The Urban Ecology Lab
UrbanEco MISSION
The Urban Ecology Research Lab works to understand and improve the conditions of human-dominated ecosystems by conducting interdisciplinary research, integrating analytical and participatory approaches to problem-solving, and engaging policy makers and the public in the generation and use of scientific knowledge.

Urban Ecology Framework
UrbanEco takes an integrated perspective of the relationships between humans and ecological processes. Our research is founded on aconceptual model that helps us to (1) understand forces driving patterns of urban development, (2) quantify resulting patterns of natural and developed land, (3) determine how these patterns influence biophysical and human processes, and (4) assess the resulting environmental changes and (5) feedback on human and biophysical drivers.

In this conceptual model, drivers are human and biophysical forces that produce change in human and biophysical patterns and processes. Patterns are spatial and temporal distributions of human or biophysical variables. Processes are the mechanisms by which human and biophysical variables interact and affect ecological conditions. Effects are the changes in human and ecological conditions that result from such interactions. In the diagram we provide some explicit examples of driver, patterns, processes and effects. For example, population growth in an area (driver), leads to increased pavement and buildings (patterns), leading to increased runoff and erosion (processes), causing decreased water quality and fish habitat (effects), which may lead to new policy to regulate water flow (driver). However, the same variable can fit into different boxes depending on the focus (issue, scale, and timeframe). Erosion is a process, but can be also seen as a pattern that influences other processes such as nutrient cycles or as an effect resulting from runoff.

For more information on the Urban Ecology Lab, see:
http://www.urbaneco.washington.edu/