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The goal of urban ecology is to achieve a balance between human culture and the natural environment. [1] [2] Urban ecology is a recent field of study compared to ecology. [3] Currently, most of the information in this field is based on the easier to study species of mammals and birds [source needed].
Urbanization has large impacts on human and environmental health, and the study of urban ecosystems has led to proposals for sustainable urban designs and approaches to development of city fringe areas that can help reduce negative impact on surrounding environments and promote human well-being. [3]
Urban Ecology further advanced the movement when they hosted the first International Ecocity Conference in Berkeley, California in 1990. [15] The conference focused on urban sustainability problems and encouraged over 800 participants from 13 countries to submit proposals on best practices to reform cities for a better urban ecological balance.
Urbanization and environmental consequences has always moved hand in hand. Odum in 1989 has called cities as ‘parasites’ on natural and domesticated environment, since it makes no food, cleans no air and cleans only a little amount of water for reuse [6] and Mayur (1990) has argued that such disharmony may result in environmentally catastrophic events (cited in Leitmann, 1999). [7]
An urban habitat can impact wildlife behavior significantly and can alter the ecology of urban wildlife, influencing these organisms' behavior. The interactions between humans and wildlife and the impacts of urbanization on these wildlife populations influence cities across the world.
As major focus of the sustainable cities, sustainable transportation attempts to reduce a city's reliance and use of greenhouse emitting gases by utilizing eco-friendly urban planning, low environmental impact vehicles, and residential proximity to create an urban center that has greater environmental responsibility and social equity.
Other environmental impacts of transport systems include traffic congestion and automobile-oriented urban sprawl, which can consume natural habitat and agricultural lands. By reducing transportation emissions globally, it is predicted that there will be significant positive effects on Earth's air quality , acid rain , smog and climate change.
A true merger of landscape architecture with the field of Urban Ecology lacks. From this criticism Frederick Steiner introduced landscape ecological urbanism as an approach that can include the field of urban ecology and Wybe Kuitert has shown how such integrative planning and management of the city should rely on analysis.