Coupled Human-Natural Systems

 

Human Health & Oceans

 

Land Cover Change Models

 

Landscape Patterns

 

Remote Sensing

 

Scenario Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Urban Ecology Research Laboratory (UERL) at the University of Washington is directed by Professor Marina Alberti, and includes interdisciplinary PhD students, post-doctoral research associates, research scientists, and affiliate faculty from diverse disciplines who collaborate to study coupled human-natural systems. The UERL research program is grounded in an urban ecology framework (Figure 1), 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. We build on urban and landscape ecology to empirically study the interactions between urban development and ecosystem dynamics. We aim to assess the environmental implications of alternative urban development patterns.

Relationships between landscape patterns and ecological conditions are explored using ecological indicators, such as macroinvertebrates, birds, and shellfish. We build conceptual and quantitative models of the links between urban patterns and the ecological resilience of urban ecosystems. We also apply simulation modeling to assess the effects of alternative development scenarios on land cover change. Our research is based on advanced GIS and remote sensing techniques. Our research is linked to practice by developing policy guidelines that incorporate the best available science. We aim to assist planners, decision makers, and scientists in making more informed decisions about where and how to develop in order to minimize the human impacts on the environment.

Figure 1. Urban Ecology framework: An integrated model of humans and ecological processes to understand forces driving patterns of urban development, quantify resulting patterns of natural and developed land, determine how these patterns influence biophysical and human processes, and assess the resulting environmental changes and 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.
Alberti, M. Marzluff, J.M., Shulenberger, E., Bradley, G., Ryan, C., Zumbrunnen, C. (2003) Integrating humans into ecology: Opportunities and challenges for studying urban ecosystems. Bioscience 53:12 1169-1179.