6 August 2002 City and University form Urban Ecology Advisory Group

Christchurch City Council and Lincoln University have joined forces to establish an Urban Ecology Liaison and Advisory group.

The group consists of 10 members from the City Council's Parks and Waterways, City Development and Policy teams, and from Lincoln University's Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation, and Landscape Architecture and Natural Resources Engineering groups.

The purpose of the new urban ecology group is to contribute to the goal of achieving a sustainable city in Christchurch by promoting and co-ordinating research, teaching and education projects in urban ecology.

This will be achieved by –

• Maintaining an informed and comprehensive view of urban ecological processes and what constitutes the clean, green, sustainable city.
• Enabling contact, networking and relationship building between the partners leading to information exchange, access to national and international work in urban ecology, joint use of visiting specialists, contribution to the University's curricula and teaching programmes and providing opportunities for the application of student and post graduate project work in Christchurch.
• Co-ordinating and publicising initiatives and contacts between the partners to ensure maximum benefit and to avoid duplication.
• Supporting and influencing the University's urban ecology research activity by joining funding applications, facilitating access to data, information and field sites and promoting work directed at knowledge gaps evident in the City's environmental management.
• Assessing proposals for joint activity against the City's urban and open space policy framework to ensure the work is relevant and applicable.
• Acting as broker between parties seeking research/investigation into urban ecology concerns and those able to fund and resource the work.
• Involving other appropriate stakeholders to achieve a successful outcome.
• Preparing and maintaining a database of both academic and physical project work in urban ecology.

The partnership offers benefits for both the City in helping to achieve its sustainable city outcomes, and Lincoln University in helping to reach its academic objectives in this field, says Allan Watson, Policy Leader at Christchurch City Council.

"There are benefits in having access to Lincoln University's resources, and the opportunity to link research and teaching activities with real urban problems encountered in the City. Where this link exists, the Council can support the University in its applications for funding from other agencies, provide information and data, identify projects and facilitate fieldwork," said Mr Watson.

In this year's State of the Nation's Environment address at Lincoln University, Parliamentary Environment Commissioner Dr Morgan Williams said "people love to live in lovely places" but for New Zealand's cities to remain inhabitable it is essential to put people first and take a step by step approach to the implementation of a "master plan".

Dr Williams listed a number of points New Zealanders needed to start thinking about in relation to the future of their cities and they included "education for sustainable living" and the need for "urban research" to underpin planning.

Professor Ian Spellerberg, Director of the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation, which has a strong urban ecology research group within it, sees the new advisory group as making a contribution in both these areas.

"Urban ecology is the fundamental basis of a 'clean, green image. With only about 14 percent of New Zealand's population living in rural areas today, there is a concentration of human impacts on the ecological systems within our towns and cities.

"Centres of urban ecological research are now found in major cities throughout the world. Such initiatives have been driven by the need to seek solutions for sustainability.

"Urban ecology is not just about the plants and animals in a city. Rather, urban ecology is about nature's goods and services which provide fundamental support for human well­ being and the human environment.

"Care for the urban ecological system has become vital and the new advisory group formed between Christchurch City Council and Lincoln University's Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation is a very timely, much needed, and exciting initiative," says Professor Spellerberg.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Allan Watson, Leader, Infrastructure & Facilities Policy, Christchurch City Council, New Zealand.