Earth on Edge
http://www.pbs.org/earthonedge/ecosystems/urban.html
Cities aren't just centers of commerce, industry, education, and culture. They are also living entities — urban ecosystems with green spaces and waterways that bring together nature and human habitat.
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Ecology Explorers
http://caplter.asu.edu/explorers/about/urban.htm
Most people in the US live in cities but may not understand the ecological processes going on around them. People influence ecological conditions and at the same time, we are influenced by those conditions. As an Ecology Explorer, you will be studying your schoolyard (or backyard) as part of an urban ecosystem.
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IDRC and the management of sustainable urban development in Latin America
http://www.idrc.ca/lacro/docs/conferencias/hancock.html
Today, the built environment is the most significant human environment. Globally, half of humanity now lives in urban settlements, while Europe and North America is 80% urbanized. These urban settlements have a disproportionate impact on the natural environment, consuming 75 percent of the world's resources and producing most of its waste (Sweet, undated).
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Natural Cities: Urban Ecology and the Restoration of Urban Ecosystems
http://www.lincolninst.edu/workpap/wpap81.html
The scientific community now embraces the emerging field of urban ecology as both valid and central to understanding the global environment. Given the concentration of human activity in urban centers, that humans are the dominant species in all ecosystems, and the pace of environmental change, urban ecology is a critical area for environmental research. Understanding urban natural resources and urban natural systems also has important implications for public health, economic development,
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The Urban Environment
http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/overview/urban.html
Whereas an acre of forest or cropland receives as much sunlight as an acre of buildings, it is well known that the green space will be cooler because of transpiration (water evaporation) and shading of the ground. Typical urban surfaces, such as concrete and asphalt, get much hotter than vegetated surfaces during the day.
(Added: 15-Aug-2002 Hits: 18 Rating: 0 Votes: 0) Rate It
Urban Ecosystems
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC35/Lyle.htm
The fact is, in the world that we've created for ourselves, cities occupy pivotal positions, for better or worse, in the patterns of global ecology. This becomes clear when we put aside our standard images of cities and consider their ecological functions.
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Urban Ecosystems 1: Cities are Urban Ecosystems
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DocID=276
To understand that cities are urban ecosystems which include both nature and humans, in a largely human-built environmental context. To understand that urban ecosystems have “emergent properties” that cannot easily be seen by simply looking at the different functional parts of a city: The whole is more than the sum of the parts
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