Cities as environments

In starting a new journal about urban ecosystems, it is useful to review some of the dominant themes that have run through recent and historic discussions of cities as environments. Although concern with urban environmental issues may seem to be new, because of the great amount of attention paid during the past several decades to the negative aspects of urban environments – air, water, and soil pollution – there is a long history of thought, writing, and design about cities as environments, extending back throughout most of western history. This long history has modern relevance, but is more often ignored than used. This paper briefly reviews some central aspects of the major ideas about city planning and design, relates these to modern urban dilemmas and contemporary ecological knowledge, and proposes a new synthesis of classical and contemporary ideas. The issues are general, relating to cities around the world, but when examples are given in this paper, the focus is on cities in the United States, because of space limitations and because of an emphasis on the thoughts of Frederic Law Olmsted, the great American planner. In reviewing discussions of urban environments, we make five major points: