Urbanization: 95% Of The World's Population Lives On 10% Of The Land

[cali]

ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2008) —

A new global map released by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and published in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2009, measures urbanisation from the new perspective of Travel Time to 8,500 Major Cities. The map fills an important gap in our understanding of economic, physical and even social connectivity.
In the absence of agreement on the meaning of "urbanisation", the European Commission and the World Bank are proposing a new definition based on a unique mapping of “Accessibility” called the Agglomeration Index.

Key findings suggest that:

we passed the point at which more than half the world’s populations live in cities around the turn of the Millennium (2000) - much earlier than the 2007/8 estimate;
more than half of the world's population lives less than 1 hour from a major city, but the breakdown is 85% of the developed world and only 35% of the developing world;
95% of the world's population is concentrated on just 10% of the world's land; but
only 10% of the world's land area is classified as "remote" or more than 48 hours from a large city.
Leen Hordijk, Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability of the EC's Joint Research Centre, whose scientists prepared the new map, commented: "We have risen to the challenge of combining various information sources with the latest mapping technologies to produce a unique and timely product for the World Bank. Our map raises the question: For how much longer will remote ecosystems remain remote? Many are crucial to the healthy functioning of our planet."

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081217192745.htm

[independentpiney]

1. and i wonder what % of prime agricultural land has been lost to suburbanization?

Many people don't realize that most of that land, at least in the large developments, has been stripped of all the deep topsoil. So in a major food crisis just reverting it back isn't an option.

[Fovea]

2. Hubbard will force

a return to more intensive agriculture.

Seasonal harvest Ag workers may still live in cities
Until needed for mass work.

I see cities getting a lot denser in America, and the rural areas getting more population.
I see an America that drives about a tenth as much as it does now.