Urban Ecology, Scale and Identity

Abstract

This chapter takes identity (difference from the rest and continuity in itself) as a common ground for human and ecological urban development. Compared with the previous chapter, the attention shifts from the systems to their boundaries. Any difference becomes visible at the boundaries and culminates in spatially sudden or gradually changing ecological conditions. Therefore, this chapter removes the negative sound of ‘boundary’ as a separation, showing the landscape boundary as a very source of biodiversity. And the urban landscape is boundary-rich. However, to be successful, the concept of identity requires further scale-articulation. So, this chapter also stresses the scale-paradox of diversity: conclusions drawn from one level of scale could already turn into their opposite at a factor 3 scale difference. That forces design, science and policy to distinguish more legend units, variables and agendas than they are used to. It reduces the ease of scientific and governmental generalisation, but it results in an optimistic view on urban life and living. This chapter takes the Netherlands – a small and densely populated country in north-western Europe – as a reference, because of its boundary-richness and its availability of data about a millennium of civil engineering and urbanisation. Its nature of a river delta offers interesting points of departure to study other deltas in the world. Everywhere, deltas are increasingly populated and urbanised, often comparable to different stages of Dutch history.