Urbanization and Depletion of Natural Resources: A Case Study of Pakistan

The aim of this research paper is to examine the effects of depletion of natural resource including both renewable and nonrenewable on economic growth due to growing urbanization in Pakistan. For this purpose, we collected data time series data for the period of 20 years (1998-2018) from different sources. Depletion of Natural resources was taken as dependent variable while urbanization, water, air pollution, depletion of fertile land, migration from Rural to urban areas and Per capita income were taken as independent variables. Correlation analysis, ADF test, and Ordinary Least square (OLS) method were used to analyze data. The results of this study reveal that high population growth rate as well as urbanization have significant effect on depletion of natural resources in Pakistan. We also found that more than one third of natural resources of Pakistan i.e. water, air, land, soil, etc, have been contaminated or exhausted due to these two factors.