ULTRA-Ex: Parks and Vacant Lands as Mechanisms of Ecological and Social Stability in the Cleveland Urban Ecosystem

当前城市公园管理和城市景观设计的实践通常基于这样的原则：通过向社区居民灌输地方自豪感和环境管理价值观，增强城市社区内的生态系统服务，促进社会和生态稳定。然而，重要的问题仍然是关于城市公园的能力，以维持有意义的生态系统服务，造福城市居民，尽管多重，加速挑战的生态完整性，例如，人口过剩的鹿，入侵的植物和动物物种，废物和雨水的影响，特别是在老的，经济困难的城市。经济困难也导致许多城市出现大量空置或废弃的房产，城市景观设计师通常将其视为重新开发的机会，将自然设施和生态系统服务纳入城市核心。本研究的目标是调查公园社区内管理和最佳管理实践的社会决定因素，以响应社区流域保护组织提供的教育和外展计划和改造技术，并监测生态、水文和社会经济变量对这些干预措施的长期变化。将开发俄亥俄州凯霍加县空置和废弃房产的清单和生态/社会经济特征。这一过程将作为规划一个或多个社区重建的基础，并在未来实施对这些地点的生态、水文和社会经济变量的长期监测。该项目将促进科学和设计方法在城市生态系统研究中的整合。该项目将建立东北俄亥俄生态系统联盟（NEOECO），这是一个多机构合作伙伴关系，将重点和整合该地区在城市生态、景观设计、城市规划和自然资源管理方面的大量知识资产和研究能力。自然资源管理的主要机构在NEOECO内的参与将促进科学知识有效地转移到管理和振兴退化的克利夫兰城市生态系统的决策中。通过会议、研讨会和互联网进行的社区参与是这个项目的主要活动。NEOECO网站将为学术、专业和教育用户提供访问项目结果和数据的模式。教育推广也将通过与NEOECO参与者主持的现有项目互动来完成，这些项目为克利夫兰大都会学区的学生和教师提供城市生态培训。参与项目的研究生和本科生将接受综合生态科学、资源管理和城市景观设计等要素的跨学科培训。

Current practices of urban park management and urban landscape design are often predicated upon the principle that enhancing ecosystem services within urban neighborhoods promotes both social and ecological stability by instilling pride-of-place and environmental stewardship values among neighborhood residents. However, important questions remain concerning the ability of urban parks to sustain meaningful ecosystem services that benefit city residents, despite multiple, accelerating challenges to ecological integrity, e.g., overpopulated deer, invasive plant and animal species, waste- and storm water impacts, especially within older, economically-challenged cities. Economic hardship has also resulted in an abundance of vacant/abandoned properties in many cities, which urban landscape designers often view as opportunities for re-development that incorporate natural amenities and ecosystem services into the urban core. The objectives of this research will be to investigate social determinants of stewardship and best management practices within park neighborhoods in response to educational and outreach programming and retrofit technologies supplied by a community-based watershed protection organization, and monitor the long-term changes in ecological, hydrologic, and socioeconomic variables in response to these interventions. Inventories and ecological/socioeconomic characterizations of vacant and abandoned properties within Cuyahoga County, Ohio, will be developed. This process will serve as a basis for planning the redevelopment of one or more neighborhoods and future implementation of long-term monitoring of ecological, hydrologic, and socioeconomic variables within those sites.The project will promote the integration of scientific and design approaches to urban ecosystem studies. The project will establish the Northeast Ohio Ecosystem Consortium (NEOECO), a multi-institutional partnership that will bring focus and integration to the region's considerable intellectual assets and research capacity in urban ecology, landscape design, urban planning, and natural resource management. The participation of leading agencies for natural resource management within NEOECO will promote the effective transfer of scientific knowledge into decision-making for management and revitalization of the degraded Cleveland urban ecosystem. Community-engagement through meetings, workshops, and the Internet are principal activities of this project. The NEOECO website will provide modes of access to project results and data tailored to scholarly, professional, and educational users. Educational outreach will also be accomplished by interacting with existing programs hosted by NEOECO participants that provide urban ecological training to students and teachers within the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Graduate and undergraduate participants in the project will receive interdisciplinary training integrating elements of ecological science, resource management, and urban landscape design.