GEOG 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Material Flow Analysis, Anthropogenic Biome, Urban Ecosystem
Document Summary
Cities are shaped by the interaction of human and natural environments. Human and natural systems are interdependent called socio-nature. Methodologies from social sciences and humanities as well as physical sciences (ecology). Looks at the role of social power and institutions in shaping human-environment interconnections. Urban political ecology asks who advances normative frames, how they operate in practice and which ones are the best. The current global trend of population growth and urbanization causes substantial environmental impacts on atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere in urban environments and in their area of influence. We can study physical urban environments through energy and material flow analysis using the concept of an urban metabolism or as open urban ecosystems of living things interacting with their physical environment. Urban political ecology critically studies how society interacts with, depends on, governs, and shapes urban ecosystems and the urban metabolism.
