Abstract
Rapid urbanization and the global loss of biodiversity necessitate the development of a research agenda that addresses knowledge gaps in urban ecology that will inform policy, management, ...and conservation. To advance this goal, we present six topics to pursue in urban biodiversity research: the socioeconomic and social–ecological drivers of biodiversity loss versus gain of biodiversity; the response of biodiversity to technological change; biodiversity–ecosystem service relationships; urban areas as refugia for biodiversity; spatiotemporal dynamics of species, community changes, and underlying processes; and ecological networks. We discuss overarching considerations and offer a set of questions to inspire and support urban biodiversity research. In parallel, we advocate for communication and collaboration across many fields and disciplines in order to build capacity for urban biodiversity research, education, and practice. Taken together we note that urban areas will play an important role in addressing the global extinction crisis.
The paper presents the main findings of a research conducted at an Asia Minor post-refugee urban neighborhood located at the Greater Piraeus Region within the metropolitan area of Athens. The ...research took place from October 2022 to January 2023. The main findings of the research outline the issue of urban conservation in terms of urban collective memory. The paper explores the contemporary physiognomy of an urban Asia Minor refugee settlement that comes up against dereliction, uncontrolled building activity and demolitions of the old refugee houses. To explain the significance of these settlements, the paper combines literature review and field work. Field work includes original cartographic depiction of the exact location of the remaining refugee houses as well as documentation through original drawings of typical housing units in the area. The aim of the paper is to put in the forefront the issue of declaration in terms of collective memory in cases where the socio-cultural significance counterweights the architectural value of the buildings.
With the rapid increase in urbanization, local governments and organizations are searching for opportunities to improve the social resilience, health, and wellbeing of urban residents by increasing ...their connection to nature. However, these urban communities are highly heterogenous, and tailored nature engagement and conservation programs will be necessary for building nature connection across diverse segments of the population. Here, we surveyed Melbourne community members (n = 1585) to understand their connection to nature and other aspects of their relationship with nature to aid in designing and prioritizing new conservation programs across the city. We determined demographic, psychographic, and behavioral factors associated with an individual's connection to nature, characterized unique segments of the population, and identified neighborhoods with greater concentrations of residents with high and low connection to nature. Overall, we found that community members have relatively high connection to nature, are concerned about environmental issues, and frequently participate in nature-related activities. New and older Melbourne residents tend to be more connected to nature, though there is important variation within these populations. Of the six distinct types of community members we identified, students that have lived in Melbourne for most of their lives exhibited the lowest connection to nature of all other typologies. Furthermore, residents in neighborhoods south of the Yarra River are the least connected to nature. We discuss the importance of such multifaceted approaches for understanding nature connection in urban populations and outline important strategies and priorities based on individual, community, and geographic targets for conservation programming across the Greater Melbourne area.
•Multifaceted approaches to understanding nature connection in urban populations can help prioritize conservation programming•We segmented community members based on their connection to nature, demographics, and behaviors•A hotspot analysis identified areas of greater concentrations of residents with high and low connection to nature•Less connected participants stated that greater access to nature would not increase their nature engagement•Students that have lived in Melbourne for most of their lives exhibited the lowest connection to nature of all typologies
Energy performance and thermal comfort in historic and traditional urban environments are important because of the social and cultural requirement to conserve these areas as living entities, but also ...for the environmental obligation to decrease the impact of existing buildings globally. The objective of ENERPAT approach is to address this global challenge from the local perspective, through the co-creation of efficient solutions that improve the energy performance of historic areas considering local techniques and skills, taking into account the whole life cycle of the solutions, and supporting local economy and business. The objective is to test the efficiency and suitability of eco-renovation strategies that have been co-created with local stakeholders and are based on traditional energy conservation measures, as a way to work with locally-based business models that can safeguard cultural aspects and enable economic development. Two living labs have been established in the cities of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) and Cahors (France) in two representative buildings of the historic urban area of each city. The living labs operate as inclusive multi-agent discussion arenas with a long-term vision, where multi-criteria co-creation processes are implemented to select conservation-friendly solutions based on local materials including criteria such as operational energy, impact on heritage values, quality of life, socio-economic development and easy logistics. The energy behaviour of the buildings and the hygrothermal performance of the external walls have been studied using on-site and laboratory experiments, through an efficient partnership between local authorities and universities. Likewise, local-based refurbishment solutions that were designed in the co-creation processes have been thermally characterised in the laboratory, through thermal conductivity and guarded hot box tests. Finally, the energy improvement of the whole renovation strategy has been simulated showing the enhancement of the two buildings.
•Energy efficiency of historic centres through eco-renovation and vernacular culture.•Energy transition based on co-creation and evolutionary development.•Urban labs to merge evidence-based knowledge with socio-economic considerations.•Architectural heritage is broadened to include traditional techniques.•Results of the co-creation process are tested with experimental and numerical work.
Mounting evidence of bumble bee declines and the listing of the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis Cresson) as federally endangered in the United States in 2017 and Canada in 2012 has ...stimulated an interest in monitoring and conservation. Understanding the influence of land use on occupancy patterns of imperiled species is crucial to successful recovery planning. Using detection data from community surveys, we assessed land use associations for 7 bumble bee species in Minnesota, USA, including B. affinis. We used multispecies occupancy models to assess the effect of 3 major land use types (developed, agricultural, and natural) within 0.5 and 1.5 km on occupancy of 7 Bombus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) species, while accounting for detection uncertainty. We found that B. affinis occupancy and detection were highest in developed landscapes and lowest in agricultural landscapes, representing an inverse relationship with the relative landcover ratios of these landscapes in Minnesota. Occupancy of 2 bumble bee species had strong positive associations with natural landscapes within 1.5 km and 2 species had strong negative associations with agricultural landscapes within 1.5 km. Our results suggest that best practices for imperiled Bombus monitoring and recovery planning depends upon the surrounding major land use patterns. We provide recommendations for urban planning to support B. affinis based on conservation success in the metropolitan areas of Minneapolis-St. Paul. We also encourage substantial survey effort be employed in agricultural and natural regions of the state historically occupied by B. affinis to determine the current occupancy state. Graphical Abstract
Being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage City since 2008, this scenario calls into question the voices, the participation and the aspirations of George Town residents themselves in the process of ...planning and conserving their city. As an extension of a similar project undertaken in 2006, prior to the UNESCO listing, the present study sought to explore and understand the residents’ perceptions and preferences of George Town as a Heritage City after the UNESCO listing. Using the same set of samples (i.e. 400 inner city residents), the findings from this study revealed the change of residents’ preference as well as their appreciation towards the value of heritage and its economic potential. More respondents are supportive on the protection of heritage buildings and maintaining a heritage city. The older generations are the advocates of the heritage houses and they are more willing to pay higher prices to own a heritage house in the city. heritage awareness, urban conservation, resident perspectives, George Town.
Compared to modern cities, historical cities of fragile urban fabric are more vulnerable to natural hazards and climate change. Many existing academic publications have respectively studied urban ...climate risk and historical urban landscape management, but rare has systematically reviewed studies across the two fields. This review article provides a thorough understanding of how studies of urban climate and historical urban landscape inform and overlap with each other in a global scope from 1995 to 2021. The main aim is to raise academic awareness of the importance of addressing climatic issues in historical urban landscape studies and incorporating the proper cultural practices from the past into future urban climate management. This review finds a series of gaps in current literature, including insufficient academic attentions in this field, lack of collaborations across disciplines, isolation of cultural and natural knowledge, and lack of inclusiveness of climatic topics and case areas. Instead of focusing purely on urban climate, more research should integrate inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary findings addressing climatic, social, economic, and cultural issues in the development of historical urban landscape and discuss possibilities of their practical implementation. Substantial communication and collaboration between scholars from nature and culture sectors in this emerging field are also suggested to theorize the historical cultural wisdom and learn from successful urban models with a special focus on design and strategic planning so as to strategize for urban resilience and conservation.
•Historical urban landscape serves as a background of urban climate studies.•Academic attention in this field is lacking.•Collaboration between experts from the nature and culture sectors is needed.•Integration and implementation of findings from multiple thematic studies is lacking.•Inclusiveness of climatic topics and historical case areas should be urged.
The use of urban green spaces, including gardens, in pollinator conservation initiatives, excites significant public interest but advice on effective plants frequently relies on qualitative data. ...This study considered pollinator responses to specific nectar sugar characteristics to determine if they offer the potential for the selection of candidate plants. Pollinator feeding on 60 plant species at the National Botanic Garden of Wales was related to their nectar characteristics to investigate response consistency at different taxonomic levels. The feeding frequency of Hymenoptera, particularly the social Hymenoptera, was significantly correlated with the volume of nectar offered by flowers, but greater differentiation between plant species occurred when specific nectar sugar characteristics were considered. Feeding was significantly correlated with the volume of the hexose monosaccharides glucose or fructose for the Hymenoptera, particularly the social Hymenoptera (and for the two social genera analysed individually, Apis spp. Bombus spp.), but not for non-social species. Similarly, feeding visits were correlated with the percentage of glucose or fructose in nectar in the Hymenoptera, social Hymenoptera and non-social groups (including three individual genera tested (Apis spp., primitively eusocial Lasioglossum, and non-social Andrena spp.). Fewer and less consistent outcomes were recorded when the (disaccharide) sucrose content of nectar was investigated. In comparative analyses conducted for other pollinator groups (Diptera and Lepidoptera), feeding was only found to be correlated with glucose content. The social Hymenoptera are a particular focus of gardeners and the use of percentage glucose or fructose in nectar is discussed as a potential component of a screening approach to identify keystone plant species.
Despite repeated calls to action, proposals for urban conservation are often met with surprise or scepticism. There remains a pervasive narrative in policy, practice, and the public psyche that urban ...environments, although useful for engaging people with nature or providing ecosystem services, are of little conservation value. We argue that the tendency to overlook the conservation value of urban environments stems from misconceptions about the ability of native species to persist within cities and towns and that this, in turn, hinders effective conservation action. However, recent scientific evidence shows that these assumptions do not always hold. Although it is generally true that increasing the size, quality, and connectivity of habitat patches will improve the probability that a species can persist, the inverse is not that small, degraded, or fragmented habitats found in urban environments are worthless. In light of these findings we propose updated messages that guide and inspire researchers, practitioners, and decision makers to undertake conservation action in urban environments: consider small spaces, recognize unconventional habitats, test creative solutions, and use science to minimize the impacts of future urban development.
Corrección de Ideas Erróneas para Inspirar Acciones de Conservación en Ambientes Urbanos
Resumen
A pesar de las repetidas llamadas a actuar, las propuestas para la conservación urbana con frecuencia se enfrentan a reacciones de sorpresa o escepticismo. Todavía existe una narrativa penetrante en la política, la práctica y el psique del público que dicta que los ambientes urbanos, aunque sean útiles para comprometer a las personas con la naturaleza o para proporcionar servicios ambientales, tienen poco valor para la conservación. Argumentamos que la tendencia de pasar por alto el valor para la conservación de los ambientes urbanos surge de las ideas erróneas sobre la habilidad que tienen las especies nativas para persistir dentro de ciudades y pueblos y que esto, en cambio, impide la acción efectiva de la conservación. A pesar de esto, la evidencia científica reciente muestra que estas suposiciones no siempre se sostienen. Aunque casi siempre es verdad que incrementar el tamaño, la calidad y la conectividad de los fragmentos de hábitat mejorará la probabilidad de que una especie pueda persistir, lo contrario, que los hábitats fragmentados, degradados y pequeños que se encuentran en los ambientes urbanos son inútiles, no lo es. A la luz de estos hallazgos proponemos mensajes actualizados que guíen e inspiren a los investigadores, practicantes y a los tomadores de decisiones a emprender acciones de conservación en ambientes urbanos: considerar espacios pequeños, reconocer hábitats poco convencionales, probar con soluciones creativas, y utilizar la ciencia para minimizar los impactos de desarrollos urbanos futuros.
摘要
尽管人们一再呼吁要采取城市保护行动, 然而却常常对相关提案表示诧异或怀疑。在政策制定、实践行动和公众心理中仍存在一种普遍的认识, 即城市环境虽然有助于人们亲近自然并提供生态系统服务, 但其保护价值微乎其微。我们认为, 这种忽视城市环境保护价值的倾向来源于对本地物种在城市和乡镇间续存能力的误解, 而这反过来又阻碍了有效的保护行动。然而, 最近的科学证据表明这些种种假设并不总是成立。虽然通常情况下增加生境斑块的大小、提高其质量和连接度可以提高物种续存的可能性, 但反过来看, 并不是说退化或碎片化的小面积生境在城市环境中就毫无价值。鉴于以上发现, 我们建议更新这些指导和激励研究者、实践者和决策者采取城市环境保护行动的信息, 应考虑小尺度空间的保护、认识非传统生境、尝试创新性解决方案, 并利用科学知识来减少未来城市发展带来的影响。 【翻译: 胡怡思; 审校: 聂永刚】
Article impact statement: Conserving native biodiversity is both important and achievable in urban environments.
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