Cities in industrialised countries have grown over time, yet shrinkage of cities occurs in many regions. This process has many impacts on urban ecology, which can be observed on urban brownfield sites in particular. The integration of these sites with sustainable urban development must be managed. This presents new challenges for urban planners. The first chapters give an overview of urban ecology concepts and how research in this field is affected by urban shrinkage. The following sections are concerned with botanical aspects of shrinking cities, perception of nature in the context of shrinkage and discussion of aspects of urban planning with reference to several regional examples. Shrinking Cities concludes with a study of urban shrinkage during the life cycles of city archetypes.
Wilfried Endlicher/Marcel Langner/Markus Hesse/Harald A. Mieg/Ingo Kowarik/Patrick Hostert/Elmar Kulke/Gunnar Nuetzmann/Marlies Schulz/Elke van der Meer/Gerd Wessolek/Claudia Wiegand
Urban Ecology - Definitions and Concepts
Miriam Fritsche/Marcel Langner/Hadia Koehler/Anke Ruckes/Daniela Schueler/Betka Zakirova/Katharina Appel/Valeska Contardo-Jara/Ellen Diermayer/Mathias Hofmann/Christoph Kulemeyer/Peter Meffert/Janneke Westermann
Shrinking Cities - A New Challenge for Research in Urban Ecology
Ingeborg Schinninger/Rudolf Maier
Urban Brownfields as Temporary Habitats: Strategies of Plants for Survival in a Changing Environment
Peter Werner
Urban Form and Biodiversity
Tobias Chilla
Shrinking Cities - New Urban Socio-Natures?
Uwe Altrock
Current Trends in Urban Regeneration and Restructuring in Germany and Their Effects on Sustainability
Matthias Bernt
Six Years of Stadtumbau Ost (Urban Restructuring East) Programme: Difficulties of Dealing with Shrinking Cities
Christiane Westphal
Density as a Tool to Guide Urban Shrinkage Concerning Public Works?
Stefanie Roessler
Shrinking Cities - Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Green Space Planning: Experiences at the Large Housing Estate of Leipzig-Gruenau
Andre Mulder
Trams and the Regeneration of Brownfield Sites
Susan C. Wessman
Urban Shrinking in the Life Cycles of City Archetypes
Marcel Langner, born in Mutlangen (Germany), studied geoecology at the University of Karlsruhe (TH). After receiving his PhD with a thesis titled Roadside Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) - an Efficient Sink for PM10? at the University of Karlsruhe (TH), the author has been a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Training Group (Graduiertenkolleg) Urban Ecology at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He currently works at the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt).
Wilfried Endlicher was born in Heidenheim an der Brenz (Germany). He studied geography, meteorology, remote sensing and romance languages at the Universities of Freiburg (Germany) and Grenoble (France). He obtained his PhD at the University of Freiburg. The author has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Concepcion (Chile) and the University of Florida in Gainesville (USA). He was Professor of Geoecology at the University in Marburg (Germany) and is now Professor of Climatology and Atmospheric Environmental Research at the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin.