"...mein Acker ist die Zeit", Aufsätze zur Umweltgeschichte - Oapen

City and Nature (2007)
The essentials of the ecosystem (space, matter, energy, information, time) are all
fundamentally and specifically altered in cities, compared with other ecological
situations where humans may live.
Space is cut off from the surrounding area and made accessible for the purpose
of the corporative interests of town inhabitants.
Matter is accumulated for houses, buildings, and connecting streets, to an extent
that has today exceeded natural erosion on the global level.
Energy is concentrated in terms of nutrition and technical energy to maintain,
support, and increase growth, even on the global level.
Information in ecosystems usually refers to genetic programs of the organisms.
This holds true for humans in cities with respect to easier access to sexual
partners or mates. In towns “tradigenetic information” (experience and various
kinds of information in the form of knowledge passed from generation to generation
by oral tradition or written sources as well as in agreements on societal principles
and organizations) became the most important ecosystem essential for humans.
“Information” and its exchange are the basic and most important features
for the development of cities and for the self-acceleration of their development.
Time is the guideline for processes in nature. Since cities are decoupled from
natural processes (in many ways), the development of a specific clock cycle was
crucial in order to supervise and manage both people and manufacturing processes.
2.2 Space
The set up of cities should follow the topographical features of areas, such as altitude,
incline, exposure to main wind directions, prevention from flooding, isothermal
lines, etc. But in general human efforts may overcome any disadvantage of
place (e.g. digging wells or building cisterns in the absence of rivers). Efforts were
more laborious in times of strict agrarian regimes and more limited in extent, compared
to the efforts made possible by fossil fuels.
Cities should also rely on natural features in terms of improved usage or exploitation
of resources in their respective hinterland. Thus with technological progress
allowing better processing of natural goods, cities should also be sited at
places of accessibility to natural goods (see Table 1), which leads generally into
questions and problems of geographic determinism.
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