The New Global Urban Realm: Complex, Connected, Diffuse, and Diverse Social-Ecological Systems

Sustainability

Melissa R. McHale¹⁰  Steward T.A. Pickett³  Olga Barbosa²  David N. Bunn⁵  Mary L. Cadenasso⁴  Daniel L. Childers⁸  Meredith Gartin¹  George R. Hess¹⁰  David M. Iwaniec¹  Timon McPhearson¹¹  M. Nils Peterson¹⁰  Alexandria K. Poole⁹  Louie Rivers¹⁰  Shade T. Shutters^7,10  Weiqi Zhou^6,10 

[1] Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5402, USA; E-Mails:;Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile; E-Mail:;Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, 2801 Sharon Turnpike, Millbrook, NY 12545, USA; E-Mail:;Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA; E-Mail:;The Knowledge Hub for Rural Development, Wits Rural Facility, The University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X420, Acornhoek 1360, South Africa; E-Mail:;Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China; E-Mail:;Global Security Initiative, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 878409, Tempe, AZ 85287-8409, USA; E-Mail:;School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA; E-Mail:;Department of Politics, Philosophy and Legal Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298 USA; E-Mail:;Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8008, Raleigh, NC 27695-8008, USA; E-Mails:;Tishman Environment and Design Center, The New School, 79 Fifth Ave, 16th Fl., New York, NY 10003, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: urbanization;    urban theory;    science of cities;    socio-ecological systems;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su7055211

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Urbanization continues to be a transformative process globally, affecting ecosystem integrity and the health and well being of people around the world. Although cities tend to be centers for both the production and consumption of goods and services that degrade natural environments, there is also evidence that urban ecosystems can play a positive role in sustainability efforts. Despite the fact that most of the urbanization is now occurring in the developing countries of the Global South, much of what we know about urban ecosystems has been developed from studying cities in the United States and across Europe. We propose a conceptual framework to broaden the development of urban ecological research and its application to sustainability. Our framework describes four key contemporary urban features that should be accounted for in any attempt to build a unified theory of cities that contributes to urban sustainability efforts. We evaluated a range of examples from cities around the world, highlighting how urban areas are complex, connected, diffuse and diverse and what these interconnected features mean for the study of urban ecosystems and sustainability.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.