Adelaide: Nature of a City

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Urban environments are complex, dynamic, rapidly changing systems controlled by man. Despite living in cities for more than 4,000 years, we know very little about how cities function as ecological entities. This book tracks the changes to the biological communities, to the plants and animals, and to the structure and nature of the built environment of the city of Adelaide from its inception in 1836 to the present day and predicts the future through to 2036. Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the central and southern state of Australia. Adelaide was established as a free colony in 1836 and is today a large vibrant city separated by around 800 kilometres from the nearest major city (Melbourne). As a separate isolated city, established by literate, well-educated settlers who collected and retained a magnificent amount of information on the pre-European environment and recent historical change, Adelaide is a wonderful model to understand the dynamic changes that have occurred in a large urban community.

This book is a deep but easy to read analysis of the biological life that forms the basis of the city of Adelaide. With contributions by 75 South Australian scientists, architects, engineers, town planners, agriculturalists, social scientists, geographers, historians and experts from other disciplines, this book describes and analyses the local environment and predicts the future in terms of species loss and gain, biodiversity change and community structure. The book also contains over 130 boxes, that are vignettes on interesting topics relating to the chapters, and which make fascinating reading in themselves.

This book is aimed at readers over 15 years old, with an interest in the ecology of cities, and/or the biology of plants and animals, the form and function of the green components of the built environment, and the history of the development of a most remarkable city.