Ecology in Urban Development
MADE Student Project
Changes to ecosystems due to human activity have occurred more quickly in the previous 65 years than at any other period in history, this has resulted in an irreversible loss in biodiversity worldwide. A direct consequence is a decrease in ecosystem services - the benefits for humans that are provided by ecology - which are needed to keep especially cities liveable places. It is therefore crucial that cities are going to be developed more sustainably. Several theories acknowledge that for sustainable urban development, a shift is needed from a fragmented approach to a systematic approach to development. Therefore, this thesis has studied the potential of systems thinking to make ecology more important in the process of urban development. This has been done through document analysis and semi-structured interviews, which clarified how ecology is approached in the current process. It emphasized the current socio-technical landscape we are in, where ecology is still something that is controlled by humans and where urban ecology is not acknowledged as a distinct urban system. The interviews have been used to indicate the challenges and opportunities for systems thinking to change this landscape. This has formed the foundation of preliminary recommendations that have been validated through a workshop.
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