Cities for People: Study in Urban Ecology

By Tim Schwanen
340
2026

Description

This book is intended to provide a broad overview of the field of urban ecology, particularly for those wanting to find out what it is essentially about, either as part of their general ecological education or perhaps with a view to begin working in this area. Some of the chapter topics could be equally relevant to almost any ecosystem (although the chapter contents would vary), others particularly reflect the intimate links between people and ecological pattern and process in urban areas. The book opens with chapters addressing what urban ecology is and some of the essentials of the urbanisation process and of ecosystem function in urban areas. It moves on to consider how individual species, species richness and alien species respond to urbanisation. The next chapters tackle various facets of human-ecology interactions in urban environments, respectively those between people and wildlife, between human social organisation and ecology, and between human health and wellbeing and ecology. Two chapters then follow that focus on urban green spaces and urban planning. The book concludes with consideration of the future of urban systems and urban ecology. 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 is to challenge readers' thinking around urban ecology from a resource-based approach to a holistic and applied field for sustainable development. The 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. This book serves as a comprehensive and advanced book for students, researchers, practitioners and policymakers in urban ecology and urban environmental research, planning and practice.

About Author

Tim Schwanen is Director of the Transport Studies Unit, Professor of Transport Geography in the School of Geography and the Environment, and also a Supernumerary Fellow at St Anne's College. He joined the Transport Studies Unit (TSU) in March 2009 and became Director in September 2015. Tim is one of the editors of Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods and Practice, the youngest addition to the E&P family, and he serves on the editorial advisory boards of five journals focused on transport and mobility. Since September 2021 he has been a Fellow of the Academy for Social Sciences, the UK's national academy for academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences. Tim obtained his PhD from the Department of Human Geography and Planning of Utrecht University, The Netherlands in 2003 (cum laude), after which he worked as a post-doctoral researcher and Lecturer in Urban Geography at the same university. Tim joined the University of Oxford in March 2009, first as a Research Fellow at the TSU and later as Departmental Lecturer in Transport Studies and Human Geography. He has fulfilled the TSU Director role since September 2015 and was the Fellow in Geography at St Anne's College in 2015-2021. Tim was a Visiting Professor in Human Geography at the School of Business, Economics and Law of the University of Gothenburg in 2016-2019, and held a Francqui Chair at the Faculty of Sciences in Ghent University in 2022. Tim is a member of the SoGE Technological Life: Environments, Bodies, Mobilities research cluster.

Table of Content

Preface
Chapter 1 Urban Ecology 

WHAT IS URBAN ECOLOGY?
THE RISE OF URBAN ECOLOGY
ECOLOGY IN AND OF URBAN AREAS 
‘WICKED’ PROBLEMS 
PROSPECTS 

Chapter 2 Urbanisation
WHAT IS URBAN? 
HOW DOES URBANISATION OCCUR?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF URBANISATION 
THE SCALE OF URBANISATION 
THE STRUCTURE OF URBAN AREAS

Chapter 3 Urban Environments and Ecosystem Functions 
TEMPERATURE
WATER QUALITY
WATER FLOWS
CARBON CYCLES 
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
SPECIES INTERACTIONS 
IN CONCLUSION 

Chapter 4 Individual Species and Urbanisation 
SPECIES TRAITS
DEMOGRAPHIC TRAITS 
POPULATION GENETIC STRUCTURE 
SYNTHESIS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Chapter 5 Species Diversity and Urbanisation: Patterns, Drivers and Implications
PATTERNS IN SPACE
PATTERNS IN TIME
IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Chapter 6 Urbanisation and Alien Invasion 
INTRODUCTION
ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF URBANISATION AND THEIR
IMPORTANCE FOR INVASION
TYPICAL URBAN SPECIES: NATIVES AND ALIENS
IMMIGRATION PATHWAYS AND URBANISATION
CITIES AS SOURCES OF INVASIONS 
ALIEN SPECIES AND BIOTIC HOMOGENISATION IN URBAN REGIONS
SUMMARY 

Chapter 7 Interactions between People and Nature in Urban Environments 
WHAT ARE PEOPLE–NATURE INTERACTIONS? 
VISITING URBAN GREEN SPACES
FEEDING URBAN WILDLIFE 
PEOPLE–NATURE INTERACTIONS: COMMON THREADS 

Chapter 8 Urban Ecology and Human Social Organisation
INTRODUCTION
THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF CITIES 
TEMPORAL DYNAMICS 
GLOBAL CONTEXT 
LINKING SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND ECOLOGICAL OUTCOMES
DIFFERENTIATION BY LAND USE
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND ECOLOGICAL OUTCOMES 
OTHER SOCIAL DYNAMICS 
ECOLOGICAL OUTCOMES FROM HOUSEHOLD DECISIONS 
SYNTHESIS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
Chapter 9 Urban Ecology and Human Health and Wellbeing
THE IMPORTANCE OF URBAN GREENING 
THE BENEFITS OF URBAN GREENING
LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT WITH NATURE
CONCLUDING IMPLICATIONS 

Chapter 10 Bringing Cities Alive: The Importance of Urban Green Spaces for People and Biodiversity 
INTRODUCTION
GREEN SPACES: CLASSIFICATION AND QUANTIFICATION
GREEN SPACES, BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES 
GREEN SPACES AND PEOPLE
SYNTHESIS: DESIGNING AND MANAGING GREEN SPACES FOR PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE
FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Chapter 11 Integrating Nature Values in Urban Planning and Design
INTRODUCTION
HOW IS NATURE IN THE URBAN CONTEXT CONCEPTUALISED? 
A REVIEW OF CONSERVATION PRACTICES 
INCORPORATING NATURE INTO URBAN PLANNING 
INTEGRATING NATURE VALUES IN URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN 

Chapter 12 Urban Futures 
THE FUTURE GROWTH OF CITIES
CITIES AS ENGINES OF BIOLOGICAL LOSS: EXTINCTION, ECO- FUNCTION AND HOMOGENISATION
CITIES AS FUTURE CENTRES OF CONSERVATION
REDUCING THE URBAN FOOTPRINT
REDUCING URBAN METABOLISM
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
URBAN SUSTAINABILITY AS WIN–WIN ECOLOGY 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 

Chapter 13 Urban Ecology from a Biophysical and Systems Perspective
INTRODUCTION
HOW SHOULD WE THINK ABOUT CITIES? 
CLIMATE AND FERTILITY
CITIES IN NATURE: THE ROLE OF THE SUN
CITIES IN NATURE: UNDERSTANDING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 
SOME ENERGY TERMS FROM ECOLOGY
ENERGY AND CITIES: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
HUMAN CULTURAL EVOLUTION AS A HISTORY OF INCREASING CONTROL OVER ENERGY 
THE TROPHIC SITUATION OF CITIES TODAY
THE DEVELOPMENT OF FACTORIES AND THE INDUSTRIAL  REVOLUTION 
QUALITY OF PETROLEUM
QUANTITY OF PETROLEUM 
BIOPHYSICAL REALITY AND THE FUTURE OF CITIES 
CONCLUSION 

Chapter 14 Social Processes, Urban Ecosystems, and Sustainability
URBAN SOCIAL SCIENCE THEORY 
FRAMEWORKS FOR INTEGRATING SOCIAL SCIENCE WITH URBAN ECOSYSTEMS 
SOCIAL SCIENCE EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF URBAN ECOSYSTEMS
SHORT HISTORY OF THE SUSTAINABLE CITIES MOVEMENT
DECISION-MAKING AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
CASE STUDY: MANAGING STOCKHOLM'S NATIONAL URBAN PARK-ROLE OF SOCIAL NETWORK STRUCTURE

Glossary 
References
Index