Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change

In the next sections, results of bibliometric analysis performed for the urban ecology‐climate change nexus have been presented, followed by the emerging features of urban ecology for the climate change mitigation.

In order to observe the trends in research on the topics concerned with urban ecology and climate change during the past two decades (2001–2021), a bibliometric analysis was performed on 13 June 2021, using different search queries in the Scopus database (Singh et al. 2021). The search query was (TITLE‐ABS‐KEY (‘urban ecology’ AND ‘climate change’) AND PUBYEAR >1999. The query results in a total number of 137 documents published during the past two decades (from 2001 to the present, 13 June 2021). The year‐wise growth of the research on the topic of urban ecology and climate change was considered along with country‐specific research outputs. Further, institute‐wise, research area‐wise, author‐wise, and publication type‐wise distribution of research on the topic were also analysed. Though we searched from 2000 onwards, but we found that the researches are being published on this topic since 2004. Starting with merely one paper on the topic in the year 2004, the year 2020 observed a total number of 13 documents published within a single year ( Figure 1.1a). Interestingly, a total of 13 papers have already been published on the topic in the year 2021 till 13 June only. This signifies the relevance of the topic and the increasing research attention in the current scenarios. The United States was the largest contributor of the papers under the country/territory‐wise publication category with 47 documents. The United Kingdom and China ranked second and third by producing 17 and 16 papers each, while India stood at eighth rank with five papers published during the same period ( Table 1.1). These observations revealed that there is an ample scope for research on urban ecology‐climate change nexus in the developing countries which are expected to make a surge in urban population growth in the near future. Based on the Scopus data 2021, among the research institutes and universities globally, Arizona State University produced the maximum number of papers (8), followed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with six papers published during the last two decades ( Table 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Bibliometric analysis results showing (a) year‐wise publication growth, (b) subject area‐wise distribution, and (c) article type‐wise publications for the search query ‘urban ecology AND climate change’.

Source: Data from Scopus database (2021).

Table 1.1 Bibliometric analysis results showing top 20 countries, top 10 research institutes/affiliations, top 20 authors, and top 10 research journal for the search query ‘urban ecology AND climate change’.

Source: Data from Scopus database (2021).

Out of the total 137 publications, more than 80% of the total publications fall under the research areas of environmental sciences (88), agriculture and biological sciences (52), social sciences (36), earth and planetary sciences (18), and engineering (14) ( Figure 1.1b). This signified that the interdisciplinary researches are increasing on the topic and focus on environmental impact assessment is given optimal importance. Author‐wise analysis results revealed Wu J., Dunn R.R., Richter M., Weiland U., and Alavipanah S. as the five most productive authors publishing 4, 3, 3, 3, and 2 papers during the last two decades on the topic ( Table 1.1). Landscape and Urban Planning (7), Urban Ecosystems (6), Sustainability (5), Ecosystems (3), and Urban Forestry and Urban Greening (3) were observed as the major sources which published researches on the topic in the recent decades ( Table 1.1). These journals have been started with the aim of managing and improving the health and sustainability of the urban ecosystem. Among 137 papers, 73% were research articles whereas 9.5, 5.8, 5.1, and 4.4% were contributed by conference papers, review articles, books, and book chapters, respectively ( Figure 1.1c). This signifies that the topic is getting considerable attention in different research publication types. Among 137 papers obtained for the search query, relevant articles were manually selected after going through the article in detail. Both original research and review articles written in the English language were considered for this purpose.

Urban ecosystems around the world are facing several major challenges among which increasing human population and climate change are the most prominent, making the sustainable urban development an elusive phenomenon (Childers et al. 2015). An increase in the frequency of extreme weather events induced by the climate change scenario is jeopardising the urban planners and designers to develop concrete adaptive measures for the urban settlements for the long term (Kattel et al. 2013; Steiner 2014). Thus, for sustainable cities, novel solutions and techniques for landscape planning having the potential of resilience and self‐regulation from the extreme climatic conditions are needed (Childers et al. 2015; Yu et al. 2017). In this regard, urban vegetation can play a major role by managing the energy/radiation balance of the physical environment through the process of photosynthesis, evapotranspiration, and shadowing effects (Oke 2002; Yu et al. 2017). Moreover, Steiner (2014) highlighted four potential urban ecological design/planning measures, viz. application of ecosystem services, adaption of settlements for the natural disasters by managing green infrastructures, renewal of degraded landscapes, and improving the adaptive behaviour of people by linking knowledge about the surroundings to the actions.