The discipline of urban ecology arose in the 1990s, primarily motivated by a widespread interest
in documenting the distribution and abundance of animals and plants in cities. Today, urban
ecologists have greatly expanded their scope of study to include ecological and socioeconomic
processes, urban management, planning, and design, with the goal of addressing issues of
sustainability, environmental quality, and human well-being within cities and towns. As the
global pace of urbanization continues to intensify, urban ecology provides the ecological and
social data, as well as the principles, concepts and tools, to create livable cities.