Urban Landscape Ecology: Past, Present, and Future - Landscape Ecology for Sustainable Environment and Culture - page 46

Fig. 3.8 Landscape pattern gradient analysis as used in the quantification of the spatial pattern of
the Phoenix metropolitan region, USA (modified from Luck and Wu 2002 )
ecosystem primary production due to irrigation but reduce environmental quality;
and alter soil properties and biogeochemical and hydrological cycles (Pickett et al.
2001 , 2011 ;Wu 2013b ). Also, urban heat islands—pronounced increases in air and
surface temperatures (especially nighttime) over non-vegetated impervious sur-
faces due to enhanced longwave radiation—and their effects on air quality and
human health have long been studied (Oke 1982 ; Jenerette et al. 2007 ; Buyantuyev
and Wu 2010 ; Jenerette et al. 2011 ; Li et al. 2011 ). While understanding the various
effects of urbanization is important and necessary, the ''impacts studies'' need to
address how these effects can be eliminated, mitigated, or adapted through urban
design and planning actions. This requires the integration among the three com-
ponents (Fig. 3.5 ).
The third component of urban landscape ecology focuses on the sustainability
of urban areas—urban sustainability. Rigorous research in urban sustainability is
still nascent, and a cohesive framework is yet to be developed. However, several
core research questions are emerging, including the kinds, amounts, and spatial
interactions of urban ecosystem services, human well-being (measured as the
degrees of satisfying the basic, psychological, and spiritual needs of humans as
influenced by landscape structural and functional attributes), and the resilience of
coupled human-environment systems in the urban landscape (Wu 2010b , 2013b ).
To address these questions, it is imperative to integrate the three components
(Fig. 3.5 ). These new developments in urban landscape sustainability differ from