Urban Environments and Insect Wellbeing

Abstract

Defining the scope of ‘urban environments’ for discussion in this book is both difficult and necessary. That scope is inevitably wide. Ehler’s (1978) comment that ‘from the biological viewpoint, the term “urban environment” has little significance’ is a widely shared sentiment, reflecting the enormous variety of ecological situations in cities, towns and their surrounding areas that collectively encompass numerous continua of disturbance and change. In the United Kingdom Biodiversity Action Plan, urban arenas are a designated ‘Broad Habitat’ category, formally titled ‘Built-up areas and gardens’ and defined as ‘This broad habitat type covers urban and rural settlements, farm buildings, caravan parks and other man-made built structures such as industrial estates, retail parks, waste and derelict ground, urban parkland and urban transport infrastructure. It also includes domestic gardens and allotments.’ (Jackson 2000). This broad framework is adopted here as capturing the essentially anthropogenic nature of the environments, with some local modifications noted in context, and additional considerations of the transitions between urban and non-urban environments.