scholarly journals Large Terrestrial Bird Adapting Behavior in an Urbanized Zone

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Eduardo R. Alexandrino ◽  
Juliano A. Bogoni ◽  
Ana B. Navarro ◽  
Alex A. A. Bovo ◽  
Rafael M. Gonçalves ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Food Provisioning ◽  
Territory Defense ◽  
Adaptive Process ◽  
Human Contact ◽  
Domestication Process ◽  
Spatial Resources ◽  
Free Ranging

Wildlife living within urban ecosystems have to adapt or perish. Red-legged Seriema, a large terrestrial bird, are rare in urban ecosystems, however, they have been reported in a medium-sized Brazilian city. We investigated the reasons for this occurrence as well as their behavior. We assessed the distribution of Seriemas (including fledglings), free-ranging cats, and cat-feeding points provided by humans, and past records of Seriemas in the study area. We discovered that Seriemas are sharing spatial resources with cats without apparent conflicts, and intraspecific competition was important to define the spatial distribution of Seriemas. This species is able to use human-made structures to improve territory defense and opportunistic foraging. Direct and indirect human food provisioning is helping them to survive in the studied area, but is also facilitating the domestication process, which may cause future conflicts with humans and cats. Although Seriemas have inhabited the studied urban area for years, they are still adapting their behaviors for urban life, as they have not yet perceived the dangers of automotive traffic. Our study corroborates that wild species may adapt to urban areas driven by human contact, but it also acts as a trap for the adaptive process.

The Contribution of Riparian Zone on Urban Ecosystems through Climate Change Urban Adaptation Process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hande Gündel ◽  
Ayşe Kalaycı Önaç
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Riparian Zone ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Urban Ecosystem ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Habitat ◽  
The City

The riparian zone plays a crucial role in the development and transformation of cities. This zone dramatically changes cities both ecologically and economically and is one of the cornerstones of the future scenarios of the city. These areas constitute significant emphasis throughout the city by providing wildlife, improving the water quality, reducing flood areas, and creating social activity areas in the city. Besides, it influences land use, transportation, energy efficiency, social life. The riparian zones are one of the most significant components of the cities that mitigate the climate change effects. Because, the existence of water creates microclimatic conditions around the cities and this conserves the heat island effect, greenhouse effect, and also air pollution. The deterioration of the sustainability of this important backbone throughout the city causes an important loss in terms of urban ecosystems. Because it is an important connection of natural life and urban life, and any deterioration causes two important characters to be separated from one another. In this regard, ensuring water management in the city is a crucial issue in terms of urban habitat. In the scope of this study, research was conducted on the contribution of riparian zone to the urban ecosystem and also how the presence of this backbone system in the city transforms the urban areas was discussed.

scholarly journals SEMI-AUTOMATED APPROACH FOR MAPPING URBAN TREES FROM INTEGRATED AERIAL LiDAR POINT CLOUD AND DIGITAL IMAGERY DATASETS

2016 ◽  
Vol XLII-4/W1 ◽  
pp. 127-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Dogon-Yaro ◽  
P. Kumar ◽  
A. Abdul Rahman ◽  
G. Buyuksalih
Keyword(s):  
Digital Image ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Point Cloud ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Urban Trees ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Image Datasets

Mapping of trees plays an important role in modern urban spatial data management, as many benefits and applications inherit from this detailed up-to-date data sources. Timely and accurate acquisition of information on the condition of urban trees serves as a tool for decision makers to better appreciate urban ecosystems and their numerous values which are critical to building up strategies for sustainable development. The conventional techniques used for extracting trees include ground surveying and interpretation of the aerial photography. However, these techniques are associated with some constraints, such as labour intensive field work and a lot of financial requirement which can be overcome by means of integrated LiDAR and digital image datasets. Compared to predominant studies on trees extraction mainly in purely forested areas, this study concentrates on urban areas, which have a high structural complexity with a multitude of different objects. This paper presented a workflow about semi-automated approach for extracting urban trees from integrated processing of airborne based LiDAR point cloud and multispectral digital image datasets over Istanbul city of Turkey. The paper reveals that the integrated datasets is a suitable technology and viable source of information for urban trees management. As a conclusion, therefore, the extracted information provides a snapshot about location, composition and extent of trees in the study area useful to city planners and other decision makers in order to understand how much canopy cover exists, identify new planting, removal, or reforestation opportunities and what locations have the greatest need or potential to maximize benefits of return on investment. It can also help track trends or changes to the urban trees over time and inform future management decisions.

Tianguis as a Possibility of Autogestion: Street Vendors Claim Rights to the City in Cancún, Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Global South ◽  
The State ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
The City ◽  
Rights To The City

During the past 20 years, street vendors in various cities in the Global South have resisted aggressive state sanctioned removals and relocation strategies by organizing for vendors’ rights, protesting, and creating street vending member organizations with flexible relationships to the local state. Through these means, street vendors claim “rights in the city,” even as the bodies they inhabit and the spaces they produce are devalued by state legitimizing systems. In this article, I present a case study of the Union de Tianguistas y Comerciantes Ambulantes del Estado de Quintana Roo, a “bottom-up” driven, flexible street vending membership organization not formalized by the state in Cancún. I argue that the Union becomes a platform for street vendors to claim rights to the city, and exemplifies vending systems that combine economic activities with leisure spaces in marginalized urban areas, and circumvent strict vending regulations without being absorbed into or directly monitored by the state. Highlighting the Union’s sustainable practices of spatial transformation, and vision of self-managed spaces of socioeconomic urban life in Cancún, illuminates how the members of the Union claim rights to the city as an example of a process of awakening toward imagining possibilities for urban futures that moves away from the state and capitalists systems, and akin to what Lefebvre termed autogestion toward resisting neoliberal ideologies that currently dominate urban planning projects in the Global South.

They Always Come Back

2019 ◽  
pp. 160-186
Author(s):  
Douglas K. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Native People ◽  
Years Of Experience ◽  
Power Networks ◽  
Skid Row ◽  
Red Power ◽  
Native Communities

The story of Native American urbanization and the urban relocation program typically concludes with a generation of Native people either stuck on “skid row” or fighting for a way out through the “Red Power” movement. There was a different but equally important outcome, however, in that many Native people made successful transitions to urban life on their own terms, while many others returned to reservation or rural Native communities and saw new opportunities there while drawing upon urban experiences to make contributions to tribal economic and political initiatives. Virtually an entire generation of new Native American tribal leaders drew upon years of experience living in major urban areas where they gained a more intimate understanding of how settler economies, politics, and power networks functioned.

scholarly journals Effects of Brownfield Remediation on Total Gaseous Mercury Concentrations in an Urban Landscape

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 387
Author(s):  
Linghui Meng ◽  
Charles T. Driscoll ◽  
Mario Montesdeoca ◽  
Huiting Mao
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Atmospheric Mercury ◽  
Soil Restoration ◽  
Total Gaseous Mercury ◽  
Annual Average ◽  
Mercury Emissions ◽  
Gaseous Mercury ◽  
Parking Lot

In order to obtain a better perspective of the impacts of brownfields on the land–atmosphere exchange of mercury in urban areas, total gaseous mercury (TGM) was measured at two heights (1.8 m and 42.7 m) prior to 2011–2012 and after 2015–2016 for the remediation of a brownfield and installation of a parking lot adjacent to the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Syracuse, NY, USA. Prior to brownfield remediation, the annual average TGM concentrations were 1.6 ± 0.6 and 1.4 ± 0.4 ng · m − 3 at the ground and upper heights, respectively. After brownfield remediation, the annual average TGM concentrations decreased by 32% and 22% at the ground and the upper height, respectively. Mercury soil flux measurements during summer after remediation showed net TGM deposition of 1.7 ng · m − 2 · day − 1 suggesting that the site transitioned from a mercury source to a net mercury sink. Measurements from the Atmospheric Mercury Network (AMNet) indicate that there was no regional decrease in TGM concentrations during the study period. This study demonstrates that evasion from mercury-contaminated soil significantly increased local TGM concentrations, which was subsequently mitigated after soil restoration. Considering the large number of brownfields, they may be an important source of mercury emissions source to local urban ecosystems and warrant future study at additional locations.

scholarly journals Feeding the flock: Wild cockatoos and their Facebook friends

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 602-620 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eben Kirksey ◽  
Paul Munro ◽  
Thom van Dooren ◽  
Dan Emery ◽  
Anne Maree Kreller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Social Exchanges ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Forested Landscapes ◽  
White Settler Colonialism ◽  
Shared Understandings

Wildlife is persisting in urban areas of Australia even though white settler colonialism has resulted in the large-scale destruction of forested landscapes. While many bird species are in decline, the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has found emergent opportunities for flourishing within the built environment. Cockatoos are actively generating relationally constituted spaces, drawing humans into urban ecosystems that are ‘more-than-human’ places, abundant and lively multispecies communities. Beginning in 2011, yellow tags attached to the wings of cockatoos, along with a smart-phone app and a Facebook page, have enabled scientists to collect data about these birds’ movements. These tracking technologies were quickly co-opted by an emergent public for their own purposes, including speculating about the personalities, relationships, intentions, and desires of individual birds. Interspecies friendships formed between humans and birds – involving shared understandings, emotional resonances, ongoing social exchanges, and utilitarian arrangements. We used the wingtags and the associated digital infrastructure as an opportunity to experiment with new modes of collaborative research and teaching in multispecies ethnography. Bringing together a flock of academics and students, we explored emergent social spaces involving people and birds. While many participants who fed the birds worried that they would become tame, we found multispecies flocks were fleeting associations where wild and unruly behaviours redoubled as people offered up food. We found that wildness emerged in intimate encounters with other species, encounters that were often characterised by shared but unequal vulnerabilities. Some cockatoos have been killed, after conflicts over property damage led authorities to identify them as nuisance animals. Against the backdrop of asymmetrical risks, we studied flocks of birds as models of, and models for, fleeting forms of association and collaboration. In these spaces, feelings of interspecies attraction quickly alternated with agitated and uncomfortable experiences. Amid animated encounters, people explored the ethics of inclusivity and conviviality.

Urban Sociology

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Monti
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Urban Sociology ◽  
Far East ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Sociological Inquiry ◽  
Urban Settlements ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Urban Places ◽  
The Way

Urban sociology is among the earliest and richest areas of sociological inquiry. It touches on topics and problems related to the way urban areas develop and the way people live in urban areas. While most of the attention of urban sociologists has been on more contemporary urban settings in Western societies, they’ve shown increasing interest in urban development and urban life in so-called developing countries and the Far East, especially India and China. By nature an interdisciplinary pursuit, five major academic fields contribute to urban sociology: anthropology, economics, history, political science, and social psychology. Specialists in these respective disciplines read and cite each other’s work and borrow from each other’s theoretical insights. One major profession, urban planning, is affiliated with urban sociology. It, too, has its own entry in Oxford Bibliographies in Geography “Urban Planning and Geography”. Another broad field that draws on all the same intellectual sources is urban studies. It was added to the curricula of US colleges and universities in the late 1960s in response to the turmoil that was occurring in many urban areas at that time. Given all the rich disciplinary sources that feed into urban sociology, this area of inquiry probably can be best understood by the themes that allow researchers to connect the disparate kinds of studies they do. The several sections into which this essay is divided have works that reflect one or more of the following four themes: (1) Urban sociologists focus on either the physical development of urban places (i.e., urbanization) or the way of life or culture practiced there (i.e., urbanism). (2) The work of urban sociologists asks how urban places are built and laid out. It also asks how urban settlements might be rebuilt or developed so they better serve or complement the way people live there. (3) Some urban sociologists look at smaller groups or venues such as neighborhoods (i.e., “micro” studies). Others look at much larger geographic areas and whole communities (i.e., “macro” studies). (4) Persons who do this kind of work tend to be either optimistic about the prospects for urban places and people or, more frequently, pessimistic about how well they will fare.

Transportation and the Environment in Developing Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 389-409
Author(s):  
Shanjun Li ◽  
Jianwei Xing ◽  
Lin Yang ◽  
Fan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Travel Demand ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Urban Transportation ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Transportation Sector ◽  
Transportation Policies

In urban areas around the world, increasing motorization and growing travel demand make the urban transportation sector an ever-greater contributor to local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The situation is particularly acute in developing countries, where growing metropolitan regions suffer some of the world's highest levels of air pollution. Policies that seek to develop and manage this transportation sector—both to meet rising demand linked to economic growth and to safeguard the environment and human health—have had strikingly different results, with some inadvertently exacerbating the traffic and pollution they seek to mitigate. This review summarizes findings in the recent literature on the impacts of a host of urban transportation policies used in both developed- and developing-country settings. The article identifies research challenges and future areas of study regarding transportation policies, which can have important, long-lasting impacts on urban life and global climate change.

scholarly journals Prevalence and genotypic identification of Cryptosporidium in free-ranging and farm-raised donkeys (Equus asinus asinus) in Xinjiang, China

Parasite ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Wen Wang ◽  
Zhenjie Zhang ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Aiyun Zhao ◽  
Bo Jing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pcr Amplification ◽  
Small Subunit ◽  
Pcr Analysis ◽  
Zoonotic Potential ◽  
Cryptosporidium Hominis ◽  
Glycoprotein Gene ◽  
Human Contact ◽  
Equus Asinus ◽  
Genotypic Identification ◽  
Free Ranging

The prevalence and zoonotic potential of Cryptosporidium in donkeys is poorly understood. Here, 680 fecal specimens were collected from 178 free-ranging and 502 farmed donkeys in Xinjiang, China. Cryptosporidium was identified using PCR amplification of the small subunit of ribosomal DNA. Cryptosporidium-positive isolates were subtyped using PCR analysis of the 60 kDa glycoprotein gene (gp60). The overall prevalence of Cryptosporidium was 2.4% (16/680), with 3.2% (16/502) in farmed donkeys and 0% (0/178) in free-ranging donkeys. Cryptosporidium hominis (n = 13), C. parvum (n = 1) and Cryptosporidium horse genotype (n = 2) were identified. The C. hominis isolates belonged to two subtypes, IkA16 (n = 9) and IkA16G1 (n = 4). The subtype of C. parvum was IIdA15G1, whereas the two Cryptosporidium horse genotype isolates were of subtype VIaA15G4. The predominance of C. hominis in donkeys suggests that these animals are infected through human contact.

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