URBAN HABITAT

A habitat is a home environment for plants and animals or other organisms. For example,
meerkats and lions like living in grassland habitats rather than in the chilly Arctic with polar
bears and penguins. In the same way, there are places around the world that are perfect for
humans to live and that meet all our needs. Unlike animals, we humans are able to adapt to
different habitats quickly because we can bundle up in jumpers and blankets if it’s cold, or sit
in a paddling pool with an ice lolly if it’s hot. We are also able to adapt habitats to suit ourselves
by building shelter in a hot place or digging a well for water in a dry place. This means that there
are many habitats that humans can live in, as long as our basic needs for food and water are met.

A habitat is a place where an organism makes its home. A habitat meets all the environmental
conditions an organism needs to survive. For an animal, that means everything it needs to find
and gather food, select a mate, and successfully reproduce.

For a plant, a good habitat must provide the right combination of light, air, water, and soil. For
example, the prickly pear cactus, which is adapted for sandy soil, dry climates, and bright
sunlight, grows well in desert areas like the Sonoran Desert in northwest Mexico. It would
not thrive in wet, cool areas with a large amount of overcast (shady) weather, like the U.S. states
of Oregon or Washington.

The main components of a habitat are shelter, water, food, and space. A habitat is said to have
a suitable arrangement when it has the correct amount of all of these. Sometimes, a habitat can
meet some components of a suitable arrangement, but not all.

The resulting effects and interrelationships of human population concentrations, the built
environment, and the biophysical environment.

Urban habitats are extremely diverse and examples include parks, cemeteries, vacant lots,
streams and lakes, gardens and yards, campus areas, golf courses, bridges, air ports,
and landfills (see Landfills). These habitats are highly dynamic, influenced by both biophysical
and ecological drivers on the one hand and social and economic drivers on the other. Urban
 landscapes often represent cases of extreme habitat fragmentation. Habitat patches in the urban
core are more or less strongly isolated from each other by a matrix of built environment
making dispersal risky and difficult at least for poorly dispersing organisms.

IN EASY TERMS

1. Human habitats are places where people live and where they can find all the things they need
to survive.
2. Most human habitats are in the same sorts of places as animal habitats,
like forests and grasslands, but humans and animals live in very different kinds of shelters.
3. Both humans and animals need shelter to survive, but what humans think of as their shelter
and home is very different from what animals think of as home.
4. Humans adapt their shelter – their home – depending on where they live and whether it’s warm
or cool there, or whether it’s very wet or very dry.
5. In fact, humans can build or find what they need in order to live almost anywhere in the whole
world.
6. Some human habitats are very crowded, such as in large cities, and others have lots of space,
such as in the country.
7. Other things humans need in their habitat are food, water and oxygen. Animals need these
things too.

URBAN HABITATS-FROM PAST TO PRESENT

C i t i e s h a v e e x i s t e d for thousands of years and can be traced back to the river valley
civilizations of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), Egypt, India, and China. At first, these
settlements depended largely on agriculture and domestic cattle, but as they grew in size they
became centers for merchants and traders.

Urban growth, also known as urbanization, accelerated dramatically with the advent of
industrialization some 200 years ago. At that time, large numbers of people moved to cities in
search of jobs, mostly in factories. But the most rapid growth has taken place over the past 50
years. While less than one-third of the world's population lived in cities in 1950, about two
thirds of humanity is expected to live in urban areas by 2030. Most of that urbanization is
taking place in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

What does it mean to be urban?

Urban is defined as "that which is characteristic of a city." But what exactly is a city? In the
past, walls may have defined a city. But today's city boundaries are often blurred. Are suburbs,
which are often called metropolitan areas, part of cities?

Cities make a lot of sense for humans. People are concentrated in a small space rather than
being spread out over a large territory. This allows the government and others to provide
services such as water, electricity, and transportation to a larger number of people. Schools and
shops are more easily accessible than in rural areas.

Cities have always been at the center of economic growth and technological advances. The
promise of jobs and prosperity pulls people to cities. But their rapid growth has also brought
with it many negative things: violence, poverty, overcrowding, health problems, and pollution.
Many cities in developing countries in particular are growing too rapidly for their own good,
with many residents unable to find jobs and forced to live in slums.

Urban expansion is also encroaching on wildlife habitats everywhere. Increasingly people live
and work in close proximity to wild animals whose native habitats have been lost or broken up.
Many animals—from mice and cockroaches to pigeons and squirrels—have adapted to city
life, taking advantage of abundant food and warmer temperatures.

THE CONCERN

Urban habitats are essentially altered or transformed by human use. Land may be predominantly
occupied by constructions or infrastructure and the ecosystems and species assemblages that
occurred there previously may be completely or almost completely lost. As well as grey space,
brownfield sites, roofs and balconies, urban areas may also include elements of greenspace. Not
only can these areas support surprisingly rich and diverse rich ranges of plants and animals, they
also offer great potential for biodiversity enhancement and ecological restoration.

TYPES OF HABITATS

Modified habitats

Areas that may contain a large proportion of plant and/or animal species of non-native origin,
and/or where human activity has substantially modified an area’s primary ecological functions
and species composition. In practice, natural and modified habitats exist on a continuum that
ranges from largely untouched, pristine natural habitats to intensively managed modified
habitats.

Critical habitat

Any area of the planet with high biodiversity conservation significance based on the existence of
habitat of significant importance to critically endangered or endangered species, restricted range
or endemic species, globally significant concentrations of migratory and/or congregatory species,
highly threatened and/or unique ecosystems and key evolutionary processes. Critical habitats are
any area of the planet with high biodiversity value, including (i) habitat of significant importance
to Critically Endangered and/or Endangered species; (ii) habitat of significant importance to
endemic and/or restricted-range species; (iii) habitat supporting globally significant
concentrations of migratory species and/or congregatory species; (iv) highly threatened and/or
unique ecosystems; and/or (v) areas associated with key evolutionary processes.

Natural habitats

Areas composed of viable assemblages of plant and/or animal species of largely native origin
and/or where human activity had not essentially modified an area's primary ecological functions
and species composition.
Natural habitats retain ecological assemblages, functions and species composition that are
attributable to natural evolutionary processes and have not been substantially modified by human
activities. Truly natural and unaltered habitats are increasingly rare

Semi-natural habitats

Semi-natural habitats have ecological assemblages that have been substantially modified in their
composition, balance or function by human activities. They may have evolved through
traditional agricultural, pastoral or other human activities and depend on their continuation to
retain their characteristic composition, structure and function. Despite not being natural, these
habitats and ecosystems often have high value in terms of biodiversity and the services they
provide.

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