Ecology of Cities and Towns
A Comparative Approach

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

Mark J. McDonnell (Edited by), Amy K. Hahs (Edited by), Jürgen H. Breuste (Edited by)

9780521678339, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 June 2009

746 pages, 35 b/w illus. 40 tables
24.8 x 16.8 x 3.4 cm, 1.4 kg

"This important collection argues for a new approcah to ecology, redefining ecology in cities as an ecology of cities, in which the built environment presents a unique set of conditions, associations, and ecosystems....This collection works best as a statement and perhaps predictor of a novel conceptual framework that connects architecture, planning, sociology, and policy with the hard sciences that characterize classical ecology....Recommended."
--Choice

The unprecedented growth of cities and towns around the world, coupled with the unknown effects of global change, has created an urgent need to increase ecological understanding of human settlements, in order to develop inhabitable, sustainable cities and towns in the future. Although there is a wealth of knowledge regarding the understanding of human organisation and behaviour, there is comparably little information available regarding the ecology of cities and towns. This book brings together leading scientists, landscape designers and planners from developed and developing countries around the world, to explore how urban ecological research has been undertaken to date, what has been learnt, where there are gaps in knowledge, and what the future challenges and opportunities are.

1. Introduction: scope of the book and the need for developing a comparative approach to the ecological study of cities and towns
Part I. Opportunities and Challenges of Conducting Comparative Studies: 2. Comparative urban ecology: challenges and possibilities
3. Frameworks for urban ecosystem studies: gradients, patch dynamics and the human ecosystem in the New York metropolitan area and Baltimore, USA
4. Comparative effects of urbanisation in marine and terrestrial habitats
5. Comparative ecology of cities and towns: past, present and future
6. Comparative urban ecological research in developing countries
7. Using models to compare the ecology of cities
Part II. Ecological Studies of Cities and Towns
8. Responses of faunal assemblages to urbanisation: global research paradigms and an avian case study
9. Effect of urban structures on diversity of marine species
10. Comparative studies of terrestrial vertebrates in urban areas
11. The ecology of roads in urban and urbanising landscapes
12. Spatial pattern and process in urban animal communities
13. Invertebrate biodiversity in urban landscapes: assessing remnant habitat and its restoration
14. Arthropods in urban ecosystems: community patterns as functions of anthropogenic land use
15. Light pollution and the impact of artificial night lighting on insects
16. A comparison of vegetation cover in Beijing and Shanghai: a remote sensing approach
17. Vegetation composition and structure of forest patches along urban-to-rural gradients
18. Environmental, social and spatial determinants of urban arboreal character in Auckland, New Zealand
19. Carbon and nitrogen cycling in soils of remnant forests along urban-rural gradients: case studies in the New York metropolitan area and Louisville, Kentucky
20. Investigative approaches of urban biogeochemical cycles: New York metropolitan area and Baltimore as case studies
Part III. Integrating Science with Management and Planning: 21. Structural analysis of urban landscapes for landscape management in German cities
22. Preservation of original natural vegetation in urban areas: an overview
23. Homogeneity of urban biotopes and similarity of landscape design language in former colonial cities
24. Tools to assess human impact on biotope resilience and biodiversity in urban planning: examples from Stockholm, Sweden
25. Landscape ecological analysis and assessment in an urbanising environment
26. Applying landscape ecological principles to a fascinating landscape: the city
27. A trans-disciplinary research approach providing a platform for improved urban design, quality of life and biodiverse urban ecosystems
28. Pattern: process metaphors for metropolitan landscapes
29. Valuing urban wetlands: modification, preservation and restoration
Part IV. Comments and Synthesis: 30. What is the main object of urban ecology? Determining demarcation using the example of research into urban flora
31. How to conduct comparative urban ecological research
32. Ecological scientific knowledge in urban and land-use planning
33. Envisioning the comparative possible: a critique
34. Towards a comparative ecology of cities and towns
35. A comparative ecology of cities and towns: synthesis of opportunities and limitations.

Subject Areas: Applied ecology [RNC], City & town planning - architectural aspects [AMVD]