TY - JOUR
T1 - A Review on Coastal Urban Ecology
T2 - Research Gaps, Challenges, and Needs
AU - Graells, Giorgia
AU - Nakamura, Nao
AU - Celis-Diez, Juan L.
AU - Lagos, Nelson A.
AU - Marquet, Pablo A.
AU - Pliscoff, Patricio
AU - Gelcich, Stefan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Graells, Nakamura, Celis-Diez, Lagos, Marquet, Pliscoff and Gelcich.
PY - 2021/5/26
Y1 - 2021/5/26
N2 - Coastal urban areas have dramatically increased during the last decades, however, coastal research integrating the impacts and challenges facing urban areas is still scarce. To examine research advances and critical gaps, a review of the literature on coastal urban ecology was performed. Articles were selected following a structured decision tree and data were classified into study disciplines, approaches, type of analysis, main research objectives, and Pickett's paradigms in-, of-, and for- the city, among other categories. From a total of 237 publications, results show that most of the research comes from the USA, China, and Australia, and has been carried out mostly in large cities with populations between 1 and 5 million people. Focus has been placed on ecological studies, spatial and quantitative analysis and pollution in coastal urban areas. Most of the studies on urban ecology in coastal zones were developed at nearshore terrestrial environments and only 22.36% included the marine ecosystem. Urban ecological studies in coastal areas have mainly been carried out under the paradigm in the city with a focus on the disciplines of biology and ecology. Results suggest a series of disciplinary, geographical, and approach biases which can present a number of risks. Foremost among these is a lack of knowledge on social dimensions which can impact on sustainability. A key risk relates to the fact that lessons and recommendations of research are mainly from developed countries and large cities which might have different institutional, planning and cultural settings compared to developing and mid-income countries. Scientific research on coastal urban areas needs to diversify toward an ecology of and for the cities, in order to support coastal development in a diversity of countries and settings.
AB - Coastal urban areas have dramatically increased during the last decades, however, coastal research integrating the impacts and challenges facing urban areas is still scarce. To examine research advances and critical gaps, a review of the literature on coastal urban ecology was performed. Articles were selected following a structured decision tree and data were classified into study disciplines, approaches, type of analysis, main research objectives, and Pickett's paradigms in-, of-, and for- the city, among other categories. From a total of 237 publications, results show that most of the research comes from the USA, China, and Australia, and has been carried out mostly in large cities with populations between 1 and 5 million people. Focus has been placed on ecological studies, spatial and quantitative analysis and pollution in coastal urban areas. Most of the studies on urban ecology in coastal zones were developed at nearshore terrestrial environments and only 22.36% included the marine ecosystem. Urban ecological studies in coastal areas have mainly been carried out under the paradigm in the city with a focus on the disciplines of biology and ecology. Results suggest a series of disciplinary, geographical, and approach biases which can present a number of risks. Foremost among these is a lack of knowledge on social dimensions which can impact on sustainability. A key risk relates to the fact that lessons and recommendations of research are mainly from developed countries and large cities which might have different institutional, planning and cultural settings compared to developing and mid-income countries. Scientific research on coastal urban areas needs to diversify toward an ecology of and for the cities, in order to support coastal development in a diversity of countries and settings.
KW - coastal cities
KW - coastal urban ecology
KW - coastal urbanization
KW - marine urbanization
KW - urban ecology paradigms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107568821&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2021.617897
DO - 10.3389/fmars.2021.617897
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85107568821
SN - 2296-7745
VL - 8
JO - Frontiers in Marine Science
JF - Frontiers in Marine Science
M1 - 617897
ER -