With a   growing human population, cities keep growing worldwide altering ecosystem   and thereby affecting the species living in these areas. Most studies of   urbanization and its effect on ecosystem have been conducted in the western   world and little is known about its effect in the neotropical part of the   world. I examined effects of fragment size, vegetation structure and   connectivity of urban green areas on bird species richness, mean abundance,   diversity and biomass in La Paz, Bolivia. Additionally, the effects of   different disturbance variables on bird community were evaluated. In total,   36 bird species were found in 24 fragment of varying size, connectivity and   level of disturbance. Bird species richness decreased with increasing   disturbance while connectivity and fragment size did not contribute   significantly to explain the variation in species richness at count point scale (p>0.005, multiple linear regression). At fragment   scale, however, species richness increased with fragment sizes,   which has been shown in other studies from neotrophical regions. Variation in   abundance, diversity or biomass could not be explained by connectivity,   fragment size or disturbance.     Furthermore, coverage of construction had a negative effect on species   richness while coverage of bushes and coverage of herbs were negatively   related to biomass and diversity, respectively. The composition of bird   species differed with size and disturbance of the fragments, so that more   omnivorous and granivorous species such as Zonotrichia capensis, Turdus chiguanco and Zenaida auriculata, were present in areas highly affected by human activities. Larger fragments,   less affected by human presence held a larger proportion of insectivorous   species.

Human-dominated landscapes often have habitat loss and fragmentation. These characteristics described at the landscape scale, called landscape elements, influence species diversity and distribution. These landscape elements include such descriptions as the amount of habitat in the landscape and the degree of fragmentation of the habitat. "Optimization of landscape pattern" studies which landscape elements will maximize species diversity and/or distribution. Some general conclusions have emerged from this research. For example, for some bird species the size of the habitat patch in which a species nests has been found to be more important than landscape variables. However, preliminary research suggested that landscape elements such as the matrix are important urban areas. My study addressed this problem by asking: which elements of the landscape are most important for predicting avian species richness and abundance in the Greater Toronto Area? A literature review revealed a number of variables that have been found to influence bird species diversity within a landscape: area of habitat in which the species nests, amount of habitat within the landscape, degree of fragmentation, vegetation characteristics of the habitat patch, and area within the landscape deemed urban in municipal land-use designations (amount of urbanization). From this literature, I formulated four hypotheses describing the most important variables for avian diversity: (1) the area of the habitat patch is most important, (2) only variables describing the habitat patch itself are important, (3) the area of the habitat patch is important, but landscape variables should also be considered and (4) urbanization is most important. These hypotheses were considered competing explanations of bird species diversity at the landscape scale. <br /><br /> A database of breeding bird data and landscape information, in a geographic information system platform, was used to investigate the comparative strength of the competing hypotheses for the Greater Toronto Area. A mathematical expression with a Poisson model format was created to represent each hypothesis. The model selection technique based on Kullback-Leibler information using the Akaike Information Criterion was deemed most appropriate for the comparison of the models. Four separate Poisson model competitions were completed using two habitat types and two response variables: species richness and total abundance. In three of the four competitions, the best model included the habitat area and the amount of urbanization in the landscape. In the forth competition, this model was considered as strong as another model which included habitat area, amount of habitat in the landscape and degree of fragmentation. The results from the model competition support the hypothesis that habitat area is important, but landscape variables must also be considered to explain avian richness and total abundance. It appears that maintaining native bird biodiversity in the Greater Toronto Area should focus on preserving and possibly increasing habitat area and decreasing adjacent urbanization. Exploration of the best model in the forest analysis with the richness response variable found that a 10% increase in habitat area cause approximately a 10% increase in species richness, and a 10% increase in urban area caused approximately a 20% decrease in species richness. Consequently, current natural heritage planning in Ontario should consider urban development as an important negative effect on native birds.

In the last few decades protection of the environment has moved to the forefront of earth science research. Sustainable development is becoming more important to rapidly growing communities throughout southern Ontario including the City of Waterloo which has adopted an ecosystem planning approach toward future urban expansion. The City of Waterloo is located in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo which relies mainly on local groundwater resources for its drinking water supply. The Waterloo West Side is a collective name for several new developments occurring at the western limit of the City of Waterloo. Development of the Waterloo West Side is encroaching on a potential regional groundwater recharge area. Recent studies have recommended that some of these developments will require artificial infiltration facilities to augment the reduction in infiltration rates at the post-development stage. For this study, the pre-development groundwater flow system was characterized using a three-dimensional finite element model (WATFLOW). The regional Waterloo Moraine Model (approximately 750 km2) was refined in the study area (approximately 25 km2) so as to include the regional-scale influence on the local-scale groundwater flow. In addition, to approximate the complex groundwater flow system, within the study area, modifications were made to the current conceptual model. Several existing techniques were utilized in the numerical approach including three-dimensional parameterization and automated calibration methods. Simulations were completed to steady-state therefore results are averaged on a yearly basis. The potential impact of urbanization on the groundwater flow system was investigated by modifying the surficial boundary condition to simulate post-development infiltration rates (increased runoff) in areas where development will occur. The impact to local surface water was investigated for each post-development scenario. In addition, the effect on the regional and local groundwater flow systems were compared for each scenario.

This study investigates the contemporary urbanization process of sub-Saharan Africa. The region is predicted to experience a surge in urban population growth the forthcoming decades, yet why and how this is happening is not very clear. Theory often considers urbanization to be a part of a modernization process where people migrate from rural areas to urban. But depictions of reality suggest that rural-to-urban migration might be less significant than previously thought, and neither is it given that urbanization causes prosperity in sub-Saharan Africa. This thesis tries to complement the gap of knowledge regarding the mechanisms of urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa. Statistical data is organized and assembled by using the structured, focused comparison method and then analyzed in order to create an understanding of urbanization and urban population growth in this particular region. The result of this study suggests that the mechanisms for urban population growth change over time. Urban population growth is often thought to be driven by rural-to-urban migration. However, nowadays there is a correlation between urban population growth and population increase, which did not exist a couple of decades ago. It is clear that urbanized countries are, typically, more advanced regarding economic growth, but it is unsure whether this factor affects socio-economic development. The findings underscore the vast complexity of urbanization and urban population growth, as well as the heterogeneity of sub-Saharan Africa. Yet there is potential for a new theoretical framework that can provide explanations to the processes sub-Saharan Africa is expected to undergo.

This study analyses whether urbanization and poverty have any importance for private sector participation (PSP) in the water sector, in developing countries. In the beginning of the 1990’s there was a surge in the interest of the private sector to participate in water and sanitation projects, after a long period of public dominance. There is a large need for investments since much of the population in developing countries does not have access to water and sanitation services and the demand is increasing. At the same time the water sector is prone to inefficiencies resulting from externalities and natural monopoly characteristics, and is therefore often highly regulated. A negative binominal regression model is used for the analysis. The dependent variable is the number of water and sanitation projects with private sector participation in a country. The independent variables are population, GDP/capita, aid, debt, water resources, government effectiveness, degree of urbanization and degree of poverty. The main results are that urbanization is positively significant for PSP in the water sector, while poverty has no significant effect.

<p>Rapid urbanization threatens the survival of native wildlife species worldwide. In order to fully grasp the implications of the ongoing growth of urban areas on biodiversity, conservationists need to be able to quantify the response patterns of a wide range of different species to the expansion of urban and suburban land use. In this study, we set up two road-based transects across gradients of urbanization and habitat loss in the diverse longleaf pine forests of the Sandhills region of North Carolina, USA. With funding provided by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, we drove the transects repeatedly at night in the field seasons of 2006-2008, tallying all vertebrate animals encountered (live or dead). The first transect (driven in all three years; 75 km long) ran from the urban areas of Southern Pines and Pinehurst down to the remote and relatively pristine habitats associated with the state-owned Sandhills Gamelands. The second transect (driven in 2007 and partially in 2008; 69 km long) began at the terminus of the first transect in the Gamelands, and then stretched down to the urban zones of Hamlet and Rockingham. </p><p> A total of 4900 vertebrate animals representing 69 species were observed on or near the road routes after driving a total of 16,625 km. This total includes 592 nightjars (ground-nesting nocturnal birds; e.g. whip-poor-wills) that we heard while driving the transects. In addition, in 2007 we surveyed for the nightjars and for quail (a high-priority game species that also nests on the ground) using 75 point count locations evenly distributed along the northern road route. </p><p> Regression tree analysis (a robust, nonparametric technique with minimal assumptions) was used to model the animal observation rates for a given 1 km road segment or point count as a function of various habitat variables measured within corresponding buffer zones for each segment. We also modeled snake and bird encounter rates as a function of mesopredator mammal observations. </p><p> Our results reveal that amphibian, snake, and ground-nesting bird observation rates are negatively associated with increasing levels of traffic and impervious surface. Conversely, mesopredator mammals (and domestic cats in particular) responded slightly positively to increasing urbanization, and negatively to protected area coverage. Both ground-nesting birds and snakes showed signs of negative correlations with mesopredator encounter rates, although these trends were not always significant due to high variability in the mesopredator data. </p><p> In order to try and confirm the results of the regression tree analyses, we also used a multivariate ordination approach (non-metric multidimensional scaling) to visualize the integrated community structure of all of the major vertebrate groups we observed in the Sandhills. The ordinations revealed that while the snake, ground-nesting bird, and amphibian groups were similar to each other in terms of their avoidance of urban conditions, the cats and native mesopredator species actually seemed to define widely divergent axes of community variation. Cats in particular were separated from the other groups on 2 out of 3 axes of the species-space ordination. Still, as we noted above for the regression tree models, it is difficult to sort out with our correlative data set whether cats and other mesopredators truly played an independent role in structuring and/or depleting the other wildlife guilds along our route. More experimental approaches are recommended for trying to resolve whether overabundant predators or road mortality and inappropriate habitat are more to blame for the much reduced encounter rates we observed for the snakes, birds, and amphibians in urban areas. Future studies will also be needed to confirm the logical assumption that road encounter rates provide a reasonably accurate index of the relative abundance of the different animal groups along the survey routes.</p> / Dissertation

Texas A&M University (TAMU) supports a substantial breeding population of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) with one of the highest nest densities in Texas. There has been a long history of mourning dove research on the TAMU Campus, with initial population studies conducted in the 1950’s, and the most recent studies occurring in the 1980’s. The TAMU Campus and surrounding areas have experienced substantial changes associated with urbanization and expansion over the last 50 years, altering mourning dove habitat on and around campus. The objective of this study was to examine mourning dove nesting and production in an urban setting and determine how microhabitat and landscape features affect nest-site selection and nest success. Specifically, I (1) examined trends in mourning dove nesting density and nest success on the TAMU Campus, and (2) identified important microhabitat and landscape features associated with nest-site selection and nesting success. Mourning dove nests were located by systematically searching potential nest sites on a weekly basis from the late-March through mid-September. Nests were monitored until they either failed or successfully fledged at least 1 young. A total of 778 nests was located and monitored on campus. All nest locations were entered into ArcView GIS. An equal number of nests were randomly generated in ArcView and assigned to non-nest trees to evaluate habitat variables associated with nest-site selection for mourning doves. Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate the significance of microhabitat and landscape variables to nest-site selection and nest success. Comparisons with data collected in 1950, 1978, and 1979 showed relatively similar nesting densities, but a significant decrease in nest success over time. A comparison of microhabitat features between actual nest trees and random locations (non-nest trees) indicated increasing values of tree diameter at breast height and tree species were important predictors of mourning dove nest-site selection. Landscape features found important in dove nest-site selection were proximity to open fields, roads, and buildings. Proximity to roads and buildings also were significant predictors of nest success. Combining significant microhabitat and landscape variables for nest-site selection increased the predictability of the model indicating a possible hierarchical nest-site selection strategy.

Changes with land cover and land use are closely integrated with water and other ecological processes at the land surface. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the Edwards Aquifer region of southcentral Texas. The Edwards Aquifer contributing and recharge zones cover approximately 18,000 square kilometers in parts of 15 counties in Texas and includes San Antonio and Austin, the nation's eighth and nineteenth largest cities, respectively. Population growth within the counties that intersect the Edwards Aquifer contributing and recharge zones has taken place over the last two decades, with the logical translation being an expanded infrastructure. This implies that a greater amount of impervious surface coverage and other land cover changes have occurred. This work quantified the changes in land cover within the Edwards Aquifer contributing and recharge zones between the years 1986 and 2000. Increasing trends in impervious surface area and woodland growth were identified. Additionally, a new ArcView software tool was developed to process SSURGO soil data for use within the ArcView SWAT model. Hydrologic modeling for the Upper Sabinal River watershed, located within the Edwards Aquifer region, revealed that the high resolution SSURGO data produces different results when used in place of the existing STATSGO soils data. Finally, an index of urbanization was developed and evaluated to assist investigators in identifying potential areas of urbanization.

<p>This study analyses whether urbanization and poverty have any importance for private sector participation (PSP) in the water sector, in developing countries. In the beginning of the 1990’s there was a surge in the interest of the private sector to participate in water and sanitation projects, after a long period of public dominance. There is a large need for investments since much of the population in developing countries does not have access to water and sanitation services and the demand is increasing. At the same time the water sector is prone to inefficiencies resulting from externalities and natural monopoly characteristics, and is therefore often highly regulated.</p><p>A negative binominal regression model is used for the analysis. The dependent variable is the number of water and sanitation projects with private sector participation in a country. The independent variables are population, GDP/capita, aid, debt, water resources, government effectiveness, degree of urbanization and degree of poverty. The main results are that urbanization is positively significant for PSP in the water sector, while poverty has no significant effect.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Geography." Includes bibliographical references (p. 38-50).