ABSTRACT
The perspective of landscape ecology, with its large-area and long-term focus, provides a useful tool in land designing and planning in order to enhance the ecological function and sustainability of an area. Human population growth has induced deep modifications of the pristine landscapes, and the appearance of cities, towns, and urban strips constructed by humans has generated urban ecosystems. Although they cover a relatively small area of the world, cities are fast expanding and clumping. It is estimated that more than 60% (4.9 billion) of the estimated world population (8.1 billion) will live in urban areas by 2030. As a consequence, the growth of urban population and the supporting built infrastructure will increasingly affect both urban environments and areas that surround them, including semiurban environments peripheral to cities as well as agricultural and natural landscapes. Understanding landscape processes is thus crucial in order to quantify and measure the effects of urbanization on human and environmental health. Urban development fragments isolates, and degrades natural habitats by simplification and homogenization of species composition, disruption of hydrological systems, modifications of energy flows, and nutrient cycling.
