Where Urban Land Growth Is About to Explode

In the year 2000, there were more than 650,000 square kilometers of urbanized land on the planet. Compared to the roughly 149 million square kilometers of land area on earth, that's not a whole lot. But with populations growing, that small portion of urbanized land is expected to get bigger. By 2030, it's highly likely that urbanized land will cover nearly twice what it did in 2000, rising to about 1.2 million square kilometers.

How this growth happens will not be evenly spread across the planet. According to new research published in the journal PNAS, the global growth of urban land will have detrimental impacts on biodiversity around the world, especially in certain sensitive areas. The research also includes projections on where urban land is expected to grow and by how much.