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urban ecology — English
The interrelationships among the organic (living) and inorganic (non-living) components within the confines of a city scape (see “ecology”). Since there are so many things and living beings in a city, the interaction network is extremely complex. It is difficult to imagine that there could be an interaction between two buildings (call them A and B), but there is. One of them might interfere with the access to the other; one might be the workplace of so many workers that infrastructure cannot cope with the demand, hence employees working in building A often arrive late because the public transport systems could not cope with the number of employees that works in building B. In much the same way all the human-made features in any city interact. In addition to that, the live beings in a city (including humans as well as domestic and wild animals) also interact with one another, and also with the physical features in the city. Ecology is a relational term and a city is nothing other than an ecosystem (see “ecosystem”). The sustainability of any ecosystem depends on feedback loops (see “feedback loop”). There are numerous feedback loops in urban systems. Just as in natural ecosystems these feedback loops are crucially important. Should they break down the entire urban complex (or environment) will fall into disarray and chaos where only vice, crime and corruption will thrive. (See “gentrification”.)
