Overdevelopment

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Overdevelopment refers to a process by which natural resources are impacted by urbanization and/or road construction, at a rate significantly harmful to the ecosystem. Environmental activism is a frequent response to overdevelopment, as well as are many fields of academic study. Sustainability is the conceptual goal that is frequently cited^{[weasel words]} as a response.

[edit] Standards

There are many differing standards for overdevelopment. Some believe^{[weasel words]} that an area is overdeveloped when any environmental elements are disturbed, while others believe^{[weasel words]} that overdevelopment has only occurred when there is a direct, measurable, impact upon human life, such as toxic levels of smog. Land developers often cite^{[weasel words]} the "subjectivity" of the definition of overdevelopment to prove its nonexistence or irrelevancy, while environmental scholars build entire fields of study around the concept.

Indigenous movements such as the Aloha ʻAina movement and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation movement, often have their own concepts of development, overdevelopment, and sustainability. Their versions of these concepts overlap with those of environmental activism, but differ in many important ways, many of which relate to the ideal interrelation of humans and environment in the particular places in question.^{[citation needed]}