| 1. |
- Anderson, Pippin, et al.
(författare)
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Post-apartheid ecologies in the City of Cape Town : An examination of plant functional traits in relation to urban gradients
- 2020
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Ingår i: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 193, s. 1-10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we explore species richness and traits across two urban gradients in the City of Cape Town. The first is the natural-urban boundary and the second is a socio-economic gradient informed by historical race-based apartheid planning. Plant species and cover were recorded in 156 plots sampled from conservation areas, private gardens, and public open green space. The socio-economic gradient transitioned from wealthier, predominantly white neighbourhoods to poorer, pre- dominantly black neighbourhoods. The socio-economic gradient was selected to fall within one original vegetation type to ensure a consistent biophysical template. There is a marked shift between the natural and urban plant communities in the City of Cape Town, with little structural affinity. Urban landscapes are dominated by grass, with low diversity compared to natural counterparts. A significant ecological gradient of reduced biodiversity, traits, and in turn functionality, was found across the socio-economic gradient. Wealthier communities benefit from more private green space, more public green space, and a greater plant diversity. Poorer communities have limited green space on all fronts, and lower plant and trait diversity. Plant communities with limited diversity are less resilient and if exposed to environmental perturbation would lose species, and associated ecosystem services faster than a species rich community. These species-poor plant communities mirror historical apartheid planning that is resistant to change. Based on how biodiversity, functionality, and associated ecosystem services and ecosystem stability are linked, the results of this study suggests how significant environmental injustice persists in the City of Cape Town.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Elmqvist, Thomas, et al.
(författare)
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Urban tinkering
- 2018
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Ingår i: Sustainability Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1862-4065 .- 1862-4057. ; 13:6, s. 1549-1564
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cities are currently experiencing serious, multifaceted impacts from global environmental change, especially climate change, and the degree to which they will need to cope with and adapt to such challenges will continue to increase. A complex systems approach inspired by evolutionary theory can inform strategies for policies and interventions to deal with growing urban vulnerabilities. Such an approach would guide the design of new (and redesign of existing) urban structures, while promoting innovative integration of grey, green and blue infrastructure in service of environmental and health objectives. Moreover, it would contribute to more flexible, effective policies for urban management and the use of urban space. Four decades ago, in a seminal paper in Science, the French evolutionary biologist and philosopher Francois Jacob noted that evolution differs significantly in its characteristic modes of action from processes that are designed and engineered de novo (Jacob in Science 196(4295):1161-1166, 1977). He labeled the evolutionary process tinkering, recognizing its foundation in the modification and molding of existing traits and forms, with occasional dramatic shifts in function in the context of changing conditions. This contrasts greatly with conventional engineering and design approaches that apply tailor-made materials and tools to achieve well-defined functions that are specified a priori. We here propose that urban tinkering is the application of evolutionary thinking to urban design, engineering, ecological restoration, management and governance. We define urban tinkering as:A mode of operation, encompassing policy, planning and management processes, that seeks to transform the use of existing and design of new urban systems in ways that diversify their functions, anticipate new uses and enhance adaptability, to better meet the social, economic and ecological needs of cities under conditions of deep uncertainty about the future.This approach has the potential to substantially complement and augment conventional urban development, replacing predictability, linearity and monofunctional design with anticipation of uncertainty and non-linearity and design for multiple, potentially shifting functions. Urban tinkering can function by promoting a diversity of small-scale urban experiments that, in aggregate, lead to large-scale often playful innovative solutions to the problems of sustainable development. Moreover, the tinkering approach is naturally suited to exploring multi-functional uses and approaches (e.g., bricolage) for new and existing urban structures and policies through collaborative engagement and analysis. It is thus well worth exploring as a means of delivering co-benefits for environment and human health and wellbeing. Indeed, urban tinkering has close ties to systems approaches, which often are recognized as critical to sustainable development. We believe this concept can help forge much-closer, much-needed ties among engineers, architects, evolutionary ecologists, health specialists, and numerous other urban stakeholders in developing innovative, widely beneficial solutions for society and contribute to successful implementation of SDG11 and the New Urban Agenda.
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| 4. |
- Frantzeskaki, Niki, et al.
(författare)
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A transformative shift in urban ecology toward a more active and relevant future for the field and for cities
- 2024
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Ingår i: Ambio. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 53:6, s. 871-889
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper builds on the expansion of urban ecology from a biologically based discipline—ecology in the city—to an increasingly interdisciplinary field—ecology of the city—to a transdisciplinary, knowledge to action endeavor—an ecology for and with the city. We build on this “prepositional journey” by proposing a transformative shift in urban ecology, and we present a framework for how the field may continue this shift. We conceptualize that urban ecology is in a state of flux, and that this shift is needed to transform urban ecology into a more engaged and action based field, and one that includes a diversity of actors willing to participate in the future of their cities. In this transformative shift, these actors will engage, collaborate, and participate in a continuous spiral of knowledge → action → knowledge spiral and back to knowledge loop, with the goal of co producing sustainable and resilient solutions to myriad urban challenges. Our framework for this transformative shift includes three pathways: (1) a repeating knowledge → action → knowledge spiral of ideas, information, and solutions produced by a diverse community of agents of urban change working together in an “urban sandbox”; (2) incorporation of a social–ecological–technological systems framework in this spiral and expanding the spiral temporally to include the “deep future,” where future scenarios are based on a visioning of seemingly unimaginable or plausible future states of cities that are sustainable and resilient; and (3) the expansion of the spiral in space, to include rural areas and places that are not yet cities. The three interrelated pathways that define the transformative shift demonstrate the power of an urban ecology that has moved beyond urban systems science and into a realm where collaborations among diverse knowledges and voices are working together to understand cities and what is urban while producing sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges and envisioning futures of socially, ecologically, and technologically resilient cities. We present case study examples of each of the three pathways that make up this transformative shift in urban ecology and discuss both limitations and opportunities for future research and action with this transdisciplinary broadening of the field.
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| 5. |
- Goodness, Julie, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the links between functional traits and cultural ecosystem services to enhance urban ecosystem management
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ecological Indicators. - : Elsevier BV. - 1470-160X .- 1872-7034. ; 70, s. 597-605
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Functional traits have been proposed as a more mechanistic way than species data alone to connect biodiversity to ecosystem processes and function in ecological research. Recently, this framework has also been broadened to include connections of traits to ecosystem services. While many links between traits and ecosystem processes/functions are easily and logically extended to regulating, supporting, and provisioning services, connections to cultural services have not yet been dealt with in depth. We argue that addressing this gap may involve a renegotiation of what have traditionally been considered traits, and a targeted effort to include and expand upon efforts to address traits-cultural ecosystem services links in traits research. Traits may also offer a better way to explore the recognition and appreciation of biodiversity. Drawing upon examples from outside the explicit traits literature, we present a number of potential connections between functional traits and cultural ecosystem services for attention in future research. Finally, we explore considerations and implications of employing a traits approach in urban areas, and examine how connections between traits and ecosystem services could be developed as indicators in a research and management context to generate a robust and resilient supply of ecosystem services.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Goodness, Julie, 1985-
(författare)
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Shaping urban environments through human selection for plant traits
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cities, as home to the majority of the world’s people, are significant sites for addressing challenges of achieving sustainability and securing human wellbeing. Urban environments are complex social-ecological systems, and meeting these challenges requires better understandings of the interactions of social and ecological elements. While there are many possible lenses through which to study social-ecological systems, this thesis examines the potential of a traits approach as one way to link ecological elements to social values. In ecology, functional traits have been defined as the characteristics of organisms that determine how organisms respond to the environment, and how they affect ecosystem processes, functions, and services. While functional traits have an established history of being linked to ecosystem processes and functions, they have only recently been extended to social aspects through the operationalization of the ecosystem services concept. As such, there is a distinct gap in identifying traits that are relevant and important to people. This interdisciplinary thesis attempts to bridge some of this lacuna, through empirical studies conducted in two cities: Cape Town, South Africa, and Stockholm, Sweden. Paper 1 addresses connections between traits and social values generally across cities through a literature review that examines connections between traits and cultural ecosystem services. Paper 2 explores preferences for traits and reasons for plant selection in the context of Cape Town. Paper 3 examines vegetation patterns and the expression of socially-valued traits across different land cover and land use classes in Stockholm. Paper 4 serves as a synthesis and comparison piece between Cape Town and Stockholm, and brings together social data on plant preferences and ecological data on plant patterns gathered in both locations under two different projects. Overall, responses from social surveys of preferences suggest that people actively select for a variety of different plant traits in the urban environment, and have a multitude of reasons for selecting the plants that they do, related both to qualities of the plants themselves, as well as broader external factors at multiple scales. Vegetation surveys of plant patterns suggest that trait preferences may be inscribed by people in the landscape, though to differing degrees. Using traits as an approach to link ecological elements to social values exhibits advantages in that traits are a spatial unit that is easily understood by citizens and environmental managers. However, it presents limitations in terms of scale, as traits are most useful in connecting to pin-point characteristics in the landscape, and social values associated with broader scales may be overlooked. Collectively, however, the papers in this thesis suggest that traits may serve as one useful approach for discerning human values in the urban landscape, and can be used as indicators of social function. In management applications, particular traits can be incorporated into landscaping interventions to provide for urban areas of greater social meaning. In this way, traits may serve as one tool within the evolving toolbox of social-ecological system study, and thus can contribute to future urban landscapes that exhibit robust social and ecological function.
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| 8. |
- 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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