Extended definition paper on Urbanization and the environment in Essay

Extended definition paper on Urbanization and the environment in arizona - Essay Example In being overburdened with several problems related to development, cities have to suffer from severe crisis situations. This paper will examine issues relative to urbanization and the environment in the state of Arizona. The city of Phoenix in Arizona will be analyzed in this context because it is amongst the world’s most swiftly urbanizing arid region. In being a region that is growing and developing rapidly, the Phoenix area faces immense risks of high levels of environmental, economic and social impacts, primarily because of the growth induced urban heat island (UHI) effects that characterize urbanization. Researchers have found in comparing the Phoenix region’s yearly minimum high temperatures with similar rural settings that the urban areas in the region have demonstrated much higher UHI effects, which obviously matches with the speed with which urbanization is increasing in the region. Urban development has also provided an excellent means to examine the significance of socio-ecological relationships. The speedy urbanization process in Phoenix and other parts of Arizona have impacted the diversity of plant species and composition of the community at regional levels. Diversity of plant species and their density is a factor of abiotic sorting characterized in non urban desert areas but certainly not in urban areas. Resea rchers have found that plant species are richer in deserts than in urban areas such as Phoenix in Arizona. A comprehensive perspective is created because of the complex and diverse relationship amongst environmental change and urbanization. There are varied interactions and interconnections in the conceptual framework dealing with this issue in terms of interactions between urbanization and the political, economic, cultural, social and biophysical aspects associated with environmental change. Cross temporal and cross spatial approaches have to be adopted in carrying out comparative studies.