Urban Environments History Biodiversity Culture

This volume is a retrospective publication of contributions originally to two national conferences / seminars held in Sheffield, on the theme of 'Urban Environments - History, Biodiversity and Culture'. To the updated papers from those events we have added invited current contributions on the themes of urban nature and urban ecology. Ideas and issues in urban ecology become more significant as globalisation, urbanisation and cultural severance shape our world and our future ecologies. This is paralleled by increasing interest in the underpinning science and research paradigms in relation to urban environmental spaces.In the early 2000s, ecologists new to the urban context suddenly became excited about the juxta-position of pollution and biodiversity in degraded and contaminated sites, something well-known to urban ecologists and naturalists since the 1980s or earlier. Similarly, the contributions of urban gardens to nature conservation were greeted with surprise and excitement.

With the continual growth of the world's urban population, biodiversity in towns and cities will play a critical role in global biodiversity. This is the first book to provide an overview of international developments in urban biodiversity and sustainable design. It brings together the views, experiences and expertise of leading scientists and designers from the industrialised and pre-industrialised countries from around the world. The contributors explore the biological, cultural and social values of urban biodiversity, including methods for assessing and evaluating urban biodiversity, social and educational issues, and practical measures for restoring and maintaining biodiversity in urban areas. Contributions come from presenters at an international scientific conference held in Erfurt, Germany 2008 during the 9th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biodiversity. This is also Part of our Conservation Science and Practice book series (with Zoological Society of London).

In history, cities and nature are often treated as two separate fields of research. »Concepts of Urban-Environmental History« aims to bridge this gap. The contributions to this volume survey major concepts and key issues which have shaped recent debates in the field. They address unresolved questions and future challenges. As a handbook, the collection offers a comprehensive overview for researchers and students, both from a historical and an interdisciplinary background.

This book showcases the diversity of ways in which urban residents from varying cultural contexts view, interact, engage with and give meaning to urban nature, aiming to counterbalance the dominance of Western depictions and values of urban nature and design. Urban nature has up to now largely been defined, planned and managed in a way that is heavily dominated by Western understandings, values and appreciations, which has spread through colonialism and globalisation. As cities increasingly represent a diversity of cultures, and urban nature is being increasingly recognised as contributing to residents' wellbeing, belonging and overall quality of life, it is important to consider the numerous ways in which urban nature is understood and appreciated. This collection of case studies includes examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and reflects on the multi-dimensional aspects of engagements with urban nature through a biocultural diversity lens. The chapters cover several themes such as how engagements with nature contribute to a sense of wellbeing and belonging; the implications that diversity has on the provision, design and management of urban environments; and the threats inhibiting residents' abilities to engage meaningfully with nature. The book challenges the dominant discourse, Western ideological understandings and meta-narratives of modernisation and unilineal urban transitions. A timely addition to the literature, Urban Nature: Enriching Belonging, Wellbeing and Bioculture offers an alternative to Western ideological understandings of nature and values and will be of great interest to those working in human and environmental urban ecology. It will also be key reading for students in the relevant fields of anthropology, development studies, geography, social ecology and urban studies.

Fourni par l'éditeur : "Provides a novel perspective on urban ecosystems, summarising our current understanding of the basic and applied aspects of these important and complex habitats, whilst focusing on environmental concerns in the context of global change."

This textbook on urban ecosystems answers important questions about the ecological structure, functions and socio-ecological development of cities worldwide. Based on how cities are developing today in an increasingly urbanized world, it explains ecological challenges for cities of the 21st century such as resource efficiency, climate change, moderation of quality of life and resilience. The book combines theories of urban development and ecology with practical applications and case studies, thus identifying potential for improvement and examples of good ecological urban development worldwide. It shows that cities are by far not only problem areas but also offer great potential for a good life and that the various urban ecosystems can make a considerable contribution to this. The "eco-city" is thus not a utopia,but a real goal that can be pursued step by step in a targeted manner, taking into account the local and regional context. Four renowned urban ecologists have contributed their specific experience in sub-areas without losing sight of the big picture. Jürgen Breuste is an urban ecologist and works at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg, Austria, on the topics of sustainable urban development, urban biodiversity, ecosystem services and eco-cities. Dagmar Haase is Landschaftsökologin and works at the Humboldt University of Berlin on urban ecosystem services and land use modeling. Stephan Pauleit is a landscape planner and works at the Technical University of Munich on strategies for the sustainable development of urban landscapes. Martin Sauerwein is a geographer and works at the University of Hildesheim on geo-ecology in cultural landscapes, geoarchaeology and soil protection. The textbook addresses a broad audience of students, teachersand also to practitioners in the fields of ecology, urban ecology, urban development, sustainability, urban geography, nature and landscape conservation, spatial planning, landscape ecology, social sciences and urban studies. The numerous photos and graphics, many of them in four colors, as well as clear tables illustrate the facts. Case studies, examples and explanations allow a deeper insight. Questions at the end of each chapter allow the progress of knowledge to be checked, and a comprehensive bibliography for each chapter provides further studies.This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Stadtökosysteme by Jürgen Breuste published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2016. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors. This springer essential is a translation of the original German 1st edition essentials,Stadtökosysteme by Jürgen Breuste published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2016. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

This advanced textbook moves beyond a basic scientific comprehension of urban ecosystems to understand the essential details of how scientists, policy makers, and practitioners develop solutions to effectively manage urban biodiversity. Such efforts necessitate unravelling the complex components that bolster or constrain biodiversity including human-wildlife interactions, resource availability, climate fluctuations, novel species relationships, and landscape heterogeneity. However, key to an understanding of these processes is also recognizing the tremendous social variation inherent within and across urban areas. The diversity of urban human communities fundamentally shapes how society designs, builds, and manages urban landscapes. This means that urban environmental management unavoidably must account for human social variation. Unfortunately, urban systems have a history and continued legacy of social inequality (e.g., systemic racism and classism) that govern how cities are both built and managed. This novel text not only highlights these connections, but also illustrates the interdisciplinary approaches needed for advancing a new, justice-centred approach to nature conservation. Urban Biodiversity and Equity is suitable for graduate level students and professional researchers from both natural and social science disciplines studying the ecology, conservation, and management of urban environments and their biodiversity. It will also be of relevance and use to a broader audience of urban ecologists, urban planners, and urban wildlife practitioners.

This book is an overview of human history in relationship to the natural environment, from origins to the present, with case studies of different societies in each period