noise pollution include traffic noises, loud-speakers and other unwanted noises cause many health issues .
• Radioactive Pollution:  The accidental leakage by nuclear power plants poses a big threat.
• Visual Pollution:  The over exposure of visuals in the cities in the form of signs, billboards, screens, high intensity lights etc. are also quite disturbing .
• Other than these there is also ‘Thermal pollution’ that is caused by excessive amount of heat trapped in earth’s atmosphere.

Conclusion:

The various means of pollution in urban areas can lead to many health issues in the people living in cities. We are everyday exposed to more than one of these health issues sources.

Essay about Problems Due To Urbanization – Essay 3 (400 words)

We achieved a big step when we urbanized our villages but it came with a price. We surely have a luxurious and a comfortable life in the modern day cities and towns but it has dent a big hole in the health of our environment. It has brought with it many problems that we face. The developing cities saw a rapid growth and this urbanization brought with it a web of difficulties and we seem to be stuck in them.

Problems Due to Urbanization

The need of free space to build roads, buildings and bridges etc made a massive deforestation happen. The trees were cut down, the fields were cleared and space was created to accommodate the ever rising population. It is a no-brainer that cutting of trees is a major reason of pollution. The high density of population created a lack of everything like space, natural resources like water, coal etc.

The interaction of urban population with environment caused some serious problems. The consumption patterns and the lifestyle of urban population changed the environment massively. The urban population consumes more food, energy and water. The air in urban areas is much more polluted than the rural ones. This is mainly because of the use of automobiles and building up of industries and factories that pollute the air at an increasing rate. Almost everything that we use works on electricity. The need for electricity in the cities is always rising and to meet that more power plants are build and that pollutes the air.

The lakes, rivers and any other water bodies in urban areas is always polluted by the dump of industrial waste and sewage. The marine life faces a lot of danger. We cannot ignore that noise pollution is one of the major causes of stress related issues in urban population. More and more trees are cut down to meet the needs of urban people and in exchange very less tress are planted. The use of plastic is another major reason of degradation of environment .

Studies show that urbanization is one of the major causes of depleting natural resources. We are constantly damaging our mother earth and the result is high pollution levels in the cities and towns. It is not possible to reverse the damage that we have already done but we can surely take some preventive measures and control the further damage. It is high time that we take some serious steps to save our planet and leave a better tomorrow .

Essay on Pollution Caused by Urbanization and Its Solutions – Essay 4 (500 words)

The advancement of technology and industrialization has caused the rapid growth in our lifestyle. Long back we started developing cities that are well equipped with all the facilities. The process of urbanization created a big dent in the health of our environment. The natural resources were depleted and this excessive use of technology and energy became a major source of pollution and today we live in a world that is highly polluted and unfit living .

Pollution Caused by Urbanization

There are various pollution that are caused by urbanization like air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, thermal pollution, global warming, deforestation etc. It is high time that now we must adopt ways and means by which we can improve the health of the environment.

There is a Number of Solutions that we can apply and create a Better Tomorrow.

Solutions and Prevention of Urban Pollution

• Conserve Energy:  The urban area’s people always use more energy than the rural area’s people. The consumption of energy causes various kinds of pollution. Saving energy wherever possible is one of the best ways to curb pollution. Turn off the electrical appliances when they are not being used. This small step can help in a big way.
• Use less water:  We waste a lot of water daily and this can lead to bad consequences. We must try and use as less water as possible .
• Plant more trees:  The urban areas are the ones that have less greeneries. Try to plant many trees and vegetation as much as possible in your surrounding areas. Kitchen garden and small lawn near home is a good idea .
• Green belts:  Government can help and declare some areas in every city as green belts so that trees and other plants can be grown there without any obstruction .
• Use less loudspeakers:  The minimum use of loud speakers can reduce the noise pollution a lot. Decreasing the volume of music at functions after a certain time is also a good move.
• Indoors:  The indoors of the homes are also highly polluted in cities. We must have some plants inside the homes also, that can filter the indoor polluted air.
• Industrial waste:  The factory owners must try and make possible that industrial waste is not dumped in the lakes or rivers. Government can also make laws for the same.
• Say no to plastic:  Plastic is one of the most harmful substances that can pollute air, water and soil all together. We must try and minimize the use of plastic as much as possible. Use just cloth bags instead of plastic.
• Use Public transport:  Avoid using cars and bikes for daily use. Try to use public transport, bicycle and car pools. This will not only curb air pollution but will also decrease the traffic on roads.
• Walk:  Try to go to nearby areas on foot i.e. walking, this will reduce pollution and will also improve your health .
• Better garbage disposal:  Use the structural methods of garbage disposal in cities.

A small step can help in a big way and contribution of every citizen will make the urban areas more livable. Following these simple steps and with a little help from the government, we can definitely reduce the city pollution a lot. If we do not wake up today and do not realize the worst condition of natural resources then after some time our future generations will not be able to survive,  It’s far to enjoy the environment .

Essay on Pollution Due To Urbanization and Digital India – Essay 5 (600 words)

In order to create a better tomorrow we have created a difficult toady. We have urbanized our villages and made them into hi-tech cities that have all the modern facilities and everyday we are creating something or the other new. Today we all dream of a digital India. In a country every citizen uses technology for his/her betterment. We aim to create a world where everything is just a button push away. Everyday more and more Indians are using technology for making their day to day life easy. Today we have become the slaves of technology and cannot live without technology even for a minute. We need to be connected all the time. Even our government is trying to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.

Digital India and Environmental Importance

We see a smart phone in the hands of everybody even a labor of these days. Everybody understands the power and the reach of the internet. We no more call, now video call our loved ones. Any information can reach to any corner of the world in seconds now. We cannot ignore the power of digitalization. But what is the important question here is that can digitization of the digital movement be ‘environmental substantial’. We must ask this question to the founding fathers of digital India; can they assure that through this digitization our precious environment will not be harmed? Is it possible to move forward with modernization without harming the natural resources and without disturbing the ecological balance?

The digital revolution is such thing which touches every aspect of our life as it connects us to the rest of the world all the time. We all know that the digital appliances have carbon emissions and that has harmful effects on our eco system. We are also aware that these appliances emit radiations that are very harmful for humans. It is also advised not to keep mobile phones very near to your head or heart at night.

So in short, these digital devices are more harmful than helpful. We are also consuming power at a rapid speed and soon all the power will be exhausted. We are creating new and more advanced devices day by and day and we forget that all these use power and more devices means more use of power. The consumption is increasing day by day but what we do not realize that natural resources are scarce. There will be a day when they will not be able to satisfy our power needs. Soon there will be a time when these devices will become uncontrollable and we will then suffer from the harmful effects.

The digital India comes with a cost. It can have effects on us at many levels like, it pollutes our environment, it degrades our ecosystem and most importantly it causes many harmful effects on our physical health. The radiations cause vision problems, headaches and many other such issues. What we lack are the tools of awareness that can tell us how to control these effects. Do we really need a digital India today that cannot promise a better tomorrow?

There is a strong need to create a mass concern effort that can bring awareness about these problems. Digitization is good but it must be in controlled levels so that we can move forward but also make sure that our environment is safe. It is our duty to leave a pollution free environment and safe world for our future generations.

Related Information: National Pollution Control Day

Pollution Essay

Speech on Pollution

Speech on Pollution Caused by Firecrackers

Slogans on Pollution

Article on Pollution

Paragraph on Water Pollution

Paragraph on Air Pollution

Essay on Urbanization

Essay on Pollution and its Effects

Essay on Pollution due to Festivals

Essay on Pollution Due to Firecrackers

Essay on Environmental Pollution

Essay on Vehicle Pollution

Presidents of India

Labour Day Essay

Abraham Lincoln: From Humble Beginnings to Legendary Leadership

Essay on Mahavir Jayanti for all Class in 100 to 500 Words in English

Essay on Indian Heritage for Students and Children

Essay on Gender Equality

Eassy on Good Habits

Essay – My Dream

Pencil: An Essay on Pencil

Short Essay on Pencil

Essay on Effects of Global Warming for Kids, Children and Students

Describe the importance of water in our lives in an essay

Comments are closed.

Welcome, Login to your account.

Recover your password.

A password will be e-mailed to you.

Project dimming Canberra's street lights shows 25 per cent reduction in light pollution

By Victor Petrovic

Topic: Science and Technology

Lights on Canberra's streets were turned up and down for the project, revealing more of the night sky. ( ABC: Phil Jaiyawong )

An "adaptive lighting" project in Canberra, which reduced the brightness of streetlights by up to half, showed a 25 per cent reduction in light pollution.

The project used around 30,000 "smart" streetlights in Canberra during off-peak times, and also found a reduction in carbon emissions.

What's next? 

It's hoped the approach can be applied elsewhere, with the New Zealand cities of Auckland and Christchurch already looking into it.

Looking up at the thousands of street lights that illuminate our cities, former town planner and designer Danny Bettay has always asked one simple question: "Do we really need this, or is this overkill?".

"Historically, street lights were designed, indirectly for people, but designed for technologies, essentially for horse and carriage,"  Mr Bettay said.

"And over 200 years of having these infrastructures embedded in our environment, we have slowly come to realise that there's some environmental harms of technologies that we've created in the past."

In order to reduce the impact street lighting has on the environment, Mr Bettay initiated a trial in Canberra of something called "adaptive lighting"  — dimming or brightening street lights to match people's needs at the time.

Danny Bettay hopes the adaptive lighting project can be applied to reduce light pollution in cities. ( ABC News: Victor Petrovic )

Of Canberra's roughly 83,000 streetlights, more than 30,000 have been fitted with LED globes and "smart nodes",  which allow their brightness to be controlled remotely from a laptop.

So between 11pm and 5am during the first half of 2024, the streetlights, mainly in areas less used at night, were dimmed 10 per cent every 15 minutes until they were at half of their usual brightness.

Clearing the sky

Up at Canberra's Mt Stromlo Observatory, astronomer Brad Tucker was monitoring cameras measuring how bright the night sky was, and along with satellite data, looking to see whether the dimming was revealing more of the night sky.

"So what we were finding during this dimming is that as the lights would dim, we could definitively ... measure a reduction of light pollution," Dr Tucker said.

"So for every 10 per cent the lights are dimmed, it's about a 5 per cent change in the glow of the sky.

"So when we dim all the way to about 50 per cent, that means the sky has been reduced by about 25 per cent in terms of brightness."

Adjust these suburban lights and see how they change the night sky (notes)

Dr Tucker said with even a 25 per cent clearer view of the night sky, the amount of extra detail was profound.

"So as that gets to that 25 per cent level, we're seeing 25 per cent 'darker-ness' of the sky, so we'll see more stars," Dr Tucker said.

"We'll see the fainter stars will be a bit brighter, the brighter stars will get even brighter, and some new stars pop out that were previously lost.

"Things like the Milky Way, detail of the Milky Way got a little bit more better resolved as that sky dropped."

The adaptive lighting project can be controlled from Mr Bettay's laptop. ( ABC News: Victor Petrovic )

On top of the reduction in light pollution, the scientists found the reduction in brightness of the lights reduced their carbon emissions by 1,085 tonnes.

The scientists also hope a reduction in light can also help animals who've been disrupted by growing cities and towns.

'Scalable in any context'

The Australian-first trial was started when Mr Bettay was working for private company Omexom, which is contracted by the ACT government and is now the focus of Mr Bettay's PhD at the Australian National University.

Mr Bettay said he hopes the results of their trial can be applied in other jurisdictions, but that the ACT was uniquely placed to embark on the project as its government owns the street-lighting infrastructure, which is not the case in other major cities in Australia.

One of the LED streetlights in a quieter part of Canberra that was part of the trial. ( ABC News: Victor Petrovic )

He's already in discussions with the New Zealand cities of Auckland and Christchurch about the results.

"I guess it's up to the other jurisdictions to think about why they want to use adaptive lighting, but the technology and the approach itself is scalable in any context," Mr Bettay said.

"Auckland is a much bigger city than Canberra, but they have 110,000 lights that are equipped with smart nodes that have been equipped for a while, they just haven't used them.

"They're a city much more akin to Sydney as opposed to Canberra, so they have a night-time economy that they need to take into consideration, so it's a little bit different to Canberra."

Mr Bettay said part of the trial involves monitoring the risk to safety, crime and traffic by reducing light on streets, but that the reduction is often hard for the human eye to detect.

"We've had engineers and other street lighting practitioners who've had 30 plus years experience, who sat out and looked at street lights with us, and they were unable to distinguish between 70 per cent and 100 per cent," Mr Bettay said.

"So I think it's hard for the human eye to detect that change, although some people have, some people say they can detect the change between 50 per cent and 100 per cent."

Dr Brad Tucker said the adaptive lighting project helped to reveal more of the night sky. ( Supplied )

Regaining connection

Dr Tucker hopes reducing light pollution through things like adaptive lighting can help build back our connection to the night sky.

"Humans have been around on this earth for hundreds of thousands of years, but we've kind of erased our connection to the sky in about 100 years," Dr Tucker said.

"We've kind of erased a part of human culture and human history, not just for people like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders with their deep connection to land and sky, but for all of us who, we like to go out and enjoy the views, we like to enjoy out and see what's above.

"We go away camping and we go away into dark skies so we can, you know, escape and disconnect, and if you start losing that ability, we're never going to be disconnected."

Interactive notes and credits: The interactive is based on the Bortle scale, as well as results from Dr Tucker's experiments in Canberra. The lighting change interactive is based on a hypothetical suburban area with a Bortle scale level of 7 with light pollution sources: street lights (50 per cent); house lights (40 per cent); sport lights (10 per cent). Solutions to light pollution: changing street lights to LED (50 per cent reduction in light pollution from that source); dimming street lights to 70 per cent (15 per cent reduction); changing sport lights from cool to warm LEDs (15 per cent reduction); shielding outside lights (50 per cent reduction). 

Concept and production: Kylie Andrews; Development: Andrew Hystek-Dunk, Matthew Heffernan; Production: Chloe Brice; Expert advice: Dr Brad Tucker.  Return to lighting change interactive

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My Portfolio
• Latest News
• Stock Market
• Biden Economy
• Stocks: Most Actives
• Stocks: Gainers
• Stocks: Losers
• Trending Tickers
• World Indices
• US Treasury Bonds Rates
• Top Mutual Funds
• Options: Highest Open Interest
• Options: Highest Implied Volatility
• Basic Materials
• Communication Services
• Consumer Cyclical
• Consumer Defensive
• Financial Services
• Industrials
• Real Estate
• Stock Comparison
• Advanced Chart
• Currency Converter
• Credit Cards
• Balance Transfer Cards
• Cash-back Cards
• Rewards Cards
• Travel Cards
• Credit Card Offers
• Best Free Checking
• Student Loans
• Personal Loans
• Car insurance
• Mortgage Refinancing
• Mortgage Calculator
• Morning Brief
• Market Domination
• Market Domination Overtime
• Asking for a Trend
• Opening Bid
• Stocks in Translation
• Lead This Way
• Good Buy or Goodbye?
• Financial Freestyle
• Capitol Gains
• Living Not So Fabulously
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Yahoo Finance

China’s war on pollution adds two years of life but there’s much more to do.

(Bloomberg) -- The average Chinese citizen can expect to live two years longer thanks to the country’s push for cleaner skies, according to the University of Chicago.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Nazi Bunker’s Leafy Makeover Turns Ugly Past Into Urban Eyecatcher

Chicago Overcomes DNC Skeptics With Calm, Parties and Sun

China has reduced air pollution by 41% in the decade through 2022 due to the success of stricter public policies, the university’s Energy Policy Institute said in a report on Wednesday. The government’s National Air Quality Action Plan was launched after harmful smog peaked in 2013, targeting fewer cars on the road, cuts to steel capacity and bans on coal-fired power plants in major urban areas.

Other measures included encouraging the adoption of renewables and the switch from coal to cleaner-burning natural gas.

China accounts for 20% of global health problems associated with air quality, and pollution levels in the country are still 5.6 times higher than the World Health Organization’s guideline, according to the report. Only tobacco use is a bigger threat to life expectancy, and meeting the WHO’s pollution target would add another 2.3 years to the nation’s average life span.

The government’s latest goal, introduced in November 2023, is to cut smog by 10% in major cities from 2020 levels by the end of next year.

Air pollution around the world is highly unequal, according to the report, which found that people in the worst affected areas breathe air that is six times more polluted than those in the least affected. As a result, their life expectancy falls by an average of 2.7 years compared to those living in the cleanest places.

On the Wire

China’s steel-industry slowdown looks set to deepen, with BHP Group Ltd., the world’s biggest miner, and China Baowu Group Ltd., the top iron ore buyer, flagging concerns as demand fades after decades of growth.

Fortescue Ltd. reported a small increase in full-year profit, but the fourth-largest iron ore miner missed analyst forecasts as it battled inflationary pressures while weathering a slowdown in demand for the steelmaking material from biggest customer China.

BHP Group Ltd. offered a cautious near-term outlook for copper, while sticking to the widely-held view that the energy transition metal is eventually headed for severe shortages and much higher prices.

This Week’s Diary

(All times Beijing unless noted.)

Wednesday, Aug. 28:

CCTD’s weekly online briefing on Chinese coal, 15:00

PetroChina earnings briefing in HK, 16:00

Qingdao Multinationals Summit, day 2

EARNINGS: Cnooc, BYD, Gotion, Ganfeng Lithium, CNGR, Chalco, Jiangxi Copper

Thursday, Aug. 29:

Baosteel online earnings briefing in HK, 14:00

Cnooc earnings briefing in HK, 16:15

Qingdao Multinationals Summit, day 3

EARNINGS: Longi, Tongwei, Windey, GCL-Poly, Hesteel, Shandong Steel, Maanshan Steel, GEM, Ningbo Shanshan, China MCC, Cosco

Friday, Aug. 30

China weekly iron ore port stockpiles

CMOC online earnings briefing, 10:00

Shanghai exchange weekly commodities inventory, ~15:00

EARNINGS: Tianqi, Jinko, JA Solar, Ming Yang, Yangtze Power, Three Gorges, Shenhua, Angang Steel, Citic Ltd.

Saturday, Aug. 31

China’s official PMIs for August, 09:30

Sunday, Sept. 1

China International Steel Congress in Shanghai, (through Sept. 2)

Listen on Zero: The Chinese Activist Who Mapped the Country's Pollution Problem

--With assistance from Rob Verdonck.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

Hong Kong’s Old Airport Becomes Symbol of City’s Property Pain

Far-Right ‘Terrorgram’ Chatrooms Are Fueling a Wave of Power Grid Attacks

US Tech Is Holding Back Some AI Products From Europe

Losing Your Job Used to Be Shameful. Now It’s a Whole Identity

FOMO Frenzy Fuels Taiwan Home Prices Despite Threat of China Invasion

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

• Up next View Comments Advertisement

Maintenance work is planned from 21:00 BST on Tuesday 20th August 2024 to 21:00 BST on Wednesday 21st August 2024, and on Thursday 29th August 2024 from 11:00 to 12:00 BST.

During this time the performance of our website may be affected - searches may run slowly, some pages may be temporarily unavailable, and you may be unable to log in or to access content. If this happens, please try refreshing your web browser or try waiting two to three minutes before trying again.

We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause and thank you for your patience.

Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology

Optical and molecular characteristics of urban wastewater dissolved organic matter: insights into their correlations †.

* Corresponding authors

a College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China E-mail: [email protected]

b UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development, State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

c College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830047, China

Urban domestic wastewater is a significant source of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in aquatic environments, critically impacting urban water quality. This study integrates the optical properties and molecular features of DOM, providing a comprehensive understanding of its behavior in urban sanitary sewage. Utilizing ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, three-dimensional synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy, and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS), we establish a robust bidirectional correlation between optical properties and molecular characteristics. Our findings reveal that urban domestic wastewater is predominantly composed of protein-like substances and microbial humic components, rich in heteroatoms and homologous compounds. The established correlations between optical and molecular features validate the DOM characterization system, demonstrating consistency between photochemical properties and molecular characteristics. Molecules related to photochemical parameters align with high H/C and low O/C ratio regions. The correlation analysis indicates that the highly associated areas are the fluorescent domains of protein-like materials and microbially derived humic-like substances. This innovative approach provides actionable insights for urban water quality management, highlighting the critical role of these methods in effective environmental monitoring.

Supplementary files

• Supplementary information PDF (5130K)

Article information

Download citation, permissions.

Optical and molecular characteristics of urban wastewater dissolved organic matter: insights into their correlations

J. Chu and Z. Liao, Environ. Sci.: Water Res. Technol. , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4EW00519H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page .

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page .

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content .

Social activity

Search articles by author.

This article has not yet been cited.

Advertisements

In Kinshasa, nature-based solutions are easing challenges from rapid urbanization and climate change

Kinshasa, the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is growing rapidly.

Kinshasa: one of Africa’s largest cities

The capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa, is one of Africa's largest cities . Already home to over 15 million people, Kinshasa is growing rapidly, expanding by about 2,000 people and five hectares every day, according to World Bank estimates.

Much of the city’s growth is informal, sprawling out to the savannah south and east of the capital. Green spaces are being replaced by concrete, metal, and bare earth, ushering in climate challenges like flooding, soil erosion and higher temperatures.

These problems stem from rapid unplanned urbanization . Without sufficient planning, the capital is expanding into areas that lack basic infrastructure and services like drainage systems and solid waste management. Construction on unstable, sandy soil is putting infrastructure, homes and people at risk of erosion. Urban heat is also a challenge, with temperatures in the city recorded up to 8° C higher than outside the capital.

The untapped potential of nature-based solutions

To help tackle these challenges, the City of Kinshasa requested the City Climate Finance Gap Fund (the Gap Fund) , a partnership implemented by the World Bank and European Investment Bank, to explore the potential of using nature-based solutions to build urban climate resilience, sequester carbon emissions and provide socio-economic benefits.

The Gap Fund provided US$ 260,000 in technical assistance to help identify, evaluate, and integrate specific nature-based solutions in Kinshasa. Government actors from the City of Kinshasa, the Department of Urban Development and the Ministry of Public Works partnered with World Bank specialists and consultants from Groupe Huit, ARTER and VSI Afrique to implement the Gap Fund technical assistance proposal.

The work builds on the World Bank-financed Kinshasa Multisector Development and Urban Resilience project  as well as support previously provided by the World Bank’s Global Program on Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience at the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR).

Pinpointing solutions to design an atlas of plant species

The team used the World Bank’s Nature-based Solutions Opportunity Scan (NBSOS), a digital algorithm that uses high-resolution geospatial data and analysis to help pinpoint nature-based solutions that would support Kinshasa’s three goals: to sequester carbon , reduce natural disaster risk , and provide socio-economic benefits.

The tool helped analyze physical conditions such as topography and soil composition, determine suitable locations, and compile a list of nature-based solutions, drawn from the 14 types outlined in the World Bank Catalogue of Nature-based Solutions for Urban Resilience . Examples include urban farming, terraces and slopes and green corridors.

For the first time, the NBSOS tool was adapted to the local and hyper-local scale to provide recommendations that were site specific and customized to local needs. Local, indigenous knowledge from people living in Ibi, a village near Kinshasa known for its sustainable agroforestry practices and biodiversity expertise, was integrated in analysing suitable vegetation types. Their input was crucial in choosing native, local and exotic plant species. 

The team also integrated knowledge from the NBSOS tool with data on local vegetation types to create a ‘Vegetation Atlas’ which scored each plant’s ability to reduce vulnerability to floods, heatwaves and soil erosion, sequester carbon and enhance socio-economic development. By linking the Vegetation Atlas to the NBSOS, the team could identify the most effective nature-based solutions and plant species for specific areas.

Comparing the benefits of different nature-based solutions activities on carbon sequestration, risk reduction and socio-economic benefit. 

Impact assessment of different nature-based solution activities in Kinshasa.

Tackling soil erosion and flood risk, and supporting livelihoods

Results from the assessment allowed the city and experts to develop a city-wide nature-based solutions strategy and pilot solutions in Kimwenza, a hilly commune on a slope to the south of Kinshasa owned by the Loyola University of Congo. The area is a large hotspot for soil erosion and home to more than 300 families, many of whom live in basic housing, facing challenges of unemployment, poverty and soil erosion.

The pilot site was divided into three zones – uphill, intermediate and lower – with targeted nature-based solutions for each zone designed to prevent soil erosion, restore soil fertility, create jobs and provide food for local people . These solutions included the layered planting of local species of herbs, plants and trees on terraces, the creation of urban farms and pedestrian pathways, as well as the medium- to long-term maintenance of the site.

The team also trained staff from the university on implementation, including planting techniques and plant spacing. The university is now sharing this knowledge by training and working with people in local communities to implement the solutions.

The Office for Roads and Drainage, the national office in charge of drainage work, also worked with the university to identify complementary drainage solutions for Kimwenza, including building a structure that can hold and channel runoff during heavy rains. This work is due to be completed in 2024.

Impact: an integrative tool that can support nature-based solutions at the local level and in cities globally

The technical assistance provided by the Gap Fund is leading to concrete results and investments:

• The City of Kinshasa developed a nature-based solutions strategy informing the city’s investment program and identifying a long list of local and city-wide investments with an estimated value of US$153M.
• Of that, a selected short list of nature-based solutions investments , estimated at US$4M, will be taken up for further preparation and financing by the World Bank.
• The city’s nature-based solutions strategy is expected to inform dialogue on and help mobilize additional financing for future urban investments financed by the World Bank and other development partners in Kinshasa.

The local and national government have also increased their understanding of the opportunities for nature-based solutions, including potential costs and strategic investments sequencing.

Looking ahead, the team is working with the government to explore scaling up their support to other sites in Kimwenza and Kinshasa that face similar challenges. This work could inspire and inform governments around the world that want to adopt nature-based solutions to help address urban challenges while mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Find out more about the City Climate Finance Gap Fund projects and technical assistance on the Gap Fund LinkedIn page.

City Climate Finance Gap Fund

The World Bank on Urban Development

Assessing the Benefits and Costs of Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Resilience: A Guideline for Project Developers

This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser. To learn more about cookies, click here .

Essays on climate crisis a welcome call to action

Share this:.

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Things to do
• Real Estate
• Newsletters

Opinion Letters to the Editor

I encourage people to do the same thing now to address climate change. Send your elected representatives emails supporting climate initiatives. Details about bipartisan carbon fee and dividend legislation, permitting reform and upgrading our national grid can be found on the Citizens’ Climate Lobby website. This outreach takes only a few minutes and their offices will respond. We can’t risk worsening wildfires, floods and increasing food prices.

— Margaret Mann, Point Loma

Do your part on the climate crisis

Thank you for featuring three op-eds on climate change. Now everyone needs to answer Michelle Obama’s question: What are you going to do? There are simple and effective actions people can take. Volunteer for the Environmental Voter Project, which works to have people who are concerned about the environment become regular voters. Volunteer for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the most effective organization in the country at helping Congress to pass meaningful climate legislation. It’s election season, ask candidates what they are going to do about climate change and remind them you are a climate voter. Joan Baez said “action is the antidote to despair.”  We are grateful the Union-Tribune gave so much space to this critical issue. Now it’s up to the rest of us to get to work.

— Mark Reynolds, Loma Portal

More in Opinion

Opinion: We marched for justice 54 years ago at the Chicano Moratorium. Its effects continue today.

How crackdowns on homeless camps elsewhere haunt Mission Valley

Commentary | With 28 months to go, will Newsom now pay more attention to his day job?

Opinion: The California Supreme Court saved my livelihood. Independent contractors deserved it.

• Associations
• Working Groups
• Escardio.org
• ESC eLearning

Show navigation Hide navigation

• European Society of Cardiology
• ESC Press Office
• Press releases

Urban noise pollution may impact cardiovascular risk prediction and prognosis after a heart attack

Key take-aways  

• Two separate studies highlight the negative impact of noise pollution on cardiovascular health. 
• Incorporating noise pollution into cardiovascular risk assessment has the potential to improve risk prediction, reclassifying patients into higher risk categories and enabling earlier intervention for myocardial infarction prevention. 
• In a separate French study, there was a strong association between urban noise exposure and worse prognosis 1 year after a first heart attack. 
• Urgent measures are needed to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution, including noise exposure, to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease. 

London, United Kingdom – 27 August 2024 : Research from two studies in different European cities 1,2 highlights that urban noise pollution has a significant negative impact on heart health, according to data presented at ESC Congress 2024. 

“The DECIBEL-MI study shows that young patients aged 50 years or less who had a myocardial infarction (MI) had been exposed to higher levels of noise than the general population. The study demonstrates that urban noise could significantly increase the risk of early-onset MI in young people with low traditional risk factors. Including noise exposure in risk prediction models helps accurately identify at-risk individuals, leading to better-targeted prevention. Recognising noise as a risk factor fills a critical gap and underscores the need for public health strategies to reduce noise pollution, thereby improving cardiovascular health in young populations,” explained study investigator, Dr. Hatim Kerniss from the Gesundheit Nord Clinic Group, Bremen, Germany.   

The DECIBEL-MI study included 430 consecutive patients living in Bremen, Germany, aged 50 years or younger with acute MI who were admitted to a local heart centre. When levels of residential noise exposure were calculated, the researchers observed a higher incidence of noise exposure compared to the general population in the same region. Patients with MI and a low LIFE-CVD score (≤2.5%), indicating a low level of traditional risk factors, such as smoking or diabetes, exhibited significantly higher noise exposure compared to those with a high LIFE-CVD score. This is crucial because traditional risk assessment models might underestimate the cardiovascular risk in young individuals who are otherwise considered low risk. By incorporating noise exposure into these models, it is possible to more accurately identify those at elevated risk for MI, allowing for better-targeted preventive measures and interventions. 

A separate study in France assessed the impact of environmental noise exposure on prognosis after a first MI. “In the ENVI-MI study, we found a strong association between urban noise exposure, particularly at night, and worse prognosis at 1 year after a first MI,” explained study investigator, Professor Marianne Zeller from the University of Burgundy and Hospital of Dijon, France. 

Data from the French observatory database (RICO) were collected for 864 patients hospitalised for an acute MI who survived at least 28 days after the MI. At 1-year follow-up, 19% presented with a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE; cardiac death, rehospitalisation for heart failure, recurrent MI, emergency revascularisation, stroke, angina and/or unstable angina). The daily noise exposure levels measured at each patient’s home address (average noise level in A-weighted decibels [dB(A)]: 56.0 over 24 hours and 49.0 at night) were considered as moderate and representative of a large part of the European population. Of note, there was a 25% increased risk of MACE for each 10 dB(A) increase in noise during the night (hazard ratio 1.25; 95% confidence interval 1.09–1.43), independent of air pollution, socio-economic levels and other confounding factors. 

“These data provide some of the first insights that noise exposure can affect prognosis. If confirmed by larger prospective studies, our analysis could help to identify new opportunities for environment-based secondary-prevention strategies, including noise barriers for high-risk MI patients,” added Professor Zeller. 

Notes to editor

This press release accompanies an abstract at ESC Congress 2024. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Society of Cardiology. 

ESC Press Office Tel: +33 (0) 6 61 40 18 84  Email: [email protected]

The hashtag for ESC Congress 2024 is  #ESCCongress   

Follow us on X  @ESCardioNews    

Journalists are invited to become accredited and  register here .    

Check out the  ESC Media and Embargo Policy .  

Funding : The DECIBEL-MI study was supported by the Bremer Institut für Herz- und Kreislaufforschung, Bremen. The ENVI MI study was supported by a grant from Fondation Coeur et Recherche. RICO survey is supported by the University Hospital of Dijon, the Association de Cardiologie de Bourgogne, Fédération Française de Cardiologie, and by grants from the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne Franche-Comté. 

Disclosures : Hatim Kerniss has no conflicts of interest to declare. Marianne Zeller reports research grants from Amarin Corp and lecture fees from Amgen, Pfizer and Organon. 

References and notes 

The ESC recognises noise pollution as an important factor contributing to the burden of cardiovascular disease3 and is advocating for European and national cardiovascular health plans4 to be created, which include strategies to address environmental issues including lowering noise exposure. The health benefits of reducing pollution are being increasingly realised, as detailed in the World Heart Report 2024 from the World Heart Federation.5 Population-level approaches to prevent cardiovascular disease occurring, such as tackling pollution, are a key way to reverse the impact of the world’s biggest killer.    

1‘Influence of urban noise exposure on early-onset myocardial infarction risk prediction’ will be presented at the session ‘Cardiovascular risk factors and risk prediction’ on Friday 30 August 2024 at 13.00 to 13.50 BST at Station 4. 

2‘Environmental noise exposure is associated with one-year survival after a first myocardial infarction’ will be presented at the session ‘Assessment of residual risk in cardiovascular conditions’ on Friday 30 August 2024 at 17.00 to 17.50 BST at Station 4. 

3Knuuti J, Wijns W, Saraste A, et al. 2019 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic coronary syndromes: The Task Force for the diagnosis and management of chronic coronary syndromes of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Eur Heart J. 2020;41:407–477. 

4Improving cardiovascular health in Europe: the case for EU and national CVH plans. Hungarian Ministry of Health in collaboration with the European Society of Cardiology.  

5World Heart Federation. World Heart Report 2024. Clearing the air to address pollution’s cardiovascular health crisis. Last accessed August 2024. 

About ESC Congress 2024   

It is the world’s largest gathering of cardiovascular professionals, disseminating ground-breaking science both onsite in London and online – from 30 August to 2 September. Explore the  scientific programme . More information is available from the ESC Press Office at  [email protected] .  

About the European Society of Cardiology

The ESC brings together health care professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people to live longer, healthier lives.

• ESC Board and Committees
• ESC Policies
• Statutes & Reports
• Press Releases
• ESC Congress
• ESC Cardio Talk
• Our Offices
• Conference Facilities
• Jobs in Cardiology
• Terms & Conditions
• Update your cookie settings

  Need help?

  Help centre   Contact us

© 2024 European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.