Urban Regions : Ecology and Planning Beyond the City

15 0Nature, food, and water

Iqu Edm

Sam

Sam

Sap

Sto

Por

Cut

Buc

Bam

Erz Phi

Kag

Ott

Edm

Relatively small

0.25-0.5

Small-medium

0.5-1

Intermediate

1-2

Medium-large

2-4

Quite large

4-8

Can

City population (million)

Bar Bra

Chi

Nai

Rom Te h

Cai

Lon

Sat

Ber

Ban

Kua

Nan Por

Nan

Number of major wetlands in urban region

00

20

40

60

80

90

2

4

6

8

10

12

17

Rah

Mega

8-16

Natural ve

getation cover alon

g lakeshores/ pondshores (%)

= Wetlands

= Lakeshores/

pondshores

Figure 6.7Major wetlands and natural lakeshores relative to city population size.

Major wetland is > approx. 4 km^2 ;anunusually long or large wetland is counted

twice. Wetlands include salt marsh, mangrove swamp, freshwater marsh, and

freshwater swamp, and are present along coasts, along rivers, and in depressions.

Lakeshores include major pondshores but exclude shorelines of reservoirs. Natural

lakeshore vegetation is the predominant land cover within approx. 1 km of a

shoreline. City population is in year 2000±2yr(Chapter5 and Table5.1). See

Figure 6.2 caption for city information.

Re-creation of wetlands, large and small, and their benefits is ahigh priorityin

urban regions. Especially suitable locations are at the base of certain hills and

mountains, on floodplains of rivers and streams, along coastal areas, and in the

outer urban-region ring. Tiny wetlands, some seasonal, may be produced at the

ends of stormwater drainage pipes.

Food inurban regions

Diversity and stability relative to agriculture

[F1]Cropland is the predominant land cover of the urban-region ring in half of

the regions(Color Figures2--39).