Synopses & Reviews
Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions:
- Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China
- Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversity
- Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere
- Future urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem services
Synopsis
The book
Synopsis
The book
Synopsis
This book offers a global analysis of how urbanization and urban growth impact biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems. It develops a new theoretical framework for urban sustainability and resilience.
Synopsis
The book
Synopsis
To understand how the world's ecosystems are changing we need to understand cities, and to create better cities we need to understand the ecosystems they depend on. The failure of most markets, government policies and even urban studies to take these relations into account has put cities, and increasingly the whole world, in a difficult position. Studies like
Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services can help us to extricate ourselves, provided we act on the knowledge they provide.
Gordon McGranahan
International Institute for Environment and Development
The challenges of urbanization are profound, but so too are the opportunities. Cities can reconcile human society and biodiversity by creating environments that are ecologically sustainable, economically productive, socially just, politically participatory and culturally vibrant. I commend this study to all who have a stake in creating ecologically sustainable urbanization for the benefit of humanity and the planet.
Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General, United Nations
Table of Contents
1. A global outlook on urbanizationKaren Seto, Susan Parnell, and Thomas Elmqvist
2. History of urbanization and the missing ecology
Thomas Elmqvist, Charles Redman, Stephan Barthel, and Robert Costanza
3. Urbanization and global trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services
Robert McDonald, Peter Marcotullio, and Burak Güneralp
4. Regional assessment of Asia with special focus on China, India, and Indonesia
4.1 Local assessment of Bangalore
4.2 Local assessment of Satoyama and Satoumi landscapes, Tokyo
4.3 Local assessment of Shanghai
5. Patterns and trends in urban biodiversity and design
Norbert Müller, Maria Ignatieva, Charles Nilon, Peter Werner, and Wayne Zipperer
6. Urban ecosystem services
Erik Gómez-Baggethun, Åsa Gren, Erik Andersson, David N. Barton, Timon McPhearson, Zoé