Salman Qureshi

A quantitative review of urban ecosystem service assessments: concepts, models, and implementation.

Although a number of comprehensive reviews have examined global ecosystem services (ES), few have focused on studies that assess urban ecosystem services (UES). Given that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, understanding the dualism of the provision of and need for UES is of critical importance. Which UES are the focus of research, and what types of urban land use are examined? Are models or decision support systems used to assess the provision of UES? Are trade-offs considered? Do studies of UES engage stakeholders? To address these questions, we analyzed 217 papers derived from an ISI Web of Knowledge search using a set of standardized criteria. The results indicate that most UES studies have been undertaken in Europe, North America, and China, at city scale. Assessment methods involve bio-physical models, Geographical Information Systems, and valuation, but few study findings have been implemented as land use policy.

Virtual Globes: Serving Science and Society

Virtual Globes reached the mass market in 2005. They created multi-million dollar businesses in a very short time by providing novel ways to explore data geographically. We use the term “Virtual Globes” as the common denominator for technologies offering capabilities to annotate, edit and publish geographic information to a world-wide audience and to visualize information provided by the public and private sectors, as well as by citizens who volunteer new data. Unfortunately, but not surprising for a new trend or paradigm, overlapping terms such as “Virtual Globes”, “Digital Earth”, “Geospatial Web”, “Geoportal” or software specific terms are used heterogeneously. We analyze the terminologies and trends in scientific publications and ask whether these developments serve science and society. While usage can be answered quantitatively, the authors reason from the literature studied that these developments serve to educate the masses and may help to democratize geographic information by extending the producer base. We believe that we can contribute to a better distinction between software centered terms and the generic concept as such. The power of the visual, coupled with the potential of spatial analysis and modeling for public and private purposes raises new issues of reliability, standards, privacy and best practice. This is increasingly addressed in scientific literature but the required body of knowledge is still in its infancy.

Differential community and the perception of urban green spaces and their contents in the megacity of Karachi, Pakistan.

Urban green spaces (UGS) denote the chief representative of biodiversity and provider of ecosystem services (especially social and cultural) in urban landscapes. Socio-economic circumstances of individuals are significantly derived from their psychometric settings–which ultimately affect their preferences in urban landscapes–more so for multicultural and multifaceted social environments. This paper investigates the coupling of distinct socio-economic (life quality) standards and urban natural spaces (and their content) in the megacity of Karachi, Pakistan. The main research question was how the socio-economic conditions of the differentiated and multicultural community influence their preferences of urban green spaces. It was tested at three systematically selected research sites of distinct structural and functional characteristics but the results and discussion are presented in an integrative form. The study sites were selected using Karachi’s urban-rural gradient to deduce representative samples from different land use and urbanization zones. Public interviews of 340 respondents were conducted with a structured questionnaire. The findings contradict generalizations made in other international studies. Results show that the presumption of tightly coupled social settings and nature space preferences could not be validated empirically for varying types of cities in the world. This is because people perceive their heterogeneous natural and artificial environment differently in different regional settings. The multicultural environment dissembles the choices of people and vice versa. This is true regardless of the sampling strategy for such studies that had been the focus in the past. Community revitalization is deemed necessary for better design, facilities and functions of UGS to foster social wellbeing of residents as well as sustainable urban development.

Urban sustainability, urban ecology and the Society for Urban Ecology (SURE)

The majority of people worldwide live in cities and towns and their numbers continue to increase. Cities and towns offer an attractive living environment for the majority of people, but more knowledge is needed about the dynamics of this man-made environment, i.e. about the extremely changed natural conditions and about urban areas as living space. With increased urbanization worldwide, an urban perspective is progressively needed to understand human-nature interactions to improve research, design, planning, and management of cities, towns and urban regions. Mismatches between spatial and temporal scales of ecological process on the one hand, and social scales of monitoring and decision making on the other have not only limited our understanding of ecological processes in urban landscapes, they have also limited the integration of urban ecological knowledge into urban planning (Breuste et al. 2011). An ecocity is understood as:

Applied urban ecology for sustainable urban environment

Urban ecology is recognized as a well-established science but may need a consolidated theory (Niemela 1999). The classical urban ecological studies are predominantly focused on the bio-physical research of the urban environment and lack addressing its social context and applicability in planning, design and management (Grimm and Redman 2004; Breuste and Qureshi 2011). However, the recent developments in applied urban ecology demonstrate multidisciplinary approaches and application rapidly improving the theoretical foundations of this science (Young 2009; Qureshi et al. 2010). Urban ecosystems still need improved Urban Ecosyst (2013) 16:675–680 DOI 10.1007/s11252-013-0337-9

Transformation of rural-urban cultural landscapes in Europe: integrating approaches from ecological, socio-economic and planning perspectives.

This paper presents a review of the presentations and synthesis of the discussion during a Symposium on ‘Transformation of rural-urban cultural landscapes in Europe: Integrating approaches from ecological, socio-economic and planning perspectives’ held at the European IALE conference 2009 in Salzburg, Austria. The symposium addressed an extended and much debated subject of the landscape dynamics in Europe. The papers presented during the symposium showcased a broad spectrum of cutting edge research questions and challenges faced by the cultural landscapes of Europe. During six sessions, 18 presentations (besides 20 posters) were made by 36 scientists (including co-authors) from 14 countries, representing 25 institutions of Europe. A glance at the presentations revealed that the state-of-the-art focuses on driving forces and selected aspects of transformation processes, methods of its analysis and planning support as dimensions of research in this field. However, inter- and transdisciplinary research and integrative approaches to the development of rural-urban cultural landscapes are needed. The extended discussion session at the latter part of the symposium highlighted some critical and unaddressed research questions which remained a pending agenda for future research.

Urban Ecosystem services on the local level: Urban green spaces as providers

Abstract Breuste J., Schnellinger J., Qureshi S., Faggi A.: Urban ecosystem services on the local level: Urban green spaces as providers. Ekologia (Bratislava), Vol. 32, No. 3, p. 209-304, 2013. Ecosystem services are provided at different spatial and service/functional scales. The local level is the basic unit for ecosystem services, especially when it comes to the human dimension of urban landscapes. These services are provided by green elements (patches) or basic complex ecosystems (green areas) which differ from their neighbourhoods through their structures and functions. This study reviews the generally available knowledge on urban green functions and services at the site level and explains them by using own studies in five different cities in three different continents related to distinct ecosystem services. This allows the development of a methodology to evaluate and compare ecosystem services at the site level. The methodology is based at two levels, patch and green space, and includes the relationship with the surrounding green and built-up space. Different urban green space types are characterized by their internal structures of vegetation, size, shape and location in relation to at least a semi-quantitative scaling of their urban ecosystem services. The evaluated urban green spaces are public urban green spaces. The urban ecosystem services assessed include climate regulation, biodiversity, nature experience, recreation and health. The actual urban challenges, such as land use change, adaptation to climate change, demographic change and urban cultural diversity, demand a systematic and very concrete monitoring of urban ecosystem services at the site level.

A cross-city molecular biogeographic investigation of arbuscular mycorrhizas in Conyza canadensis rhizosphere across native and non-native regions

IntroductionThe ecological processes underlying the suppressive impacts of invasive species on native species diversity, both above- and below-ground, in non-native regions are not well understood. We therefore aimed to investigate the cross-city biogeographic patterns of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) diversity in Conyza canadensis rhizosphere in native (North American) and non-native (Kashmir Himalayan) regions.MethodsWe recovered AMF spores from rhizospheric soils of Conyza in native and non-native ranges, besides doing so from the uninvaded sites in the introduced region. DNA extracted from AMF spores was processed for cloning and PCR-RFLP of SSU rRNA gene to yield the restriction groups (RGs) followed by their sequence analysis to determine the sequence groups (SGs).ResultsThe results indicated greater diversity of RGs and SGs in Conyza rhizosphere in native than in non-native sites. In the introduced region, however, the AMF diversity was more in uninvaded than in invaded sites. The species composition of AMF varied significantly between native and non-native regions and so also between invaded and uninvaded habitats.ConclusionsThough difference in AMF diversity between Conyza invaded and uninvaded sites may be attributed to invasion, the role of other evolutionary factors seems likely for differences between the native and non-native regions. We suggest that the ecological processes underlying these evolutionary differences in two biogeographic regions, besides the intensity of urbanization, might play some role in these differences.

Using agent-based modelling and landscape metrics to assess landscape fragmentation in Iskandar Malaysia

IntroductionSpecial economic zones (SEZs) emerge as new forces driving Asian economic transformation and triggering rapid landscape fragmentation. It is imperative to map out the present and future spatial patterns of SEZs in order to understand how they undermine sustainability. Drawing from the experience of Iskandar Malaysia, one of the most successful SEZs in Southeast Asia, this study measures how biophysical and cultural landscapes are being affected by the most recent accelerated land development in the area.MethodsWith aid of a hybrid model, namely the special economic zone landscape fragmentation measurement (SeLaFragment), which combines Geographic Information System (GIS), FRAGSTATS and NetLogo, the current and future fragmentation dynamics were analysed using land use data of the study area from the beginning of intensive landscape transformation in 2007 until 2010. Iskandar Malaysia’s cultural and biophysical landscapes were extensively fragmented.ResultsThe analysis showed that urban built-up areas increased from 13% in 2006 to 24% in 2010. Mangrove swamps were the worst affected ecosystem as they lost 20% of their areal coverage between 2006 and 2010. The simulation of the future scenarios suggested that, in the future, fragmentation and landscape homogenisation will intensify and pose more risks to landscape quality, functions and socio-ecological services.ConclusionsIt is obvious that rapid landscape fragmentation compromises sustainability of a wide range of ecosystems and their functions and services in and around urban areas. It is difficult to see how existing environmental strategies have been effective in addressing the emerging sustainability challenges of rapid landscape change. The best way to respond to this kind of situation in the SEZs is by focusing on holistic approach to landscape sustainability.

Boundary crossing by transregional practice of governance to address sustainability issues

Ecological characteristics of landscape are not necessarily delimited by administrative boundaries, but rather by a continuum that is arbitrated by anthropogenic factors such as demographic change, land-use configuration, and politically administrated management decisions. Ecologists and other landscape scientists have long argued over boundary issues. However, the discussion has mostly been theoretically driven with comparatively less manifestation on empirically tested real-world case studies. This is predominantly due to the transdisciplinary nature of the subject which demands pluralistic approaches to enable a bridging of the discipline gap. Nevertheless, the language differences between scientists and practitioners stand in the way of the studies at the interface of natural and social sciences. The ‘‘too scientific’’ approach of the ecological and environmental scientists is difficult to be understood by the planners and social scientists alike. In turn, the crucial knowledge of ecologists goes in vain. As a geographer studying the ecology of cities, I have always speculated on these issues—where the ecological knowledge has always challenged the social scientists and practitioners in its real world implementation (cf. Qureshi et al. 2010). The human dimension of many ecological problems seems to be missing from most of the literature; it is one of the many reasons for the weakness of the real world governance. Opdam (2010, p. 821) formalised my thoughts by stating that ‘‘journals are packed with papers proposing more and more sophisticated decision support tools and assessment models, often without any specification of the decision process which is supposed to be supported’’. The research for socio-ecological solutions has been relatively weak. However, the effort of McKinney and Johnson, in the shape of this book, takes a reader one step ahead of the theoretical frameworks and discussions that had been the focus of research on the transboundary and transregional practices of landscape sciences. The practicality of the book is well credited by the tools and innovative strategies that are discussed in substantial depth and breadth. The authors, having organised the book in 9 chapters, addressed several concerns of managing the landscapes by overriding the restrictions of administrative boundaries. They have given due attention to deriving testimonials, by reporting some good examples of the framework implementation. The book starts (in Chap. 1) aptly with a couple of excellent examples of good practice in Calgary, Canada, while, setting a strong case for the need for the book and highlighting the ‘gap’ issues which exist in real governance. Furthermore, this introductory chapter presents an in-depth forum of discussion on the need for transboundary research and sociopolitical stability. The simplistic selection of terms and definitions, and S. Qureshi (&) Department of Geography, University of Karachi, University Road, Karachi 75270, Pakistan e-mail: salmanqureshi@uok.edu.pk