College of Built Environments at the University of Washington.
Urban Ecology Research Laboratory
Marina Alberti, Director
Urban Ecology Research Laboratory Website
The Urban Ecology Research Laboratory (UERL) is an interdisciplinary team pursuing research grounded in an urban ecology framework; a conceptual model wherein humans are the dominant agents of change within the ecosystem, giving rise to complex interactions between socio-economic drivers and biophysical processes. The UERL studies urban landscapes as hybrid phenomena that emerge from the interactions between human and ecological processes, and the interactions between urban development and ecosystem dynamics. The UERL builds conceptual and quantitative models of the links between urban patterns and the ecological resilience of urban ecosystems and applies simulation modeling to assess the effects of alternative development scenarios. The Puget Sound region, the Seattle metropolitan area and other metropolitan areas, such as Phoenix AZ, serve as scientific laboratories. The UERL assists planners, decision makers, and scientists in making informed decisions about where and how to develop in order to minimize the human impacts on the environment.