Urban wild

Urban wild

An urban wild is a remnant of a natural ecosystem found in the midst of an otherwise highly developed urban area.

Utility

Urban wilds, particularly those of several acres or more, are often intact ecological systems that can provide essential ecosystem functions such as the filtering of urban run-off, the storing and slowing the flow of stormwater, amelioration of the warming effect of urban development, and generally benefiting local air quality.

Typically, urban wilds are home to native vegetation and animal life as well as some introduced species. Urban wilds are vital to species of migratory birds that have nested in a given area since prior to its urbanization.

Preservation

Without formal protection, urban wilds are vulnerable to development. However, achieving formal protection of a large urban wild can be difficult. Land tenure of a single ecological area can be complex, with multiple public and private entities owning adjacent properties.

Key strategies used in the preservation of urban wilds have included conservation restrictions that keep complex land tenure systems in place while protecting the entire landscape. Public/private partnerships have also been successful in protecting urban wilds.

The urban wilds prioritized by municipalities tend to be partial wetlands that perform a range of ecological services while contributing to the biological diversity of the region.

Passive parks

There is some discussion about whether natural areas that are not at an appropriate scale to perform significant ecosystem services should instead be categorized as passive parks as opposed to urban wilds. Smaller urban wilds are used for passive recreation and have less value to the city in terms of enhancing ecosystem function.

References

* [http://ksgaccman.harvard.edu/hotc/DisplayIssue.asp?id=140 Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Urban park — Central Park, the most visited urban park in the United States, is surrounded by the skyscrapers of New York City …   Wikipedia

  • Urban sprawl — Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area. [http://www.sprawlcity.org/hbis/wis.html What is Sprawl?] . SprawlCity.org . Retrieved on 2008 02 07.]… …   Wikipedia

  • Urban ecology — is the subfield of ecology which deals with the interaction of plants, animals and humans with each other and with their environment in urban or urbanizing settings. Analysis of urban settings in the context of ecosystem ecology (looking at the… …   Wikipedia

  • Wild Child — Título Diva adolescente Ficha técnica Dirección Ana Paula Garcia Producción Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Diana Phillips Alexandra Ferguson …   Wikipedia Español

  • Wild Chicago — was a popular, long running Emmy Award winning television series that began airing on Chicago s WTTW (a local PBS affiiliate) in 1988. The series was created by producer John Davies and original host Ben Hollis. Davies produced the series from… …   Wikipedia

  • Urban Gothic — was a horror based series of short stories shown on Five running for two series between May 2000 and December 2001. Filmed on a comparatively low budget, it nonetheless acquired a cult following despite its late air time and the patchy coverage… …   Wikipedia

  • WILD (AM) — Infobox Radio Station name = WILD airdate = May 1946 as WBMS frequency = 1090 (kHz) HD Radio area = Boston format = Classic Soul owner = Radio One erp = 4800 watts (Daytime) 1900 watts (Critical) branding = 1090 WILD slogan = Boston s Classic… …   Wikipedia

  • Wild 7 — Infobox animanga/Header name = Wild 7 caption = Wild 7 cover, released in Canada and the United States by Comics One ja name = ワイルド7 ja name trans = genre = Action, Adventure, DramaInfobox animanga/Manga title = author = Mikiya Mochizuki… …   Wikipedia

  • Wild China — Infobox nature documentary bgcolour = show name = Wild China caption = Series title card picture format = 576i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) audio format = Stereo runtime = 60 minutes creator = BBC Natural History Unit, CCTV developer = producer = Phil… …   Wikipedia

  • Wild Dog (comics) — Superherobox| caption=Wild Dog #1 by Terry Beatty character name=Wild Dog publisher=DC Comics debut= Wild Dog #1, (September 1987) creators=Max Allan Collins (writer) Terry Beatty (artist) real name = Jack Wheeler species = homeworld = alliances …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”