The planet we are living on now is facing a serious environment-related crisis that may lead to unexpected disasters and mishaps in the future. These could cause fatal injuries and loss of life due to significant changes in the ecology and ecosystems of the world. The world has gone through a process of rapid urbanization over the past six decades. The majority of the world’ s population growth in the forthcoming decades will be predominantly in urban areas. A
study of the prospect of rural and urban population has identified that 54 % of the world’ s population is currently urban( United Nations, 2014). In 1950, only 30 % of the world’ s population was urban, and by 2050, the urban population is expected to continue growing up to 66 % as shown in Figure 1. The most urbanized regions include North America( 82 % living in urban areas in 2014), Latin America and the Caribbean( 80 %), and Europe( 73 %). In contrast, Africa and Asia remain mostly rural, with
Figure 1: The Projected Urban and Rural Population of the World 1950-2050
Figure 2: The Interrelationship between Climate Disasters and Economic Damages( Source: Leaning and Guha-Sapir, 2013)
9