The city as a great ecosystem
The ecosystem is nothing more than a set of organisms that share the same habitat or biotope. These organisms can be biotic, those living beings such as vegetables and animals and abiotics that are non -living components such as minerals, water and light. Between these components and organisms there are vital interactions, energy flows and the matter circulates, all in a set of processes that we usually observe as the decomposition of organic matter, predation between species, competence between organisms, etc.
Usually when we talk about ecosystem it is easier to relate it to a forest, the desert, jungle, rivers, lakes, everything that is created by nature, but is it that the city can be considered an ecosystem?
In the book of "The challenge of the habitable and sustainable city", for and. Higueras, mentions that “in the city an urbanized environment appears and a series of living beings, with their interactions and relationships, where the human being is the main part of the same. An urban internal activity appears, and an operation based on matter exchanges, energy and information ".
That is, if certain conditions are met, for which it is conducive to relate both parties, since as in an ecosystem, the cities are formed by living sere, in this case we are us as human beings, pets, insects, flowers , vegetation, gardens, parks, living beings with whom we share our daily life, and all these interact with non -living beings, such as streets, buildings, bridges, temperature, energy, water, among many more. This interaction occurs inside in the same physical space, in this case the urban biotope.
The difference between the natural ecosystems that we know and the city, is that in the latter they depend on the natural environment as the place for the development of the urban, since, without this, there is no city. Then it can be said that the city is not a natural ecosystem but an urban one, although in the natural ecosystem, there is the presence of biogeochemical cycles and trophic levels are presented, but in a different way from that of a natural ecosystem, since it is only at consumer level.
In a natural ecosystem, resources can be restored by the natural processes that it performs, since they do not need any transformation and do not run the risk of exhausting in the long term, instead the main particularity of the developed world is that it has a linear metabolism which translates into the exhaustion of resources and, in addition, causes territorial imbalances.
Another factor that differentiates the city with a natural ecosystem according to e. Higueras, is that “the operation of the city is based on secondary (non -primary) energy, such as electricity, oil, or gas. The massive consumption of secondary energy is what allows the growth and maintenance of cities based on transporting resources from any point on the planet and moving their waste to surrounding areas ”in other words, primary energies are transformed in search of cities They can subsist and grow, but as a consequence the waste caused by all these transformations ends in surrounding areas that in the end affect other ecosystems and even the own own.
Finally, it can be said that the urban ecosystem is the interaction of the population with the external environment to be able to sustain itself with the production of food, materials, fuel and all this is subject to a process that in the end is transformed into waste, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, and pollution, What becomes a challenge for the well -being of all of us as living beings, since we do not regulate air pollution, or heating that is caused by the effect of the thermal island, due to the lack of green areas among other environmental components that They cause factories. Unfortunately this has affected the quality of environmental life in cities, so it must work to take care of our ecosystem, which is not perfect, but it is our home and that is why the author emphasizes that “the habitable city is the one that has as as it has as protagonist to pedestrians, adapting the scale to their tours, encouraging commercial activities integratedly, within a network of free spaces and green areas in appropriate quantity and quality. It is a healthy city, without contamination or noise. It is a safe and friendly city ".
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