Problem Analysis in Urban Ecology, Autumn 2002
CFR 474 / CFR 574 / URBDP 598D / GEOG 486A (5 Credits)
Tuesdays: (2:30-3:50; Anderson 304/06)
Thursday: (2:30-5:50; Anderson 304/06)
Occasional Thursday Seminars: (4:30-5:50; Anderson 223)

Instructors   Description   Objectives   Class Project

Guest Speakers   Assignments   Class Schedule   Readings

Printable (Word) Version of Syllabus

Instructors

John Marzluff College of Forest Resources Office: Anderson 123E Tel: 616-6883 E-mail: corvid@u.washington.edu	Marina Alberti Department of Urban Design and Planning Office: Gould 410H Tel: 616-8667 E-mail: malberti@u.washington.edu
Gordon A Bradley Office: Anderson 123G College of Forest Resources Tel: 685-0881 E-mail: gbradley@u.washington.edu	Craig ZumBrunnen Department of Geography Office: Smith 416D Tel: 543-4915 E-mail: craigzb@u.washington.edu
Eric Shulenberger Office of Research Office: 204 Winkenwerder Hall Tel: 685-1457 E-mail: ericshul@u.washington.edu	Jeff Hepinstall Urban Ecology Tel: 293-3237 Office: And.30/Gould410F E-mail: jahwash@u.washington.edu
Robert Reineke Urban Ecology Office: Anderson 301 Tel: 616-2874 E-mail: picapica@u.washington.edu

 

Description

Problem Analysis in Urban Ecology focuses on understanding the drivers, policies, patterns, processes, and consequences of human settlement. This class is part of a year-long sequence of classes, designed specifically for Urban Ecology students, that seeks to introduce students to the concepts, approaches, and issues in urban ecology. We will learn about how urban ecological problems are framed, defined, and approached. Discussion will include local development, political, and ecological issues arising from land conversion at the urban fringe. Interdisciplinary student teams will be formed and these teams will be responsible for preparing a researchable question that investigates a pressing urban ecological issue in the context of the role of forests in an urban environment and how the team would approach solving the problem.

Objectives

The primary objective of this class is to develop a set of researchable questions to address pressing urban ecological issues. This year our general issue is “the functionality of forests in urbanizing landscapes.” We are broadly interested in developing researchable questions that help us understand how forests function from economic, ecologic, and social perspectives in urbanized and urbanizing areas. Research themes are not limited to forests, per se—they can include drivers at local to global scales that affect forest function. Moreover, we define “forests” broadly to encompass trees to watersheds and all the ecological and human services they provide. As a result, students might develop research problems as diverse as the economic, hydrological, or upland habitat consequences of sprawl. These projects might focus on people, birds, fish, or policies. Ideally, a mixture of such foci will be addressed. Because of the unique setting of large cities adjacent to relatively unsettled wildlands in western Washington, many of the most pressing urban ecological issues concern land use changes at the urban fringe. As a class, we will view such problems from multiple perspectives so that the drivers, resulting patterns, consequences, and relevant policies can be understood and integrated into socially-relevant research projects.

Topics for researchable questions are not harvested from the ether. Rather, a panel of community leaders (representing organizations ranging from private to public) will start the thought process by discussing possible questions from their perspective. Students work with faculty to mold these suggestions into draft researchable questions. Draft questions and approaches are discussed a second time with the panel to increase societal relevance of our research.

We have the following objectives for students to take away from this course:
1. To understand the drivers (social, economic, political, physical and biological) of land use change.
2. To understand how land use and land cover can be quantified as settlement patterns.
3. To understand the processes and consequences of settlement pattern on social and ecological function.
4. To understand how science and policy can interact to guide human settlement in an ecologically sustainable way.
5. To strengthen team building skills so that effective interdisciplinary teams of students and faculty are formed to address urban ecological issues.

Class Project

We have three distinct groups of students in this class. Students will work on the class project in these groups since each may use the terminal project to a different end: Urban Ecology Graduate Fellows will use the project as the starting point for their interdisciplinary group project; Urban Ecology undergraduates may use their project as the jumping-off point for their senior capstone project; and other graduate students may be able to develop thesis topics or additional publishable papers by researching their questions.

The terminal class papers will be integrated group papers and should include the following:
1. Clearly stated question or set of questions that are researchable and relevant to understanding forest functionality.
2. Review of the literature relevant to the researchable question(s).
3. Initial thoughts on how you will approach answering the question(s). This should include an initial review of the literature relevant to proposed methodologies.
4. Discussion of the societal relevance of your question(s) and how your results will help resolve problems presented by the panel of community leaders.

Guest Speakers

We have invited a panel of speakers to come to our class and discuss issues they feel are important to their particular organizations. These speakers represent both public and private organizations with varying perspectives (biological, social, economic) on land conversion at the urban fringe. The general question posed to speakers is “What is the functionality of forests in urbanizing environments from their perspective?” This question is asked in the context of land use change on the urban fringe. The faculty has asked speakers to specifically address the following questions:

1. Forest functionality from their perspective … what is it?
2. What are the threats to forest functionality?
3. How to protect from threats, or mitigate and manage negative effects?
4. What knowledge is currently used to understand/manage/mitigate negative effects?
5. What are the knowledge gaps in understanding the functionality of forest?

The panel members will visit class twice: the first (November 7) to present and discuss their ideas; the second (December 5) to comment on student formulation of research projects. Students are responsible for discussions with each speaker so that the key issues identified by each speaker are clearly understood. That is, students must ask questions after the speaker gives their presentation so that we are clear on what issue we might be able to investigate, and how we start to frame the project so that the speaker's objectives are met. We will frame each project more completely as the class proceeds, but we initially need to clearly understand the speakers concerns, issues, and needs.

Assignments

Assignment 1: Due Oct. 24. Based on meeting with your team during first 2 weeks and discussing: work styles, expectations (of class, project, and group), group process, scheduling work, and cognitive maps, each team is to prepare a written summary of their group’s styles, similarities and differences in cognitive maps, timelines (a schedule), and commitments to group work. These are to be discussed with your faculty mentor.

Assignment 2. Due Nov. 26. Oral and written presentation of initial draft of researchable questions. Focus on research question and methods. This should present a research area that clearly combines at least two aspects of urban ecology (drivers, policy, patterns and processes, and consequences). Urban Ecology Graduate Fellows should develop questions, hypotheses, and methods that the group determines are feasible for a 2-year period of study. Other student groups will likely devise research questions amenable to 1 year of research, however this is flexible and can be discussed with the faculty mentors. The entire class will discuss each group’s presentation with the purpose of improving the proposal prior to completion of the final written project proposal.

Assignment 3. Due Dec. 10. Final oral presentation and written paper due. Each group will present a single oral presentation and paper covering the topics outlined above (Define the problem, literature review, formulation of the researchable question, how you will attack the question, and how will any results from your research help resolve the problem).

Class Schedule

Readings

Week 1

Grimm et al. (2000). “Integrated approaches to long-term studies of urban ecological systems,” BioScience 50:571-84,

New corrected Collins et al. (2000).“A New Urban Ecology,” American Scientist 88(5): 416-425.

Pages 419-420 Only of Collins et al. (2000)

Week 2

• Chapter 2 (Policy and Political Processes, pp. 23-41),
• Chapter 4 (Policy Issues and Formulation, pp. 76-97)
• Chapter 5 (Policy Analysis, Evaluation, and Implementation, pp. 98-119)

Planning Association of Washington. 1994 “Growth Management”. Short Course on Local Planning. 3-1 – 3-59. Olympia, Washington.

Hilda Blanco Reading

Week 3 (Tuesday)

Turner, M.G. 1989. Landscape Ecology: the effect of pattern on process. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 20:171-197.

This paper is now available, please read for Tuesday if possible, by Thursday otherwise: Alberti, M., Booth, D., Hill, K., Coburn, B. Avolio, C., Coe, S. and D. Spirandelli. (Draft) The Impact of Urban Patterns on Aquatic Ecosystems: An empirical analysis in Puget lowland sub-basins. In preparation for Landscape Ecology. (Students -Contact Jeff for an electronic copy)

Collins, B. D., Montgomery, D. R., and Sheikh, A. J., in press, Reconstructing the historic riverine landscape of the Puget Lowland, in Montgomery, D. R., Bolton, S., Booth, D. B., and Wall, L., (editors) Restoration of Puget Sound Rivers, Univ. of Washington Press. (Students -Contact Jeff for an electronic copy)

Week 3 (Thursday)

Robinson, L, J.P. Newell, J.M. Marzluff. Land use and land cover changes on an urbanizing fringe: policy drivers and implications for conservation. Submitted to Conservation Biology. (Students who are interested in reading this MS must contact the authors directly)

Week 4

Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Assessment. 1995. Guidelines and principles for social impact assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 15:11-43.

Week 5

Vitousek P.M. et al. 1997. “Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems,” Science 277, 494-499

McDonnell et al. 1997, “Ecosystem processes along an urban-to-rural gradient,” Urban Ecosystems 1:21-36

Picket et al. 2001. “Urban Ecological Systems: Linking terrestrial ecological, physical, and socioeconomic components of metropolitan area,” Annual Review of Ecological Systems 32:127-57.