Question

Fill in the blanks :
7. 90% of the world's population lives in just
.....of its land area.
8. Only .......... percentage of the total land
area is covered by land.
9. It takes thousands of years to form just______
centimetre thick layer of
soil.​

Answer 1

Answer:

In the absence of agreement on the meaning of "urbanisation", the European Commission and the World Bank are proposing a new definition based on a unique mapping of “Accessibility” called the Agglomeration Index.

Key findings suggest that:

we passed the point at which more than half the world’s populations live in cities around the turn of the Millennium (2000) - much earlier than the 2007/8 estimate;

more than half of the world's population lives less than 1 hour from a major city, but the breakdown is 85% of the developed world and only 35% of the developing world;

95% of the world's population is concentrated on just 10% of the world's land; but

only 10% of the world's land area is classified as "remote" or more than 48 hours from a large city.

Leen Hordijk, Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability of the EC's Joint Research Centre, whose scientists prepared the new map, commented: "We have risen to the challenge of combining various information sources with the latest mapping technologies to produce a unique and timely product for the World Bank. Our map raises the question: For how much longer will remote ecosystems remain remote? Many are crucial to the healthy functioning of our planet."

How does the mapping work?

Digital maps of road, river and rail transport networks, population data, satellite-derived maps of land cover and terrain and information on border crossing times are combined using advanced geographical modelling techniques. For example, the time it takes an individual to travel to a city from 100 km away is calculated from precise knowledge of the terrain he or she must cross whether it is by foot, road, rail or river.