Ecology of the City There are many kinds of ecological system.

An ecosystem comprises a specified

A Perspective from Science volume of the Earth, where organisms and the physical environment interact.(2) There
is no fixed spatial scale for ecosystems. An ecosystem may be located within a rotting
Steward TA Pickett log in a forest. A larger instance of ecosystem is all the animals, ranging from moose to
insects, mosses, bacteria and fungi, and the soil, water and air in a northern bog. In all
Paralleling Aldo Rossi’s turn from the architecture of rather than architecture ecosystems, a physical complex of resources, wastes, conditions and signals interacts with
in the city, ecologist Steward Pickett argues for designers to understand organisms. Energy enters the system and waste heat exits. In most ecosystems, materials
ecology of rather than in the city. In fact Pickett underlines his main point: flow across the boundaries.
cities and other urban ecosystems are equally biological, social, built and Ecological landscapes are areas that are internally heterogeneous. Some define
geophysical. While ecology – and even the plural ecologies – has been used ecological landscapes to exist on the human scale – that is to the order of hundreds of
commonly as a metaphor in design, here Pickett points out the problem of metres.(3) Others characterise landscapes as an observation strategy defined by spatial
employing ecology in only a limited metaphorical way. Instead partnership heterogeneity and its consequences.(4) This broader definition of ecological landscape
with ecological science, especially new theories, models and knowledge, is used here. While the ecosystem concept emphasises the metabolic transformations
can only result in better designs for sustainable cities. that organisms generate, the landscape concept emphasises the spatial interactions of
organisms and fluxes.
This chapter examines the nature of ecology in relation to the other concepts that frame Landscapes consist of patches that differ from one another in physical, chemical and
this book: urban and design. The chapter asks: what is ecological science? Ecology, as a informational conditions. For example, a landscape may consist of patches of shrubs and
science, represents a dialogue between conceptual constructs about how the world works the leaf litter that accumulates beneath them, and a surrounding soil matrix that is crusted
and observations of the material world. Second, ecological science has changed over with a mixture of bacteria and small mosses. The shrub and crust patches support different
time, so that contemporary knowledge is quite different from that available in the past. amounts of nutrients and water, and hence differ in hospitability to other organisms.
Unfortunately many designers may have outdated textbook knowledge of ecological Some landscapes facilitate movement of phenomena, such as fire or disease, while other
science. Furthermore, although science is empirically based, it is rich in metaphor. landscapes retard the spread of physical disturbance agents or organisms. Information such
Metaphor is the first entry into science for other disciplines. Hence, to use ecology it is as territorial defence calls or temperature fluctuations can move between landscape patches.
important to recognise both the power and the limitations of metaphor. Because there is Urban areas are ecosystems too,(5),(6) so the ideas above apply to cities. Urban is a
a rich empirical world behind metaphor, technical concepts and models are important for broad term that contrasts with wild or natural resource management areas. In this broad
applying ecological science. sense, urban includes suburbs and exurbs. Urban ecosystems contain organisms, physical
The ecology of urban areas is evolving. Although ecological science, especially in conditions and entities, and the interactions among them. Of course, humans and
North America, has ignored urban systems, that situation is changing. In addition, as their institutions and artefacts are additional components.(7) Indeed, urban ecosystems
ecologists probe urban systems more deeply, they have progressed from primarily consist of a biological component, a social component, a physical component and a built
studying natural system analogues such as forested parks and vacant lots, to an approach component.(6) It is clear that although the parts of an urban system can be examined
of ecology OF the city. Ecology of the city considers the entire urban system, requiring independently, the parts cannot be separated from one another. Cities and other urban
engagement with social sciences and with urban design. The ecology of the city is poised ecosystems are equally biological, social, built and geophysical.
to engage an emerging mode of urban systems – the metacity. Understanding ecology as a science and its evolving urban approach suggests that
contemporary ecology needs and can support improved connections with urban design.
Ecological Science I assume the following things about design: 1) It has a different culture than science, in
Ecology is the study of the interactions of organisms with one another and with the which intervention and social benefit are central; 2) Creativity is important in design; 3)
environment, and the transformations of matter, energy and information that are mediated Analysis of site history and conditions, and the generation of forward-looking models are
by organisms. While the science originated to explain the physiology, genetics, structure standard activities; 4) Following Vitruvius, urban designers are concerned with firmness,
and behaviour of organisms in context, it also includes landscapes and ecosystems. commodity and delight; finally, 5) Urban designers are interested in landscapes in a way
Indeed, understanding organisms is impossible without examining their linkage to larger similar to ecologists – as a heterogeneous spatial context in which dynamic flows of
systems. The idea of system is key.(1) A system consists of parts, but the system has matter, energy, organisms and information occur. Urban ecologists can benefit from the
properties that emerge from the interaction of the parts. commonalities, and complement the differences.

160 Urban Design Ecologies 161 Ecology of the City

Ecological Science has Changed presented in the Introduction of this book. Because scientists emphasise unification,
Many people became aware of ecology through the environmental movement. However, ecologists do not pluralise their field. However, within the search for generality and
ecology dates from the late 1800s.(8) Ecology emerged as a synthesis between botany unification, both diversity and specificity have a home.
and zoology, with input from physical sciences. Early ecology focused on the distribution The concern of ecologists for diversity and difference generates plurality of
of climates, soils and organisms, the dynamics of collections of species, the transfer of conceptualisation and models. There is no single theory of ecology. However, Scheiner
energy through feeding relationships, and the physiology and structure of adaptation to and Willig(18) propose general principles that apply throughout the discipline. Within this
contrasting environments. theoretical structure there are constituent theories, so that the theory of ecology is a
Ecology has evolved since its inception.(9) For example, although the ecosystem was nested hierarchy.(19) Within most general theoretical principles are nested constituent
defined in 1935,(10) it did not become a specialty until the mid 1950s.(8),(11) Earlier studies theories, which cover ecology’s conceptual gradient. Within the constituent theories the
emphasised distribution and abundance of organisms, while ecosystem ecology emphasises hierarchy is divided into ever more narrow and specific models. Ecologists do not speak
the transformation of matter and energy. Other shifts have been stimulated by new of ecologies when referring to the large realms of the subject or to their specific models.
perspectives. For example, although the science of evolution is older than ecology, an
evolutionary ecology, in which natural selection is an explanatory tool, did not arise until Ecology as a Metaphor
the 1960s. This helped shift from focusing on patterns to focusing on processes. Ecosystem Ecological science as a dialogue between conceptual constructs and the material world
ecology also shifted from studying fixed states of nature to the processes controlling nutrient and facilitated by models, contrasts with ecology as metaphor.(19) Metaphor communicates
and energy flows.(12) New scales of observation also emerged. As remote sensing became between scientific specialties that have little in common and generates new models in
available, ecologists developed landscape ecology to put communities and ecosystems in ecology.(8) Ecological ‘succession’ theory owes its founding metaphor to the transitions
their spatially extensive context.(13) Such coarse scale spatial heterogeneity exposed new in monarchies. The technical term ‘disturbance’ startles to highlight natural perturbations
relationships, and highlighted humans and their artefacts. A temporal expansion also that had been ignored by ecologists.
occurred, with longer data runs accumulating as research sites aged,(14) allowing ecologists Metaphor also communicates scientific knowledge to society. However, ecology is often
to discover the impermanence of ecological assemblages and the importance of natural used metaphorically for aspects of the natural world that people value. Indeed the metaphors
disturbances.(15),(16) Because the patterns were dynamic, emphasis shifted to understanding chosen may reflect people’s assumptions or values.(20) For example, ecology can stand for
processes. This mirrors the change from design of cities – top down masterplanning – to fragility in the natural world, or alternatively, for stability. In design, ecology as metaphor can
design in cities that is concerned with processes in which a place participates. represent the relationship of specific buildings or landscapes to their larger contexts.
Metaphor both within and outside science has risks.(20) Specific assumptions
Ecology and Empirical Diversity and networks of ideas are implied by different metaphors. Once science introduces a
The pluralisation of the term ecology is unfamiliar in science. In the introduction, Brian metaphor, however, other tools take over. Science goes beyond metaphor by specifying
McGrath uses ecologies to refer to diverse urban habitats within and among cities. In those assumptions and ideas. Clearly articulated theories and models embody the
this sense, ecology refers to a model of structure and interaction in a city or patch which assumptions, specify the networks of ideas and causal connections, generate hypotheses
might differ from the models of other places due to contrasts in topography, hydrology, and organise observations. Models are explanations of the material world. They identify
climate, biota, disturbance regimes, etc. Likewise, the exchanges of energy, material, the parts and interactions in the system of interest, the spatial and temporal boundaries
organisms and information within the urban landscape and with the surrounding non- of the system and the possible outcomes of interaction. Models can be physical, such as
urban landscape may differ among places. Each of these biophysical, social and political an artificial stream, quantitative as in the case of a differential equation, or conceptual
situations could be represented by a model – ‘an ecology’. Each model would call for and qualitative. Models in science are used differently than those in design, where models
designs that accounted for its particulars. propose forms that should be.
The pluralisation of ecology is rampant in the design world, and some uses may be The role of metaphor emerges from the fact that all ecological concepts have three
different from the sense of a detailed model of urban structure and processes suggested dimensions:(2) 1) a core technical definition; 2) metaphorical connotations; and 3) the models
by McGrath. However, rarely are the assumptions behind pluralisation addressed.(17) One by which the concept is applied to the material world. The same ecological term may stand for
interpretation might focus on the diversity of the field as a whole. The specialties of each of these dimensions. Although conversation may begin with metaphor, for substantive
ecology occupy a gradient from emphasis on the physical aspect of ecological systems exchange, these questions must be answered: what is the core concept used? What are the
to the biological side. Ecologists who focus differentially along this gradient cluster model assumptions and structures? What values are implied by the metaphor? Clarifying
separately; but they share the concerns captured in the definition of ecological science different pathways through these multiple dimensions can be a productive way forward.

162 Urban Design Ecologies 163 Ecology of the City

Summing up Ecological Science in its Definition selection, and hence that unbridled competition should drive human society. However,
I indicated earlier that ecological science has changed over time. The current state of this neglects knowledge that cooperation within groups of organisms can be selected.(25 )
ecology is highlighted in a new definition:(12) There is also the potential to misuse ecological metaphors. Larson(20) analysed
metaphors surrounding the issues of sustainability. While he acknowledged the utility
The scientific study of the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of metaphor for generating interest and action, it is clear that metaphor also disguises
of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between values in what is often presented as purely scientific discourse. Metaphor obscures the
organisms and the transformation and flux of energy, matter, and information. conceptual or quantitative models of a system. Interdisciplinary work must therefore
go beyond metaphor. For such a transformative step, rigorous technical definition and
This new definition is not the standard one found in many textbooks. This definition allows various kinds of explanatory models are required. Hence, the full toolkit of ecology, as in
an evolutionary, organismal perspective but also includes nutrient and energy flows. It any other discipline, includes not only metaphor, but also meaning and model.
recognises new kinds of observational realms such as landscapes or global connections. It One fault in using metaphor to communicate ecology is that the science may have
acknowledges new scales of interest, ranging from hours to millennia, and from microbes moved beyond the models from which a metaphor originated. An example comes from
to regions. It accommodates pattern, but is also process oriented. Finally, it requires a the science of evolution. In the 19th century, a common metaphor was ‘nature red in
systems approach, with multiple interactions and feedbacks. tooth and claw’. This image embodied two of the core ideas of natural selection – that
A new ecological paradigm complements the contemporary definition. Contemporary the resources for organisms are limited in their availability, and that competition between
ecology makes assumptions contrary to those held by earlier generations.(21),(22) Whereas an overabundance of progeny must ensue. The emphasis on competition was adopted in
earlier generations focused on equilibrium conditions, contemporary ecologists social sciences and in politics to justify the erroneous ‘natural’ hierarchy of races, and the
acknowledge that ecological structures and processes can be transient. When the older unfettered industrial and colonial machinations of the late 1800s. ‘Social Darwinism’ is a
ecology examined dynamics, it assumed deterministic change and a stable end point. catchphrase for this misuse of a biological metaphor.
In addition, traditional ecology sought explanations within the boundaries of systems, The organismal metaphor for biological communities has also been superseded.
while contemporary research recognises causes and influences that arise beyond system The first theory of change in plant communities was proposed in 1916(26) by Frederic
boundaries. Finally, most ecologists in the past assumed humans to be an outside influence, Clements, who considered plant communities to be organisms. Thus, communities were
and therefore investigated systems and explanations that did not involve humans. expected to have a deterministic life cycle, and a stable end point or climax. Organisms
The new ecology does not assume these conditions will always hold. The old have a blueprint for development, and pass deterministically juvenile, through mature,
assumptions can be special cases. However, a new paradigm or set of background to senescent, skipping no phases. This metaphor was compelling, matching everyday
assumptions allows ecology to take a more open-minded approach. Humans are experience and what was then cutting edge biology. However, the idea was controversial
recognised as components of ecological systems, which suggests the need for dialogue from the start, and other leading ecologists argued that the directionality of change and
with urban designers. The corollary assumption, that bioecological processes are part of the necessity of a particular trajectory were far from universal.(27)
urban systems may help advance the dialogue between ecologists and designers.(23) This Meanwhile, the idea that communities were organisms with a life cycle had been
may become a key principle for design. adopted by the sociologists at the University of Chicago. Thus a faulty metaphor from
the science of ecology was transferred to the social sciences and through them, to
Misuse of Ecology in Masterplanning urban masterplanning.(28) Other analogies influenced the transfer of naturalistic images
Ecology as a scientific discipline generates empirical knowledge about the role of to city planning. These included the early 20th-century concern for management of
organisms and the transformations they mediate in the material world, while serving as a limited natural resources in the United States, exemplified by the exhaustion of the
source of sometimes contradictory metaphors for the public, other scientific disciplines Midwestern pine forests and by the dust bowl. The science of ecology had been used
and urban-oriented professions.(20) in framing management approaches to natural resources. Why not also apply it to
Misuse can reside in both the empirical and metaphoric realms. Empirical knowledge the conservation of neighbourhoods and the rejuvenation of blighted urban areas?
can be misused by taking ecological data to be normative, or applying the incorrect model. Jennifer Light(28)demonstrated the persistence of the life cycle metaphor and its policy
Although ecological science embodies such generalisations as ‘no natural system grows implications for masterplanning into the 1960s. Ironically, the life cycle and organismal
without limit’, how such knowledge might be used by society as a norm(24) is a social approaches to natural vegetation had been replaced through empirical and theoretical
negotiation. Another principle posits limited resources, which is key to natural selection. critique over that same period.(29)
This principle has been misused to suggest that competition is the only mechanism of

164 Urban Design Ecologies 165 Ecology of the City

Ecology In Versus Ecology Of the City Toward An Ecology of the Metacity
When ecologists first studied cities, they focused on sites that were analogous to the The contemporary approach to ecology of the city links to a new understanding of city
places they studied elsewhere. Vacant lots were like meadows. Large forested parks form.(36) New forms of cities are emerging globally. In the 1970s, Lynch(37) could speak
invited familiar methods, and allowed comparisons with the numerous studies of forests of 1) the cosmological city, 2) the city as machine, and 3) the organic city. Shane(38) has
outside cities. Wildlife populations were documented in urban green patches. Such an alerted urbanists to the heterogeneity within each of these classical city models, and
approach is ecology IN the city. It neglects much of the urban fabric. showed how the components can be recombined as urban actors and their goals change.
The contrasting approach is ecology OF the city.(30),(31) In this approach, the On the global stage, cities exhibit new combinations of components, new components
entire urban area is relevant to ecological processes, including reciprocal relationships and new governance and social arrangements.(39),(40)
among organisms, the physical environment, resources, waste streams, environmental Informal settlements explode near old colonial cities, capitals have been established de
regulating factors, human individuals, households and institutions. An early version of novo, new ‘ecocities’ are established on the fringes of old cities, or in the countryside or coastal
ecology of the city was urban metabolism. Budgets of materials in air and water, and margins, classical industrial cities collapse and shatter, commuting and telecommuting shift
the pools and pathways through which solid materials such as food, building material the timing, direction and volume of traffic. Bubbles of housing value and reorganisation of
and wastes flowed were exemplified by Hong Kong.(32) This echoed the pioneering financing leave new developments unoccupied, and lead to the gutting and demolition of
social focus on urban metabolism, for example by Karl Marx, because it related the new houses. Consumerism drives a succession of shopping malls and commercial centres.
budgets to human well being.(33) Informal and formal economies mix and intermingle based on food, drugs and entertainment,
Ecology of the city has evolved since it was adumbrated as metabolism in the 19th sometimes threatening the stability of entire nation states. In such a world ‘the city’ is not a
century. Ecosystem ecology has matured to examine how budgetary flows are related to given.(41) It is a huge, changing, slippery thing. Changing terminology suggests how fluid the
the identity of biological species and the heterogeneous structure of both the substrate urban realm has become: city, metropolis, megalopolis, hypercity and metacity. This series
and the biological community within ecosystems.(34) Likewise, the ecology of the city of terms captures increasing size and density, establishment of multiple centres and shift of
becomes a more expansive urban ecological science. A metabolic focus is maintained density from centres. The UN(39) introduced the term ‘metacity’ to indicate a city form that
to examine the flows of energy and matter in the system, the linked transformations had more than 20 million residents, was larger than a megalopolis, was polycentric, and had
of these fluxes, and the involvement of organisms along with the physical structures diffuse governance. The term seems to be mainly structural.
and legacies that organisms generate. The legacies of organisms include soils, organic Ecology of the city suggests a different perspective on the conurbations now engulfing
matter, coarse woody debris in streams and on land, and the woody structure of shrubs the world. In ecology, ‘meta’ has been used to indicate something more inclusive than
and trees. Studies of the urban ecosystem now routinely ask about species identity, a certain ecological structure. Hence, a metapopulation comprises a number of isolated,
spatial heterogeneity and dynamics of vegetated patches within an urban system, and discrete populations of a species that are connected by migration.(42) In a metapopulation,
the interaction between biotic composition, heterogeneity and fluxes. Ecology of the city individual populations can grow, persist, decline or become extinct. New populations are
still allows focus on the conspicuous green patches within urban areas. However, it also established, sometimes in new patches, and sometimes in a patch that had been vacated.
focuses on less conspicuous or undervalued places. More radically, the ecology of the city Thus, a metapopulation is a spatially heterogeneous, dynamic, differentially connected
treats the city-suburbs-exurbs jointly as an ecological system. system. A similar concept applies to communities of different species.(43) A community
These physical and biological processes and entities are ineluctably linked to social may rise and fall at a site, it may be obliterated or establish in a new location. Exchanges
structures and processes. Indeed, in the urban ecosystem, to mention a biophysical focus of species, information and resources across the matrix of patches will affect and be
entails its connection to social, cultural and economic processes.(35) In other words, the affected by the spatial changes in the communities. In other words, ‘meta’ in ecology is
ecology of the city, while describing both social and biophysical phenomena, attends about dynamics and flux across heterogeneous space.(44)
to the array of feedbacks and reciprocal influences between these two realms. Social This concept from ecology reinforces the idea of the metacity. In fact, McGrath’s use of this
processes alter, divert and shape flows of energy, matter and information. Such a network term in the Introduction is manifestly more dynamic and process oriented than the descriptive
of structures and interactions is the essence of the ecology of the city. Many different coinage by the UN.(39) The metacity provides a bridge between ecology of the city and urban
models are required to capture its complexity and dynamism. Consequently, a rich array design. As urban design has focused more on specific sites that are linked to their larger social
of ecologically framed models constitutes the knowledge of urban ecology. Those trained and ecological contexts, and as it has recognised the dynamism of buildings and landscapes,
in the science of ecology would most probably call them the complementary models that as opposed to the traditional architectural view of monumental permanence, so too it finds
constitute the ecology of the city. Designers may call them ecologies. justification in the metacity. Exploring the ecology of the metacity suggests a shared future
for research and designs for the dynamic, patchy, networked and adaptive cities of the future.

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