Urban Ecology, Nature in an Urban Setting

The poet Frank O'Hara was obviously on the side of the urbanist when he wrote, "I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy." The urban ecologist looks beyond this view, with its division of the world into the natural environment and areas inhabited by humans, a dichotomy variously expressed as city vs. country, urban vs. rural, or the great outdoors vs. crowded city spaces.

Whereas traditional ecology is mainly about connectedness within the natural world, between organisms and their environment and their interactions with each other, urban ecology broadens the concept to consider humans and the human environment. The urban ecologist considers the importance of human attitudes, blades of grass, urban water ways and the subway.

Urban ecology is attracting increased national attention. In Arizona its concepts have guided urban planners, and at state universities urban ecology is the focus of academic programs and research.

The times seemingly are ripe for urban ecology. William Shaw, University of Arizona professor in the Department of Renewable Natural Resources, says, "There has been a growing movement to bring ecology and natural resource science out of the bush and into the urban and suburban environments. This is where most people spend most of their time. Instead of treating these areas as sacrifice zones and doing all our conservation in national parks and elsewhere there is a growing appreciation of the need to incorporate conservation into urban planning."

Urban ecology acknowledges the obvious, that humans are not only part of the environment but they profoundly affect it. Shaw says, "Metropolitan areas are the ultimate in terms of human manipulative environments." Dense populations, clusters of buildings and structures, social, cultural and political institutions, along with whatever natural features exist in an urbanized space create a complex and varied environment.

Pima County has undertaken a project to ensure compatibility between urban planning and the natural environment. Shaw says the Pima County Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan epitomizes the use of urban ecology as a planning strategy. He says, "Pima County is spending millions to put together a comprehensive land use plan with the primary focus of conservation in the metropolitan environment." Water is a critical element in the plan.

In fact water is an important issue in urban ecology. Shaw says that within metropolitan regions the riparian areas have a prime biological importance and are logical places to focus attention. Such areas are likely to have aesthetic and recreational value. Fortunately these areas are also less likely to be developed in the Southwest because of flood hazards, their importance for groundwater recharge and the need to keep drainage systems open.

Arizona's universities are involved in urban ecology studies. The University of Arizona's Department of Renewable Natural Resources demonstrated an early interest in the 1980s when it studied the effects of urban development on the natural resources of the then Saguaro National Monument. More recent studies range from bats' use of bridges to urban hawks and coyotes.

Arizona State University also has an interest in urban ecology, and its efforts in this area got a recent boost from several grants. In 1998, the National Science Foundation identified Phoenix as a Long Term Ecological Research site, with ASU funded to conduct project research. Baltimore also was included as a LTER site. LTER's relatively recent interest in urban areas represents a program shift as well as an acknowledgment of the emerging interest in urban ecology. Established in 1980, LTER had previously supported sites of traditional ecological interests, focusing on ecosystems such as lakes, forests, and prairies. The LTER goal of observing ecological process occurring over long periods of time now will also apply to the urban areas of Phoenix and Baltimore.

ASU also received a $2.7 million National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduation Education and Research Training grant that further promotes ASU's involvement with urban ecology. The NSF money, along with ASU matching funds, is to be used to develop a multi-disciplinary graduate program in urban ecology. IGERT will support student involvement in LTER's research activities.

UA and ASU differ in their approaches to urban ecology. The UA has mainly worked with communities in solving problems that result when elements of the natural and human environments interact. The LTER grant enabled ASU to establish a center and work on the theoretical implications of urban ecology, along with conducting research and field work. ASU takes a broad view and considers cities as ecosystems unto themselves. Whereas UA's interest might be described as ecology within cities ASU's approach focuses on the ecology of cities.

Whatever its emphasis urban ecology relies on a multi-disciplinary approach as befitting a discipline dedicated to studying the complex workings of an urban environment. An ecologist, sociologist, geographer, economist, biologist and hydrologist might collaborate on a single project.