Module 1 Urban Ecology ,Capacity Development Program in Environment Management(CDEM)

What is Urban Ecology?
According to United Nations, by the year 2030 more than 60 per cent (4.9 billion) of the estimated world population (8.1 billion) will live in urban settlements, compared to 29 per cent in 1950. Urbanised areas cover approximately six per cent of Earth’s surface, yet they have extraordinarily large ecological ‘footprints’ and complex, powerful, and often indirect effects on ecosystems

Urban land use severely affects the biodiversity patterns and cities are important drivers of climate change due to enormous emission of greenhouse gases.

Urban ecology is understood as a multidisciplinary approach to improving living conditions for the human population in cities, referring to the ecological functions of urban habitats or ecosystems for people – and thus including aspects of social, especially planning, sciences.

How to incorporate biodiversity in local planning is a challenge as typical planning tools are limited in ability to address biodiversity. However, this course is developed for training local authorities influencing the way cities are planned and developed. This course serves to think about new techniques for working with biodiversity in cities as well as develop teaching materials for promoting learning of biodiversity in cities leading to formulation of the Local Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (LBSAP) for the case study city.

The Important Topics Discussed will be
 Concepts of urban ecology,
 Landscape architecture with ecological considerations,
 Biodiversity conservation and conflicts,
 Urban environmental issues such as air and water quality ,
 Challenges of climate change and mitigation and adaptation measures for cities.

Field Visits to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali, Mumbai and Aarey Colony / Godrej Mangrove research centre.

The last date of registration: October 14 , 2016 till 1.30 pm

Call  or write mail to cdem.kjssc@somaiya.edu