Sustainability 2015, 7(5), 5211-5240; https://doi.org/10.3390/su7055211
The New Global Urban Realm: Complex, Connected, Diffuse, and Diverse Social-Ecological Systems
Melissa R. McHale 1,*
, Steward T.A. Pickett 2
, Olga Barbosa 3,†, David N. Bunn 4,†, Mary L. Cadenasso 5,†, Daniel L. Childers 6,†, Meredith Gartin 7,†, George R. Hess 1,†, David M. Iwaniec 7,†, Timon McPhearson 8,†, M. Nils Peterson 1,†, Alexandria K. Poole 9,†, Louie Rivers III 1,†, Shade T. Shutters 10,† and Weiqi Zhou 11,†
, Olga Barbosa 3,†, David N. Bunn 4,†, Mary L. Cadenasso 5,†, Daniel L. Childers 6,†, Meredith Gartin 7,†, George R. Hess 1,†, David M. Iwaniec 7,†, Timon McPhearson 8,†, M. Nils Peterson 1,†, Alexandria K. Poole 9,†, Louie Rivers III 1,†, Shade T. Shutters 10,† and Weiqi Zhou 11,†
1
Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 8008, Raleigh, NC 27695-8008, USA
2
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, 2801 Sharon Turnpike, Millbrook, NY 12545, USA
3
Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile
4
The Knowledge Hub for Rural Development, Wits Rural Facility, The University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag X420, Acornhoek 1360, South Africa
5
Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
6
School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
7
Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-5402, USA
8
Tishman Environment and Design Center, The New School, 79 Fifth Ave, 16th Fl., New York, NY 10003, USA
9
Department of Politics, Philosophy and Legal Studies, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298 USA
10
Global Security Initiative, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 878409, Tempe, AZ 85287-8409, USA
11
Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Marc A. Rosen
Received: 12 January 2015 / Revised: 7 April 2015 / Accepted: 10 April 2015 / Published: 28 April 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban Development)
Abstract
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. View Full-Text
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
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MDPI and ACS Style
McHale, M.R.; Pickett, S.T.; Barbosa, O.; Bunn, D.N.; Cadenasso, M.L.; Childers, D.L.; Gartin, M.; Hess, G.R.; Iwaniec, D.M.; McPhearson, T.; Peterson, M.N.; Poole, A.K.; Rivers, L., III; Shutters, S.T.; Zhou, W. The New Global Urban Realm: Complex, Connected, Diffuse, and Diverse Social-Ecological Systems. Sustainability 2015, 7, 5211-5240.
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