Book chapter
Urban Ecology and Biodiversity
Towards a Nature-Positive Built Environment, pp 69-94
2026
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Abstract
Urban ecology is a burgeoning field of study seeking to understand how the built environment and biotic communities interact. While urban ecology is a broad field of study, this chapter focuses on urban ecology at the landscape scale and seeks to understand the various ways landscape structure supports biodiversity. First, we will draw distinction between ‘ecology in urbanized landscapes’ and ‘urban ecology’, defining what it means to be ‘urban’ from an ecological lens, examine the processes of urbanization, and describe what ecological theories and principles help us to understand our urban landscapes. While modern contemporary urban landscapes vary as a result of each locality’s geography, history, and culture we can draw comparisons by evaluating urban green and gray space availability and spatial dispersion. The biodiversity within these environments therefore is the result of many years of human interaction in the form of city planning, management, and socio-cultural community decision making. While each locality is unique, we generally observe predictable trends in urban biodiversity around the world, as urbanization creates a novel landscape of biophysical regimes. These biophysical conditions not only structure urban biodiversity but often lead to large systemic challenges for the human populations within our cities. This chapter closes with suggestions for partnering efforts to increase urban biodiversity, as well as ameliorate the ecological challenges of urbanization on human populations. Such efforts increase urban resilience, enhance ecological function, and increase benefits for public health in the face of climate change.
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Details
- Title
- Urban Ecology and Biodiversity
- Creators
- Dane C. Ward - Monmouth UniversityHeather L. Kostick - Drexel University
- Contributors
- Giuliana Iannaccone (Editor)Eugenia Victoria Ellis (Editor)
- Publication Details
- Towards a Nature-Positive Built Environment, pp 69-94
- Series
- Research for Development
- Publisher
- Springer Nature; Cham
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES); Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering; [Retired Faculty]
- Other Identifier
- 991022154842804721