Urbanization and Sustainability
Water Pollution
Urbanization and urban sprawl has significant impacts on water quality. As we learned, the more populations grow and cities expand, the landscape changes dramatically as the population sprawls into the new land. Natural vegetation is replaced by buildings, roads, and other infrastructure, which leads to an increase in surface runoff. This runoff often carries pollutants such as gasoline, heavy metals, paint spills, motor oil, pet wastes, and construction site erosion from lawns, driveways, roads, and parking lots. These pollutants can eventually travel in large, concentrated amounts, polluting nearby water sources such as streams, rivers or lakes. Moreover, urban activities directly contribute to water pollution through waste material disposal and the dumping of chemicals and fertilizers. The increased reliance on private automobiles for transportation in urban areas also contributes to air pollution, which can mix with rain to become water pollution.As urbanization and urban sprawl are often driven by population growth and the desire for increased living space, they pose significant challenges to maintaining water quality for future generations.
Urbanization and Water Quality: Urbanization can have numerous effects on water bodies, including landscape manipulation, waste material dumping, chemical and fertilizer runoff, and water withdrawal for human use. Extensive urban transportation, like automobiles as we learned, create emissions that when in contact with water, severly degrades it. The poor water quality and often leads to problems such as increased storm runoff, erosion, sediment in streams, and flooding, not to mention human, animal and plant harm through consumption and intake.
Inadquate Wate Treatment: As we know, the wastewater is treated through water purification facillities were water from urban centres that are channeled into the plant. The treated water is than disharged into body of water it will be purified for conumption. However, a problem that exists in many places in the world and even in Canada is the lack of water security. Rural towns, mostly those of indgenous populations, have a severley problmatic water treatment plant, or may not even have one and thus has to share it with an urban centre. These plants are old, and some were dated to be 50 years older than the standard. An example of this is the Kashechewan Water Crisis of 2005 where the outdated and undersized plant failed to support the sprawling communiy that had grown considrably over the decade. The water, washed in with the severly polluted sewage lagoon of nearby power plants, caused many to contract e coli and impetigo.
Effects on Local Hydrologic System: The transformation of a rural area into an urban one full of housing developments, shopping centers, industrial buildings, and roads can significantly impact the local hydrologic system, which is basically the water sytem. This includes changes in land and water use when urbanization occurs and the possible effect on the local water system.
Sprawl and Runoff: Sprawled, low-density development produces more than its share of runoff. This runoff can reduce water quality by increasing the amount of surface runoff, which channels oil and other pollutants into streams and rivers.
Urban Sprawl and Water Pollution: Urban sprawl increases air pollution, which mixes with rain to become water pollution. Additionally, urban activities directly create water pollution through land runoff of construction site erosion, fuel spills, oil leaks, paint spills and other chemicals.
Solutions:
Updating Legislation: Governments can update existing environmental legislation to cover more of the nation’s waters. For example, the Canadian government has jurisdiction related to fisheries, navigation, federal lands, and international relations, including responsibilities related to the management of boundary waters shared with the United States. They have also taken steps to strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in line with the science, including through recognizing Canadians’ right to a healthy environment.
Wastewater Treatment: Upgrading wastewater treatment facilities can ensure harmful pollutants are effectively removed before the water is discharged back into the environment, like resetting plants such as those at Kashechewan.
Action on Harmful Substances: Governments can introduce regulations to limit toxic chemicals from getting into freshwater reserves. For example, Canada has addressed blue-green algae growth in lakes and rivers by introducing regulations to restrict and reduce the use of phosphates in household cleaning products and laundry and dishwasher detergents. They have also reported facility-based releases of mercury, lead and cadmium to water were 74%, 73% and 55% lower in 2021 than in 2003, respectively.