Urbane ecologie

Doel vak

The student will be able to:
• relate ecological and environmental theories and concepts of
relevance for urban areas and ecosystems;
• describe and appreciate the complex and diverse relationships between
cities and ecology, and between human and the built environment;
• apply principles and concepts of urban ecosystems to analyze our
surrounding urban habitats;
• place urban areas in the landscape – describe interdependencies
between urban and rural biodiversity
• compare perspectives on urban green areas and biodiversity from
ecology and landscape architecture
• explain principles of spatial planning of urban areas for biodiversity
and ecosystem services
• address urban ecological question, resulting from above approaches,
and design (field) experiments to resolve these questions.
Level 300: specialisation

Inhoud vak

With over half of the world’s population now living in cities, cities
have assumed a critical role in shaping local, regional, and global
ecologies. Urban areas have an inherent ecological nature with cities
and the built environment as ecosystems. This course focuses on
ecological theories examining urban sites as interaction hot spots
between species, humans, the biophysical environment and the surrounding
natural ecosystems. We will use our campus and Amsterdam as a “living
laboratory” in which students will apply these theories to field
observation, case studies, and landscape perspective.

Aanvullende informatie onderwijsvormen

The first part of the course consists of lectures about the theory
underlying Urban Ecology. In the second part of the course the students
will perform (field) experiments in and around Amsterdam.

Toetsvorm

Written exam about the theory (50%)
Presentation and/or written report about the experimental work (50%)

Literatuur

Verplichte literatuur: The Biology of Urban Environment, Philip James

Aanvullende informatie doelgroep

Keuzecursus voor tweedejaars BSc Biologie.