Urban Ecology

How will I get the most I can from this course?Where will it take me? What will we be doing each week?

Urban Ecology: An interdisciplinary study of the urban

ecosystem

My Interests in Urban Ecology

Important Influences

Philip Slater – “In Pursuit of Loneliness”

James Howard Kunstler – “The Geography of Nowhere”

Howard T. Odum“Environment, Power, and Society”

Jay Forrester“Urban Dynamics”

What is Urban ???

What is “Urbanization?”

Often related to industrializationUp until very recently -- about 200

years ago -- the proportion of the world’s urban population was limited to about 5%

Speed of Urbanization

In 18003%By 190014 %In 1950 30%In 2000 47 % (about 2.8 billion)In 2008 > 50% (3.7 billion)

See: http://www.xist.org/default1.aspx

Human Numbers Through Time

  Name Population1 London, United Kingdom 6,480,0002 New York, United States 4,242,0003 Paris, France 3,330,0004 Berlin, Germany 2,707,0005 Chicago, United States 1,717,0006 Vienna, Austria 1,698,0007 Tokyo, Japan 1,497,0008 St. Petersburg, Russia 1,439,0009

Manchester, United Kingdom

1,435,00010 Philadelphia, United States 1,418,000

http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011201f.htm

http://www.xist.org/charts/cy_agg2005.aspx

Ten Largest Cities of 1900

Rank City1 Population

1. Shanghai, China 13,278,5002. Mumbai (Bombay), India 12,622,500 3. Buenos Aires, Argentina 11,928,4004. Moscow, Russia 11,273,4005. Karachi, Pakistan 10,889,1006. Delhi, India 10,400,9007. Manila, Philippines 10,330,1008. Sao Paulo, Brazil 10,260,1009. Seoul, South Korea 10,165,400

10. Istanbul, Turkey 9,631,70011. Jakarta, Indonesia 8,987,80012. Mexico City, Mexico 8,705,10013. Lagos, Nigeria 8,682,20014. Lima, Peru 8,380,60015. Tokyo, Japan 8,294,20016. New York City, U.S. 8,091,70017. Cairo, Egypt 7,609,70018. London, United Kingdom 7,593,30019. Teheran, Iran 7,317,20020. Beijing, China 7,209,900

Global Urbanization Trends (cont’d)

Size of Urban Population in the World

(Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, The 1999 Revision)

Earth at Night 2000 November 27

Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/ NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

Global Urbanization Trends (cont’d)

(Source: United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects, The 1999 Revision)

Comparison of Urban Population in Developed Countries and Developing Countries

Impacts of Urbanization

By concentrating humans and the resources they consume, metropolitan areas alter

• soil drainage,

• water flow, and

• light availability

Think of how architecture, such as sidewalks and rooftops, impacts the way rainwater is received and transported.

Or the way garbage dumps and sewage plants centralize waste products.

The Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway

The Places We Live by Jonas Bendiksen

Nairobi (Kibera), Kenya; Mumbai (Dharavi), India;

Jakarta, Indonesia; and Caracas, Venezuela

What does it mean to be an urban citizen on planet earth in the 21st century?

Reinventing Cities for People and the Planet

Molly O’Meara, of the The Worldwatch Institute states that “changes in six areas are needed to meet the challenge to make cities and the vast areas they affect more viable

Water Waste Food Energy Transportation Land Use

…. One of the guiding principles will be to reform urban systems so that they mimic the metabolism of nature.”

Emerging Precepts of Biological Design from Todd and Todd (1993)

1.The Living World is the matrix for all design.

The Todds refer to the concept of Gaia, the whole system which is a positive metaphor for the interconnectedness of life, and the self-regulating protection of e.g. the earth’s atmosphere. The hypothesis, defined by researcher James Lovelock, states that Gaia is “a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans , and soil: the totality constituting a feedback of cybernetic systems which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.”

2. Design should follow, not oppose, the laws of life.

3. Biological equity must determine design.

4. Design must reflect bioregionality

5. Projects should be based on renewable energy resources.

6. Design should be sustainable through the integration of living systems.

7. Design should be coevolutionary with the natural world.

8. Building and Design should help to heal the planet.

9. Design should follow a sacred ecology.

Do these designs meet the test?

Or these common practices?

Urban Ecology – how should we approach it ???

Systems Dynamic Approach

To analyze a system’s inflows and outflows you must first draw the boundary. With the urban ecosystem you can look at the block, the neighborhood, the city line, the watershed, the state, the region, the country, the globe, or even the

Sewershed!

What we think we know about IS and Water Quality

Impervious surfaces increase the delivery of runoff of accumulated sediments and nutrients to waterways.

A 10 percent impervious cover is considered as a threshold for impairment of watersheds and at 25 % imperviousness, the watershed is severely impaired (U.S.EPA, 2007).

Contrary to the assumption that low-density development is a better strategy for water quality protection, a recent EPA study showed that this type of development may in fact contribute to higher runoff (U.S. EPA, 2007).

Source:

http://www.esf.edu/erfeg/endreny/papers/Endreny-IJWRD-2004.pdf

Lab 1 Goals

Count and record location of storm drainsObserve surrounding area and look for

opportunities to let runoff naturally infiltrateObserve proposed Regional Treatment

Facility (RTF) in Armory SquareObserve already constructed RTF at

Midland AveThink about impacts on surrounding

neighborhoods

What to bring

Bicycle and helmet Water bottle Notepad and pen GPS units

Weather Forecast for Wed Aug 27 Partly Cloudy High 78° Low 59° Chance of Precipitation 10%

 

Eugene P. Odum

“I prefer to define ecology as:

The study of the structure and function of ecosystems or …..

What is Ecology ???

The study of the structure and function of nature.”

1) The composition of the biological community including species, numbers, biomass, life history and distribution in space of populations.

2) The quantity and distribution of the abiotic (non-living) materials such as nutrients, water, etc.

3) The range, or gradient, of conditions of existence such as temperature, light, etc.

Structure ???

1. The rate of biological energy flow through the ecosystem, that is, the rates of production and the rates of respiration of the populations and the community.

2. The rate of material or nutrient cycling, that is, the biogeochemical cycles.

3. The biological or ecological regulation including both regulation of organisms by environment and regulation of environment by organisms.

Function ???

Odum, E. P. 1971. Fundamentals of Ecology. Third Edition. Saunders.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~franz/top_ecosystem/documents/page3.2.html

"Living organisms ( biotic) and their nonliving ( abiotic) environment are inseparably interrelated and interact upon each other.

Any unit that includes all of the organisms (i.e., the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic trophic structurestructure, biotic diversitybiotic diversity, and material material cyclescycles (i.e., exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecological system or ecosystemecosystem."

Ecosystem ???