Social-ecological science in the humane metropolis

Abstract

The Humane metropolis is a rubric to summarize and promote environmental and social quality in contemporary urban mosaics. Because cities, suburbs, and exurbs, as spatially extensive and connected socio-ecological systems, exhibit many negative features, the humane metropolis identifies a strategy to combat the ills and instill more positive and sustainable features and processes in urban systems. Because the humane metropolis as a program has arisen primarily from social motivations, there is the opportunity to articulate more explicitly the role that science can play in addressing the humane metropolis program and evaluating its success. A humane metropolis can be summarized as one that 1) protects and restores ecological services in cities and suburbs, 2) promotes physical and mental health and safety of residents, 3) enhances efficiency by conserving energy, matter, water, and time, 4) facilitates equity by being inclusive, as well as socially and environmentally just, and 5) maintains a sense of community and a sense of place. We clarify the nature of science as a contributor to the social program, pointing out the social values motivating science, and the role that scientific knowledge and metaphor play in linking science with the social program of the humane metropolis. We further identify roles that socio-ecological research can play in meeting the goals of the humane metropolis. We use examples of environmental history, watershed function and restoration, and environmental justice

International progress and evaluation on interactive coupling effects between urbanization and the eco-environment

“…In 2005, ecologist Steward Pickett was the first to divide complex coupling mechanisms into organizational connectivity, spatially explicit structure and historical contingency, and establish a multidimensional concept model of biocomplexity (Pickett et al, 2005). He also proposed the content, a structure and a research framework for a five-dimensional human ecosystem in humane metropolis (Pickett et al, 2011). In 2013, Jianguo Liu proposed the concept of telecoupling (Liu et al, 2013), establishing and leading a research network on coupled human and natural systems (CHANS).…”

“…Urbanization and eco-environment telecoupling transcends space and natural and administrative boundaries. On the one hand, internal coupling and coupling between coupled human and nature systems transcends multiple nested spatial scales, from local to global (Pickett et al, 2011). Local coupling is affected by relatively large-scale processes, which are interposed by larger scale processes and ultimately produced against the backdrop of global processes (Liu and Diamond, 2005).…”

Urban Evolution: The Role of Water

“…Later, a transition in the structure, function, and services from the Industrial City to the "Sanitary City" was driven by the need for clean drinking water and centralized sewage infrastructure [14]. More recently, there has been interest in transitioning from the Sanitary City to the "Sustainable City," which has focused on green infrastructure and ecosystem restoration [15][16][17]. Many cities are now implementing sustainability plans along with new regulations (e.g., Total Maximum Daily Loads in the U.S.) and economic, social, and environmental benefits [17,18].…”

An Ecology for Cities: A Transformational Nexus of Design and Ecology to Advance Climate Change Resilience and Urban Sustainability

“…For this reason equity is a key tenet of sustainability [1,71,72]. A transformative urban design process must incorporate justice and equity [73], and strategies for doing so should be informed by history, including socio-spatial analyses of patterns of settlement, displacement, and segregation of vulnerable populations, and the policy and planning procedures that shaped those patterns [74].…”