Chicago Lifestyle and Sustainability essays

Chicago Lifestyle and Sustainability essays As the world's population has grown it has become increasingly concentrated in large urban areas. The extent to which urbanization impacts the ecosystems of these cities is an important emerging area of study. Access to nature is vital to the physical, mental, emotional and social health of humans and their communities. Our increasing urbanization is depriving current and future generations of exposure to functional, productive green space, contributing to rising crime, violence, social alienation, poverty, hunger, and other individual and community-level dysfunctions (Kuo, 2001). This session will examine the effects of urbanization on Chicago, an older While it may seem strange to use the term "ecosystem" when discussing a major city, but urban ecosystems exist around the country (PBS, 2003). An urban ecosystem is the community of plants, animals, and humans that inhabit the urban environment. It is an area physically dominated by man- made structures, such as buildings, roads, sewers, and power lines. However, it also contains a rich patchwork of green spaces parks, yards, street plantings, greenways, urban streams, commercial landscaping, and undeveloped lots that make up the urban ecosystem. As separate and fragmented as these elements may appear, they collectively make up a single organism (PBS, 2003). The urban forest is one example. It is easy to imagine all of a city's trees whether in a park, on a street, in an undeveloped parcel, or in a backyard joined together in a citywide system, just as they appear to be when viewed from an airplane. This urban forest may be different than an undisturbed rural forest, but many of its There are major differences between urban ecosystems and other ecosystems that have been less dominated by humans (PBS, 2003). Urban ecosystems are typically highly disturbed sy...