TWIN2EXPAND participation at #ISUF2024 conference. Team member Meta Berghauser Pont from the Spatial Morphology Group (SMoG) of Chalmers University of Technology presented a conceptual framework to understand the role of urban form in shaping human-wildlife interactions in cities at the 31st International Seminar on Urban Form Conference. Ahmed Hazem Eldesoky, the paper’s first author, has recently finished a large observation study in Gothenburg to measure biodiversity in parks surrounded by dense neighbourhoods.
Abstract: Unplanned urbanization is among the major risks facing cities nowadays, especially with rates of urbanization unprecedentedly increasing globally. In this regard, urban planning and design play a crucial role where urban form has proven to influence different social and ecological phenomena in cities. However, most of the research in urban morphology has studied the relationship between urban form and these phenomena in isolation, limiting our understanding of the bidirectional reciprocal relationships among urban form, humans and nature that are essential for fostering sustainable and resilient cities. In this paper, we address this issue, in part, by adopting an integrated approach to study an important social-ecological phenomenon in cities that is influenced by urban form: human-wildlife interactions. This is an important phenomenon because, at some point in their lives, all animals living in cities will interact with humans to some degree. These interactions vary from positive to negative, from minor to severe and from rare to frequent. Urban form plays a role in influencing this frequency of interactions by influencing the presence of both people (e.g. through the configurational characteristics of streets and built density) and wildlife (e.g. through green space patch-level characteristics and their connectivity). Here, we propose a conceptual framework, adopting a stock-flow system dynamics modelling approach, to understand the connections and dynamic interactions between urban form, people and animals. The proposed framework identifies the interrelating, interconnected elements (with a focus on the urban form ones) that, together, influence the presence of both people and animals and, in turn, their frequency of interaction. It also identifies the positive and negative outcomes of these interactions such as the provision of regulating ecosystem services and disease transmission. The proposed framework is expected to support urban planning and design practice in managing, mitigating or promoting these interactions which are important for the resilience of cities.
Further information at: https://lnkd.in/eMT8p4su
https://lnkd.in/eq7GxJi6
#Twin2Expand #EvidenceBasedDesign #Biodiversity #Parks #Neighbourhoods #Density #HorizonEurope #UKRI #UrbanPlanning #UrbanDesign
