One's trash is another's septic buffet

Researchers at Yale and Portland State Universities conducted a study of the effects of fertilizers on ponds in residential areas. They found that human waste from septic systems were not only contributing nitrogen to the ponds, but that pond organisms were primarily feeding from it. Max Lambert, one of the paper's co-authors stated "“Our study highlights that, by choosing to live in and landscape particular places, human neighborhoods are creating fundamentally unique ecosystems by changing how water and food move around, and even what kind of food is available. Suburban animals behave, look, and function differently because of this”

More on this story at Yale News at https://news.yale.edu/2017/12/11/study-suburban-ponds-are-septic-buffet

Wait, wait....don't clean that street gutter!

“In most cities, streets are designed for collecting and transporting dirt, litter, debris, storm water and other wastes as a municipal sanitation system. Microbial mats can develop on street surfaces and form microbial communities that have never been described. Here, we performed the first molecular inventory of the street gutter-associated eukaryotes across the entire French capital of Paris and the non-potable waters sources. We found that the 5782 OTUs (operational taxonomic units) present in the street gutters which are dominated by diatoms (photoautotrophs), fungi (heterotrophs), Alveolata and Rhizaria, includes parasites, consumers of phototrophs and epibionts that may regulate the dynamics of gutter mat microbial communities. Network analyses demonstrated that street microbiome present many species restricted to gutters, and an overlapping composition between the water sources used for street cleaning (for example, intra-urban aquatic networks and the associated rivers) and the gutters. We propose that street gutters, which can cover a significant surface area of cities worldwide, potentially have important ecological roles in the remediation of pollutants or downstream wastewater treatments, might also be a niche for growth and dissemination of putative parasite and pathogens.”

From: Aquatic urban ecology at the scale of a capital: community structure and interactions in street gutters

by Vincent Hervé, Boris Leroy, Albert Da Silva Pires & Pascal Jean Lopez

The ISME Journal 

doi:10.1038/ismej.2017.166

Urban Bird Feeders Dominated by a Few Species and Individuals

“Our study highlights that individual and species-specific differences in feeder use are present within feeder-visiting bird communities, importantly demonstrating this across seasons within an urban system. These intraspecific and interspecific asymmetries support the likelihood of competitive interactions operating to regulate access to food, and suggest that the effects of supplementary feeding are unlikely to be equivalent across all birds within communities of feeder visitors. In New Zealand resource dominance by introduced species is particularly important, with negative outcomes for native species conservation in cities possible. Individual differences in feeder use observed here are likely to affect the population-level impacts of bird feeding, and consequently should be considered in future studies of garden bird feeding.”

"Urban Bird Feeders Dominated by a Few Species and Individuals"

Josie A. Galbraith, Darryl N. Jones, Jacqueline R. Beggs, Katharina Parry and Margaret C. Stanley

Front. Ecol. Evol., 02 August 2017 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2017.00081

Good urban ecology reference book

Urban shrapnel: spatial distribution of non-productive space

Abstract:

“Urbanisation is characterised by cycles of activation and obsolescence leaving in their wake an abundance of non-productive space (NPS). Expanding cities report more vacant land than do fixed cities, which report higher structural abandonment. If left untreated, existing NPS can spread to surrounding properties. Using Fort Worth, TX, USA as a case site, this research explores the spatial distribution of NPS using Geographical Information Systems spatial analyses. Directional distributions, time series analyses, spatial assessments using 5-mile buffer increments and weighted suitability models were combined to determine if urban core fragmentation is occurring, despite population and economic growth. Findings indicate that peripheral NPS area decreased but these spaces were redistributed into the urban core. Parcel size and regeneration potential in the city centre also decreased. This has resulted in a fragmented urban core characterised by disconnected and small/irregularly shaped parcels of NPS which are difficult to regenerate—an urban shrapnel.”

Authors: Galen Newman ORCID Icon & Boah Kim

Published through Landscape Research, Journal; Pages 699-715 | Published online: 20 Aug 2017

Volume 42, 2017 - Issue 7: Shrinking Cities: Rethinking landscape in depopulating urban contexts

Available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01426397.2017.1363877

Felder Rushing's driveway 'crack garden'

Socioecosystems, part II

The following table, developed by Kowarik (2011), features the main urban drivers of plant and animal adaptations to city environments. The impacts of habitat fragmentation, pollutants, and disturbance in cities are well documented. But the emergence of research on novel habitats paint the possibilities of new urban ecosystems in the making. Life continues to adapt to the harshest of environmental conditions.

Socioecosystems (Grimm)

"There is an increasing body of evidence that urban land uses effect profound changes in all environmental components and that humans are the main drivers of change (Sukopp et al., 1979; Gilbert, 1989; Pickett et al., 2001; Alberti et al., 2003), thus leading to the idea of addressing cities as “socioecosystems” (Grimm et al., 2008)"

--Ingo Kowarik, "Novel urban ecosystems, biodiversity, and conservation", Environmental Pollution 159 (2011) 1974-1983

This interesting chart below by Kowarik (2011) identifies the urban drivers of biodiversity through landscape practices--including income levels of a neighborhood, available ornamental types, management, and propagule dispersal. How does your neighborhood fare?

Urban ecology and sustainability: The state-of-the-science and future directions

“Some components of cities or even some cities as a whole may be viewed as “novel ecosystems” in which the value of biodiversity should not be judged by its origins (Davis et al., 2011; Standish et al., 2013). Instead, we should “organize priorities around whether species are producing benefits or harm to biodiversity, human health, ecological services and economies” (Davis et al., 2011), and those alien (but not invasive) species that provide abundant ecosystem services should be incorporated into urban planning and management (Clark and Nicholas, 2013; Davis et al., 2011; Standish et al., 2013).” 

Wu, Jianguo. (2014). Urban ecology and sustainability: The state-of-the-science and future directions. Landscape and Urban Planning. 125. . 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.01.018. 

Urban Nature Show on WTTW

Check out Marcus Kronforst's online video show that addresses urban ecology topics in 3 cities--Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. It's available here: http://interactive.wttw.com/urbannature#!/

Marcus Kronforst, PhD, is the Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolution at the University of Chicago. He is a prominent researcher in the field of evolutionary biology, where his work focuses on wing pattern mimicry in butterflies. Kronforst has published his scientific research in an array of highly influential journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences USA, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Genetics, and Genome Biology, among others. He has been named a Pew Biomedical Research Scholar and he is the recent recipient of both an NSF CAREER award and an NSF Dimensions of Biodiversity grant, along with a 2016 Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Chicago. Kronforst earned his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. He received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Miami in 1998. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, he held a five-year Bauer Fellowship at Harvard University’s FAS Center for Systems Biology. Kronforst joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2012.

A Tale of Adaptive Landscape Management

                                  

Like most designed landscapes, the entry garden for the Landscape Architecture Facility at Mississippi State University began with a plan. Specifically, this one:

I was asked to develop a planting plan in the summer of 2005, and I decided to focus on low maintenance plants to reflect our department focus on sustainable landscapes. Students helped to install plants in 2006, which looked like this:

Most of the plants did well and adapted to the sticky clay soils and persistent summer droughts. Drip irrigation was provided for the first year and then removed. Organic mulch was added periodically and the mineral soils developed a nice thick organic layer. Other than for establishment, no supplemental watering, fertilizing, or pesticides have been used. The perennials blossomed and established a quick cover within a year's time:

The trees and woody shrubs took time to grow and changes were already happening in the herbaceous layer. Some plants died out from drought or accidental weeding while others were planted to replace them. Volunteer herbaceous plants came in from local sources-- including native strawberries, evening primrose, and asters. Volunteers can spread rapidly and take advantage of late winter seasons where there is little competition. The evening primrose gave quite a display such as this:

Student workers in the garden were trained to use adaptive landscape management which they learned under one of my co-workers, Dr. Tim Schauwecker. Adaptive management, as defined by Holling, is decision-making as changes occur via system monitoring. An example of this in the landscape consists of allowing plant volunteers to come into the garden that are complementary to the already existing plants. Student workers in the LA garden actively pulled out any exotic invasive species such as Johnson grass or privet, while allowing others to exist. Some plants that took over aggressively, such as the evening primrose, and were pulled occasionally to keep them in check.

The garden today, 12 years later after install and shown above, has settled into a comfortable, more stable, plant community. Stable in the sense that vegetative changes will and are allowed to happen but there are no large wholesale changes to the landscape. The student managers allow plants to come in if they fit into the garden niche and offer a role through flowering or by providing other benefits. Plants that grow too large, or competitive, or are not suited-- are pulled out. Gardens are partnerships between the landscape and the people that care for them. By understanding the vegetative trajectories, or seres of a garden; and by allowing complementary plants to enter into that system from birds or wind; the garden co-evolves into a community of plants that exceeds the vision of the original designers or managers. Land managers--gardeners-- are really vegetative artists and allow the colors of plants to wash into the painting/plantings. We need to recognize that gardens are temporal and that all living things change. By listening to the land and allowing living things (plants and animals) to breathe and exist within the garden structure, the landscape renews itself. Gardens should, and need to be-- dynamic, instead of a static system.

How do you sample your yard to measure for biodiversity?

You can take samples in your yard just like urban researchers do, such as those in the Ecological Homogenization of Urban America project, hosted by a team of intercollegiate scientists. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the project personnel are trying to understand if cities that have similar road patterns, housing areas, and similar vegetation types create a distinct urban ecology that occurs across a continent (visit the project website at http://ecologicalhomogenization.com/). Scientists from leading universities in six U.S. cities: Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Phoenix; are participating in understanding their local environment. They invite the public from that area to let them come to their residence and sample their yard. To do this, they:

• Identify and map all of the plants that are growing there.
• Take soil samples
• Take measurements of atmospheric conditions such as air temperature, humidity and soil moisture content.

After a few months of sampling, they send homeowners a report of their ecological index score. If you live in those cities, contact the research team to sample for you. If you don't, you can DIY by taking your own samples to see what you have. We look forward to their results.

Urban Flora resources by country

The following literature sources were first published by Steve Clements from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in the December 2002 online issue of Urban Habitats journal:

"Following is a list of some urban floras from around the world, in alphabetical order by city. Apparently no floras are available for 27 of the 50 most populated cities in the world, as listed by One World - Nations Online (2002) (http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/bigcities.htm):

Beijing (China)

He, S.Y. (1992). Beijing zhi wu zhi [Flora of Beijing] (2nd ed., 2 vols.). Beijing: Beijing chu ban she: Xin hua shu dian Beijing fa xing suo fa xing.

Belfast (Northern Ireland)

Beesley, S. & Wilde, J. (1997). Urban flora of Belfast. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, University of Belfast.

Berlin (Germany)

Böcker, R., Auhagen, A., Brockmann, H., Kowarik, I., Scholz, H., Sukopp, H. & Zimmermann, F. (1991). Liste der wildwachsenden Farn- und Blütenpflanzen von Berlin (West) [List of the wild-growing ferns and flowering plants of (west) Berlin]. In A. Auhagen, R. Platen & H. Sukopp (Eds.), Rote Listen der gefährdeten Pflanzen und Tiere in Berlin 1990 [Red lists of endangered plants and animals in Berlin 1990]. Landschaftsentwicklung und Umweltforschung, 6, 57-88.

Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Guaglianone, R. (1980). Algunas hierbas espontáneas en los espacios verdes de la ciudad de Buenos Aires [Some spontaneous weeds in the green spaces of the city of Buenos Aires ]. Buenos Aires: Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Secretaría de Educación.

Calcutta (India)

Manilal, K.S. & Sivarajan V.V. (1982). Flora of Calicut: the flowering plants of the greater Calicut area consisting of the western sectors of Calicut and Malappuram districts. Dehra Dun: Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh.

Chicago (United States)

Swink, F. & Wilhelm, G. (1994). Plants of the Chicago region: an annotated checklist of the vascular flora of the Chicago region, with keys, notes on local distribution, ecology, and taxonomy, a system for the qualitative evaluation of plant communities, a natural division map, and a description of natural plant communities. Indianapolis: Indiana Academy of Science.

Delhi (India)

Maheshwari, J.K. (1963). The flora of Delhi. New Delhi: Council of Scientific & Industrial Research.

Dublin (Ireland)

Doogue, D., Nash, D., Parnell, J., Reynolds, S. & Wyse-Jackson, P.S. (Eds.). (1998). Flora of county Dublin. Dublin: Dublin Naturalists Field Club.

Frankfurt (Germany)

Bönsel, D., Malten, A., Wagner, S. & Zizka, G. (2001). Flora, fauna und biotoptypen von haupt- und güterbahnhof in Frankfurt am Main [Flora, fauna and biotypes of the main and freight railroad yards in Frankfurt am Main] (Kleine Senckenberg-Reihe 38). Frankfurt am Main: Senckenberg Naturforschende Gesellschaft.

Glasgow (Scotland)

Dickson, J.H. (2001). The changing flora of Glasgow: Urban and rural through the centuries. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Guangzhou (China)

Chun, W.Y. (1956). Flora Gwangchownica [Flora of Guangzhou (Canton)]. Guangzhou.

Hou, K. & Chen, H. (1956). Guangzhou zhi wu zhi [Flora of Canton]. Zhongguo ke xue yuan: Hua nan zhi wu yan jiu suo. Beijing: Ke xue chu ban she.

Helsinki (Finland)

Kurtto, A. & Helynranta, L. (1998). Helsingin kasvit. Kukkivilta kiviltä metsän syliin [Flora of Helsinki. From flowering stones to forest floor]. Helsinki: City of Helsinki Environment Centre and Helsinki University Press.

Hong Kong (China)

Hodgkiss, I.J., Thrower, S.L. &. Man, S.H. (1981). An introduction to the ecology of Hong Kong (2 vols.). Hong Kong: Federal Publications Ltd.

Thrower, S.L. (1971). Plants of Hong Kong. Hsiang-kang chih wu [Parallel English and Chinese text]. London: Longman.

Jakarta (Indonesia)

Backer, C.A. (1907). Flora van Batavia. Deel 1, Dicotyledones dialypetalae (Thalamiflorae en Disciflorae) [Flora of Batavia (Jakarta). Part 1, separate petal Dicotyledons (Thalamiflorae and Disciflorae)]. Jakarta: G. Kolff & Co. Mededeelingen Uitgaande van het Departement van Landbouw 4: 1-405.

Miquel, F.A.G. (1837). Disquisitio geographico-botanica de plantarum regni Batavi distributione [Discourse on the botanical geography of the plant kingdom distributed in Batavia (Jakarta)]. Leiden: P.H. van den Heuvell.

London (England)

Burton, R.M. (1983). Flora of the London area. London: London Natural History Society.

Los Angeles (United States)

Abrams, L. (1917). Flora of Los Angeles and vicinity. Stanford, CA : Stanford University.

Madras (India)

Barnes, E. (1938). Supplement to the Flowering plants of Madras City and its immediate neighbourhood. Madras: Superintendent, Government Press.

Mayuranathan, P.V. (1929). The flowering plants of Madras City and its immediate neighbourhood. Madras: Superintendent, Government Press.

Madrid (Spain)

López González, G.A. & López Jiménez, N. (1991-). Flora de Madrid [Flora of Madrid]. Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid: http://www.rjb.csic.es/Biodiversidad/intro.html.

Cutanda, V. (1861). Flora compendiada de Madrid y su provincia, ó, descripcion sucinta de las plantas vasculares que espontáneamente crecen en este territorio [A summary flora of Madrid and its province, or, a succinct description of the vascular plants that spontaneously grow in this territory]. Madrid: Imprenta Nacional.

Melbourne (Australia)

Jones, D. & Jones, B. (1999). Native plants of Melbourne and adjoining areas: a field guide. Hawthorn, Victoria: Bloomings Books.

Gray, M. & Knight, J. (Eds.). (1993). Flora of Melbourne: A guide to the indigenous plants of the greater Melbourne area (3rd ed.). Society for Growing Australian Plants Maroondah, Inc. South Melbourne, Victoria: Hyland House.

Mexico City (Mexico)

Rapoport, E., Díaz-Betancourt, M.E. & López-Moreno, I.R. (1983). Aspectos de la ecología urbana en la ciudad de México : flora de las calles y baldíos [Aspects of the urban ecology in the city of Mexico: flora of the streets and wastelands]. México: Editorial Limusa.

Moscow (Russia)

Poliakova, G.A. (1992). Flora i rastitelnost starykh parkov Podmoskovía [Flora and vegetation of the old parks around Moscow]. Moscow: Nauka.

Mumbai (India)

Graham, J. (1839). A catalogue of the plants growing in Bombay and its vicinity; spontaneous, cultivated or introduced, as far as they have been ascertained . Bombay: Government Press.

New York (United States)

Moore, G., Stewart, A, Clemants, S., Glenn, S. Ma, J. (1990-). New York Metropolitan Flora Project. Brooklyn Botanic Garden: http://www.bbg.org/sci/nymf.

Plzen (Czech Republic)

Pyšek A. & Pyšek P. (1988). Ruderálni flóra Plzne [Ruderal flora of the city of Plzen]. Sbornik Západoces Muzea v Plzeni. Príroda, 68,1-34.

Rome (Italy)

Anzalone, B. (1996). Prodromo della flora romana. Parte Seconda: Angiospermae, Monocotyledones [Preliminary study of the Roman flora. Part II: Angiosperms (Monocotyledons)]. Annali di Botanica (Roma), 54.

Celesti-Grapow, L. (1995). Atlante della Flora di Roma [Atlas of the flora of Rome]. Rome: Argos Edizione.

Anzalone, B. (1994). Prodromo della flora romana. Parte Prima: Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Angiospermae, Dicotyledones [Preliminary study of the flora of Rome. Part I: Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Angiosperms (Dicotyledons)]. Annali di Botanica (Roma), 52, suppl. II.

St. Petersburg (Russia)

Shishkin, B.K. (Ed.). (1955). Flora Leningradskoi oblasti [Flora of the Leningrad oblast]. Leningrad: Izd-vo Leningradskogo universiteta.

Santiago (Chile)

Navas Bustamante, L.E. (1973-79). Flora de la cuenca de Santiago de Chile [Flora of the Santiago de Chile basin]. Santiago: Ediciones de la Universidad de Chile.

Shanghai (China)

Hsu, P.S. (1999). Shanghai shi wu zhi [The plants of Shanghai] (2 vols.). Shanghai: Shanghai ji shu wen xian chu ban she.

Borrell, O.W. (1996). Flora of the Shanghai area. Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria: William Borrell.

Singapore (Singapore)

Keng, H. (1990). The concise flora of Singapore. Kent Ridge, Singapore: Singapore University Press.

Sousse (Tunisia)

Brandes, D. (2001). Urban flora of Sousse (Tunisia). Botanisches Institut und Botanischer Garten der TU Braunschweig. http://opus.tu-bs.de/opus/volltexte/2001/189/pdf/Sousse.pdf.

Sydney (Australia)

Carolin, R.C., Tindale, M.D. & Beadle, N.C.W. (1994). Flora of the Sydney Region. (4th ed.). Chatswood, NSW: Reed.

Warsaw (Poland)

Sudnik-Wojcikowska, B. (1987). Flora miasta Warszawy i jej przemiany w ci∏agu XIX i XX wieku [The urban flora of Warsaw and its transformation in the 19th and 20th centuries]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego."

An Urban Sustainability Reading List

Blueprint for a Sustainable Bay Area, Urban Ecology, Oakland, CA, 1996. An extensively illustrated look at how the San Francisco Bay Area can become more sustainable, written for a popular audience.

Ecological Design, by Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 1995 (reviewed in 1996 #1). An elegant, theoretical look at principles of ecological design, as applied in settings such as sewage treatment marshes, industrial ecosystems, and ecological buildings.

The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken, Harper-Collins, New York, 1993 (reviewed Winter 1994). A visionary work looking at how economics can be retooled to support the restoration of natural systems. Discusses specific mechanisms such as green taxes, and provides a theoretical overview of “sustainable businesses.”

End of the Road: The World Car Crisis and How We Can Solve It, by Wolfgang Zuckerman, Chelsea Green Publishing, Post Mills, VT, 1991 (reviewed Spring 1993). Dealing with the growth of automobile use is one of the biggest challenges of sustainable urban development, and this entertaining book systematically lists steps to end the “car crisis.”

The GAIA Atlas of Cities: New Directions in Sustainable Urban Living, by Herbert Girardet, Anchor Books/Doubleday, New York, 1992 (reviewed Spring 1992). A beautifully illustrated popular overview of urban history, problems and futures, with emphasis on developing world megacities. The book’s final section, “Healing the City,” summarizes themes such as urban greening, energy efficiency, recycling, alternative transport, and traffic calming.

Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability, by Huey D. Johnson, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1995. A look at how national green plans can set the stage for sustainable development, with examples from The Netherlands, Canada, and New Zealand.

Making Development Sustainable: Redefining Institutions, Policy, and Economics, edited by Johan Holmberg, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 1992. A reader covering topics such as public institutions, public participation, environmental economics, sustainable agriculture, and industry. Contains a good chapter on “The Future City.”

Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on Earth, by William Rees, New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, 1996 (reviewed in 1997 #I). A popular book with catchy illustrations in which the author presents a “footprint” model for determining how much land area is required to support urban inhabitants.

Planning for a Sustainable Environment. A Report by the Town and Country Planning Association, Earthscan Publications, London, 1993. A thorough but dry consideration of topics such as land use planning, energy policy, ecosystems, natural resources, pollution, waste, transport, regional planning, and economic development, by a Sustainable Development Study Group consisting of many leading British researchers.

Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development, by John Tillman Lyle, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1994. A lengthy examination of theoretical and practical aspects of ecological design, covering topics such as solar design, water conservation, waste assimilation, and building construction.

Reviving the City: Toward Sustainable Urban Development, by Tim Elkin and Duncan McLaren, with Mayer Hillman, Friends of the Earth, London, 1990 (reviewed Spring 1992). A look at sustainable urban development from an environmental perspective, emphasizing steps to address energy use and pollution rather than social issues or land use.

Shaping Cities: The Environmental and Human Dimensions, by Marcia Lowe, Worldwatch Paper 105, The Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C., 1991. An excellent, concise overview of ways that cities can be made more sustainable, including discussions of urban form, transportation, energy use, water use, housing, land use, and social justice issues, with examples from around the globe.

Sustainable America: A New Consensus, President’s Council on Sustainable Development, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1996. Although a consensus document that doesn’t go nearly far enough in some ways, the PCSD’s report does outline many useful principles and examples of sustainable development, and is remarkable in that it exists at all.

Sustainable Cities, Graham Haughton and Colin Hunter, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, Ltd., London and Bristol PA, 1994. A thoughtful and thorough analysis by two English academics, focusing on environmental aspects of urban development but bringing in social and economic factors as well. The authors adopt a strongly international perspective and discuss historical ideas about ideal city form as well as current implications of the Earth Summit’s Agenda 21. A potential textbook for university courses.

Sustainable Cities: Urbanization and the Environment in International Perspective, edited by Richard Stren, Rodney White, and Joseph Whitney, Westview Press, Boulder CO, 1992. An excellent international survey of sustainable urban development issues, edited by three geographers associated with the University of Toronto, with sections on western Europe, eastern Europe, Africa, Canada, the U.S., Latin America, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan.

Nature Custodianship in Cities

"The trick is to include nature as a fundamental part of cities – not a tacked on afterthought. What most urban ecologists call for is a larger rethink of cities as natural ecosystems with their own metabolism – a blend of natural space, wildlife and built structures, not unlike a river with a beaver dam. Instead of adding green to urban blueprints, they argue for the “biophilic city,” an urban space that is natural in its own right, with green included from the ground up. Features such as living walls, in which greenery is planted vertically, or cookie-cutter parks may amount to little more than green-washing, argues Joseph Juhasz, a professor emeritus in the architecture faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver. “They dress up the city, grow cucumbers on the wall, but they don’t deal with the fundamental problem – we have to build in a manner in which the site does not dictate the building.” Like many environmentalists, Dr. Juhasz says urban planners too often settle for short-term design that leaves a long-term footprint. “We have lost a sense of custodianship. Will their great-grandchildren be happy with what they have built?”"--Erin Andersson, www.theglobeandmail.com

Effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitude on perception of urban green space

“Green space in cities contributes to the quality of life for city dwellers, e.g., by increasing the opportunity for recreation. However, perception of urban green space is influenced by multiple factors. We investigated effects of biodiversity and environment-related attitudes on visual and auditory perceptions of urban green space. Field measurements of biodiversity were conducted in six sites across an urban gradient in Gothenburg, Sweden, and three categories of biodiversity—high, medium, low—were established. Households were sent a survey on aesthetic perception of urban green space, sound perception and the importance of trees and plants for the perception of bird species. Each respondent focused on the site that was located nearby. The environment-related attitudes comprised “Nature-oriented” and “Urban-oriented” persons and were based on participants’ own attitude estimations. It was shown that participants’ “subjective” aesthetic and sound-related perception of urban greenery were in line with the “objectively” measured subdivisions of high, medium and low biodiversity. So also were their estimations of the importance of trees and plants for perception of bird species in urban greenery, although differing only between high and medium/low biodiversity conditions. Persons rating themselves as highly nature-oriented were shown to give higher scores to urban green space aesthetics and to value greenery-related sounds higher, and to attach greater importance to trees and plants in their perception of bird species in urban greenery, than less nature-oriented persons. Highly urban-oriented persons compared to less urban-oriented persons did the same, but only regarding urban greenery-related aesthetics and sounds of nature. We conclude that environment-related attitudes influence perceptions of green space. Moreover, our findings support the idea that biodiversity per se also influences perceptions; people value green space significantly more with high than with low measured biodiversity. Urban planning needs to provide city inhabitants with green spaces that are species-rich, lush, varied and rich with natural sounds.”

Gunnarsson, B., Knez, I., Hedblom, M. et al. Urban Ecosyst (2017) 20: 37. doi:10.1007/s11252-016-0581-x