Sealed pavements taking over green soils result in rainwater runoff and hazardous urban heat spots impacting soil, water, and air quality. The consequence is an environmental degradation capable of destroying local ecosystems, habitats, wildlife: and our living conditions.

As cities around the globe grow, congestion and urban ecosystem degradation also increase, bringing along a climate and biodiversity breakdown impacting population health. This breakdown increases heat-related mortality and health complications such as heart attacks, cardiovascular diseases, kidney failure, respiratory problems, and metabolic disorders. The most affected are the elderly, persons with chronic conditions, and outdoor workers (Paravantis 2017; Santamouris 2015).
Urban ecosystem degradation also raises rates of allergic, inflammatory, and auto-immune diseases which suggests that the current environmental conditions in most cities promote these diseases (Flies et. al., 2019).

The social and economic losses of this climate and health crises are sizeable. In Germany alone, the health-related economic costs of temperatures above 30° C accumulate up to €5 million per 10 million population per day (Karlsson, 2018). Stormwater runoff and flooding loss to urban and rural infrastructure cost nearly 9 billion euros between 2002 and 2013 (Meyer 2018).