Musammat Mahzebin
Lecturer
Department of Humanities
Khulna University of Engineering and Technology
(KUET)
Urban Ecology
Within the science of ecology, urban ecology is defined as
the study of structure, dynamics, and processes in urban
ecological systems.
Urban ecology is the study of the relationships of human
and nonhuman organisms in urban areas,
the interactions of these organisms with the native and
built physical environment,
and the effects of these relationships on the fluxes of
energy, materials, and information within individual
urban systems and between urban and nonurban systems.
Urban ecology applies the methods and concepts of the
biological science of ecology to urban areas, but requires
and integrates with the concerns, concepts, and
approaches of social sciences to produce a hybrid
discipline.
Urban ecological systems include individual organisms,
populations, communities, and landscapes, as well as
buildings and infrastructure.
Urban ecology further recognizes specific urban
ecosystems as a part of the global biogeochemical,
economic, and human demographic etc.
There is a prominent view within urban ecology
that existing ecological theory is insufficient to
understand the ecology of urban environments.
However, many ecological theories, hypotheses
and paradigms have been shown to apply to cities
just as they do to other types of ecosystems.
URBAN ECOLOGY (Robert Ezra Park (1864-1944)
Coined concept of Human Ecology as a perspective that attempts to
apply biological processes/concepts to the social world since
maintained that the city and life in the city is a product of
competition in the natural environment, i.e. the natural environment
is an instrumental force in determining city characteristics.
· Believed city to be a social organism with distinct parts bound
together by internal processes, not chaos and disorder;
· City was also a moral as well as physical organization
suggesting;
· Focused on the physical form of the city and human’s
adjustment to the ecological conditions urban life.
Theoretical premises
Influence of natural sciences arguing there is a similarity
between the organic and social worlds, i.e. the idea that
natural laws can be adapted to society; a form of Social
Darwinism
"Web of life"--all organisms are interrelated, there exists
an interdependence of species sharing the same environment
that seems to be the product of a Darwinian struggle for
existence (numbers of living organisms regulated,
distribution controlled, and balance of nature maintained
where survivors of struggle find niches in physical
environment and in existing division of labour between
species)
Urbanism
Louis Wirth (1897-1952) U. of Chicago - micro-sociological
· Developed first urban theory in US, previous urban sociology comprised
essentially descriptive studies
· Focus on urbanism--urban lifestyle--more than on structure
· Definition of city was that it was large, dense with permanent settlement
and socially and culturally heterogeneous people, and so urbanism was a function
of population density, size and heterogeneity:
1) Population size: creates great diversity because large numbers of people
coming together logically increase potential differentiation among themselves,
and with migration of diverse groups to city; creates need for formal control
structures, e.g. legal systems; supports proliferation of further complex division of
labour specialization; organizes human relationships on interest-specific basis,
i.e. "social segmentalization", where secondary relationships are primary, in
essence urban ties are relationships of utility; creates possibility of
disorganization and disintegration
2) Population density: intensifies effects of large population
size on social life; manifests quality of separateness, e.g. economic
forces and social processes produce readily identifiable distinct
neighbourhood, "ecological specialization"; fosters a loss of
sensitivity to more personal aspects of others, instead tendency to
stereotype and categorize; results in greater tolerance of difference
but at same time physical closeness increases social distance; may
increase antisocial behaviour
3) Population heterogeneity: with social interaction among
many personality types results in breakdown of the rigidity of caste
lines and complicates class structure, thus increased social mobility;
with social mobility tend to have physical mobility; leads to further
depersonalization with concentration of diverse people.
Ernest Burgess' Concentric Zone Theory
· Cities grow and develop outwardly in concentric circles, i.e.
continuous outward process of invasion/succession
· The jobs, industry, entertainment, administrative offices, etc.
were located at the center in the CBD.
· Felt that zone development resulted from competitive
processes, i.e. competition for best location in the city and
Zones:
1. Commercial center(Central Business District);
2. Zone of transition;
3. Working class residences;
4. Middle class residences;
5. Commuter zone.
Ernest Burgess' Concentric Zone Model
Homer Hoyt’s Sector Theory (1939)
· City develops not in concentric circles, but in sectors
· Each sector characterized by different economic activities
· The entire city can be thought of as a circle and various
neighborhoods as sectors radiating out from the center of that
structure. These factors or principles direct residential expansion:
1) High grade residential areas tend to originate near retail and
office centers.
2) High grade residential growth tends to proceed from the given
point of origin, along established lines of travel or toward existing
retail office centers.
4) High rent areas tend to grow towards areas which have open
space beyond the city and away from sections enclosed by natural or
artificial boundaries.
Homer Hoyt’s Sector Theory (1939)
5) Higher priced residential areas tend to grow towards the homes
of leaders in the community.
6) The movement of office buildings, banks and stores tends to
pull higher priced residential neighborhoods in the same general
direction.
7) High rent neighborhoods continue to grow in the same
direction for a long time.
8) Deluxe high rent apartment areas tend to gradually appear in
older residential areas near the business center (gentrification,
downtown condos and high rent lofts).
9) Real estate developers may bend the direction of high grade
residential growth, but they cannot develop an area before its time or
in another direction very easily.
Homer Hoyt’s Sector Model
Harris and Ullman’s Multiple Nuclei Theory (1945)
more advanced stage of urbanization:
Cities do not have a single center, but have many
"minicenters"
· Similar activities locate in the same area and create
minicities within the larger city
· Distribution of housing of certain type and value along
communication corridors
· Topography: higher land, better (more expensive) housing
· Effect of adjacent land on housing quality
· Certain areas/activities tend to locate where they are most:
effective, desirable and financially feasible
Multiple nuclei model.
