Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities A Global Assessment

Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions:

1. Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China
2. Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversity
3. Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere
4. Future urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem services

1. A global outlook on urbanization.- 2. History of urbanization and the missing ecology.- 3. Urbanization and global trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services.- 4. Regional assessment of Asia.- 5. Sub-regional assessment of China: Urbanization in biodiversity hotspots.- 6. Sub-regional assessment of India.- 7. Local assessment of Bangalore.- 8. Local assessment of Tokyo.- 9. Local assessment of Shanghai.- 10. Patterns and trends in urban biodiversity and landscape design.- 11. Urban ecosystem services.- 12. Shrinking cities, biodiversity and ecosystem services.- 13. Regional assessments of Europe.- 14. Regional assessment of North America.- 15. Regional assessment of Oceania.- 16. Local assessment of Istanbul: Biodiversity and ecosystem services.- 17. Local assessment of Stockholm.- 18. Local assessment of Chicago.- 19. Local assessment of New York City.-20. Local assessment of Melbourne.- 21. A synthesis of global urbanization projections.- 22. Urbanization forecasts, effects on land use, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.- 23. Regional assessment of Africa.- 24. Local assessment of Cape Town.- 25. Climate change and urban biodiversity vulnerability.- 26. Feeding cities.- 27. Urban governance of biodiversity and ecosystem services.- 28. Regional assessment of Latin America.- 29. Local assessment of Rio de Janeiro.- 30. Urban landscapes as learning arenas for biodiversity and ecosystem services management.- 31. Restoration ecology in an urbanizing world.- 32. Indicators for management of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services.- 33. Stewardship of the Biosphere in the Urban Era.