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Spatial heterogeneity in urban ecosystems: reconceptualizing land cover and a framework for classification
Author(s) -
Cadenasso Mary L.,
Pickett Steward T. A.,
Schwarz Kirsten
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
frontiers in ecology and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.918
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1540-9309
pISSN - 1540-9295
DOI - 10.1890/1540-9295(2007)5[80:shiuer]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - urbanization , urban ecosystem , land cover , land use , homogeneous , natural (archaeology) , environmental resource management , spatial ecology , scale (ratio) , spatial heterogeneity , ecosystem , geography , cover (algebra) , ecology , environmental science , cartography , biology , mechanical engineering , engineering , physics , archaeology , thermodynamics
Urban areas are heterogeneous. Transitions in architecture and building density, vegetation, economic activity, and culture can occur at the scale of city blocks. Ecologists have been criticized for treating the city as homogeneous and urbanization as one‐dimensional. To develop ecological understanding of integrated human–natural systems, the fine‐scale heterogeneity of their built and natural components must be quantified. There have been calls for the integration of the biophysical and human components of systems, but here we provide a new tool to quantify this integrated heterogeneity by reconceptualizing urban land‐use and land‐cover classification approaches. This new tool, High Ecological Resolution Classification for Urban Landscapes and Environmental Systems (HERCULES), balances detail and efficiency and is flexible, allowing it to be used for interdisciplinary research, with ancillary datasets, and across urban systems.