This important volume focuses on the sensitive issue of interrelationships between national parks situated near or within urban areas and their urban environment. It engages with both urban and conservation issues and and compares four national parks located in four large cities in the global South: Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Mumbai, and Nairobi. Though primarily undertaken as academic research, the project has intensively collaborated with the institutions in charge of these parks. The comparative structure of this volume is also original and unique: each of the chapters incorporates insight from all four sites as far as possible.The term “naturbanity” expresses the necessity for cities endowed with a national park to integrate it into their functioning. Conversely, such parks must take into account their location in an urban environment, both as a source of heavy pressures on nature and as a nexus of incentives to support their conservation. The principle of non-exclusivity, that is, neither the city nor the park has a right nor even the possibility to negate the other’s presence, summarizes the main argument of this book. Naturbanity thus blurs the old “modern” dichotomy of nature/culture: animals and human beings can often jump the physical and ideological walls separating many parks from the adjacent city. The 13 chapters and substantive introduction of this volume discuss various aspects of naturbanity: the histories of park creation; interaction between people and parks; urban governance and parks; urban conservation models; wildlife management; environmental education; and so on. This is a must-read for students and researchers interested in social ecology, social geography, conservation, urban planning and ecological policy.

This book shows what role nature can play in a city and how this can make it a better place for people to live. People, planners, designers and politicians are working towards the development of green cities. Some cities are already promoted as green cities, while others are on their way to become one. But their goals are often unclear and can include different facets. Presenting contributions from world leading researchers in the field of urban ecology, the editors provide an interdisciplinary overview of best practices and challenges in creating green cities. They show examples of how to build up these cities from bits and pieces to districts and urban extensions. Each example concludes with a summary of the collected knowledge, the learning points and how this can be used in other places. The best practices are collected from around the world – Europe, America and Asia. Contributions cover a wide range of biophysical and cultural backgrounds within these three continents, including the Central, Southern and Eastern European region, as well as Latin and North America. The new dynamic urban development of Asia is illustrated by case studies from China and the Indian subcontinent. The reader will learn which role nature can play in green cities and what the basic requirements are in terms of culture, pre-existing nature conditions, existing urban surroundings, history, design and planning.

This textbook on the Green City examines urban nature as an ideal, provider of services and conceptual urban design approach. It answers important contemporary questions that arise about the ecological and cultural interactions, development and structure, and ecological performance of urban nature worldwide. The book explains what urban nature is, how it came to be, and how it evolved in the context of the natural and cultural conditions of its sites. It also describes what constitutes urban biodiversity and the role of differentiated urban nature in the Green City concept. Theories of urban development and ecology are linked to practical applications of urban planning and illustrated with many case studies and examples. The great potentials of urban nature are shown in detail. In order to cope with or mitigate problems in the city, a targeted urban nature management adapted to the specific conditions of the different types of urban nature is needed, which includes nature conservation as well as nature design, always keeping in mind the relation to the urban dwellers. The textbook is especially addressed to students and teachers of urban planning, ecology, geography, social sciences as well as practitioners of urban design and nature conservation. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Die Grüne Stadt by Jürgen Breuste, published by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature in 2019. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done by the author primarily in terms of content and scientific terms, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation but without loss of messages. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

This book unveils forestry science and its policy and management that connect past and present understanding of forests. The aggregated knowledge is presented to cover the approaches adopted in studying forest structure, its growth, functioning, and degradation, especially in the context of the surrounding environment. The application of advance computation, instrumentation, and modelling has been elaborated in various chapters. Forest ecosystems are rapidly changing due to forest fires, deforestation, urbanization, climate change, and other natural and anthropogenic drivers. Understanding the dynamics of forest ecosystems requires contemporary methods and measures, utilizing modern tools and big data for developing effective conservation plans. The book also covers discussion on policies for sustainable forestry, agroforestry, environmental governance, socio-ecology, nature-based solutions, and management implication. It is suitable for a wide range of readers working in the field of scientific forestry, policy making, and forest management. In addition, it is a useful material for postgraduate and research students of forestry sciences.

The ascendancy of border studies in the last two decades or so, and the burgeoning work on nature and society neither drew attention to ecological theories of borders nor capitalised on nature as a useful avenue through which border research could be advanced. This volume fills this void by engaging with the following key questions: What insights can be drawn from species’ borders to broaden understandings of bordering? What sorts of borders are engendered by various types of conservation areas? What border stories does each of these areas tell us? What do conservation-related borders teach us about multiple lines that divide societies? Answers to these questions help researchers understand a typology of nature-related borders. The primary objectives of this volume are twofold. The first objective is to expand and deepen the links between nature conservation and border studies by bringing species’ borders into conversation with border studies, while at the same time paying attention to diverse conservation areas and conservation practices. The second objective is to highlight forms of borders associated with various types of conservation areas and the protection of certain types of natural resources. The manner in which nature conservation produces borders, and the forms those borders take, has the potential to enrich the conceptualisation of borders. The point of departure in this volume is that conservation practices produce feedback loops on social reality. Authors in the volume variously show that concerns with environmental protection and management offer possibilities for exploring, and even disrupting, borders within society and those between society and nature. Conservation areas in particular are crucial for a meaningful analysis of natures’ borders and the discourses and narratives related to them, and how such discourses influence conservation practice. This volume is an invaluable resource for research and upper-level courses on border studies, political ecology, conservation and biodiversity management, and environmental change and social impact.

This fascinating book examines how microsites of spontaneous nature can reframe our understanding of the relationship between urban development and green space. Metropolitan cities are facing stark inequalities of green space distribution, hindering goals of sustainable development. But outside of human control, spontaneous nature grows in spaces that are neglected or are unaccounted for. Drawing on existing literature and primary research in a range of towns and cities, including Quito in Ecuador, Bengaluru and Kolkata in India, and Whitby in the United Kingdom, the book delves into the morphology, meanings, and values of those small-scale assemblages of wild growth which are typically overlooked. Discussing instead how such settings can be integrated into everyday urban life, the book offers a fresh perspective on issues around green infrastructure, heritage conservation, and environmental education, enabling cities worldwide to become more nature-positive. A unique examination of an under-researched topic, this book will appeal to students, researchers, and professionals across landscape architecture, urban planning, urban ecology, and all related fields.