[INFORMATIVE] Urban vs. Rural Communities: Which is more sustainable?

Urban vs. Rural Communities: Which is more sustainable?

By Bella Duncan

What are Urban and Rural Communities? An urban community is a densely populated area, with extensive infrastructure such as roads, stores, and housing. Rural communities are scarcely or moderately populated areas with minimal infrastructure compared to urban communities.

Both of these communities are sustainable and unsustainable in some way, although which community is the most sustainable?

Rural Communities
Rural communities are composed of a few thousand people, and feature extensive agriculture. According to a graph made by Our World in Data titled, ‘Number of people living in urban and rural areas, World’ the graph shows that there are 3.43 billion people living in rural communities around the world.

Urban Communities
Urban communities have hundreds of thousands of people within them, these communities have vast infrastructure such as skyscrapers, stores, and sports stadiums. According to an article from Our World in Data titled, ‘Urbanization’ the article says, “More than 4 billion people now live in urban areas.”

Rural Communities & Their Sustainability
Rural communities are known for farms and agriculture, which is a sustainable aspect of rural communities. However, some unsustainable aspects of these communities include: Air quality, soil degradation, and water degradation. Along with many rural communities cutting down trees to clear land for their community, they also create space for housing. Displacement of animals could lead to an unbalanced ecosystem resulting in less available food resources such as deer, fish, berries, etc. An example of this is are black bears. When black bears are displaced from their forest habitat because of colonization in that area, they are forced to leave to find a new safe environment. Due to this, the deer population will spike because their main predator has departed. As a result, wild blueberry and blackberry plants will face a shortage because there are more and more deer consuming them than usual. Additionally, rural communities are very spread out causing residents to have to travel long distances to get educated, go to work, and access resources such as stores and hospitals.

However, rural communities also produce vast amounts of crops such as wheat, hay, corn, and cotton. Furthermore, lots of citrus fruits are grown as well, such as oranges and lemons. Rural communities contribute a large percentage to the fruit and vegetables grown and sold around the world. Without rural communities, there is a large chance that most of the food consumed by everyone around the world will be more processed.

A solution to mitigate the deforestation and habitat loss caused by rural communities, these communities can replant trees close to their farms. However, fences will have to be put up to prevent the wildlife from eating the farms crops and destroying the farms. The benefits of replanting a forest and rebalancing the ecosystem can mean additional resources like: more fish, berries, and more plants to provide agricultural diversity.

Urban Communities and Their Sustainability
Urban communities are known for their excessive infrastructure and large population. In urban communities, there's lots of land used for skyscrapers, stores, offices, and homes. In order to obtain this land, trees and animals had to be cleared away. According to a Global Citizen article titled, ‘US Cities are Losing 36 Million Trees Each Year: Report’ the author, Joe McCarthy wrote, “The researchers found that 36 million trees are cut down in urban areas each year, and 167,000 acres of impervious areas(concrete, asphalt, etc.) are added every year.” This reference shows that in the U.S.A alone, urban areas are causing major deforestation and displacing countless animals. With this excessive deforestation each year in the U.S alone, not enough carbon dioxide is able to be converted into oxygen. Leading to a human greenhouse effect, meaning that due to humans, the greenhouse effect is heightened because there's more carbon in the atmosphere holding heat.

Throughout the world, urban communities have the largest clusters of people, which means there are lots of buildings and homes. Therefore, since there are lots of buildings there are a lot of offices so many people are employed throughout urban cities. So there is a strong workforce within urban communities, making them more economically beneficial to the governments.

According to a National Library of Medicine article titled, ‘Urbanization and the ecology of wildlife diseases’ it states, "Most studies of the ecological impact of urbanization focus on patterns of biodiversity loss, with declines in species richness from rural areas towards the urban core documented across multiple taxonomic groups.” This citation portrays how urbanization has a large impact on biodiversity.

Without urban communities, there would not be as many educated people, medical advancements, or even as much electricity available.

However a solution to mitigate urban communities effects on ecosystems is constructing more apartment complexes rather than creating more single family homes. Doing this will reduce the amount of land used for homes and infrastructure within urban communities, therefore reducing urbanization's effects on deforestation and animal displacement.

What community is the most sustainable?
A Green Building Advisor titled, ‘Can Rural Living Be As Green As Urban Living’ states that according to most analysts, urban living is better for the planet than rural living. But a few aspects of the question remain unsettled.” This extract shows that despite rural communities producing large amounts of food, due to the fact that rural communities have larger carbon footprints (since citizens have to travel longer distances to access things such as an education, medical attention, and stores) unlike in urban communities where educational centers, hospitals, and offices are all clustered within a close vicinity of one another. Due to this, urban communities are more sustainable. However, this does not make urban communities better than rural communities, both settlements have their own environmental benefits.

Citations
Bradley, Catherine A, and Sonia Altizer. “Urbanization and the Ecology of Wildlife Diseases.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Feb. 2007, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7114918/. Accessed 13 Sep. 2024.

Martin Holladay | July 1, and Martin Holladay. “Can Rural Living Be as Green as Urban Living?” GreenBuildingAdvisor, 8 Aug. 2018, www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/can-rural-living-be-as-green-as-urban-living#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20minimize%20your%20environmental%20footprint%2C%20move%20to%20a%20city&text=Density%20is%20good.,carbon%20footprint%20than%20rural%20residents. Accessed 13 Sept. 2024.

“Number of People Living in Urban and Rural Areas.” Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/grapher/urban-and-rural-population. Accessed 13 Sep. 2024.

Ritchie, Hannah, et al. “Urbanization.” Our World in Data, 23 Feb. 2024, ourworldindata.org/urbanization. Accessed 13 Sep. 2024.

“US Cities Are Losing 36 Million Trees Each Year: Report.” Global Citizen, www.globalcitizen.org/de/content/us-cities-are-losing-millions-of-trees/. Accessed 13 Sep. 2024.