THE URBAN GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: AN EMERGING NEED IN A CHANGING WORLD

Over 50% of the global human population can now be found in urban settings as compared to only 10% in 1900. The pace and global extent of population growth and rural-to-urban migration underscore the fact that urban centers are the way of the foreseeable future, linked by increasingly efficient transportation through a relatively less populated hinterland. Earth Science tends still to be a science of the hinterland, of localities where features and processes are more readily visible. Amid increasing calls for a “unified science of urban living,” it is time to consider the need for urban geological surveys: agencies based in urban centers and studying urban ecosystems from Earth Science perspectives. Urban centers are rich in biosphere-geosphere interactions allowing studies of resource exploitation and consumption; interpretation and prediction of natural hazards; opportunities for finescale mapping using temporary exposures; interpretation of “geological heritage” sites (e.g., large glacial erratics); correlation of substrates with localized health problems; detailed mapping of groundwater flow; and other studies. Finescale coverage through monitoring of temporary exposures allows isopachous mapping of near-surface deposits with relevance (for example) for geoarchaeology. Urban population concentrations afford unprecedented opportunities for education through varied public media. An urban geological survey collecting data and capable of rapid responses to opportunities would be extremely effective in bringing Earth Science to a more central place in the attention of the general public.