The continuous increase in the number and size of urban regions and transformation of landscapes pose challenges to ensure human welfare and a livable, sustainable environment. Urban regions create great demands for resources such as fresh water and generate large volumes of waste, but are at the same time hubs of services, knowledge, capital and innovation that offer solutions for humans and the environment.The Urban Theme has build an extensive network of research groups in cities in Europe and around the world and lead a number of interdisciplinary project, such as the SUPER project - Sustainable Urban Planning for Ecosystem services and Resilience, Green wedges as urban commons, Urb-SENA: Multi-site analysis of urban social-ecological dynamics using social network analysis. Within the theme, new tools for visualization are under development, including Urban Planet and Urban Atlas.
The Urban theme is also involved in several global collaborations such as URBIS (Urban Biosphere Network together with IUCN and UNESCO), TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) and the Global Partnership on Cities and Biodiversity where the centre contributes with development of methodology and analyses of urban ecosystem services.
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