Scale mismatches in management of urban landscapes

• Urban landscapes constitute the future environment for most of the world’s human population.An increased understanding of the urbanization process and of the effects of urbanization at multiple scalesis, therefore, key to ensuring human well-being. In many conventional natural resource managementregimes, incomplete knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and institutional constraints often leads toinstitutional management frameworks that do not match the scale of ecological patterns and processes. Inthis paper, we argue that scale mismatches are particularly pronounced in urban landscapes. Urban greenspaces provide numerous important ecosystem services to urban citizens, and the management of theseurban green spaces, including recognition of scales, is crucial to the well-being of the citizens. From aqualitative study of the current management practices in five urban green spaces within the GreaterStockholm Metropolitan Area, Sweden, we found that 1) several spatial, temporal, and functional scalesare recognized, but the cross-scale interactions are often neglected, and 2) spatial and temporal meso-scalesare seldom given priority. One potential effect of the neglect of ecological cross-scale interactions in thesehighly fragmented landscapes is a gradual reduction in the capacity of the ecosystems to provide ecosystemservices. Two important strategies for overcoming urban scale mismatches are suggested: 1) developmentof an integrative view of the whole urban social–ecological landscape, and 2) creation of adaptivegovernance systems to support practical management.

Nyckelord

management

scale mismatch

urban landscapes

NATURAL SCIENCES

NATURVETENSKAP

Systems Ecology

systemekologi

naturvårdsbiologi

Conservation Biology

Applied Environmental Science

tillämpad miljövetenskap

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