Urban Sustainability: Integrating Ecology in City Design and Planning

Abstract

Urban sustainability depends on ecosystem services and biodiversity which directly affects quality of urban life. At present, urbanization is having a drastic effect on the way human beings interact with the world around us. Urbanized environments tend to lessen the amount of habitat and increase habitat fragmentation. This important factor stresses the need for sound urban sustainability thinking as well as related urban planning and urban design processes. Adaptive urban knowhow is as the root of this chapter in which a number of exploratory concepts and notions are put forth with the intention of creating dialogue between ecosystem services and human well-being (i.e., through concerted ecological, economic, and social action). The chapter begins with a look at urban sustainability, explores sustainable urban strategies, considers a number of ideas under the umbrella of urban green infrastructure—reviewing a number of case examples—and concludes with background research in properly developing sustainable models and tools. Integrating ecology in city design and planning should support resilience-orient development and highlight a synergetic, evolutionary form of multi-disciplinary sustainability.