| 1. |
- Carpenter, Stephen R., et al.
(författare)
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Accelerate Synthesis in Ecology and Environmental Sciences
- 2009
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 59:8, s. 699-701
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ecology is a leading discipline in the synthesis of diverse knowledge. Ecologists have had considerable experience in bringing together diverse, multinational data sets, disciplines, and cultural perspectives to address a wide range of issues in basic and applied science. Now is the time to build on this foundation and invest in ecological synthesis through new national or international programs. While synthesis takes place through many mechanisms, including individual efforts, working groups, and research networks, centers are extraordinarily effective institutional settings for advancing synthesis projects.
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| 2. |
- Pickett, Steward T. A., et al.
(författare)
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The relational shift in urban ecology : From place and structures to multiple modes of coproduction for positive urban futures
- 2024
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Ingår i: Ambio. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 53:6, s. 845-870
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This perspective emerged from ongoing dialogue among ecologists initiated by a virtual workshop in 2021. A transdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners conclude that urban ecology as a science can better contribute to positive futures by focusing on relationships, rather than prioritizing urban structures. Insights from other relational disciplines, such as political ecology, governance, urban design, and conservation also contribute. Relationality is especially powerful given the need to rapidly adapt to the changing social and biophysical drivers of global urban systems. These unprecedented dynamics are better understood through a relational lens than traditional structural questions. We use three kinds of coproduction—of the social-ecological world, of science, and of actionable knowledge—to identify key processes of coproduction within urban places. Connectivity is crucial to relational urban ecology. Eight themes emerge from the joint explorations of the paper and point toward social action for improving life and environment in urban futures.
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| 3. |
- Grabowski, Zbigniew J., et al.
(författare)
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What is green infrastructure? A study of definitions in US city planning
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. - : Wiley. - 1540-9295 .- 1540-9309. ; 20:3, s. 152-160
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In response to interdependent challenges, city planners are increasingly adopting “green infrastructure” (GI). Reviewing 122 plans from 20 US cities, we identify what types of city plans address and define GI, including the concepts associated with GI, as well as the types, functions, and benefits of GI. The most common plans that feature GI, some of which focus exclusively on GI, comply with US Clean Water Act regulations for stormwater and sewer systems. Municipalities also address GI through diverse planning processes, including the creation of comprehensive citywide plans. Many of these plans (~40%) do not explicitly define GI. When they do, stormwater concepts predominate, followed by landscape concepts, along with an emergent emphasis on integrating GI with other built infrastructure systems. Large differences in GI types, functions, and benefits across concepts, plan types, and cities indicate a need for synthesis of GI definitions. To facilitate this synthesis, we provide a database of GI definitions from plans used in our analysis. We conclude with a broad synthetic definition of GI to provide clarity and stimulate discussion in rapidly evolving planning, policy, and research arenas.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Erik, 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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From urban ecology to urban enquiry : How to build cumulative and context-sensitive understandings
- 2024
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Ingår i: Ambio. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 53:6, s. 813-825
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper positions urban ecology as increasingly conversant with multiple perspectives and methods for understanding the functions and qualities of diverse cities and urban situations. Despite progress in the field, we need clear pathways for positioning, connecting and synthesising specific knowledge and to make it speak to more systemic questions about cities and the life within them. These pathways need to be able to make use of diverse sources of information to better account for the diverse relations between people, other species and the ecological, social, cultural, economic, technical and increasingly digital structures that they are embedded in. Grounded in a description of the systemic knowledge needed, we propose five complementary and often connected approaches for building cumulative systemic understandings, and a framework for connecting and combining different methods and evidence. The approaches and the framework help position urban ecology and other fields of study as entry points to further advance interdisciplinary synthesis and open up new fields of research.
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| 5. |
- Grabowski, Zbigniew J., et al.
(författare)
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Transforming US urban green infrastructure planning to address equity
- 2023
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Ingår i: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 229
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cities across the Unites States have embraced green infrastructure (GI) in official planning efforts. The plans conceptualize GI as providing multiple functions and benefits for urban residents, and form part of complex responses to intersectional urban challenges of social injustice and inequity, climate change, aging and expensive infrastructure, and socio-economic change. To date, it is unclear whether official city GI programs address systemic racism and urban inequality. To fill this knowledge gap, we coded and analyzed 122 formal plans from 20 US cities to examine if and how they address equity and justice in three domains: visions, processes, and distributions. We find a widespread failure of plans to conceptualize and operationalize equity planning prin-ciples. Only 13% of plans define equity or justice. Only 30% of cities recognize that they are on Native land. Over 90% of plans do not utilize inclusive processes to plan, design, implement, or evaluate GI, and so target many communities for green improvements without their consent. Although 80% of plans use GI to manage hazards and provide multiple benefits with GI, less than 10% identify the causes of uneven distributions and vulnera-bility. Even fewer recognize related issues of houselessness and gentrification. Very few plans have mechanisms to build community wealth through new GI jobs. We find promising seeds of best practices in some cities and plan types, but no plan exemplified best practices across all equity dimensions. If formal GI planning in US cities does not explicitly and comprehensively address equity concerns, it may reproduce the inequalities that GI is meant to alleviate. Based on our results, we identify-three key needs to improve current GI planning practices for green infrastructure and equity. First, clear definitions of equity and justice are needed, second, planning must engage with causes of inequality and displacement, and third, urban GI planning needs to be transformed through a focus on inclusion.
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| 6. |
- McPhearson, Timon, et al.
(författare)
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Advancing Urban Ecology toward a Science of Cities
- 2016
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Ingår i: BioScience. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0006-3568 .- 1525-3244. ; 66:3, s. 198-212
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urban ecology is a field encompassing multiple disciplines and practical applications and has grown rapidly. However, the field is heterogeneous as a global inquiry with multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks, variable research approaches, and a lack of coordination among multiple schools of thought and research foci. Here, we present an international consensus on how urban ecology can advance along multiple research directions. There is potential for the field to mature as a holistic, integrated science of urban systems. Such an integrated science could better inform decisionmakers who need increased understanding of complex relationships among social, ecological, economic, and built infrastructure systems. To advance the field requires conceptual synthesis, knowledge and data sharing; cross-city comparative research, new intellectual networks, and engagement with additional disciplines. We consider challenges and opportunities for understanding dynamics of urban systems. We suggest pathways for advancing urban ecology research to support the goals of improving urban sustainability and resilience, conserving urban biodiversity, and promoting human well-being on an urbanizing planet.
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| 7. |
- Pickett, Steward T. A., et al.
(författare)
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Shifting forward : Urban ecology in perspective
- 2024
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Ingår i: Ambio. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 53:6, s. 890-897
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The world has become urban; cities increasingly shape our worldviews, relation to other species, and the large-scale, long-term decisions we make. Cities are nature, but they need to align better with other ecosystems to avoid accelerating climate change and loss of biodiversity. We need a science to guide urban development across the diverse realities of global cities. This need can be met, in part, by shifts in urban ecology and its linkages to related sciences. This perspective is a “synthesis of syntheses”, consolidating ideas from the other articles in the Special Section. It re-examines the role of urban ecology, and explores its integration with other disciplines that study cities. We conclude by summarizing the next steps in the ongoing shift in urban ecology, which is fast becoming an integral part of urban studies.
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| 8. |
- Zhou, Weiqi, et al.
(författare)
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Urban tree canopy has greater cooling effects in socially vulnerable communities in the US
- 2021
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Ingår i: One Earth. - : Elsevier BV. - 2590-3330 .- 2590-3322. ; 4:12, s. 1764-1775
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cities are home to around half of the global population but face intensified and unevenly distributed heat stresses. Trees are utilized to adapt to urban heat; however, most tree planting is prioritized by either biophysical or social metrics, rather than an integration of the two. It therefore remains unclear how to maximize ecological and social benefits of tree planting in the context of environmental justice. Here, we analyze social vulnerability to heat and the cooling capacity of trees across 38 of the largest cities in the United States. We find that socially vulnerable people tend to live in hotter neighborhoods with less tree canopy. Furthermore, tree planting in such neighborhoods can achieve greater cooling benefits per unit increase in canopy. Increasing tree cover in these neighborhoods will meet the greatest need for cooling and achieve greater cooling capacity, creating social and ecological co-benefits. Adaptation measures must address both the distributional injustices of urban heat and procedural justice in planning and managing nature-based cooling approaches.
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