We can think about urban form as the streets, buildings, and open spaces of the city. But we can't separate these physical presences from the life of the city. Transportation, work, commerce, and play all go on in these "hardscape" spaces and play a mutual role in affecting, and being affected by them. So the urban landscape comprises both structures and the humans and their activities within.
But this framework still seems too simple. So much more is going on. The urban landscape is an open system that interacts with its environment. Light and heat energy, water, and movement all flow through the system. Tons of "stuff" are brought into the urban environment every day and they either stay or leave, sometimes in the same form and sometimes radically altered. Raw and finished materials, carbon dioxide, wastes of every conceivable sort move in and out of the city in a kind of steady-state flow that reminds me of cellular systems in living organisms. Art and ideas are also exported from the urban environment, less tangible but not immaterial.
In my blog "Botany Without Borders" I wrote about non-human life forms in the city. Everything from bacteria to algae, grasses, trees, and animals of every sort have a place in the incredibly complex urban web, all of them in close contact, sometimes intimate contact, with their human contemporaries. Urbanization has, in many ways, exerted a negative, simplifying effect on the larger ecosystem through paving, channeling, building, mining, and dumping. The changes are physical and chemical in nature, and have challenged once diverse lands and waterways. But inside the special ecosystem that is the urban space lies a unique, deep, well of diversity, unexpected perhaps, largely unseen, but powerful in that it influences the urban landscape in many ways we still may not understand.
As we continue to learn more about urban ecosystems the mutual influences inherent in these systems will come to make more sense. As my friend and colleague Margarita Iglesia states, sustainable things tend to stick around. Systems that are unsustainable disappear. So for example in fifty years we'll see with some clarity what the place of the personal automobile was in the urban setting. Our understanding of water use, energy consumption, and land use patterns will also come into better focus. How will issues of density, green space, and recycling be understood? And how will we reconcile urban form, especially in the broader geographical perspective, with global climate change?
This article was interesting to think about all that is going on in any environment. Places are constantly changing and to recognize some of these changes we need to stop and think about them.
ReplyDeleteThis post relates to urban ecological frameworks #s 1 and 3. You discuss various life within the urban environment, including societal development that comes from presence of humans.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of the point you made about the way urban environments, and thus their ecologies, change over the time. The idea that day in and day out, things arrive and stay for different lengths of time
ReplyDeleteThis post addresses the complexity of a city. An urban landscape is abundant with movement that goes deeper than the framework. There is constant movement and diversity.
ReplyDeleteThis post relates to frameworks 1 and 3 from the lab. You write about life within city environments and the changes we see within them.
ReplyDeleteIn this post, you say that "the urban landscape is an open system that interacts with its environment". This reminds me of #5, which states that cities change over time due to the interactions with the environment.
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ReplyDeleteThis post relates directly to how cities affect ecological patterns within and beyond their borders. While cities have living organisms like plants and animals that make them tick, they also add to the environment non-living commodities. The things that we "put out" into the environment and the ecologies that we form through the development of cities undeniably affect patterns within and outside of their borders. Sometimes these effects are beneficial, while others are detrimental.
ReplyDeleteThis post relates to the urban frameworks that talk about the ecology of organisms that penetrate the environment of the city (1) and how the ecology changes over time (3).
ReplyDeleteThis article connects to point 5 because change overtime to focus on the issues of density, green space and recycling is becoming more and more essential. Global warming is now is widely accepted concept and changing human activities to be more eco-friendly is very important for the future.
ReplyDeleteThis article is most closely related to points number four and five. As you discuss, an urban landscape is not simply streets buildings and open spaces. An urban landscape is a complex system that incorporates people, transportation, art, culture, light, energy, etc. Everything is always interacting with one another, and continually changes over time.
ReplyDeleteAs you previously stated in our lab document, cities form their own ecologies. Urban environments impact ecological patterns in ways you described above. Because urban landscape openly interacts with its environment, and humans directly affect cities by manipulating and irresponsibly using the resources they provide, urban ecology is constantly changing and being negatively altered by peoples' influences.
ReplyDeleteAll three of the pictures can be considered in several frameworks. Each picture has living organisms such as trees and plants. This means that the organisms are effected by and effect the environment. The settings in the pictures also form their own ecologies because they each have a certain climate/weather pattern and landscape. The pictures also indicate the life cycles that each organism goes through (the bushes in the third picture are bare because of the snow, but lush in the second picture)
ReplyDeleteThis post relates to #1 because it talks about what lives within the city. It also relates to #3 because the city ecology changes over time.
ReplyDeleteTowards the end of the post we begin to ask ourselves what transportation and coal burning will begin to do the ecology. If there's too much pollution we kill off forms of biotic ecology. But if we were to slow pollution down, we slow down our human ecology and the development that could have obtained. This creates for a tricky tradeoff, because both need to be sustainable in order to survive.
ReplyDeleteThis post expands on the concept that cities form their own ecologies and that urban built environments affect ecological patterns. The post also mentions that urbanization has had a simplifying effect on the larger ecosystem all of which falls under one of the frameworks for urban ecology.
ReplyDeleteThe urban landscape is a really cool thing to look at because if you think about it the landscape is always changing and adjusting to fit the new times that get brought up over time. For example in the picture above there was not always a bridge in this city, but as things changed in the urban landscape a bridge was needed to fit the needs of the people living in this city.
ReplyDeleteThis post reminds me of point 4
This post relates to #4 and to how important it is for there to be an increased focus on green spaces, recycling, and more environmentally friendly actions. All the decisions of our urban environments, in turn affect the life forms in our community.
ReplyDeleteUrban ecology is a very interesting topic to study. Everything that goes into building a city is so complex and takes so much effort in the design process to achieve a sustainable environment. My favorite part about living in a city is that there are so many interesting and innovative architecture like the bridge in the picture above. Cities prove that building can be affective and interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis post addresses the ecological framework #4 and #5 as well because it shows the complexity of a city and how many factors such as transportation play a factor in developing human ecologies. There is such more more going on in the environment than what we see at first glance.
ReplyDeleteThis post can be related to your fifth and final point, in which you discuss the complexity and diversity of city environments. Cities are composed of many different peoples, plants, architecture, and landscapes that come together to form a beautiful and interesting environment.
ReplyDeleteIsabel Vera
ReplyDeleteThis article sheds light on a few of the approaches to urban ecology. It acknowledges the interactions of the diverse organisms in the city while also discussing the development of human ecologies, such as transportation, work, and commerce. The 5th approach to urban ecology is mentioned in that “stuff” that is brought in to make the urban environment more complex and diverse, while also slightly changing its composition.
In the article it says how cities interact and are affected by the environment that surrounds them and this relates to point #5 that talks about how cities are diverse, complex environments that can change over time.
ReplyDeleteNumber five talks about how environments change over time. Our carbon footprint grows over time and has a lasting effect on the natural areas around us. The growth of cities is inevitable. The building of schools, factories and such will also have a lasting impact on the environment.
ReplyDeleteIn point 1, you described how urban ecology is not just the soils, bodies of water, plants, animals, and other organisms themselves, but the way that they interact with the build of the environment of the city. In this article, you state that we cannot just think about the landscape of the city by itself but how it interacts with the "hardscapes" such as transportation and we can see how humans interact with the city.
ReplyDeleteThis post related to all five points because it is a perfect example of how things in the environment are constantly changing. Building are constantly being built or renovated, as well as the city as a whole has changed. During break I spoke to my friends parents, who went to BU when they were in college, and it was interesting to hear how different the school is from when they went here. New building were built, schools were renamed, although some things have remained the same.
ReplyDeleteThe post most relates to #2 when it discusses how the city affects ecology through paving, channeling, building, mining, and dumping. These negative outcomes affect not only the city, but other surrounding areas.
ReplyDeleteYour reference to an urban city as an "open organization that interacts with it's environment" bears resemblance to point 5 because it refers to cities as natural systems which are effected by natural phenomena (storms, weather…).
ReplyDeleteThis post definitely relates to the first framework because you discuss the different things in the environment and how the presence of different organisms can alter the environment. For example, the pictures you show all have some kind of natural environment element to them, but they also each show a way in which humans or other organisms have altered that environment.
ReplyDeleteReading this post helps me to understand a city as built not on a blank slate, but on preexisting and continually changing factors such as climate, plants, and bodies of water that consistently interact and affect the growth of the city, as opposed to man-made materials controlling every aspect of the environment. Overall, I see it as related to points one and two which relate to the complexity of the urban environment.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much more going on in urban ecologies than we realize. The article above relates to #4, #2 and #5 because as cities develop and change over time to accommodate more and more residents, cities are also being polluted; Emissions, runoff and waste are effecting urban ecologies.
ReplyDeleteWe often think that city dwelling is separate and somehow not really associated with the same environment located in the country. While landscape varies, the overall ecology is always effected by changes in the environment, especially caused by largely or overpopulated areas such as cities; as discussed in your third point.
ReplyDeleteThis post also makes it apparent that we need to take more consideration when planning urban environments, as you also discussed in your fifth point. We cannot wait for the next few decades to unravel the consequences of improper urban ecological dwelling.
This post relates to frameworks #3 and #4. Cities are environments that serve as home for a variety of people. Changes can and often occur within cities to further accommodate its residences.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting to think of sustainable things "sticking around" in an urban environment. If you think about it, this really is true. I think it is pretty incredible that so many different things are a part of an urban ecology that you would't normally associate with an urban ecology.
ReplyDeleteThis article relates to every point you've made about urban ecology. The cities we build never stop growing and changing, whether it be the infrastructure of buildings and roads or the land that we build on. There are many forces at work in the city, some obvious and some very minuscule. All of the systems at work, biological or human made, work together in an open environment.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, frameworks #1 and #2 seem the most fitting for this article. In the article, it is mentioned that urban ecosystems always contain elements that interact with each other/the environment, both biological/non-biological. It is very interesting to see this sort of observation as I never thought of city-environments as "ecosystems" as they consist mostly of non-biological matter (concrete buildings, etc).
ReplyDeleteThis post talks a lot about the urban landscape and how it interacts with the environment. Because of the busy nature of modern, urban places, ecology is often overlooked, or unnoticed due to the sky scrapers and general commotion that is associated with such a place. I think it relates to #5 in that the environments are changing over time, evident when looking at construction, transportation, and other architectural happenings that changes the make up of a place, and are ever-changing. It also relates to #1 because it talks about the unnoticed ecological landscape and how the urban environment is constantly penetrated with different organisms that go unseen.
ReplyDeleteThis article relates to point #5 because it discusses how cities have changed over time and how they have impacted the surrounding environment. It makes us realize that there are things going on in urban ecologies that we may not know about like the effects of runoff water from pavements have on the diversity of the land which also relates to the complexity of the urban ecology from point #1
ReplyDeleteThis can relate to number five. Urban environments are constantly changing and being introduced to new things. Because they are constantly changing we have to continue to find new ways to adapt.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this post, I kept in mind the idea that the urban ecology is time sensitive and that no matter what form of ecology we observe (human or nonhuman), patterns change over time and evolve. Like you stated, this evolution could lead to the nonexistence of an entity due to its un-sustainability.
ReplyDeleteThis article supports our theory previously mentioned in lecture that complex and diverse environments are sustainable-- for example, and urban city. Qualities that promote sustainability in an urban environment include water, technology, and informational sources.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I forgot to sign in: While reading this post, I kept in mind the idea that the urban ecology is time sensitive and that no matter what form of ecology we observe (human or nonhuman), patterns change over time and evolve. Like you stated, this evolution could lead to the nonexistence of an entity due to its un-sustainability.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of looking at a city as an open system that interacts with its environment. It's funny because I never think about how a city is truly reactive; each thing that takes place could not have happened without the thing before it. It's hard when you're in the urban environment to step outside of it and see the big picture but that's what you pointed out in this article.
ReplyDeleteThe post relates most closely with frameworks 1 and 3. Explaining that urban ecology exists within the things that live within the city and also how the city experiences changes that influence the flow of life.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading this post, I most commonly found myself relating it to ideology #5. This is because it discusses the components that make an urban setting and the people that dwell in it also help to create the aura of a city atmosphere. This brief but intriguing article discusses the actions that are taken, or need to be taken, in order to maintain a sustainable city life.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this post reflected what you stated in the fifth point. Cities grow and develop over time and we need to monitor the health of our urban ecology as the cities continue to grow. Most of the material that flows in and out of cities does not sustain a healthy urban ecology. We need to find solutions that are sustainable in order to preserve our cities as they continue to grow.
ReplyDeletethis article spoke about the many factors in an urban environment, and how they are all apart of the urban ecosystem. now and the future we will learn better ways to sustain all the factors that contribute to the urban ecology, because everything affects everyone.
ReplyDeleteAs I was look out of the window in yesterday's social science class I noticed a windmill across the Charles River. The city is a hustling and bustling place and yet, as buildings are torn down and built up, as cars speed down the highway, as more and more waste is produced, there are efforts to sustain the environment in a healthy organic way, just as the windmill does for its surroundings.
ReplyDeleteThe first picture really reminded me of the fifth point and how citys are growing more complex. Picture showed the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, which is a famous bridge that changed the skyline of Boston. It serves the needs of the people by allowing a passage into and through Boston.
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