Perspectives in Urban Ecology

Perspectives in Urban Ecology
Author: Wilfried Endlicher
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2011-06-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 364217731X

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This book gives an interdisciplinary overview on urban ecology. Basic understanding of urban nature development and its social reception are discussed for the European Metropolitan Area of Berlin. Furthermore, we investigate specific consequences for the environment, nature and the quality of life for city dwellers due to profound changes such as climate change and the demographic and economic developments associated with the phenomena of shrinking cities. Actual problems of urban ecology should be discussed not only in terms of natural dimensions such as atmosphere, biosphere, pedosphere and hydrosphere but also in terms of social and cultural dimensions such as urban planning, residence and recreation, traffic and mobility and economic values. Our research findings focus on streets, new urban landscapes, intermediate use of brown fields and the relationships between urban nature and the well-being of city dwellers. Finally, the book provides a contribution to the international discussion on urban ecology.

Climate Change and Cities

Climate Change and Cities
Author: Cynthia Rosenzweig
Publisher:
Total Pages: 855
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1316603334

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Climate Change and Cities bridges science-to-action for climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts in cities around the world.

Understanding Urban Ecology

Understanding Urban Ecology
Author: Myrna H. P. Hall
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2019-04-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030112594

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Over half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Few who live in cities understand that cities, too, are ecosystems, as beholden to the laws and principles of ecology as are natural ecosystems. Understanding Urban Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Systems Approach introduces students at the college undergraduate level, or those in advanced-standing college credit high school courses, to cities as ecosystems. For graduate students it provides an overview and rich literature base. Urban planners, educators, and decision makers can use this book to help in designing a more sustainable or “green” future. The authors use a systems approach to explore the complexity and interactions of different components of a city’s ecology with an emphasis on the energy and materials required to maintain such concentrated centers of human activity and consumption. The book is written by seventeen specialized contributors and includes ten accompanying detailed field exercises to promote hands-on experience, observation, and quantification of urban ecosystem structure and function.The chapters describe one by one the different subsystems of the urban environment, their individual components and functions, and the interactions among them that create the social-ecological environments in which we live. The book’s emphasis on social-ecological metabolism provides students with the knowledge and methods needed to evaluate proposed policies for urban sustainability in terms of ecosystem capacity, potential positive and negative feedbacks, the laws of thermo-dynamics, and socio-cultural perception and adaptability.

Human-Environmental Interactions in Cities

Human-Environmental Interactions in Cities
Author: Nadja Kabisch
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2014-06-12
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1443861596

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This book addresses international research communities concerned with conceptual, scientific, and design approaches to urban land developments and biodiversity. The main focus is on the understanding of human-environment interactions analysed by multi-disciplinary approaches. The articles in this important collection include new concepts and challenges for sustainable green space development emerging from the pressure caused by urbanisation. The concept of biophilic urbanism and the framework of urban ecosystem services are introduced and referred to by applications in different case studies in Europe. Case studies also refer to the current challenges for biodiversity in different urban spaces. These spaces include the urban garden and school environments. Important human-species interactions are identified by analysing the allergenic potential of urban trees in a US city. Anthropogenic influences on the survival or local extinction of species are examined in a Mediterranean urban area. In all articles, the importance of urban planning on green infrastructure development, biodiversity conservation and management within the urban ecosystem is highlighted, and planning recommendations are given.

Urban Ecology

Urban Ecology
Author: Ken Leinbach
Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2018-03-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1683506529

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With climate change in the news, an urban core that has reached boiling point, and many children growing up without role models and with limited dreams, where is hope? There is a quiet experiment in Milwaukee that is turning heads. It starts with the simplicity of getting a city kid exploring their neighborhood park. How is it that so much life, community, and opportunity can grow from this unlikely soil? It's been called a miracle. It's contagious. It's spreading. It's exciting. And it works! This is the story of a group of ordinary people in a neighborhood who created something extraordinary. Readers will discover... the power of getting a city kid outside in nature; that kindness does work; how to say no while following the yes; the value of clarity and focus; how to find abundance within their own diverse community by simply and humbly asking for help; ten tried and tested rules for raising money (a lot of it!) while having a ton of fun doing it; a positive, believable, and very real vision for the future of the environment (we've got this!); and... how to join the Urban Ecology movement.

Ecology of Cities and Towns

Ecology of Cities and Towns
Author: Mark J. McDonnell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 747
Release: 2009-06-25
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0521861128

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Assesses the current status, and future challenges and opportunities, of the ecological study, design and management of cities and towns.

Science for the Sustainable City

Science for the Sustainable City
Author: Steward T. A. Pickett
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0300249381

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A presentation of key findings and insights from over two decades of research, education, and community engagement in the acclaimed Baltimore Ecosystem Study In a world of more than seven billion people—who mostly reside in cities and towns—the Baltimore Ecosystem Study is recognized as a pioneer in modern urban social-ecological science. After two decades of research, education, and community engagement, there are insights to share, generalizations to examine, and research needs to highlight. This timely volume synthesizes the key findings, melds the perspectives of different disciplines, and celebrates the benefits of interacting with diverse communities and institutions in improving Baltimore’s ecology. These widely applicable insights from Baltimore contribute to our understanding the ecology of other cities, provide a comparison for the global process of urbanization, and inform establishment of urban ecological research elsewhere. Comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and highly original, it gives voice to the wide array of specialists who have contributed to this living urban laboratory.

Urban Forestry

Urban Forestry
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2013-09-23
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309287588

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Much of the ecological research in the past decades has focused on rural or wilderness areas. Today, however, ecological research has been taking place in our cities, where our everyday decisions can have profound effects on our environment. This research, or urban ecology, includes an important element, trees. Trees have had a variety of environmental benefits for our environment including the sequestering carbon, reducing urban heat island effects, providing vital habitat for wildlife, and making nature accessible. These benefits have important impacts on the physical, socio-economic, and mental health of humans as well. Being exposed to trees has been shown to enhance social cohesion, improve health and recreational opportunities, and increase real estate values. In order to gain more knowledge into this urban forestry, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) held a workshop February 25-26, 2013. The workshop brought together more than 100 people with various interests in urban forestry research to share information and perspectives, foster communication across specific areas of ecosystem service research, and consider integrated approaches that cut across these realms. The workshop specifically examined current capabilities to characterize and quantify the benefits, key gaps in our understanding, the challenges of planning urban forests in a way that optimizes multiple ecosystem services and more. Urban Forestry: Toward an Ecosystem Services Research Agenda: A Workshop Summary presents an overview of the issues discussed by the workshop's breakout groups; summarizes presentations from the four panels which included Biophysical Services of the Urban Forest; and context for the study with introductory material from the workshop.

Urban Ecology in the Global South

Urban Ecology in the Global South
Author: Charlie M. Shackleton
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2021-04-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030676501

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Against the background of unprecedented rates of urbanisation in the Global South, leading to massive social, economic and environmental transformations, this book engages with the dire need to understand the ecology of such settings as the foundation for fostering sustainable and resilient human settlements in contexts that are very different to the Global North. It does so by bringing together scholars from around the world, drawing together research and case studies from across the Global South to illustrate, in an interdisciplinary and comprehensive fashion, the ecology of towns and cities in the Global South. Framed using a social-ecological systems lens, it provides the reader with an in-depth analysis and understanding of the ecological dynamics and ecosystem services and disservices within the complex and rapidly changing towns and cities of the Global South, a region with currently scarce representation in most of the urban ecology literature. As such the book makes a call for greater geographical balance in urban ecology research leading towards a more global understanding and frameworks. The book embraces the complexity of these rapid transformations for ecological and environmental management and how the ecosystems and the benefits they provide shape local ecologies, livelihood opportunities and human wellbeing, and how such knowledge can be mobilised towards improved urban design and management and thus urban sustainability.