Definition: Urban ecology is an integrated scientific study
of complex, spatially extensive urbanized systems. The subject includes central and edge cities,
suburbs of various ages and densities, and the exurban settlements in which
urban lifestyles and economic commitments are dominant compared to those of
rural or natural resource management.
Urban ecology shares many features of the antecedent biological science
of ecology, but also emphasizes linkages with social and economic sciences,
geography and physical sciences. In
application, urban ecology acknowledges the need for sustainability and for
social equity in the distribution of environmental vulnerabilities and
amenities.
Examples: Urban ecology has a rich foundation. Wildlife ecologists early on established a
productive and ongoing tradition of understanding the plants and animals in
urban green spaces, yards, and gardens.
Such studies include genetics and adaptation of urban populations, and
their relationships with social and behavioral controls imposed by people. The energy and material flows in cities were
another of the roots of modern urban ecology.
Now recognized as urban metabolism, the understanding of these budgets
of urban areas are important for improving management and reducing
environmental costs of city living, both for residents and for environments
downstream and downwind. The burgeoning
studies of urban environments, entire urban areas or neighborhoods as
heterogeneous, dynamic socio-ecosystems have enlivened urban ecology and
stimulated the search for urban ecosystem functions and an evaluation of urban
ecosystem services.
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Figure 1. Examples of some
contrasting components of urban ecosystems which can be the subject of urban
ecological research. Upper left:
Urban/rural complex near Kigoma, Tanzania. Upper right: A revitalizing
neighborhood in west Baltimore, Maryland.
Lower left: A suburban neighborhood dating from the 1920s west of
Cleveland, Ohio, showing the classic park-like lawns. Lower middle: Stonetown, Zanzibar Island,
Tanzania, showing the dense urbanization with narrow streets and courtyard
houses. Lower right: Redevelopment on a
brownfield site in Harbor East, Baltimore.
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Figure 2. A diagrammatic conception of the urban ecosystem. Biological ecology traditionally focused on plants, animals, and microbes and their relationships to one another and to the physical environment, consisting of soils, waters, gasses, and the fluxes of energy, matter, and information in a specified location. Urban ecology requires explicit attention to the social complex, including economic, power relations, social institutions, and political processes, along with the buildings, infrastructure, and modifications of topography and substrates by human actions and their intentional and unintentional effects.
Why important: Urban ecology as a term has been appropriated by
disciplines in the social sciences during the period when mainstream ecological
science was focused on apparently pristine or wild lands. However, the understanding of the nature of
ecological science can sometimes be problematic in such applications. Readers of the broader literature on urban
ecology as it has been informed by other disciplines must be aware of outdated
ecological concepts and generalizations, and a use of background assumptions
that are no longer accepted by mainstream ecology. These include assumptions of equilibrium in
system function, climax in system dynamics, and spatial uniformity in system
structure.
For more information:
·
Pickett, S.T.A., V.T. Parker, and P.L. Fiedler.
1992. The new paradigm in ecology: implications for conservation biology above
the species level. Pages 65-88 in P.L. Fiedler and S.K. Jain, editors.
Conservation biology: the theory and practice of nature conservation,
preservation, and management. Chapman and Hall, New York.
·
Pickett, S.T.A., M.L. Cadenasso, J.M. Grove, C.H.
Nilon, R.V. Pouyat, W.C. Zipperer, and R. Costanza. 2001. Urban ecological
systems: linking terrestrial ecological, physical, and socioeconomic components
of metropolitan areas. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32:127-157.
·
Grimm, N.B., J.M. Grove, S.T.A. Pickett, and C.L.
Redman. 2000. Integrated approaches to long-term studies of urban ecological
systems. BioScience 50:571-584.
·
Marzluff,
J.M.; Shulenberger, E.; Endlicher, W.; Alberti, M.; Bradley, G.; Ryan, C.;
ZumBrunnen, C.; Simon, U. (Eds.) 2008. Urban Ecology: An
International Perspective on the Interaction Between Humans and Nature. Springer-Verlag.
