THE SCIENCE OF URBAN ECOLOGY
Defining urban ecology It is generally accepted that the discipline of urban ecology arose
in the early 1970s (Stearns & Montag 1974; Rebele 1994; Sukopp 1998, 2002; McDonnell
et al. 2009). Historically, the term ‘urban ecology’ has evoked a diversity of meanings. As
mentioned in the previous section, in the 1920s the Chicago School of sociologists used
the term to describe their work. Deelstra (1998) reminds us that in the early 1970s the
UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB) funded the first integrated urban ecology
research that brought together three sciences: 1) natural sciences, 2)
engineering/planning, and 3) humanities (i.e. social sciences). Each of these sciences
utilizes different terminology, paradigms, and methodologies and encompass different
goals and objectives, thus resulting in an assortment of definitions and meanings for the
term urban ecol- ogy.
For example, natural scientists would define urban ecology in a similar manner to the
definition of ecology presented earlier, but would limit their studies to urban and
urbanizing landscapes (Grimm et al. 2000; Pickett et al. 2001; Alberti 2003; Niemelä et al.
2009). Thus, ecologists focus their work on the distribution and abundance of organisms
(i.e. bio- diversity) as well as the flow of nutrients and energy in urban ecosystems (i.e.
ecosystem services).
All of the subdisciplines of the science of ecology pre- sented in Fig. 1 can be applied to
the study of urban ecosystems. Engineers and planners, on the other hand, focus on
designing facilities and services in urban environments with the goal of reducing envi-
ronmental impacts and creating sustainable cities (Deelstra 1998; Pickett et al. 2001).
Social scientists focus primarily on social structure and the social allotment of natural and
institutional resources (Pickett et al. 2001; Alberti 2008). Today, social scien- tists working
under the umbrella of urban ecology are exploring how to create greener more healthy
and sustainable cities. So how should we define the current discipline of urban ecology?
A number of urban ecologists have.
Alberti proposes ‘. . . urban ecology is the study of the ways that human and ecological
systems evolve together in urbanizing regions.’ (Alberti 2008, page xiv). She suggests that
the science of urban ecology is emerging from the integration of several disci- plines as a
result of a mutual interest in understand- ing the ecological structure and function of cities
and towns. Indeed, today the borders between these different disciplines and urban
ecology are blurred. Which of these disciplines become integrated, and what degree of
integration occurs, will depend on the questions being addressed. As students of urban
ecology are trained more broadly and more research is conducted by interdisciplinary
teams of research- ers, I propose that over time, as the discipline of urban ecology
matures, we will experience a dis- solving of the existing boundaries between the eco-
logical and social science disciplines. As mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, urban
ecology is evolving and emerging into a truly inter- and transdisciplinary science.
Urban ecology societies, books, and journals
In general, the state of the development of a scien- tific discipline is strongly associated
with the exist- ence of scientific societies as well as the nature, quality, and quantity of
the books and journals avail- able that address the subject matter. Although there are
urban ecology sections in some societies, the first independent international society, The
Society of Urban Ecology (SURE), was established in 2009 to foster and develop knowledge
and implementation of urban ecology worldwide (SURE 2010). Several books and journals
devoted to the study of the ecological, physical, and sociological conditions of urban
environments appeared in the early 1970s heralding the arrival of the new discipline of
urban ecology.
The initial books to appear were edited com- pilations from multidisciplinary conferences
and workshops held in the United States (Stearns & Montag 1974), Europe (Bornkamm et
al. 1982), and Australasia (Nix 1972). Each of these volumes des- cribe the growing
ecological and social problems of cities around the world and the need for an inte- grated
approach involving the ecological, social, and physical sciences to develop strategies to
mitigate the negative impacts of human settlements. A com- mon thread running through
each of these volumes is the acknowledgment of the lack of ecological infor- mation that
existed at the time for cities and the call to increase urban ecology research in order to
develop appropriate solutions in the future.
The increase in knowledge and understanding of urban ecosystems, as well as the
development of urban ecology as an inter- and transdisciplinary science in the 1990s and
early 2000s, has been well documented in a collection of edited volumes that can be
categorized into three perspectives: 1) bio- ecology, 2) planning and design, and 3)
education. All of these compilations are multidisciplinary in nature and bring together the
leaders in the eco- logical, physical, and social dimensions of the field of urban ecology,
but the volumes have slightly dif- ferent themes and are pitched to different audi- ences.
It is also apparent from these books that the concept of creating sustainable cities has
become a major focus of urban ecology research.
The major- ity of these edited works have a strong bio-ecology theme with a modicum of
research focused on the social dimensions of urban ecosystems. This cate- gory of books
includes the works of Grodzinski et al. (1984), Sukopp et al. (1990), McDonnell and Pickett
(1993), Brueste et al. (1998), Marzluff et al. (2001), Marzluff et al. (2008b), Carreiro et al.
(2008) and McDonnell et al. (2009). Compilations of urban ecology research by Platt et al.
(1994) and Sukopp et al. (1995) also include a multidisciplinary per- spective, but they
have a strong landscape design and planning focus. Berkowitz et al. (2003) provide a
unique collection of chapters that explore how an understanding of urban ecosystems
facilitates the development of strategies to solve future environ- mental problems.
Somewhat surprisingly, there are relatively few single or multi-authored books, as
opposed to edited compilations, that address the subject of urban ecology. Gilbert (1989)
and Wheater (1999) describe the ecology of urban habitats in the United Kingdom (UK).
These volumes are very descriptive and, although comprehensive in their treatment of
the subject matter, they focus primarily on the phys- ical and bio-ecological conditions of
urban habitats. They are excellent examples of what we would refer to today as the
ecology ‘in’ cities component of the discipline of urban ecology.
As previously mentioned, Boyden et al. (1981) published The Ecology of a City and its
People: The Case Study of Hong Kong which is considered by many to be the first classic
book on the ecology of a city. This volume provides a comprehensive account of the Hong
Kong Human Ecology Program which was composed of a multidisciplinary group of
researchers from the Australia National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia.
The program started in 1972 and became the first pilot program of the UNESCO Man and
the Biosphere Program (MAB) in 1974. The book is considered a classic because it 1)
provided an intellectual framework on which the work was conducted, 2) utilized and
integrated empirical data from many sources to describe the city and its people, 3)
elucidated the ecological and societal problems facing human settlements, and 4)
provided the first model for integrating the ecologi- cal and sociological dimensions of
urban ecosys- tems. Most of the ideas, concepts, and methodologies used in this study
are still very relevant to urban ecologists today.
Forman (2008), a preeminent landscape ecolo- gist, has produced a unique book that
examines urban regions. Unlike the urban ecology books cited above, Urban Regions:
Ecology and Planning Beyond the City follows more in the footsteps of his earlier Land
Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (Forman 1995) and draws primarily on
concepts from the subdiscipline of landscape ecol- ogy. This new book focuses on
analysing 38 urban regions from around the world principally from a planning and
management perspective, but with a strong ecological foundation. Urban Regions will no
doubt influence the way ecologists, social scientists, conservationists, land managers, and
policy-makers view and manage urban regions in the future
