Estimating Urbanization’s Impact on Soil Erosion: A Global Comparative Analysis and Case Study of Phoenix, USA

Ara Jeong (), Dylan S. Connor, Ronald I. Dorn and Yeong Bae Seong
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Ara Jeong: Department of Geography, College of Sciences, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea
Dylan S. Connor: School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Ronald I. Dorn: School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Yeong Bae Seong: Department of Geography, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-26

Abstract: Healthy soils are an essential ingredient of land systems and ongoing global change. Urbanization as a global change process often works through the lens of urban planning, which involves urban agriculture, urban greening, and leveraging nature-based solutions to promote resilient cities. Yet, urbanization frequently leads to soil erosion. Despite recognition of this tension, the rate at which the urban growth boundary accelerates soil erosion above natural background levels has not yet been determined. Our goal here is to provide a first broad estimate of urbanization’s impact of soil erosion. By combining data on modern erosion levels with techniques for estimating long-term natural erosion rates through cosmogenic nuclide 10 Be analysis, we modeled the impact of urbanization on erosion across a range of cities in different global climates, revealing an acceleration of soil erosion ~7–19x in environments with mean annual precipitation <1500 mm; growth in wetter urban centers accelerated soil erosion ~23–72x. We tested our statistical model by comparing natural erosion rates to decades of monitoring soil erosion on the margins of Phoenix, USA. A century-long expansion of Phoenix accelerated soil erosion by ~12x, an estimate that is roughly at the mid-point of model projections for drier global cities. In addition to urban planning implications of being able to establish a baseline target of natural rates of soil erosion, our findings support the urban cycle of soil erosion theory for the two USA National Science Foundation urban long-term ecological research areas of Baltimore and Phoenix.

Keywords: urban soil; background rates of soil erosion; sustainable landscape pattern; urban agriculture; urban greening; urban nature-based solutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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