While the government in a number of cities decide to construct high-rise buildings to provide housing for their citizens, that in other cities expand their housing areas horizontally. In my opinion, building a vertical city is a better option because it makes better use of land, a limited resource on the planet, and it is also more eco-friendly than a horizontal one.
A vertical city can better optimize the land use because land on earth will not grow any bigger, while the human population is ever-increasing. If tall apartments are erected and chosen as a place of residence, a unit of land can accommodate a larger number of residents. For instance, instead of allocating 100 miles square of land for the construction of houses for a population of only 100 households, the government can provide accommodation for ten times as many when constructing a ten-story apartment. Then, more land can be available for other purposes, such as cultivating crops to meet the growing food demands or expanding streets to alleviate traffic congestion, which can address critical issues associated with the overpopulation.
Meanwhile, housing areas enlarged in a horizontal direction place a high pressure on the environment and people’s life. As a result of the increasing population of humans, wildlands may be encroached to make room for residential areas. For example, in Brazil, a major part of forests are cleared to build more houses for citizens, which not only endangers wildlife but also puts human civilization at higher risk of natural disasters. With narrowed forests, floods and droughts have taken place more often, damaging the agriculture, the economy and other important sectors of this country.
In conclusion, employing the same area of land, vertical cities can house more citizens than horizontal cities which are not only environmentally damaging but also unsustainable in the long run. Personally, municipal leaders should develop their city in a vertical way as soon as possible.