Urban Ecology

Urban ecology is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms with each other and their surroundings in the context of the proposed urban environment. The urban environment refers to environments dominated by high-density residential and commercial buildings, paved surfaces, and other intense human influences, which create a unique landscape dissimilar to many previously studied environments in the field of ecology.

Urban ecology is a recent field of study compared to ecology as a whole. The methods and studies of urban ecology are similar to and comprise a subset of ecology. The study of urban ecology carries increasing in importance because, within the next forty years, two-thirds of the world’s population will be living in expanding urban centers. The ecological processes in the urban environment are comparable to those outside the urban context. However, the types of urban habitats and the species that inhabit them are poorly documented. Often, explanations for phenomena examined in the urban setting as well as predicting changes because of urbanization are the center for scientific research.