ABSTRACT
Sustainability, as already introduced in several chapters of this book, is a concept that refers to the progression toward improved quality of life in a way that maintains the environmental, social, and economic processes on which life depends, both now and in the future [1]. The World Summit on Sustainable Development convened in Johannesburg (August 2002) marked more than two decades of increasing attention, which this concept has been gaining on the agendas of international, regional, and local communities. A major concern for these communities has been the questions of human/environment relations and the future of people and ecosystems in the face of global environmental change [2-4]. A great deal of effort has been directed to the sustainability of urban ecosystems, in part because cities represent the locus of a diversity of environmental problems with negative consequences that potentially affect millions of people, and in part because of their importance for economic growth and the well-being of present and future generations [5-7].
