Cities: Incorporating Natural Capital into Urban Planning

Our world is increasingly urban. By 2030, urban areas are projected to be three times larger than in 2000, with a large variability in growth rates across continents (Seto, Guneralp, & Hutyra 2012). Urban growth intensifies the pressure on other land uses, such as for agriculture, forestry, recreation, and biodiversity conservation. For example, it is estimated that by 2030 urbanization will drive the loss of up to one-third of croplands in some African and Asian countries (d’Amour et al. 2017), and up to 7 percent of key biodiversity hotspots in some regions (Seto et al. 2012). Better understanding of urban systems is thus critical to help move toward a more sustainable, livable, and equitable future.