Feb 29 2004
From The Space Library
A team of researchers led by scientist Marc L. Imhoff of NASA's GSFC published research indicating that increasing urbanization in the United States had reduced the amount of fertile land available for agriculture. Using data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and NOAA's polar-orbiting satellites, the scientists had discovered that cities covered 3 percent of the land area in the continental United States. Moreover, the team found that the urbanized areas were capable of producing an amount of food and fiber rivaling that produced on agricultural lands, which covered 29 percent of the land area in the continental United States. Furthermore, they found that the urbanized land areas had the potential to produce enough food to meet the caloric requirements of 16.5 million people, nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population. The authors explained that, throughout history, human settlement has tended to occur on lands best suited for growing food. The research results, which were consistent with this trend, strongly suggested that urbanization should occur in conjunction with agricultural and environmental considerations. (NASA, “Cities Built on Fertile Lands Affect Climate,” news release 04-059, 11 February 2004; Marc L. Imhoff et al., “The Consequences of Urban Land Transformation on Net Primary Productivity in the United States,” Remote Sensing of Environment 89, no. 4 (29 February 2004): 434-443.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
