This article highlights the effects of rapid economic and urban growth in Shanghai. The authors describe China’s recent urban explosion and its effects on the domestic economy and surrounding environment. Increased urbanization and domestic output have obviously led to higher rates of air pollution, but environmental degradation is also attributable to water pollution, climate change, and natural vegetation loss. The authors choose Shanghai as the unit of analysis, describing it as China’s “largest and most modern city.” To describe these ecological consequences, the authors choose water, soil, climate, biodiversity, and land coverage as the units of observation. Land-coverage data was collected through satellite imaging and analyzed using specific software. To collect data on air and water quality, the authors found concentrations of different particulate polluters over a 20-year period and compared them with rural/urban areas. This data was collected from the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau. They collected climate data from local meteorological stations in the Shanghai region, specifically the difference in average temperatures. The Shanghai Agriculture and Forestry Bureau provided some of the data on biodiversity, and the authors drew data from contributing scholarly sources as well. The data was compiled and analyzed in different ways, providing a meta-analysis for the overarching research topic. The authors note the socioeconomic dangers of China’s rapid urban growth, but also underline the related environmental factors. Shanghai institutions have attempted to curb the issues by implementing policies since 1990 restricting human-related degradation. This research was interesting because it drew from a variety of resources, from scholarly literature to local databases and satellite imagery, to provide a holistic and encompassing response to the research question. The meta-analysis method seems like a good idea for large-scale environmental studies, where numerous factors are relevant in determining level of degradation and proper policy measures to counteract it.

Zhao, Shuqing, Liangjun Da, Zhiyao Tang, Hejun Fang, Kun Song, and Jingyun Fang. “Ecological consequences of rapid urban expansion: Shanghai, China.” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 4, no. 7 (September 1, 2006): 341-46. Accessed April 2, 2017. doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2006)004[0341:ecorue]2.0.co;2.