Gray Wave of the Great Transformation: A Satellite View of Urbanization, Climate, and Food Security

Land cover change driven by human activity is profoundly affecting Earth's natural systems with impacts ranging from a loss of biological productivity to changes in atmospheric chemistry and regional and global climate. This change has been so pervasive and progressed so rapidly, compared to natural processes, scientists refer to it as 'the great transformation'. Urbanization or the 'gray wave' of this transformation is being increasingly recognized as an important process in global climate change. A hallmark of our success as a species, large urban conglomerates do in fact alter their environments so profoundly that the local climate, atmospheric composition, and the basic ecology of the landscape are affected in ways that have consequences to human health and economic well-being. Fortunately we have incredible new tools to observe and understand these processes in ways that can be used to plan and develop enjoyable and sustainable urban places. A suite of Earth observing satellites is making it possible to study the interactions between urbanization, biological processes, and the atmosphere including weather and climate. Using these Earth Observatories we are learning how urban heat islands form and potentially ameliorate them, how urbanization can affect rainfall, pollution, surface water recharge at the local level, and climate and food security globally.