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The Ecology of the Metacity: Shaping the Dynamic, Patchy, Networked, and Adaptive Cities of the Future

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Book cover Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design

Part of the book series: Future City ((FUCI,volume 3))

Abstract

The chapter builds a metacity framework and details its features and utility. We start by outlining the general strategy for dealing with spatial complexity on various scales by using nested, spatial mosaics (Wu and Wu, Chap. 11, this volume). We then turn to a description of the three kinds of mosaics that are needed to understand and work with urban structure and change in the metacity: processes, choices, and outcomes. The relationship of these three mosaics to urban adaption and resilience is then considered. Resilience and adaptation, and their relationship to the socially constructed goals of sustainability, require a regional focus that does not stumble at de jure or perceived urban/rural boundaries. We end with a fuller description of the metacity as a synthetic tool, relating it to key insights from the chapters in this book. We conclude with a sense of the excitement that the metacity concept brings to the linkage of ecology, social processes, and urban design, as well as its capacity to address the diversity of urban forms that exist or are emerging around the world.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge support by the National Science Foundation and by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies for the 2007 Cary Conference, at which the seeds of this volume and its synthesis were planted. In addition, the insights reported here have benefitted from the support of the Long-Term Ecological Research program of the National Science Foundation for the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, LTER, and an NSF Career Grant to MLC. Interactions at workshops on Ecology and Environmental Justice at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis have also shaped some of the thinking in this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, AB 2801, Sharon Turnpike, Millbrook, NY, 12545, USA

    S. T. A. Pickett

  2. School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design, New York, NY, 10011, USA

    Brian McGrath

  3. urban-interface.com, 60 Union St, Newark, NJ, 07105-1430, USA

    Brian McGrath

  4. Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, 1 Shields Ave, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    M. L. Cadenasso

Authors
  1. S. T. A. Pickett
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  2. Brian McGrath
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  3. M. L. Cadenasso
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Correspondence to S. T. A. Pickett .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Sharon Turnpike 2801, Millbrook, 12545-0129, New York, USA

    S.T.A. Pickett

  2. , Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Shields Avenue 1, Davis, 95616, California, USA

    M.L. Cadenasso

  3. , Sch Constructed Environments, Parsons the New School for Design, East 13th Street 25, New York, 10011, New York, USA

    Brian McGrath

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Pickett, S.T.A., McGrath, B., Cadenasso, M.L. (2013). The Ecology of the Metacity: Shaping the Dynamic, Patchy, Networked, and Adaptive Cities of the Future. In: Pickett, S., Cadenasso, M., McGrath, B. (eds) Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design. Future City, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5341-9_28

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