Introduction

Abstract

Urban environments are bulk consumers of energy, water and materials and contribute to problems such as resource depletion, pollution and climate change. Considering urban environments as ecosystems helps us to understand the relationships between the many factors in the urban environment that together contribute to unsustainable development. It enables us to model the flows going in, through and out of cities or urban systems and to identify opportunities for making them more efficient, while being aware of influences from outside the systems that may influence the systems’ performance. By providing a basic understanding of urban areas as systems this book will help (future) designers, builders, planners and managers of (parts of) our urban systems to analyse them and to identify appropriate solutions.