Urbanization process involves more than just globalization and population growth. It involves major changes in ecological and environmental structures as well. Thus, the rapid growth of urban areas could lead to unregulated exploitation of common land and resources. This could simply be deemed as “The Tragedy of Commons”.
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Depicting Hardin’s Theory on Tragedy of Commons
The Tragedy of Commons is a problem identified by Garett Hardin in 1968, when unconstrained animals in collective fields devastated arable crops.
Similarly, in the case of rapid urbanization in Singapore, the common resource being used constantly would be, LAND SPACE. With a limited land space of only 718.3km square, actions that served personal interest, with a mix of selfishness and competitiveness, like boosting the economy, could eventually lead to environmental catastrophes.
As a result, Singapore had and have been experiencing several consequences as follows:
- Various Effects on Biodiversity
- Global Warming
- Flash Floods
- Pollution
- Land Shortage
Click on their respective sub-tabs above for greater details on each consequence!