Urban Ecology - Science topic

Hello everyone,

Our lab is currently looking to purchase user-friendly remote sensing software, particularly for individuals without a background in remote sensing or coding. Ideally, we are looking for software that:

- Has an intuitive interface

- Provides robust documentation and support

- Is compatible with various data formats

- Offers a range of analysis tools suitable for urban ecology research

Could anyone recommend software that fits these criteria?

Thank you in advance for your insights and recommendations.

Local samples from public park

I proposed a new framework (discipline) - Exposure Ecology.

First, Ecological exposure definition: the amount (magnitude, frequency, and duration) of exposure that an individual or population has with natural ecosystems.

Second, Exposure Ecology definition: An emerging unified framework (interdisciplinary) for understanding the nexus of natural ecosystems, ecological exposure, and health that studies the ecological exposure process and mechanisms of individuals or populations with natural ecosystems and explores the causes and pathways of health effects to improve human health and well-being.

Hope to see all peers and the scientific community discuss this framework.

For detailed information about Exposure Ecology, please see this preprinted paper entitled: Exposure Ecology: Towards a unified understanding of the Nexus of (urban) natural ecosystem, exposure, and Health. hope to see your constructive comments.

My name is Sean Flynn, and I am currently a Graduate Student at Unity College in Unity, Maine. I am currently in my last two classes and will obtain my Master's Degree in Urban Ecology and Sustainable Planning. The proposed project that I am looking for potential partners for is "GIS in the context of Habitat Suitability with Keystone Species." The project entails using GIS data along with the Habitat Suitability model using various calculations. The time frame is approximately 16 weeks for the project to be fulfilled. Some skills that I can offer are GIS mapping techniques, EPA rules and regulations, and data analysis. I want to speak with you over the phone or in a zoom meeting by Friday of next week to discuss any project possibilities. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best,

Sean Flynn

In the context of ongoing climate change, the ongoing process of global warming, environmental pollution, the health of people living in the city, urban parks and other green spaces have a very important role. Studies show that urban green areas also play an important role in the number of bees and other pollinating insects, in reducing the extinction of these insects that are important for agricultural crop production. Many bees and other pollinating insects die in agricultural fields where too many pesticides and other crop protection chemicals are used. Urban parks, urban gardens and other green areas play an important role in protecting the status of bee populations. Besides, green areas, urban parks significantly reduce the air temperature in summer during hot weather. This makes the air quality better, the temperature lower during hot weather, the air more humid and cleaner. Urban parks and gardens therefore play a key role in terms of shaping the biodiversity level of natural ecosystems of green areas in cities, in conurbations and also in large metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, in some cities, the trend of so-called concreting instead of afforestation still prevails. This has continued to be the case over the last decade or so in the country in which I operate. It is only recently that the local authorities of some cities have started to pay attention to these issues. In order to reduce the scale of the summer drought in cities, they began to reduce the scale and frequency of lawn mowing and in city parks. Flower meadows have finally been created instead of mowing lawns. Bird nesting boxes and insect houses began to be erected in city parks. In some cities, areas of concrete pavements that were too large began to be dismantled and green belts increased, etc. Finally, after many years of appeals to city authorities by ecologists, naturalists, biologists, but also citizens of many other professional specialisations, environmentally and climate-conscious city dwellers, something has started to happen in terms of protecting the biodiversity of natural ecosystems in urban green areas and also increasing green areas in cities and urban metropolises. Rainwater catchment systems are being set up in urban housing estates. Rainwater and/or water from sewage treatment plants is used to water urban lawns, flower meadows, urban parks and other green areas in cities. There is a return of moa to the establishment of home gardens, with residents creating flower gardens but also vegetable and fruit gardens. Nowadays, rising food prices and the developing energy and food crisis can reinforce these positive trends. In addition, more and more environmentally and climate-conscious city dwellers are cycling instead of using combustion cars. There are more and more positive developments. But these are only the beginnings of the above mentioned positive, pro-environmental and pro-climate changes.

In view of the above I address the following questions to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

What do you think?

What do you think about this topic?

Please reply,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

There is no doubt that green building envelopes have become a significant role in urban development. Just hesitant to explore policy or potential for green building envelopes.

Animals in urban areas interact with all plants that are growing outdoors, irrespective of their status as native or alien, spontaneous or cultivated, i.e. the 'total flora'. Plant ecologists, however, tend to keep these categories separate. Chong et al. (attached) compiled a total flora for the city state of Singapore, but this is unusual because Singapore still has protected remnants of hyperdiverse tropical rainforest. In older cities, particularly in the temperate zone, cultivated plants dominate the biomass and the biodiversity, and the spontaneous flora has a large alien component. I'd like to do a global comparison, but I am finding it difficult to find examples. For many cities, a total flora list could be assembled from existing, separate lists for the different categories, but these tend to cover different areas and/or different dates, so I am hoping for total flora lists that have already been assembled by local experts.

I'm having a hard time literally 'knowing' about the field of Urban Ecology, and my possible future degree options now. I'd like to study urban- , or human related ecology (like not human ecology, but human caused impacts), and also ecology and environments in urban settings. could anyone recommend any programs?

This topic has been broached in slightly different ways on RG in the past, but I am hoping to get insight from urban ecologists who have deployed different measures of biodiversity (specifically for USV) and the possible tradeoffs/benefits of each.

Previous studies suggest that there is no ideal way to measure biodiversity in any context, and the chosen method should align with the particular aims of the study.The Simpson’s Index of Diversity (SID) (Simpson 1949) has been used in other studies for assessing floral and fungal biodiversity in urban contexts (Luz de la Maza et al. 2002; Pushpa, Purushothama, et al 2012). SID has been suggested to be more robust when calculating the quantitative differences between multiple sampling sites (Morris et al. 2014; Magurran 2013). The SID requires a total count of individual species within the sampling site as well as the number of unique individuals for each of those species.

A related question would be: Should we work toward developing standardized measures to better enable cross-context comparison?

References:

Simpson, E. H. (1949). Measurement of diversity. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/163688a0

Luz de la Maza, C., Hernández, J., Bown, H., Rodríguez, M., & Escobedo, F. (2002). VEGETATION DIVERSITY IN THE SANTIAGO DE CHILE URBAN ECOSYSTEM. Arboricultural Journal, 26(4), 347–357.

Pushpa, H., Purushothama, K. B., & Others. (2012). Biodiversity of mushrooms in and around Bangalore (Karnataka), India. American-Eurasian Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, 12(6), 750–759.

Morris, E. K., Caruso, T., Buscot, F., Fischer, M., Hancock, C., Maier, T. S., Meiners, T., Müller, C., Obermaier, E., Prati, D., Socher, S. A., Sonnemann, I., Wäschke, N., Wubet, T., Wurst, S., & Rillig, M. C. (2014). Choosing and using diversity indices: insights for ecological applications from the German Biodiversity Exploratories. Ecology and Evolution, 4(18), 3514–3524.

Magurran, A. E. (2013). Measuring Biological Diversity. John Wiley & Sons.

This question feeds into

1: Ecocities World Summit 2021 which TU Delft Architecture & Built Environment will organise with the EcocityBuilders and city of Rotterdam in May 2021. We are trying to link to the demands in needs in the research community and community of practice. Of course there will also be a call for papers for Ecocities 2021.

2: TU Delft faculty of architecture and built environment will start a research and graduation lab for master students. Called 'Ecocities and Urban Ecology'.

I'm working on a different types of land as targets of conservation. and I realized that there are no set definition to Open Space, or Green Space.

EPA defines open space as 'any open piece of land that is undeveloped (has no buildings or other built structures) and is accessible to the public'. and New York State defines it as 'land that is not intensively developed for residential commercial, industrial, or institutioanl use'.

What's your most preferred definition YOU personally use, or that you came up with, and why??

The increased temperatures in urban heat islands have definitely increased the occurrence of heat - related illnesses in humans. However, I am interested in its positive and negative effects to the larger urban ecosystem.

When the prominent nitrophile Sunburst Lichen (Xanthoria parietina) is abundant on roadside trees and twigs next to busy main roads in English cities, what is the minimum NO2/NOx levels that make this possible?

In parts of NW England, such as Northenden, roadside trees of major highways are often plastered with bold colonies of Sunburst Lichen, a well-known nitrophile. In some instances, the colonies are large enough to be visible on Google Earth Street View.

The abundance of the nitrophile colonies invariably declines sharply away from the kerbside, and the colonies are generally rare or absent on roadside trees more than 100 metres away from the busy road. The limit of the nitrophile shows quite good spatial relationship to the computed boundaries of the Greater Manchester Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) that have been computed entirely from NO2 static diffusion tubes merged with traffic flow models.

So far, our team has found more than 20 urban shopping centres along busy roads have roadside trees with the Sunburst Lichen, such as Northenden, Wythenshaw, Chorlton, Stockport, Stretford etc. By this means we are achieving a much more detailed fact-based resolution of NOx polluted areas than possible with the AQMA, including in some instances intense hotspots at school gates and congested bus stops.

Therefore we are seeking experimental data on the NO2/NOx limits for abundant Xanthoria parietina as a simple indicator of levels of NO2/NOx. 

Our fast-track method is yeilding good results and we are interested in linking with a) community-based mappers and b) scientists able to conduct experiments on Xanthoria parietina's NOx junkie-like distribution.

Robin Francis Grayson

Northenden, Manchester

I am looking for research and methodology for mapping roof-nesting seabirds in urban environments. This is for a pilot project. Any tips and articles are appreciated! Thanks.

I am doing an ecological research paper on the prevalence of ascariasis and its correlation with urban factors such as urban heat islands. I want to know if the factor alone would bring about ascariasis even at good sanitary conditions.

Also searching for the effects of human coexistence as an effect to the biodiversity of such flora and fauna in these city landscapes.

I need the district and village wise shape file of Kerala for plotting vulnerability of coastal villages.Can any one provide me with .shp/.smz files for further analysis in spss.

On returning from a visit trip collecting stories and making college class visits at Purdue University and Indiana University regional campuses in northwest Indiana, I have been weighing the state of publishing and whether writers from the "Rust Belt" "Flyover Zone" have a hope of being read outside their local region. This is not only applicable to the United States "Rust Belt" and "Flyover Zone" but analogous zones across the planet.

A key to Thorstein Veblen's theory of "conspicuous consumption" in his study _The Theory of the Leisure Class_ is social emulation. Each narrow band of socially-stratified society looks up to a slightly higher band and embarks on a furious program of "emulation" or mimicking their "betters." And when this is accomplished the active agent moves on to emulate a higher rung. Veblen helpfully supplies comparisons to bird behavior and the rituals of pre-industrial society, such as the Inuit "potlatch" as analogous to the upper-class debutante's "coming out" ball.

LINK to Veblen's text: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/833/833-h/833-h.htm

So, in the United States instance, any editor in New York or on the East Coast will see a less-status-y setting and instantly know "Sorry. This is not for us. Good luck elsewhere." Yes, taste matters. As Veblen writes, "a beautiful article which is not expensive is not accounted as beautiful" ("Theory" 132). With a slight shift, we might add that "a beautiful text not placed in an expensive setting is not beautiful."

What effect upon cognitive development and the mental evolution of creative writers does this process entail? The embodied subject so often enthusiastically dissected in pages of the Modern Language Association journal says little about the bodies and Foucaultian embodiment in the "Flyover Zone" or "Rust Belt," although I have addressed the issue by starting a "Rust Belt Literature" group in the MLA online commons. The same "emulative" avoidance seems to be at work since our new "Rust Belt Literature" MLA group is relatively low-traffic. Seven members at last count. MLA groups for the lesser poets of the Scottish Hebrides of the late 18th Century often boast more members than this.

Some creative writing students have devised work-arounds such as (1) pretending to have lived in Paris or (2) writing in a vacuum where characters walk in a vague setting like dry ice fog in a low-budget film to disguise the less-status-y real setting. These texts show some initiative and focus in CW students. However, perhaps, creative writing classes could find a more accurate name in flyover country such as Evasive Writing? Does Veblen fit?

Dear Experts,

it Is it possible to simulate micro-climate in a site with dimension of 5km * 5km, using ENVI-MET?

I ask this question since in the papers that have studied, researchers have focused on small scale areas.

Hey everyone, in my thesis one of my goals is to address the current knowledge on solitary bees (group of species). So i made a multiple choice survey covering the basic information about this subject. Which is the best way to analyze data ?

Questions example:

1. What are solitary bees?

A) Bees that do not form Beehive

B) Bees that have separate themselves from the Beehive

C) Bees responsible for collecting food

D) Non-fertile bees

Kind Regards,

Miguel

Dear RG Community, I have the need to estimate the PBL height for the area of Milan (Italy) in two years (2011, 2014) as 12-hours values more or less. These data will be necessary to run a model for the estimation of airborne pollutants, removed by vegetation.

Searching in the web I found this database

but I don't know how and if it is "easily" possible to calculate PBL from them. I will be very gratefull if some collegue can help me to better deepen the problem. Thanks in advance.

How would an increase in building heights (say from 50m to 80m0 will effect the wind speed and wind ventilation? I did not find any significant difference in an analysis of wind speed of two 3D building models (one is current and the other with increased heights of few buildings). How increase in building height effect the urban micro-climate ?

Which school have good master's degree program for Urban Ecology in the United States? any recommendations, help?

Approach to designed greenery has changed drastically in the last few decades. There have been fruitful discussions on urban designer/architects’ role in morphing urban greenery, however, much remains unexamined regarding particular relationship between users, technology and the evolution of urban greenery. How did (/does) technology shape urban greenery? I would appreciate ideas on place specific users feedback/involvement from dense city fabrics. Thanks.

Dear Research Gate Colleagues,

Comments please.

I saw some very emotionally moving videos of the tremendous damage in Gary, Indiana, a consequence of the massive withdrawal of industrial investment as the steel mill has downsized.

Thousands of houses, schools, public buildings, are sitting vacant and falling into ruins. How can all the industrial "ruins porn" videographers increase the impact of their films?

I was impressed but I wonder if many people know about all these videos in places like YouTube.  I sent links out to friends of a couple videos about Gary, Indiana.  I gave these videos descriptions and ratings.  I also wonder how we can start some award for industrial ruins videos named something like The Steel Phoenix.

BELOW: PLANET GARY’S Thousands of abandoned buildings. (Videos)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ3z7a4lC60

(Some wobbly camerawork but goes right around town. It’s got heart. You can click on individual buildings that the film maker entered.  The Memorial Auditorium is one I recommend.)

Gloria’s rating ***

LINK: More professionally-shot footage, longer, with historic photos mixed in

Gloria’s rating ***1/2

Projects are mentioned: Stewart House Urban Farms and Gardens Project.

“Gary’s time” house renovating project using ex-offender labor.  Some good references to social justice and self-help projects at end of film.

Modelling pollutant dispersion in urban centers need street level meteorological data. Whereas much of the research in this field is carriedout using met data from stations far away from study area or with general meteorological details.

Are there any urban air pollutant studies conducted using street level met data by considering the canyon effects of buildings.

I have analyzed land cover of forest landscape to prepare landscape management planning document. Now, I have to delineate the boundary of other landscape around forest landscape. The area study covered four regencies. There are protected forest, nature reverse, production forest, and other artificial land use inside. I have spatial data may can be used to analyze the wide landscape delineation like forest landscape boundary, land cover, watershed, river, etc. Thank you...

Afi

Can anyone highlight some measure or policy guidelines adopted by various cities for conservation or preservation of the Environment and ecology in the urban centres especially in the residential developments?

What in your opinion are the key reasons why so many locations are hard to navigate? Why does wayfinding design so often fail to work effectively?

This is an open ended question as I am keen on any and all opinions.

If you are in an airport why did you get lost and how could it have been solved? In a urban area, on a bay trail, in a sports stadium/ What wayfinding problems did you experience?

I am asking this question in the context of evaluating solar beam irradiation on buildings at city scale. 

I am wondering if those variations impact the amount of energy perceived by building, and therefor should be taken into account while evaluating how buildings are warmed up by the sun. 

Since January 2014 I am investigating how different abiotic factors correlates with the butterfly species richness in Dhaka, a city of more than 20 million inhabitants. The pollution level is increasing rapidly with time, hence I thought there might be any relationship between butterfly species richness with various harmful elements of air! Could anyone of you please tell me, which variables should I consider here? 

Urban forest strategy - city of London 

Is there any bird repellent Implements using solar power or batteries ( in agricultural sector to protect agricultural crops from the danger of birds) .

I do intend to carry out a pilot test on the efficiency of barn owl Tyto alba to reduce rodent infestation in urban affected tropical zones. I would like to know the most challenging factors faced by anyone who ever had done such project.  Give advice and share the results, please. Many thanks. 

I'm wondering is it possible to determine thermophile plants by following urban heat islands? There is an argue about Hordeum murinum L. is thermophilous. This idea based on occurrence of this species on urban heat islands in urban areas. Is this reasonable enough or should there be something else?

I also wonder if there is any specific studies about this topic?

It has been established that more dimension leads to more environmental complexity which ultimately leads to more diversity. In an urban setting, aside from buildings, what may be factors that affect an urban center's complexity?

Urban Centers lately have been going green and have been trying to make parks a bigger part of their architecture and in line with that are trees that bring different organisms with them that can affect the overall biodiversity of a city.

There has been a growing trend of studies about urban ecology. Most have noticed that biodiversity in urban areas is actually significant. Won't that imply that building more urban sectors won't affect the overall biodiversity of the ecosystems as much, since biodiversity in urban cities are high anyways? Might it cause people to be more lenient than they already are in terms of caring for habitat loss?  

Since urban cities house different species and can have different local temperature due to changing climate. I'm interested if it will be considered as a new Biome or just will it just be considered as a habitat?

I am currently working on a project that focuses on the growth of tropical Hibiscus in urban vs. rural soils and was wondering which method would be most effective and would ideally show the effects of the two different kinds of soils on its growth.

If, it is possible, can you share some of your insights and paper about this kind of topic? Thank you. :)

I am developing a thesis project. I am trying to improve the ways in which we make sense of spaces. I am interested in knowing if it has been classified the types of wayfinders. The way in which they navigate, survey spaces and create landmark knowledge. E. g.  Luisa when arriving to a new city first tries to remember each main street along a cue in the environment, while John walks memories the names of each street.

Research showed that most of the roof gardens are intensive green roofs, and that there are very few extensive green roofs in Australia. Just wondering why this is, and how we might solve this problem.

Cause of Slums rapidly increases day by day.

Empects of Slums on urban areas.?

Increased urbanization is claiming green spaces in one hand and its air, water, soil is polluted more day by day. Wastes generated are mounting at an exponential rate. Practically some cities have turned into concrete jungles,heat islands and pollution hot spot leaving little room for biodiversity. It is not an ecologically sustainable development! But we can reverse the trend by tackling pollution    problem  through urban forestry with selected plant species that would be home to hoard of biodiversity. Green urban areas would be more biodiversity-rich, aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to live in and it would be ecologically smart too.

Or a detailed design and principles related to air fryers.

Implement pervious pavement in areas of urban expansion.

I would like to perform an urban heat island project. iButtons might do the trick, but the ones with a clock appear to cost about $40 per unit. Anything cheaper out there? 

I am especially looking for initiatives employed by outdoor recreation agencies (in any sector) to encourage LNT in areas of high population density. These initiatives may serve as the subjects of a case study for San Francisco's parks.

I'm interested in identifying the most relevant literature (academic or otherwise) on the topic of smart urban farms (indoor or vertical farms).

Of particular interest are papers that focus on (i) technologies and how its evolving (LEDs etc) (ii) business model (RoI etc) for scale up (iii) case studies ...

I am interested in the mainstreaming of ecosystem thinking in relation to spatial planning. I analyzed the case of Birmingham and I would like to compare it with other significant cases. Thank you

Can someone please point me towards some literature in this regard ?

I want to measure these variables. How can i measure urbanization?

 By health risks I mean observing diarrhea and TB among slum dwellers. I want to know how to measure it.

 I'm observing ecological deterioration of these slum territories and around territories, how could i measure environmental degradation of these areas? 

tropical cities need to have tree lined streets for have social and environmental benefits. Social benefits like creating walk ability which would result in neighborliness and security. environmental like lessening of pollution like sound,air and also cut the glare. 

A debate is still open; we are compiling the community contributions on the Follow-up report on “Health and Quality of Life in urban areas” in the framework of the URBAN-NEXUS project.

In the following link there are published the Synthesis Report, the Dialogue Café presentations, and soon (by the end of February) will be published the Follow-up Report.

World over there are tree plantations being made.In the changing urban scenario the transformations of built environment has denuded the cities . Adding trees in  the streets which were earlier part of the house has become the norm.Much as we know the advantages of street trees in promoting the environmental quality climatologically and socially there are difficulties encoutered in growwing streets for the nusaince they create. in this context what are the parameters to be considered in the selection of street trees?

Hello!!! I would like to have your views and thoughts on what to include in a climate change resilience assessment framework for urban environments. Thank you

What are the current researches on environmental responsiveness with respect to urban form and/or urban built environment?

What are/could be the parameters of environmental responsiveness in and around buildings/ built form? especially at community/neighbourhood level.

As part of a research project on the impact of feeder road development on productive employment I am searching for experiences and recommendation related to roadside planting for environmental mitigation + employment generation.

Thank you!

I am just planning for my master thesis. my Idea is to do research on urban flood modeling of Kabul City. 

I have DEM with resolution of 1 meter and rainfall data with 1 day resolution, 

Kabul has no underground sewer system. water drains in the open, concrete lined ditches alongside the roads. i also have the data about land use. 

Kindly give me suggestions which model i should use for urban flood simulation in this case. 

thanks for your attention 

The literature on urban space usually deals with the subject through the lens of the opposition between "space(s) of oppression," such as space produced by capitalistic forces, and "space(s) of resistance," such as the spaces of (racial, sexual, religious) minorities. Is it possible to go beyond that dichotomy when dealing with urban space?

Many commensal birds, such as pigeons, sea gulls, starlings etc., are on record as perching and roosting on buildings, statues and other heritage items. Their droppings not only create unsightly deposits, but also have deleterious effects on the fabric by aiding its decay. There are a large number of bird deterrent systems available on the market, but very few have been tested for their effectiveness.

A research project is under way to examine the issue of bird droppings on buildings. We are keen to hear of recent case studies that examine the impact of birds on buildings and outdoor statuary, as well as case studies that examine the effectiveness of deterrent systems.

We are keen to hear your experiences.

Thank you

Dirk

Many commensal birds, such as pigeons, sea gulls, starlings etc., are on record as perching and roosting on buildings, statues and other heritage items. Their droppings not only create unsightly deposits, but also have deleterious effects on the fabric by aiding its decay. There are a large number of bird deterrent systems available on the market, but very few have been tested for their effectiveness.

A research project is under way to examine the issue of bird droppings on buildings. The study has a number of components (field observation, experiment, survey). One of these is this on-line survey. We are seeking to gain an understanding of how heritage practitioners perceive bird behaviour in relation to heritage building conservation, to gauge what deterrence methods you have employed, and to what degree you perceive bird deterrent techniques to be effective when used. We would like to enlist your help as a heritage practitioner and will be asking you about your experiences

• What kinds of birds are the problem?

• What techniques have you used (if any)?

• What technique does, in your experience, work

We need 10 minutes of your time. While we cannot promise you any immediate benefit from participating in this research, we assume that the outcomes of the study may well inform your professional practice.

The study is being conducted by Melissa Pike (Honours Student) from the School of Environmental Sciences at Charles Sturt University and supervised by A/Prof Dr Dirk HR Spennemann and Dr Maggie Watson.

You are invited to participate in the research study by filling out an online survey which should take about 10 minutes of your time to complete. Be assured that the survey is fully ANONYMOUS. Participation is voluntary. By participating, you give your consent for your information being used for the research study.

Please support this research. The Questionnaire can be found at this web address

The fine print:

Charles Sturt University’s Faculty of Science Human Ethics Committee has approved this study. A formal Participant Information Sheet can be downloaded from this site:

The Compact cities are generally attributed with high density urban development having increased socio-economic diversity and improved public realm providing ample opportunities for social interactions and exchanges with pedestrian friendly and closed knit urban form having equitable access to goods, services and facilities thereby minimizing environmental degradation, thus sustainable. But at the same time there are the literatures which point out that high density development have poor quality of life. so my question is "what could be the attributes of a Compact Cities & are they really sustainable? if not then can they be sustainable? and how?"

Anyone knows any references or projects about types of green and hybrid roofs in meditteranean countries (Portugal would be the best option)? Their applications, potentials for energy saving and other externalities, their costs, efficiency etc.?

Also which plants are best suited for green roofs in such meditteranean areas? How easily can such green roofs be managed, and what is their strong as well as weak aspects?

Thanks, Lea

Palm trees are extensively used in urban areas in central Mexico. They certainly are not native (not adapted to semidesertic climate), do not provide shade, and I think the do not provide many environmental services. But, does any one have measured this? so we can regulate and prevent their use?

Seeking to link urban trees with attenuation of pollutants and noise. I want to know what tree or shrub mass begin to have a positive effect on this mitigation.

I am looking at temporal changes in the vegetation cover in an area and aiming to examine these changes against several potential drivers. I have 6 points in time for my temporal studies and am now wondering if the outcome of correlation analysis of 6 points would be meaningful. 

Anyone with experience in regression models of land surface temperature (LST) who can suggest literature?

I saw it for the first time that a pigeon nests on a tree which I think is alistonia.

i need better definition of this increasingly popular vernacular demographic...

So far I mostly know urban climatology books from my own country (Brazil) or the great classics (such as Oke and Landsberg). I have read many papers recently, but I would like to know your suggestion of a relatively recent book on this topic which covers most of the urban climate-related phenomena such as the UHI, floods, air pollution, etc. (such as "Urban Climatology" from Brazel & Quatrocchi, 2005). Thank you.

There are several sites around Geelong and around Australia that have the annual rainfall amounts.

here we don't talk about the drought tolerant plants.

The question is that pond is or is not a viable option to make the sites looks refreshing rather than dryness. 

In some current Urban Forest  Strategies, the urban heat island effect is being a challenge and issue to the forest. Is it possible to improve it by landscape design of the forest?

What are some of the impacts of floating structures/ buildings to the marine environment and how can design seek to prevent the damages to its coastal surroundings?