IALE-UK issues call for abstracts on urban landscape ecology: science, policy and practice

IALE-UK issues call for abstracts on urban landscape ecology: science, policy and practice

Feb. 3, 2014

Cities are growing rapidly. Across Europe, more than 70 percent of people already live in urban areas, including 80 percent of the United Kingdom population. This growth is creating increasing challenges for the natural environment on which cities affect and depend. Landscape ecology -- the study of interactions across space and time between the structure and function of physical, biological and cultural components of landscapes -- has a pivotal role to play in identifying sustainable solutions.

The 2014 IALE-UK annual conference will consider how concepts from landscape ecology can inform the maintenance and restoration of healthy, properly functioning natural environments across urban and peri-urban landscapes to create a foundation of sustained economic growth, prospering communities and personal well-being.

Conference themes are likely to include:

  • ecological connectivity of terrestrial and aquatic environments
  • ecosystem services, including regulation of air quality, urban heat and water quality and quantity, as well as cultural services
  • planning for change
  • landscape-scale management of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

The group invites researchers, policymakers and practitioners developing new evidence, policies, strategies, plans or projects on the ground that relate to the landscape ecology of urban and peri-urban areas to participate in the annual conference.

Submit abstracts (300 words) for presentations and posters to conference2014@iale.org.uk by Feb. 28, 2014. Selected papers will compose an edited volume on current key issues in urban landscape ecology.

There will be two days of presentations on science, policy, planning and practice, as well as networking events and workshops. Fieldtrips on the final day may include visits to the Thames Barrier and surrounding area and to the top of the Shard, Western Europe’s tallest building, from where attendees will consider connectivity across London and beyond.

For more information, visit: http://iale.org.uk/conference2014

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