Urban environments, as built environments, include the urban complex, buildings, urban infrastructures and also agricultural and semi-natural lands on the outskirts of the city. This ecosystem is very complex due to the presence of numerous natural and semi-natural elements, as well as the effects of various ecological, economic and social elements on formation and functions of urban ecosystem.

The goal of this course is to provide the concepts, theories and basics of studying the city from the ecological theories and to study the role of humans in the management of urban ecosystems.

Course Syllabus:

Introduction to urban ecology, urban ecosystem functions, analysis of urban structure and urban expansion patterns, introduction to urban ecosystems functions, living organisms responses to urban habitats, biodiversity in urban ecosystem and distribution patterns of biodiversity, plants and animals in urban ecosystem, biophysical process in urban ecosystem, the role of green spaces and parks in improvement of ecosystem services, urban expansion and climate change, the concept of sustainable city, urban pollutions such as air pollution, noise pollution, wastes, investigating the human role as a component of urban ecosystem, future of urban ecosystem such as population chanes, physical development and urban  sustainable designe, methods of analysis of urban environment such as sustainable analysis methods and structural and functional analysis, urban environmental policy and management, seminar presentation of an urban environment issue by students.