Week 6: Urban Ecology

On Tuesday, we discussed diagrams showing the structure of a city, with the city having features such as cores, barriers, etc. And, we also looked at how much higher the demand for Commerce areas is as opposed to Industry areas, and Residential areas. It’s a lot cheaper for a company to locate themselves outside the core of the city, yet in the sub center of a city. Essentially, most commerce areas are located towards the center of the city, industrial areas are scattered around the areas of commerce, and the majority of residential areas are farthest away from the commerce areas. This also is a more convenient option for a company, because it gives a shorter commute to most people who work there. Every urban area has a distinctive structure, and is more comparable to a continuum than anything else. This continuum can contain villages, rural areas,etc... that can expand to become sub centers in themselves, and a plethora of other factors http://www.rudi.net/node/21682. The link in the previous sentence talks about the structure of Birmingham, Alabama as an example of a moderate sized cities structure (which is similar to what was talked about 2-3 sentences ago).       

           In Thursday’s lecture the city was compared to a wooded area/ jungle, to make a few key points… there is a certain spatial element to both a jungle and a city;both contain a place for every element of their make-up. This article is a link to buy Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, but more importantly it gives a summary of the content contained in this novel. Sinclair referred to the city as a “jungle of human suffering.”  http://www.randomhouse.com/book/167863/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair Likewise, competition, building up, growing, degradation, and fires which lead to regeneration, are constant themes in both. After fires, these areas might come back similarly or they might change and become more nutrient rich/ more filled with people and commerce.  Both systems are adaptable, give feedback, and have a finite linear history. This comparison between the city and jungle was for the purpose of leading the class into the topic of Urban Ecology. Urban ecology deals with the interactions of plants, animals, and humans with their environment in urban settings. Professor Sanchez brought this question to attention: What external events could alter the way we live on earth? After a few minutes of silence and made up answers, it became evident that there may very well be none. In other words, as humans we affect the way we live on a daily basis. If we look at how we affect our surroundings, we understand the meaning of urban ecology: studying settings in the context of an ecosystem, which hopes to result in better managed communities. Let’s think about this: most people do not like the world we live in as far as the economy goes, but if we affect the world and are responsible for our actions, then why should we not interact as a community to better our world? For instance, urban planners need to work with environmental policy specialists, biologists, geologists, etc… If their knowledge is combined, it will create a more effective urban area.

If we look at a cities jungle-like structure from a different viewpoint, such as the one Guns and Roses looked at it through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_the_Jungle

, then it can be seen as a place filled with opportunity. Anywhere you go in the city you can find what you need… there is an immense amount of diversity in the form of ideas, race, social status, etc… 

Lastly, the topic of System Dynamics was discussed, which contains three basic rules: We need to change from linear, laundry list thinking to a circular, closed loop view of causality. There needs to be a shift from an external to an internal focus on performance. How we, not others, are responsible for most of the results we get. This is similar to the principles of science: the dismissal of the supernatural, to achieve a finite, earthly explanation of every day occurrences. And, there needs to be a focus on an operational view of how things actually work. This is in contrast to traditional analysis methods based on statistical correlation of trends from the past. Here are some cool expansions on what Professor Sanchez told us for fun at the end of class: http://englishrussia.com/2009/04/07/smartest-dogs-moscow-stray-dogs/. These cute little puppies ride on subway trains to different stations because they know what people at what times will give food to them.