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As our planet continues to urbanise, an increasing abundance and diversity of wildlife find ways to persist within cities and towns. I summarise general patterns of urban wildlife and also describe common interactions between people and wildlife in cities. Some of these encounters are very harmful, including property damage, transmission of disease, or attacks against humans or their pets. However, urban wildlife also have positive impacts on cities and urban residents, by providing ecosystem services such as pest control, and by inspiring a feeling of connection with nature. I discuss the implications of human attitudes for long-term coexistence between people and animals in cities, and point to areas for future research. As the biodiversity crisis continues to worsen, and as the planet continues to be modified by humans at an unprecedented rate, it is imperative that we make a place for wildlife within and near to our cities.

This section has provided an overview of the basic physical elements of urban ecosystems: climate, water, and soil. It has discussed the impact of human activities on these elements and how they are connected to the idea of land use as a key factor that drives ecologically relevant change. It has also emphasised the importance of the relationships between land use and urban form and the ecosystem process, how they influence urban ecosystem processes, and how they can be influenced by urban planning. In addition, it has considered the interaction between urban grey and urban green, along with the ecological relevance and physical functionality of the former; the impact of paved and built surfaces on urban climate, the urban heat island phenomenon, and urban hydrology; the stormwater retention capacities of paved and unpaved surfaces, which affect the surface runoff process; and water balance components.

The introduction provides a theoretical overview of the book. It presents the main question of the book—how and why a “green-as-good” logic endemic to planning and design of urban green space has become so ubiquitous across the world today—and outlines the book’s main arguments. It defines urban greening as a social practice and outlines why a new, sociological and historical explanation of this phenomenon is needed, arguing that greening has been misunderstood as an ideological reaction to the industrial city by urban scholarship shaped by city/nature and culture/materialism binaries. It introduces the Ruhr as a case of urban greening in the absence of a traditional city, and outlines characteristic logics of the practice that are identified through the historical analysis: that signifiers of nature are consistently constructed as indirect, universal, and aspirational goods; that urbanized nature is an imaginary of form, not content; that greening is a mode of remaking cities, spatially and socially, rather than an escape from urban life; and that greening projects are normative projects carried out and received as public goods. The introduction also outlines the content of each of the chapters that follow.

This chapter analyses the impact of urban wooded green areas on assemblages of breeding birds, using case data from the town of Rovaniemi in northern Finland. It shows that breeding populations are influenced by factors such as the size of urban wooded green areas, their location, tree heights, and species occurrence and abundance in the immediate surroundings of wooded green areas. The traits of individual bird species also affect the occurrence of species in specific wooded green areas. Humans can help birds settle in urban wooded green areas by building nest boxes or by arranging (winter) feeding. The chapter concludes by urging more research on the factors affecting the behaviour of birds in urban environments, especially in urban green areas that are hotspots of urban biodiversity.

New forms of urban gardening are gaining a momentum in cities transforming the conventional use and functions of open green and public space. They often take place through informal and temporary (re)use of vacant land consisting part of greening strategies or social inclusion policy through new modes of land use management, green space governance and collaborative practices. Particular emphasis is placed on shifted meanings of the notion of open public space by referring to its openness to a diversity of uses and users that claim it and relates to the questions of access rights, power relations among actors, negotiations and the so called right to use and re-appropriate land. By using examples drawn from the Greek and Swiss case, this chapter underlines differences and similarities in urban gardening practices, social and institutional contexts, collaborative governance patterns, motivations, levels of institutionalisation, openness and inclusiveness of space. More specifically it calls attention to the critical role of the temporary nature of these initiatives in relation to their multifunctional, spatial and socio-political aspects that affect new configurations of urban green areas and public space as well as related planning practices.

Contact with nature is a determinant of health. In order to promote the health benefits of contact with nature in cities the design, management, and maintenance of urban green space require integration of ecological, public health, and planning knowledge. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the role that urban ecological knowledge can play in health promotion and disease prevention. This is achieved through a critical review of the literature and of public health activities from a range of countries. The first part of the chapter focuses on physical health and addresses the contributions of urban green space, through opportunities for physical activity, to the prevention of cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, and type II diabetes. The effects of urban green space on the mental health and wellbeing of people may have a role to play in the treatment of depression and anxiety. Thus the psychological health effects of contact with nature are outlined in the second part of the chapter. The third part is concerned with the contributions of urban green space to the social determinants of health such as community wellbeing, social inclusion, and quality of life. This chapter highlights that urban ecological knowledge can play a principal role in improving the physical, biological, and social urban environments. Furthermore, it establishes how ecological knowledge can be integrated in the planning, design, and management of cities and of healthcare facilities and initiatives.

This chapter examines the approach, process, and outcomes of placemaking partnerships formed with public gardens to promote a sense of safety and well-being at the neighborhood scale. Cases in this chapter emphasize the intentional use of urban greening as a tool to empower residents to actively contribute to positive change, to elevate diverse cultures sharing common spaces, and to capitalize on existing assets in the community to manage vacant land. One such case is the greening of Brooklyn. The chapter discusses the efforts that the Brooklyn Botannical Garden (BBG) put into making Brooklyn green. The strategy of the BBG was to transform the neighborhood into a community of gardeners by initiating greening contests. It also talks about the efforts of the Queens Botannical Garden and how they took advantage of the diverse culture that can be found in Queens to make their area green by creating the ambassador program. In this program, they recruit twelve to fifteen ambassadors who speak in their native language to their communities on behalf of the botannical garden.

This chapter describes how workers used rural and wild landscapes as well as urban green spaces to forge community and to make a working class. These laborers typically used these spaces to imagine a reformed and sometimes utopian future, thereby adding a “green” dimension to Chicago’s labor movement during the early twentieth century. Trade unionists often held demonstrations along Ogden’s Grove, a popular place used by trade unionists to organize meetings and voice out concerns regarding labor conditions. Labor leaders spoke of a reformed society, a future world which workers would have eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours to do “what we will.” These meetings eventually became large-scale demonstrations that conducted parades along the city and is usually ended with a picnic at various parks. Unionists view the picnic as an opportunity for workers to bridge ethnic and craft divisions.

This chapter highlights possible solutions to avoid global warming and its consequences for health. An energy policy firm, Energy Innovation, created a model on how current energy policies would impact future carbon emissions. Industry has the greatest potential for cutting back on global emissions through policies focused on more efficient energy production and stricter emissions standards. Power sector (electricity) emissions would decline with renewable energy incentives and improving the grid's capacity to accommodate multiple energy sources. Transportation sector emissions would drop with stricter fuel economy standards and more green urban transportation systems. The energy consumption of buildings could decrease with more efficient building codes and appliance standards. Meanwhile, carbon pricing is a cross-sector policy that would create carbon taxes and caps, while land use emissions could be reduced through policies aimed at reducing deforestation and forest degradation.