Ecology of cities and towns : a comparative approach /

This important collection argues for a new approach to ecology, redefining ecology in cities as an ecology of cities, in which the built environment presents a unique set of conditions, associations, and ecosystems. The new urban ecology is multidisciplinary, a science encompassing biogeochemistry, social geography, urban and regional planning, and traditional ecological model building. Comparisons in a variety of settings (cities; terrestrial, wetland, and marine habitats; urban-rural gradients) are encouraged on local, regional, and international scales, and the studies in this book provide examples of all of these. This collection works best as a statement and perhaps predictor of a novel conceptual framework that connects architecture, planning, sociology, and policy with the hard sciences that characterize classical ecology. Yet even those hard sciences are examined. One author challenges the connections among mental models, qualitative models, and quantitative models, outlining potential misinterpretations of outcomes because of misuse or poor framing of null hypotheses. These considerations are amplified in the complex urban environment. More a set of theoretical frameworks for new models than a hands-on treatise of ecological problems, this book works as a strong statement for a thoughtful study of complex contemporary issues. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through professional collections. S. Hammer Boston University