Topic: Impact of Urbanization
Country: Croatia
Delegate Name: Maria Simon
School: Mattawan High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Croatia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
Since agriculture has become less popular, many people have chosen to move to the city. Industrialization brought jobs to a small area, as well as amenities and people. The amount of people living in urban areas went up 18 percent (up to 47%) from 1950 to the 2000s. Unfortunately, with the high concentration of people migrating towards the urban setting, the environment is running out of resources to keep everyone satisfied. Pollution is quickly becoming a common problem in cities. Reports of dangerous smog, unhealthy air, and mysterious green slime is affecting the wellbeing of living things. As cities grow larger, forests are being cut down and we are losing valuable natural resources. Urbanization is on the rise, and there isn’t a projected “end date” or “slow down date”.
In Europe, around seventy three percent of its population currently lives in urban cities. That number is expected to grow to around eighty percent around the year 2030. Urban populations use more resources (food, energy, and goods) than rural areas. From the year 2010 to 2015, Croatia has gone down thirty six percent in its urbanization. The average Croatian woman’s life expectancy is around 80 years old, and the average Croatian man’s life expectancy is around 75 years old. Some thing that could contribute to the smaller population size in Croatia is that the women tend to only have 1 or no children, not resupplying the society.
Some solutions to the worldwide urbanization problem, could be regulating how emissions are being produced. There could be a set limit of emissions allowed per company/ household. This would help with the air quality in the city, and the surrounding cities.
