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What Constitutes Urban Biodiversity?

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The Green City

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Abstract

Biodiversity is often perceived only as species diversity. However, the structure of habitats is part of it and makes biodiversity comprehensible. This also applies to urban biodiversity. Like urban nature as a whole, designed biodiversity is based on urban structures and their maintenance and management. Biodiversity is shaped in the city and can therefore also be increased or reduced.

There is often a broad view of urban that always sees it (only) in the context of ecosystem and thus subsumes all the services of urban under the name “biodiversity”. However, this devalues the concept of biodiversity and detaches it from its content.

Biodiversity in cities, like biodiversity in general, is diversity of species and habitats and genetic diversity of species. That this has a positive effect on people as city dwellers is often claimed, but needs concretisation, also to improve and expand this effect. People usually perceive biodiversity only fragmentarily and “in passing”, so to speak, but often do not know what lies behind the term. This is confirmed by many studies. However, they perceive and value the diversity of natural structures and (observable) species very accurately. If diversity is valued positively, this also applies to biological diversity. Contact with nature is generally seen as positive and is in demand, even in cities.

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  1. Society for Urban Ecology (SURE), SURE International Center Urban Ecology, University Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany

    Jürgen Breuste

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Breuste, J. (2022). What Constitutes Urban Biodiversity?. In: The Green City. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-63976-4_6

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