ancient cities

862 Urban Ecology (Chicago School)
trends while integrating the city’s different ethnic,
cultural, and social groups.
Finally, the gradual deterioration of the natural
environment in many regions of the world has
increased the environmental consciousness and
sensitivity of societies and generated the necessity
of assessing the environmental impacts of urban
design projects. Sustainable urban design was
established as a dominant school of thought in the
1990s. The “green” design schemes attempt to
safeguard air, water, and earth by choosing ecofriendly
building materials and construction practices.
These designs incorporate many of the
following virtues: green spaces for maximizing the
natural cooling of buildings and the quality of air,
passive solar energy, ventilation systems designed
for efficient heating and cooling, alternate power
sources such as solar power or wind power, energy-
efficient lighting and appliances, water-saving
plumbing fixtures; nonsynthetic and nontoxic
materials locally obtained, responsibly harvested
woods, and use of recycled architectural salvage.
Aspa Gospodini
See also Architecture; Sustainable Development; Urban
Planning
Further Readings
Carmona, M. and S. Tiesdell, eds. 2007. Urban Design
Reader: The Dimensions of Urban Design. London:
Architectural Press.
Castells, M., M. Fernández-Ardèvol, J. Linchuan Qui,
and A. Sey. 2006. Mobile Communication and
Society: A Global Perspective. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Dunne, M. and T. Bonazzi. 1995. Citizenship and Rights
in Multicultural Societies. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh
University Press.
Gospodini, A. 2001. “Urban Design, Urban Space
Morphology, Urban Tourism; An Emerging New
Paradigm concerning Their Relationship.” European
Planning Studies 9(7): 925–35.
———. 2002. “European Cities in Competition and the
New Uses of Urban Design.” Journal of Urban Design
7(1):59–74.
———. 2004. “Urban Space Morphology and Place Identity
in European Cities: Built Heritage and Innovative
Design.” Journal of Urban Design 9(2):225–48.
———. 2006. “Portraying, Classifying and
Understanding the Emerging Landscapes in the
Postmodern City.” Cities 23(5):311–31.
Hutton, T. A. 2004. “The New Economy of the Inner
City.” Cities 21(2):89–108.
Jensen-Butler, C. 1997. “Competition between Cities,
Urban Performance and the Role of Urban Policy: A
Theoretical Framework.” In European Cities in
Competition, edited by C. Jensen-Butler, A. Shachar,
and J. van Weesep. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
Williams, D. E. 2007. Sustainable Design: Ecology,
Architecture, and Planning. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Ur b a n ec o l o g y
(ch i c a g o sc h o o l )
Ecology in its broadest sense is a science concerned
with the relationships between members of
the same species and also the interdependency that
develops among members of different species that
share the same habitat. In that sense, urban ecology
is the study of the spatial and temporal organization
of a population resulting from the adjustment
to the urban environment. Urban ecologists are
concerned with the antecedents and consequences
of the differential distribution of land use and
population groups in the urban community, a perspective
that was developed by Robert Park and
his colleagues at Chicago School of Sociology at
the beginning of the twentieth century.
Upon joining the department of sociology at the
University of Chicago in 1914, Park began to formulate
a program of study of the city of Chicago from
an ecological perspective. Park believed that the general
approach of plant and animal ecology could be
used to study human societies although the biological
model should be used with caution and modifications.
The central assumption of the Chicago school
was that the natural environment, which a population
inhabits, is a major factor in shaping human
behavior, and the city is a microcosm of society.
Biotic and Cultural Aspects
To make ecological principles relevant to the study
of human society, Park formulated a theory of
society as composed of two basic elements: the
biotic and cultural.
The biotic level is the most basic layer of society
and consists of the basic requirements of life, such
as access to water and soil. These factors determine