Urban ecological and social-ecological research in the City of Cape Town: insights emerging from an urban ecology CityLab

There is an ecology that is particular to the urban (Breuste et al. 2008). Urban ecological systems are deeply situated in the functioning of society, and as such have unique drivers and selection pressures (Collins et al. 2000, Yli-Pelkonen and Niemela 2005, Sochat et al. 2006). What has emerged in recent work is a complex of in- and of- city ecologies which strive to address sustainability at multiple scales, often in the context of joint anthropogenic and conservation agendas (Grimm et al. 2008). In the City of Cape Town there are multiple demands on urban land use to meet development and conservation needs. The consequences of an unjust history are still very much evident in the City of Cape Town today where development discrepancies are acute and the demand for short term delivery high (Turok and Watson 2001). The City is also host to exceptional, and geographically restricted, biodiversity, on a scale that gives it international conservation attention (Myers et al. 2000). Like other cities around the world, Cape Town has seen phenomenal population growth in the last century, growing from just over 630,000 in 1951, to 3.7 million today (Quick 1995, City of Cape Town 2010). This developing City, situated in the south, with its myriad of social and environmental issues, playing out at various scales, makes Cape Town both a relevant and exciting place to further the field of urban ecology.