ABSTRACT
This chapter very briefly introduces a few of the most influential ideas in the evolving concept of urban ecological restoration and then presents a set of examples of urban restoration projects. The discipline of urban ecology is still an emerging sub-discipline of ecology, though now it is fairly well established as study of 'the interactions of organisms, built structures, and the physical environment, where people are concentrated'. Urban ecological restoration can similarly be distinguished from non-urban restoration by its necessary inclusion of humans and buildings into project design and implementation, as well as by two inescapable characteristics of the ecology of cities, fragmentation and the degree of alteration. Stormwater is a pervasive driver of urban ecological restoration efforts, and stormwater 'best management practices', designed to retain and treat stormwater, are perhaps the most common form of ecological restoration in the urban context.
