Conclusion

Urban ecology presents major challenges in the way in which innovative ideas, new organisms, climatic extremes, potential problem substances, political decisions and economic events all impinge on the stability and evolution of plant and animal communities within cities. Not only is concern for urban nature irregularly distributed among the human population, but conditions for plant growth and animal survival vary greatly over scales of centimetres to metres, reflecting contracts in land cover, soil conditions and applications of horticultural chemicals. As the chapters in Parts 2, 3 and 5 of this book show, we have a good understanding of the basic science, the habitats and the ways of analysing these aspects of the urban environment. Part 4 shows that we know a great deal about the ecosystem services and benefits to society that flow from urban nature. Yet, we would find it difficult to forecast what the nature of urban greenspace would be in 100 years’ time. The great urban sprawl is essentially a post-1950 problem, as was the decline of urban parks, but in 1950 would we have foreseen the development of concern for green infrastructure and greenspace networks? Ecosystems are constantly changing. Ecology is a science of emergent phenomena (Alberti et al. 2003). Cities are key examples of emergent phenomena, in which each component contributes to but does not control the form and behaviour of the whole. Human aspirations, planning legislation, real estate prices, landform, transport infrastructure and personal mobility all contribute to patterns of urban expansion, atmospheric emissions, urban heat islands and aquatic ecosystem change. Building the ability to bring these human factors into the analysis of urban ecosystem dynamics remains a continuing task for urban ecology. Alberti et al. (2003) see the greatest challenge for ecology in the coming decades as to integrate, fully and productively, the complexity and global scale of human activity into ecological research. The discussions of the applications of urban ecology in Part 6 of this book have shown the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach. They illustrate how partnership between urban ecologists and professionals and civil society organizations, public participation and working together can use ecological understanding to create healthy, liveable, more sustainable cities. Such partnership is needed to help cities to adapt to climate change and all the challenges of the future. Already some progress has been made, both in Europe and the USA. Work in the USA Long-Term Urban Ecosystem Ecological Research Program has shown that marketing urban nature

has gone beyond the mere description of ‘leafy suburbs’ to using vegetation cover aspirations as a marketing tool. Many have found socio-economic status to be an important predictor of vegetation in urban residential areas. However when additional household characteristics, associated with lifestyle behaviour, are used, they provide better results, at least for vegetation cover (Grove et al. 2006). These lifestyle factors suggest that when the manufacturers of lawn-care chemicals market their products to various consumer groups by associating ‘community, family and environmental health with intensive turf-grass aesthetics’ and fostering household demand for ‘authentic experiences of community, family and connection to the non-human biological world through meaningful work’ they are understanding the motivations of human responses to the urban environment. In Europe, the outstanding achievements of Herbert Sukopp and his colleagues in Berlin show how the scientific development and applications of urban ecology go hand in hand. In Berlin this group saw parks and other urban greenspace not merely in terms of their aesthetic qualities or recreational functions but also as biotopes with an ecologically valuable, flora and fauna. The team not only supported the creation of greenspaces in the city, but also suggested how these spaces should be designed and managed to optimize their biodiversity (Lachmund 2007). Even if the projects for urban wildlife biotope protection that Berlin ecologists lobbied for were not fully realized, new concepts of urban ecology entered urban land-use decision making and aroused the imagination of urban residents. Through ecologically based forms of architecture, garden design and ecosystem protection, Sukopp and his colleagues left an enduring imprint on the physical landscape of the city (Lachmund 2007). Many contributors to this volume have in their own ways contributed to changing the ideas of politicians, planners, developers and the general public on urban greenspace and the importance of urban ecology. Now is the time to strengthen that impact. A firm place for urban ecology has to be established in the education and training of all planners and municipal engineers, to ensure that when urban development proposals come forward, the question of their urban ecosystem impacts is automatically in the minds of the officials involved. I hope that this book will contribute to that continuing education and to the way all of us see and enjoy our urban environment.