Monday, August 6, 2007: 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
B1&2, San Jose McEnery Convention Center
SS 11 - Knowing, valuing, and protecting intensively used urban and coastal ecosystems and landscapes
The number of intensively used urban and coastal areas will increase rapidly during the coming decades. At the same time these areas can be important for biodiversity conservation, as is shown in the U.S. and Europe. New approaches are needed that facilitate or allow for human use, but also allow for the indigenous biota to flourish. In this special session we will confront approaches and experiences from several countries and regions regarding this issue. Our main questions are: 1) How can we understand these systems? Can we look at them in the same way as to so-called pristine or semi-natural systems? Do we need a special kind of restoration ecology to really deal with these urban and coastal systems? Are these degraded ecosystems, mosaics of ecosystems, dynamic systems, or not ecosystems at all? Is Rozenzweig’s term reconciliation ecology useful, in addition to restoration and reservation ecology? And more concrete, how do we investigate these systems? Obviously a kind of sustainability science is needed, that means a rich mix of professionalisms and disciplines. Others have proposed to develop a so-called transdisciplinary post-normal ecological science for human-related systems, including scientific knowledge but also other kinds of knowledge, values, and interests somehow. 2. What are appropriate management strategies? Will a more transdisciplinary and sustainability science lead to a more appropriate and sustainable way of management? How can we assure the involvement of stakeholders and NGO’s, and to what extent is this needed? Is it possible to develop a mix of different strategies with a certain zoning of the areas? In this session we will focus on some urban and coastal areas from several parts of the world.
Organizer:Henny J. Van der Windt, University of Groningen
Co-organizer:Emery Roe, Mills College
Speaker:Michael P. Weinstein, Sandy Hook Field Station
8:00 PMSocializing ecology in heavily used areas and the role of NGO’s: The cases of the Wadden Sea and the city of Groningen
Henny J. Van der Windt, University of Groningen, Jac. A.A. Swart, University of Groningen
8:20 PMGreen areas as an element in a disturbed urban landscape - Their socioeconomic and ecological functionalities: An example of megacity Karachi, Pakistan
Muhammad Mushahid Anwar, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Abbottabad, Jurgen Breuste, University of Salzburg
8:40 PMScale discordance in coastal management systems
Jac. A.A. Swart, University of Groningen, Henny J. Van der Windt, University of Groningen, Theunis Piersma, University of Groningen
9:00 PMBeyond opportunistic restoration: The need, approach, and challenges of developing and implementing strategic nearshore ecosystem restoration in Puget Sound, WA
Charles Simenstad, University of Washington
9:20 PMAvoiding conflict and seeking synergy: Toward an integrated framework for restoration planning in coastal Louisiana and other coastal zones
Denise J. Reed, University of New Orleans

See more of Special Session

See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)