City Centres

Abstract

City centres provide a challenging habitat for wildlife as, in addition to severe environmental restraints, nearly every animal is regarded as a pest and most plants as weeds. The types of continuously built-up site considered here are dense urban complexes where the often large buildings do not have gardens; open spaces are mainly streets, pedestrian precincts, squares, courtyards and car parks. Soft landscape is mostly confined to the curtilage of buildings, raised planters, tubs, window boxes and street trees though occasional communal gardens may be present. The general atmosphere is enclosure by buildings and paving underfoot. The consequences for the climate have been dealt with in Chapter 3 - basically these are an increase in temperature, air pollution and dust, and a decline in humidity. Soils are highly variable with regard to depth and texture; at ground level they tend to be eutrophicated, drought prone and compact.