Introduction
The world is currently experiencing a rapid pace of globalization. Globalization, in general, offers a more positive than negative set of effects to society. It makes countries more interconnected. The actual advantages of this worldwide phenomenon, in fact, come from the international interconnectivity that it creates.
With a more globalized international marketplace, trade between two or more countries regardless of their geographical location becomes a lot easier. At some point, it may also become cheaper as more and more infrastructure projects get developed in anticipation of the emergence of a world that is so interconnected that countries cannot, especially those that have export-based economies, would not be able to perform properly without each other.
Better and more efficient trades would make the participating economies more resilient against internal and external economic shocks. One of the major effects of a rapid globalization is the continuous sprout of urban communities, the effects of which would definitely include a considerable and proportional increase in the urban population.
This paper shall focus on the effects of the increase in urban population on the quality of water supply in the area. Water quality can be defined in many years, it should be noted. In some studies that used the same conceptual framework as in this present study, for example, they based the quality of the water supply on the composition of macro invertebrate communities in creeks and other watershed areas upstream and downstream.
In such studies, indices such as the Family Biotic Index—that measured the population of invertebrates in the target areas, were used as the basis of water quality . In some studies, the researchers were able to focus on various aspects of water quality such as the drinkability of the surface water .
This paper, however, will not focus on a single indicator of water quality as it aims to collate all evidences found in previously published literature about the effects of urbanization on water quality.
Statement of the Problem
A lot of academic studies that were aimed at discussing the advantages and disadvantages of urbanization have been published in the past; however, only a few of those studies covered the impact that urbanization has on the water quality in the area being urbanized, be it based on the drinkability of the surface water or any other metric.
This is why the author of this paper got the idea of starting his own study. Specifically, the research problem that the author of this paper has chosen to answer would be the one that asks whether an increase in urban population leads to a decrease in water quality; it can be seen that for the researcher to be able to answer the question, he has to be able to confirm the existence of the inversely proportional relationship between urbanization rate or the urban population and the water quality in a target area.
This is one of the most significant research gaps in the study on urbanization that needs to be filled. Humans rely on a stable supply of clean drinking water in order to survive; people simply cannot make do without water no matter how economically prosperous a city is or how glamorous the infrastructures and useful the public and social services may be.
Researches like this, in fact, should have been initiated as a longitudinal study long before local governments approved and provided permits to property developers to reconstruct the former agricultural lands and rural areas as urban communities so that more credible longitudinal studies would be available for review later on. Unfortunately, it is the profitability of the urban community establishment projects and their impact on the local and national economy that have been given research priority.
Background of the Study
It cannot be denied that water is one of the most important natural resources not only in developed countries but around the world . It is an essential resource for human survival; aside from the fact that humans, just like any other living being in the planet, consume water, it is also needed to ensure the continuous function of human activities, some of which are inherently important for the sustenance of the function of an entire economy as well. In agriculture, for example, water is used to irrigate crops and to feed livestock.
A decent water quality is also needed in order to have a sustainable fishing industry. No matter how the people, especially in the industrial sector may disregard the importance of water as a natural resource , its importance can never be discounted as a brief stoppage in water supply can surely put a significant dent on the economy of even the biggest countries.
Despite the importance of water in various industries (especially agriculture) water quality issues still continue to arise; what makes the situation worse is that it rarely gets the attention that it deserves from the government, policymakers, and even from the community members . A good case in point here would be that of China.
China has rapidly emerged as the world’s second biggest economy thanks to its robust manufacturing sector and its continuously expanding consumer sector. In a study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers attested that China’s extraordinary growth, urbanization, and industrialization was mismatched with inadequate investment in basic water supply, quality, and treatment infrastructure. As a result, it is now facing big water quality-related problems such as water pollution.
According to one statistical data they presented to support their case, “in china today, approximately 700 million people or over half the population consume drinking water contaminated with levels of animal and human excreta that exceed maximum permissible levels by as much as 86% in rural areas and 28% in urban areas” . This, alone, is an alarming trend mainly because of the fact that it could lead to serious health repercussions to at least half of the Chinese population.
Conceptual Framework
In this study, there will be one independent variable and one dependent variable. The author of this paper hypothesizes that an increase in urban population would eventually lead to a decrease (or deterioration) in the water quality in the nearby areas. This paper is only concerned with the confirmation of the existence of the (hypothesized) inversely proportional relationship between urban population and water quality.
In this case, the independent variable would be the increase in urban population; the dependent variable on the other hand would be the change in water quality—because it is dependent on the changes in urban population. In the literature review section that would follow, these two variables would be the focus.
Literature Review
The idea that there is an existing relationship between water quality and urbanization is not exactly new. For example, in Ren et al.’s (2003) study about the urbanization, land use, and water quality in Shanghai between 1947 and 1996, they theorized that rapid urbanization, especially if highly unregulated and based on the pace set by the market, can eventually lead to significant degradation in the water quality in the area.
The only difference that this particular study had from the study being proposed is the fact that it included the independent variable land use in addition to the increase in urban population.
They noted, however, that the changes in water quality in the area did not happen quickly but rather longitudinally; this basically gave their research an advantage because some of the data they analyzed in the study were more than 49 years old. This meant that if there were indeed any changes in the water quality that was caused by the increase in urban population; they would be able to notice it.
Another study that used an almost similar conceptual framework was published in the Journal of Environmental Management. It also examined the impact of land use and increase in urban population on water quality. The difference, however, was that it focused on an entire state, particularly the state of California. The authors of the said study were able to compute the change in urban population in California between 1980 and 1990; according to them the state’s urban population grew by 25% within that period.
The model that they used was based on the marginalization of agricultural farmlands. Basically, according to the authors, urban population growth leads to the marginalization of agricultural farmlands. When agricultural farmlands become forced to go to other locations, certain conditions change such as the way how they irrigate their crops and where they channel their agricultural waste.
Continuous marginalization of agricultural lands therefore, according to the authors, was the direct cause of the significant water quality consequences while the rise in urban population was the indirect source. This was mainly because marginal lands are “generally steeper, have more erodible soils, poorer drainage, and require more fertilizer than prime farmlands” . What this offers is a unique perspective on how exactly an increase in urban population leads to the hypothesized phenomenon which is the deterioration of water quality.
Water quality can be measured in many ways. It can, for example, be measured based on the acidity and alkalinity levels, on the population of microbes and other microorganisms in the water , among other metrics that can be scientifically verified. In an academic journal published in Environmental Modeling and Software, the researchers used multivariate statistical techniques to measure the water quality in the Fuji river basin . This can be done in this case study as well. However, this was proposed to be a qualitative study and so a slightly different research design must be used.
Research Question
The research question that this paper is going to answer is whether an increase in urban population can indeed lead to the deterioration of water quality in the area. It is important to note that it is well outside the scope of this paper to determine how exactly the relationship between the dependent and independent variable that were identified works but only to confirm the existence of the hypothesized inverse relationship.
Methods and Procedures
In order to systematically answer the research questions and verify the validity of the research hypothesis, the author of this paper aims to make use of a qualitative research design—which means that there would be little to no numbers and mathematical models involved. One of the disadvantages of a qualitative research design is the fact that it is prone to bias and other sources of error. In order to address this and at least minimize the effects of these disadvantages on the results of this proposed study, the author of this paper is proposing the use of an expert interview.
Basically in this qualitative research method, the author is going to select a sample that would be recruited using the convenience sampling method (basically based on whoever is available). It has to be noted, however, that the chosen sample should be an expert in the field where the topic of urbanization and water quality degradation is related. For example, a chemical engineer or an urban and city planner can be a potential respondent from whom the raw data for this qualitative research would be obtained.
Anticipated Findings
The expert who will be reviewed for the paper is expected to use his expertise and experience to be able to reliably and professionally answer all of that. In line with that, the author of this paper anticipates to discover that the research hypothesis that was initially posted is indeed true; that an increase in urban population can indeed lead to the deterioration of water quality in the area.
Limitations
This study should be limited to the validation of the existence of the hypothesized inversely proportional relationship between the independent and dependent variable, specifically the total population of urban communities within a certain geographical area or region and the water quality within and in the surrounding area as measured in pH levels, population of certain microbes and microorganisms, and other scientific metrics so to speak.
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