future urbanization and biodiversity: identifying locations of potential tension peter j....
TRANSCRIPT
Future Urbanization and Biodiversity: Identifying locations of potential tension
Peter J. Marcotullio and Carson FarmerHunter College, CUNY
Outline
• Inspiration• Methods• Preliminary finding• Conclusion and next steps
Inspiration for the project
Inspiration for the project
• In 2012, we did a very simple analysis of the geographic distribution of human population over time from 1980 to 2100 and compared this distribution to biodiversity distributions
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000-90
-70
-50
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90Population by Latitude, 1980
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000-90
-70
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90Population by Latitude, 2010
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000-90
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Population by Latitude, 2040
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000-90
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Population by Latitude, 2070
0 200,000 400,000 600,000 800,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 1,400,000-90
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Population by Latitude, 2100
0 100000000 200000000 300000000 400000000 500000000 600000000 700000000 800000000-90
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90Biodiversity by Latitude, Avifauna
Source: Turner and Hawkins, 2004
0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000-90
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Population by Latitude, with Avian Biodiversity Gradient 1980
0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000-90
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Population by Latitude, with Avian Biodiversity Gradient 2100
• The second spike in population is located between 5° South and 15° North
• The terrestrial area located between 5° South and 15° North includes 1,311 of the 5,286 terrestrial mammalian species ranges identified by the IUCN or almost a quarter of all terrestrial mammals species
• This area also intersects 13 of the 34 hotspots identified in 2011
• Moreover, most future population will be added to the world’s cities, which provides special conservation challenges and opportunities
• This was enough to peak our interests
• The question was how to do this analysis more rigorously
We decided to start with a simple model and then develop the project from there…
Methods
• Components of urbanization– Population size • GRUMP 2000 spatial population distribution • UN population for 1692 large cities to 2030 (2014)• UN population for urban residents to 2050 (2014)
– Urban area • GRUMP 2000 spatial population extents (2014)
Methods
• Adding population– Large cities: Add/subtract population using UN
population figures for specific cities for 2000 – 2030 (large cities)
– Small cities: Add/subtract population using UN population from 2000-2030 minus that from large cities, randomly
– All cities: Add/subtract population using UN population figures randomly 2030 – 2050
– After 2050…?
Methods
• Biodiversity– Geodatabases of global ranges for Taxa• Mammals (5,513) (IUCN Red List, Version 2014.1)• Birds (> 9,000) (BirdLife International and NatureServe
(2012) )• Amphibians (6,410) (IUCN Red List, Version 2014.1)• Reptiles (4,296) (IUCN Red List, Version 2014.1)
– Dissolve ranges for individual species– Rasterize results to a “reasonable” resolution– Add up the species in cells
For this presentation we provide on a sample demonstrating the possibilities
Methods
• Population and biodiversity– Identify the most rapidly growing urban areas– Identify the areas of highest biodiversity– Correlate these as potential “tension” areas
Preliminary findings
Preliminary findings
• Show partial results for one country: Democratic Republic of Congo (ISO-code: COD)
• Projection population distribution to 2050• Use a sample of biodiversity (partial
amphibian distribution)• Overlay sample of biodiversity with 2050
patterns
Democratic Republic of Congo
Projected population growth: Democratic Republic of Congo
19501960
19701980
19902000
20102020
20302040
20500
20 000
40 000
60 000
80 000
100 000
120 000
140 000
160 000
180 000
24 838
93 864
37 354
61 427 62 191
155 291
UrbanRuralTotal
2010
2050
Conclusions
• Summary– We are developing a process by which we project urbanization to
2050 and identify locations of human-biodiversity tension. We have started with a simple model
• Next steps – Refine the technique and use it on a global geography for all
countries to 2050 and possibly 2100• In the future
– We hope that from this “simple” process we can further use object-oriented methods to develop more complicated models of urbanization (including land use change, economic components, etc.) and a larger set of biodiversity data