Urban Ecology

Urban Ecology covers the latest theoretical and applied concepts in urban ecological research. This book covers the key environmental issues of urban ecosystems as well as the human-centric issues, particularly those of governance, economics, sociology and human health. The goal of Urban Ecology is to challenge readers’ thinking around urban ecology from a resource-based approach to a holistic and applied field for sustainable development. There are seven major themes of the book: emerging urban concepts and urbanization, land use/land cover change, urban social-ecological systems, urban environment, urban material balance, smart, healthy and sustainable cities and sustainable urban design. Within each section, key concepts such as monitoring the urbanization phenomena, land use cover, urban soil fluxes, urban metabolism, pollution and human health and sustainable cities are covered. Urban Ecology serves as a comprehensive and advanced book for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers in urban ecology and urban environmental research, planning and practice.

• Includes global case studies from over 14 countries, providing a first-hand account of recent applications
• Covers the phenomena of sustainable transport, nutrient recovery and human health, among many others
• Examines environmental issues as well as social-ecological systems and governance

Ecologists, Environmental Scientists, Engineers, Social Scientists, Economists

Theme 1: Emerging facets of urban ecology – urban and urbanization, theory and concepts
1. Urban ecology – current state of research and concepts
2. Urban metabolism: old challenges, new frontiers and the research agenda ahead

Theme 2: Urban land use/land cover
3. Urban growth pattern detection and analysis
4. Exposition of spatial urban growth pattern using PSO-SLEUTH and identifying its effects on surface temperature

Theme 3: Social-ecological systems
5. Stressors of disaster-induced displacement and migration in India
6. Ecological economics of an urban settlement: an overview
7. Urban greenspace, social equity and human wellbeing

Theme 4: Urban Environment
8. Urbanization, urban agriculture and food security
9. Carbon reduction strategies for the built environment in a tropical city
10. Trends in active and sustainable mobility: experiences from emerging cycling territories of Dhaka and Innsbruck
11. Air quality and its impact on urban environment
12. Sustainable water management in megacities of the future
13. Comparing invasive alien plant community composition between urban, peri-urban and rural areas; the city of Cape Town as a case study

Theme 5: Urban material balance
14. Types, sources and management of urban wastes
15. Nutrient recovery from the municipal waste stream: status and prospects
16. Determinants of soil carbon dynamics in urban ecosystems

Theme 6: Cities: healthy, smart and sustainable
17. Urban ecology and human health: implications of urban heat island, air pollution and climate change nexus
18. Cities management and sustainable development: monitoring and assessment approach
19. Challenges in assessing urban sustainability

Theme 7: Sustainable urban design
20. Towards sustainable urban redevelopment: urban design informed by morphological patterns and ecologies of informal settlements in cities
21. Assessing the role of urban design in a rapidly urbanizing historical city and its contribution in restoring its urban ecology: the case of Varanasi, India
22. 'Green building' movement in India: study on institutional support and regulatory support
23. Challenges and innovations of transportation and collection of waste
24. Critical assessment and future dimensions for the urban ecological systems