Urban Social-ecological Systems Research Articles

The rapid prosperity of China’s Pearl River Delta from the perspective of social–ecological coupling: implications for sustainable management

Systems theory and complex science, especially knowledge of social–ecological interdependencies, are urgently needed in planning and decision-making on sustainable urban development due to the intensification of the contradiction between human development and nature conservation. Here, we present an analytical framework, the “social–ecological coupling trajectory”, that integrates the social–ecological coupling, multi-stability, causal feedbacks and sustainable management through understanding the evolution of the urban social–ecological system (SES). This framework is applied to a typical urban SES, i.e., China’s rapidly prosperous Pearl River Delta (PRD). Our results indicate that the SES evolution in the PRD is a phased process, which is accompanied by a continuous decline in major ecosystem services (ESs) and the disproportionate decline of ecological management performance. Further analysis shows that social and economic policies have a decisive role in driving the evolution of SES and the cumulative effect of sustained human interference is directly linked to the disproportionate increase in sustainability challenges. The findings of critical slowing down and evolution patterns of SES in the PRD may provide evidence for the threshold recognition and regime shift prediction in SES. In sum, this study expands the theoretical framework and empirical knowledge of SES evolution and provides a pathway for sustainable development of regions seeking prosperity from the social–ecological coupling perspective.

Urban Green Infrastructure Connectivity: The Role of Private Semi-Natural Areas

Green spaces and blue spaces in cities provide a wealth of benefits to the urban social–ecological system. Unfortunately, urban development fragments natural habitats, reducing connectivity and biodiversity. Urban green–blue infrastructure (UGI) networks can mitigate these effects by providing ecological corridors that enhance habitat connectivity. This study examined UGI connectivity for two indicator species in a rapidly developing city in the southern United States. We mapped and analyzed UGI at a high resolution (0.6 m) across the entire city, with a focus on semi-natural areas in private land and residential neighborhoods. Integrating graph theory and a gravity model, we assessed structural UGI networks and ranked them based on their ability to support functional connectivity. Most of the potential habitat corridors we mapped in this project traversed private lands, including 58% of the priority habitat for the Golden-cheeked Warbler and 69% of the priority habitat for the Rio Grande Wild Turkey. Riparian zones and other areas with dense tree cover were critical linkages in these habitat corridors. Our findings illustrate the important role that private semi-natural areas play in UGI, habitat connectivity, and essential ecosystem services.

City Limits: Urban Nature Rules and the Role of Civic Engagement in Minneapolis—St. Paul Metro Area, USA

Formal rules define urban governance, yet in democratic systems like the United States, institutions governing public input shape decision-making. Governance literature needs more breadth on how civic engagement varies across types of nature and its implications for urban social-ecological systems. We analyzed five cities’ ordinances within the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region, identifying nature-based rules and civic engagement mechanisms. We found ten engagement mechanisms across six nature types, primarily discussed within zoning ordinances—farm animals being the exception. Public hearings were the most frequently mentioned engagement mechanism, yet they have documented biases toward elite perspectives. Despite codification of engagement opportunities, it remains unclear whether utilized mechanisms support substantive input and influence into urban nature governance. Our study not only lays groundwork for research on how to address the inequitable distribution of nature-related benefits and burdens felt by some urban communities, but also inspires further exploration into this crucial area of study.

Urban greenspace for social integration: Which types of greenspace do new-Swedes prefer and why?

Urban greenspace (UGS) is a key public resource offering a broad range of nature-based solutions and is increasingly looked to as a potential arena to promote social integration in Europe’s increasingly multicultural urban and peri-urban areas. However, relatively little research has explored the preferences and perceptions of immigrants in relation to UGS, especially in European contexts. Without such knowledge, planners risk entrenching planning structures that inadvertently result in segregation and environmental injustice. Using survey and participatory mapping methods with 261 immigrants in eight sampled settlements across Sweden, this study explores which types of UGS foreign-born immigrants in Sweden (i.e., new-Swedes) prefer and why. We found that new-Swedes are frequent users of a wide spectrum of UGS types, with the most preferred types including forests, large parks and lakes. The majority of respondents were satisfied with the quality (73%), availability (68%) and accessibility (76%) of UGS in their hometowns. Our regression analysis identified 51 key factors that had a meaningful effect on preferences for different types of UGS. Key factors were distributed relatively evenly across blocks of predictor variables concerning characteristics of UGS, socio-demographic factors, activity preferences, and perceptions. Our results indicate that new-Swedes’ UGS preferences are broadly comparable with those of the general population in Sweden. We found little evidence to suggest that ethnocultural factors played a major role in the preferences of our respondents. Furthermore, our results suggest that nature-connectedness might be an important determinant of new-Swedes’ UGS preferences. Based on these findings, we highlight several opportunities to further develop UGS strategies to support different dimensions of social integration, e.g., using popular UGS as interactive spaces for cultural learning, as a platform for intercultural contacts and for maintaining cultural traditions, and to contribute towards a greater sense of social membership in their new country. A crucial implication of our study is that the use of UGS to support social integration may further contribute to the increasing complexity of the UGS planning and management challenge. This implies the need for a systems perspective in UGS research, policy-making, planning and management to consider UGS as part of an integrated urban social-ecological system and to coordinate measures across sectors.

Examining the paradox of urban disease ecology by linking the perspectives of Urban One Health and Ecology with Cities.

The ecology of zoonotic, including vector-borne, diseases in urban social-ecological systems is influenced by complex interactions among human and environmental factors. Several characteristics contribute to the emergence and spread of infectious diseases in urban places, such as high human population densities, favorable habitat for vectors, and humans’ close proximity to animals and their pathogens. On the other hand, urban living can contribute to the improvement of public health through better access to health services and creation of ecological and technological infrastructure that reduces disease burdens. Therefore, urbanization creates a disease ecology paradox through the interplay of urban health penalties and advantages for individual and community outcomes. To address this contradiction, we advocate a holistic Urban One Health perspective for managing urban systems, especially their green spaces and animal populations, in ways that more effectively control the spread of zoonotic diseases. This view should be coupled with an Ecology with Cities approach which emphasizes actionable science needed for urban planning, management and policymaking; developing disease and vector surveillance programs using citizen and community science methods; and improving education and communication actions that help diverse stakeholders understand the complexities of urban disease ecology. Such measures will enable scholars from many disciplines to collaborate with professionals, government officials, and others to tackle challenges of the urban disease paradox and create more sustainable, health-promoting environments.

Planning Ecologically Just Cities: A Framework to Assess Ecological Injustice Hotspots for Targeted Urban Design and Planning of Nature-Based Solutions

ABSTRACT This paper presents a typology of ecological injustice hotspots for targeted design of nature-based solutions to guide planning and designing of just cities. The typology demonstrates how the needs and capabilities of nonhuman nature can be embedded within transitions to multi- and interspecies relational futures that regenerate and protect urban social-ecological systems. We synthesise the findings of previous quantitative and qualitative analyses to develop the Ecologically Just Cities Framework that (1) works as a diagnostic tool to characterise four types of urban ecological injustices and (2) identifies nature-based planning actions that can best respond to different types of place-based ecological injustices.

Assessing the Potential of E-Tools for Knowledge Sharing and Stewardship of Urban Green Infrastructure

Background: People caring for urban green infrastructure, not least urban trees, play an important role in maintaining the quality of the urban environment. But what happens when information processing and knowledge generation become digitalized? This study examines digital tools developed to provide knowledge support and with ambitions of inciting stewardship. It asks what understanding they draw on, what information they broker, and how they approach uptake and use of the content they provide. Methods: We analyzed 6 different e-toolswithin the context of urban green infrastructure in New York City, New York, USA. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the tool creators and assessed the e-tools themselves. Results: Our findings indicate that most e-tools are designed to provide access to different types of information about urban social-ecological systems and, passively or more actively, stimulate learning. In addition to rich, complex, exploratory digital learning environments, many tools combine virtual experiences with in-person training, workshops, and coaching. Conclusion: The observed hybrid approaches harness the power of digital platforms to enable diverse usership and share large amounts of data while employing more traditional on-the-ground organizing techniques and thus offer a way forward in an age of increasing dominance of digital data. Future research on e-tool usership, hybrid learning approaches, and connections to stewardship outcomes could enrich the understanding of how e-tools operate as well as their social-ecological potential and impact.

PROSPECTS OF TWINNING CLIMATE CHANGE AND URBAN SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES THROUGH TRANSFORMATIVE ADAPTATION: LESSONS FOR AFRICAN CITIES

In most African cities, existing approaches to tackle climate change and sustainability issues have remained largely weak, piecemeal and fragmented. For example, current adaptation practices are mainly focusing on ‘adapting to’ climatic disturbances instead of ‘adapting with’ the vulnerable urban population. This approach views climate change as the main source of vulnerability and focuses on protecting systems from weather and climatic events. It grossly ignores the social roots of vulnerability and misses out on opportunities such as those that emerge when climatic risks are jointly treated with environmental sustainability concerns. To evade this problem, this paper proposes a shift towards transformative adaptation, an approach that comprehensively attend to the entire urban socio-ecological system. The aim is to contribute to the discourse of inclusive cities by examining the prospects of simultaneously addressing climate change alongside other urban development challenges. Drawing on growing literature and reports on climate change adaptation in cities, I argue that the adjustment approach does not comprehensively address the underlying urban vulnerabilities and fail to match the severity of climate change impacts being experienced. On the contrary, a transformative approach locates urban risk beyond the biophysical environment to the entire urban social-ecological system. Thus, this approach is capable of jointly dealing with climate change and other urban development challenges as it holistically deals with the underlying vulnerability risks in urban settlements while addressing the root causes of urban unsustainability. African cities can draw useful lessons from the benefits that come with a transformative adaptation trajectory.

Greenery in urban morphology: a comparative analysis of differences in urban green space accessibility for various urban structures across European cities

The understanding of urban social-ecological systems requires integrated and interdisciplinary methods. This paper explores differences in the accessibility of urban green spaces (UGS) based on urban morphology. In contrast to other comparative analyses that followed simplified quantification of UGS provision and/or omitted the impact of morphological properties of urban space, this study proposes three improvements. First, it uses the share of UGS in the service area of 300 m walking distance around each residential building in a city as a measure of UGS provision. Second, it includes the potential physical accessibility of UGS as warranted by key actors, such as owners or managers, who decide whether UGS are open or not to potential users. Third, it links UGS accessibility and heterogeneous urban structures. We developed a mixed-methods analysis that combines multiple data sources regarding UGS, the spatial distribution of residential buildings, and street networks. We conducted our analysis in five case-study cities (Barcelona, Halle, Lodz, Oslo, and Stockholm). Our findings suggest that the urban structures where the human–environment interaction transformed the space (such as in the core city areas) are characterized by limited UGS in the service area. Urban structures that are less transformed by human activity (especially suburbia) have the highest share of selected UGS in the service area. In addition, even if the share of UGS in the service area is high, many of them might have limited physical accessibility. In the broader sense, this highlights that social-ecological processes are linked to urban form and cannot be separated in an analysis. Therefore, social-ecological systems could be better understood through the lens of urban morphology.

Integrating inductive and deductive analysis to identify and characterize archetypical social-ecological systems and their changes

Archetype analysis is a key tool in landscape and sustainability research to organize social-ecological complexity and to identify social-ecological systems (SESs). While inductive archetype analysis can characterize the diversity of SESs within a region, deductively derived archetypes have greater interpretative power to compare across regions. Here, we developed a novel archetype approach that combines the strengths of both perspectives. We applied inductive clustering to an integrative dataset to map 15 typical SESs for 2016 and 12 social-ecological changes (1999–2016) in Andalusia region (Spain). We linked these types to deductive types of human-nature connectedness, resulting in a nested archetype classification. Our analyses revealed combinations of typical SESs and social-ecological changes that shape them, such as agricultural intensification and peri-urbanization in agricultural SESs, declining agriculture in natural SESs or population de-concentration (counter-urbanization) in urban SESs. Likewise, we identified a gradient of human-nature connectedness across SESs and typical social-ecological changes fostering this gradient. This allowed us to map areas that face specific sustainability challenges linked to ongoing regime shifts (e.g., from rural to urbanized systems) and trajectories towards social-ecological traps (e.g., cropland intensification in drylands) associated with decreasing human-nature connectedness. This provides spatial templates for targeting policy responses related to the sustainable intensification of agricultural systems, the disappearance of traditional cropping systems and abandonment of rural lands, or the reconnection of urban population with the local environment, among others. Generally, our approach allows for different levels of abstraction, keeping regional context-specificity while linking to globally recognisable archetypes, and thus to generalization and theory-building efforts.

Spatial Differentiation and Elements Influencing Urban Resilience in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River under the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, in December 2019, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River became the key areas of the spread of the pandemic and association, and also as the urban economic recovery process after the pandemic eased, it provided an excellent opportunity to research urban resilience. From the viewpoint of urban social-ecological system resilience in public health emergencies, this study comprehensively applies the spatial econometrics, geodetector model, and other methods to investigate the urban resilience level, spatial differentiation, and dominant elements in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River under the impact of the pandemic. This study would aid in providing a scientific basis for sustainable spatial planning and governance. The results demonstrated that the urban resilience in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River had notable spatial agglomeration features, eight elements including tertiary industry proportion possessed a robust explanatory power to the spatial differentiation of urban resilience, and the explanatory power was markedly enhanced after the interaction between influential elements of economic and ecological subsystems. Thus, to upgrade the system cycle mechanism and augment the endogenous power for urban development, we need to focus more on the flow of innovative elements in central cities, the optimization of ecological and safe spatial patterns in Hunan and Hubei Provinces, and the innovation of sustainable supply chain in the entire region.

Continuous integration in urban social-ecological systems science needs to allow for spacing co-existence

Urbanization brings benefits and burdens to both humans and nature. Cities are key systems for integrated social-ecological research and the interdisciplinary journal of Ambio has published ground-breaking contributions in this field. This reflection piece identifies and discusses integration of the human and natural spheres in urban social-ecological research using the following foundational papers as important milestones: Folke et al. (1997), Ernstson et al. (2010) and Andersson et al. (2014). These papers each take unique approaches that aim to uncover core properties—processes, structures, and actors—of urban systems and set them into mutual relationship. This piece will end with a forward-looking vision for the coming 50 years of urban sustainability and resilience study in Ambio.

Performance Based Planning of complex urban social-ecological systems: The quest for sustainability through the promotion of resilience

Urban systems and human settlements have been growing exponentially in size and complexity in the last decades, defying current approaches to sustainable development. While urban planning has been identified as one of the main tools for attaining specific sustainability goals, consideration of cities as complex social-ecological and adaptive systems challenges traditional views, demanding new flexible and creative planning solutions. In this conceptual study, we analyse the capacity of performance-based planning (PBP) to provide sustainable solutions for urban planning problems. To do so, we examine the different conceptualizations of PBP in the current planning environment. To better define the challenges posed by the complexity of urban systems, we explore the similarities and common ground between PBP and other approaches such as adaptive planning and management (APM) and problem structuring methods (PSM). We analyse a case study, in Queensland (Australia), using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis to identify potential advantages and barriers to the implementation of PBP. Finally, we discuss the potential role of APM and PSM in PBP, the utility of an extended conceptualization of resilience as an important reference for its implementation and a potentially stronger role for planners in PBP as decision shapers.

Assessing the historical adaptive cycles of an urban social-ecological system and its potential future resilience: the case of Xochimilco, Mexico City

As the bulk of the world’s population becomes urban, maintaining urban ecosystem services for environmental and social well-being in cities is crucial. According to resilience theory, maintaining such services requires for a complex adaptive systems perspective that helps in identifying key elements and dynamics behind cross-scale social-ecological interactions. In this context, the objective of this article is to use a resilience “lens” to problematize the imminent loss of an urban wetland using the adaptive cycle model as a heuristic tool. Our case study focuses on the Xochimilco wetland, located in the southern periphery of Mexico City. Xochimilco is characterized by the presence of a complex system of raised bed wetland agriculture (the chinampa system), which was established over 1000 years ago; currently, despite having a recognized cultural and environmental value, it is threatened by increasing urban sprawl, over-exploitation of the aquifer, and water contamination. By conducting a historical analysis of the Xochimilco social-ecological system, we assess how it has gone through phases of the adaptive cycle. As a result, we identify critical elements of the system’s historically maintained resilience and main drivers of system change. From such findings, we present some insights on the possibilities of maintaining the system’s resilience and guidance for future management strategies for the Xochimilco wetland. Lastly, we reflect on the scope and limitations of using a resilience-based approach and an adaptive cycle analysis for addressing urban sustainability problems, especially in cities in the Global South.

ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF THE INDUSTRIAL CITY

The assessment of the sustainability of the socio-ecological system of the Siberian industrial city in the period of radical social and economic reforms (period 1990-2012) has been performed by the proposed method. The comprehensive dynamic analysis of the characteristics of the major subsystems (the quality of the urban environment; the reproduction of the population; the medico-demographic status; the socio-economic and medico-social status of the population) showed that during the specified period the habitat and the vital indices of the population was in a state of socio-ecological ill-being. The proposed method, at its core, can be used to establish regularities and features of various types of urban social-ecological systems.

Urban Social-ecological Innovation: Implications for Adaptive Natural Resource Management

The urban landscape, as home to the majority of the global population, has been the scene of significant and lasting ecological degradation. Consequently, modern cities rely on distant and geographically vast areas for the provision of a range of important ecosystem services. Urban centres also, however, comprise important hubs of human invention and innovation. Collective approaches to the use and management of green space in urban social-ecological systems, as a form of social-ecological innovation, provide a valuable resource in the production and adaptive management of local ecosystem services. Urban social-ecological innovation (USEI), therefore, comprises an important consideration in urban environmental governance. Research on innovation in urban social-ecological systems is analysed here and an evaluation of the insights thereby derived culminates in the development of a conceptual framework. We propose that such a framework can be applied by practitioners and researchers alike to evaluate the mediating nature of USEI towards increasing the resilience of productive urban landscapes.

Self-organizing processes in urban green commons. The case of the Angachilla wetland, Valdivia-Chile

This article focuses on self-organizing processes in contested urban social-ecological systems. It analyzes a wetland conservation program and civic management effort in the Angachilla sector of the city of Valdivia, Chile in a 15-year time frame. The aim is to understand what triggers collective actions and self-organization in the attempts of preserving an urban green common. The study uses a qualitative approach based on action-research methodologies. It examines key variables influencing self-organizing processes; including social-environmental crises, governance vacuums, wetland valuation, and leadership. It also discusses collective strategies for the transformation of negative feedback loops, such as norms and regulations detrimental to wetland protection, and those related to resistance to change of wetland surface area due to unregulated urbanization. From an Urban Green Commons perspective, this work illustrates the complexity of dealing with contested nature, making it a resource difficult to govern collectively given all the different interests and values in place. It also shows that there have been successful periods of active wetland management that have influenced active democratic processes regarding land use and land use change in the city.

Agroecology for the Shrinking City.

Many cities are experiencing long-term declines in population and economic activity. As a result, frameworks for urban sustainability need to address the unique challenges and opportunities of such shrinking cities. Shrinking, particularly in the U.S., has led to extensive vacant land. The abundance of vacant land reflects a loss of traditional urban amenities, economic opportunity, neighbors, businesses, and even basic city services and often occurs in neighborhoods with socially and economically vulnerable or underserved populations. However, vacant land also provides opportunities, including the space to invest in green infrastructure that can provide ecosystem services and support urban sustainability. Achieving desirable amenities that provide ecosystem services from vacant land is the central tenet of a recent urban sustainability framework termed ecology for the shrinking city. An agroecological approach could operationalize ecology for the shrinking city to both manage vacancy and address ecosystem service goals. Developing an agroecology in shrinking cities not only secures provisioning services that use an active and participatory approach of vacant land management but also transforms and enhances regulating and supporting services. The human and cultural dimensions of agroecology create the potential for social-ecological innovations that can support sustainable transformations in shrinking cities. Overall, the strength of agroecological principles guiding a green infrastructure strategy stems from its explicit focus on how individuals and communities can shape their environment at multiple scales to produce outcomes that reflect their social and cultural context. Specifically, the shaping of the environment provides a pathway for communities to build agency and manage for resilience in urban social-ecological systems. Agroecology for the shrinking city can support desirable transformations, but to be meaningful, we recognize that it must be part of a greater strategy that addresses larger systemic issues facing shrinking cities and their residents.

Visions of resilience: lessons from applying a digital democracy tool in New York’s Jamaica Bay watershed

Resilience to extreme weather events and other sudden changes is an issue facing many communities in the early twenty-first century. Planning to respond to disasters is particularly complicated in densely inhabited, multi-jurisdictional urban social-ecological systems like the watershed of Jamaica Bay, a large urbanized estuary on the south side of New York City. This area contains parklands managed by New York City, the National Park Service, and other agencies, four sewage treatment plants, three former landfills, and urban and suburban communities, all of which were heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Here successful resilience planning and response requires participation from a wide variety of government and civil society players each with different types of knowledge, value systems, and expectations about what resilience means. To investigate how “visions” of future resilience differed among several communities living in or concerned with Jamaica Bay, New York, we deployed a free, Internet-based modeling framework called Visionmaker that enabled interactive scenario creation and testing. Through a series of standardized workshops, we recruited participants from a variety of different communities of practice (i.e. researchers, land managers, educators, non-governmental organization staff, and community board members) to design “visions of resilience”. Visions spanned terrestrial and marine environments and contained natural and built ecosystems. Most users favored increasing resilience through expanding salt marsh and green infrastructure while, for the most part, keeping the built city landscape of streets and buildings intact. We compare and contrast these visions and discuss the implications for future resilience planning in coastal cities.

Modeling teleconnected urban social–ecological systems: opportunities and challenges for resilience research

ABSTRACTUrban social–ecological systems (SESs) have progressively become more interdependent in their information, resource, material, energy and waste flows. The evolution of those systems has been studied through a variety of concepts (including central place theory, urban ‘metabolism’, etc.). New frameworks on teleconnections have synthesized and extended past theory, but the relevance of the type, degree and spatial structure of the interlinkages for the resilience of urban systems is understudied. We explore the evolving nature of the interlinkages of cities, resource bases and resilience using two approaches: (1) we review literature on urban systems, teleconnections and resilience and (2) we develop scenarios of a stylized network of urban SESs and examine the system-level resilience of each scenario to external shocks using a mathematical biology model. Our results show how factors such as resource consumption, extraction and population migration drive system-wide resilience at different levels of teleconnection of urban systems.