Environ Manage (2006) 38:799–809
DOI 10.1007/s00267-005-0148-8
Interaction Between the Environment and Animals in Urban
Settings: Integrated and Participatory Planning
Elvira Tarsitano
Received: 20 May 2005 / Accepted: 29 April 2006
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006
Abstract In urban ecosystems, the ecological system
has become completely unbalanced; this, in turn, has
led to an increase in well-known problems such as air
pollution, ground pollution, and water pollution. This
imbalance has also led to the growth and spread of
pathogens harmful to man, animals, and plants. Urban
sustainability indicators, both global and local, also
‘‘indicate’’ the percentage of population, but these refer
only to the human population, not the animal popula-
tion. Cities need good waste, water, and air manage-
ment, effective traffic planning, and good zoning of
businesses, crafts, and services; over and above these
activities, cities also need for planning to take into ac-
count the existence of pets (dogs, cats, and etc.) and
nonpet animals (insects, birds, mice, etc.). Cities tend to
be designed around humans and ‘‘on a human scale,’’
without taking into account the fact that a huge animal
population is living side by side with people. That ex-
plains why overcrowding tends to go hand in hand with
urbanization; all these populations, including humans,
need to adapt to new spaces and often need to drasti-
cally change their behavior. This is a fact that must be
included when drafting sustainable city plans. The
supposed strategy is that of ‘‘integrated-participatory’’
control of the interactions between the environment
and animals in the cities. Strategy will focus on the
development of integrated approaches and tools for
environment and animal management in the context of
E. Tarsitano
Department of Animal Health and Welfare,
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine,
University of Bari,
70010, Valenzano, Bari, Italy
e-mail: e.tarsitano@veterinaria.uniba.it
urban settings. This will require such specific methods
as ecological balance sheets and ecoplans for the
planning, management, and control of the interrelation
among environment, animal, and public health. The
objective is to develop a better understanding of urban
biodiversity and of urban ecosystem functioning, in
order to understand and minimize the negative impacts
of human activities on them. The research will focus on
assessing and forecasting changes in urban biodiversity,
structure, function, and dynamics of urban ecosystems,
with relationships among society, economy, biodiver-
sity, and habitats.
Keywords Urban ecosystem Æ Ecological balance Æ
Urban indicators Æ Cities Æ Animal population Æ
Integrated-participatory planning
Introduction
The impact of Human Activity
After the industrial revolution, the human population
grew so rapidly and in such a densely concentrated
fashion and increasingly learned how to modify its
environment (McMichael and Beaglehole 2000) that it
began to effect enormous changes in the environment
(Mumford 1956).
Technological innovation, scientific progress, and
medical breakthroughs have not always gone hand in
hand with an improvement in the quality of life, par-
ticularly in cities (Mumford 1968). The changes in
habits of modern-day civilization, the massive and
unbridled growth in the number of buildings, the pop-
ulation density of houses, and rising industrialization
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have all taken their toll on the delicate balance of
ecological systems and have given rise to the well-
known problems of air pollution, soil pollution, and
water pollution. These factors have also spurred the
growth and spread of pathogens for people (P.J.
Hancock 2002), animals, and plants (Anderson and
May 1979). Pets and synanthropic animals—whether
desired animals or not—have promoted (Petney, 2001;
Sutherst 2001) and even accelerated health risks (Childs
2004; Deplazes and others 2004; Sutherst 2004) in cities.
Changes in the urban settings (e.g., climatic change,
deforestation, desertification, habitat modification)
(Kalnay and Cai 2003; Patz and others 2005) are
therefore likely to lead to increases or decreases in
vector (or reservoir host) populations, thus changing
population densities, contact, and transmission. The
environment, animals, and public health are interre-
lated. Pathogen vectors in the urban environment are
not only hazardous to public health but also interfere
with the complex mechanisms governing urban eco-
systems, due to the profound changes wrought by
people (Ambroise-Thomas 2000; Guernier and others
2004; Patz and others 2000; Petney 2001). The impact of
human activity has consequences not only on the eco-
systems but also directly or indirectly on human and
animal health. The decades after the two world wars
have seen, in almost all European countries (Parr and
others 2002) and in the United States (Ji 2004), both a
rise in national economies and an improvement in the
social conditions of the middle classes. Modern-day
cities count an increasingly numerous animal popula-
tion, borne out by the figures; in the United States,
there are 63 million cats and 54 million dogs living with
families [figures are supplied by the Italian Ministry of
Health (www.ministerosalute.it)].
The same holds true for Europe. For example, in
Italy alone, according to a survey carried out by
Eurispes in 2002, there are 44 million pets, mainly
dogs, cats, aquarium fish, and canaries. There are,
moreover, an estimated 3000 owners of large cats
(lions, panthers, leopards) throughout the country and
somewhere near 60,000 owners of reptiles and almost
30,000 land tortoises (www.eurispes.it).
Thus, humans are not the only inhabitants of cities;
they share them with pets (dogs, cats, birds, guinea pigs,
mice, hamsters, rabbits, squirrels, turtles, reptiles, etc.)
and with stray and semistray dogs and synanthropic
animals (animals that live in close association with hu-
mans; e.g., pigeons, swifts, bats, rats, mice) (Ballarini
2003; McIntyre and others 2001). Humans react to these
synanthropic animals in completely contrasting ways. In
some cases, humans react favorably and in some cases
with indifference; at the other end of the spectrum,
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there might be repulsion and at times even hatred
(zoophobia) (Ballarini 2003). During the first stage of
urbanization, there were very few pet and synanthropic
animal species in cities. The tendency in modern cities
is to build living environments that only take into
consideration the needs of humans and do not in any
way cater to the needs of that vast population of ani-
mals living with humans (pets) and in artificially created
niches (synanthropic animals) (Tarsitano 2003a). This
urban overcrowding goes hand in hand with the process
of urbanization itself; the populations in question are
forced to adapt to new spaces and to drastically change
their behavior (Moore and Mitchell 1997; Romi 2001)
and their ecotrophic and reproductive needs (Tarsitano
2003a). Further research should be applied to the
interaction between the environment and animals in
urban settings, environmental quality, damage assess-
ment, and environmental liability considering the re-
lated policy aspects in the community likely to affect
human and animal population health. The actions
should provide improved environmental monitoring,
early-warning tools, and integrated and participatory
planning. The research will focus on the development
of methods for appraising environmental quality and
health and on environmental monitoring tools (stan-
dard, measurement, and testing).
The Urban Ecosystem, Ecological Niches, and
Specialized Fauna
Cities represent an artificial ecosystem (Botkin and
Beveridge 1997) created by human; cities are both
complex and limited and are in a constant state of
transformation, given the innumerable variables pres-
ent (Parlange 1998). The urban environment is partic-
ularly vulnerable to colonization by synanthropic
animals (invasive species) (Parlange 1998). Cities have a
number of microenvironments made up of subsets with
a wide range of different environmental conditions, al-
though they are all close to each other, thus allowing
frequent and easy exchanges. Just think of pantries in
homes and warehouses, basements and gardens, tree-
lined avenues, and downtown areas (train stations, bus
stations, depots, etc.) of a city (Tarsitano 2003a).
These are microenvironments in which highly spe-
cialized fauna can thrive and become dominant and in
which the normal balanced relationships among vari-
ous species (Rodrigues and others 2004) never devel-
op—where relationships are deeply unbalanced and
one-sided. Modern-day cities have a very low level of
biodiversity; natural competition and predation mech-
anisms are altered, leading to the abnormal and
unbridled growth of some species and low fluctuations
Environ Manage (2006) 38:799–809
of animal populations. These are cities in which pop-
ulation dynamics are skewed and natural competition
regulating the delicate mechanisms of selection of
species is lacking. The dominance of some species over
others, with an attendant increase in the number of
individuals of the same species [e.g., blood-sucking
dipterans such as mosquitoes (Moore and Mitchell
1997; Rojas and others 2004; Romi 2001)], is not only
an annoyance for humans and animals but can also
promote the onset and spread of disease (Deplazes and
others 2004; Sutherst 2004) such as West Nile
(Kulasekera and others 2001; Marfin and Gubler 2001),
Dengue (Hales and others 2002; Jacobs 2000), and
filariasis (Cancrini and others 2003).
Once they settle in a city, some animal species can
spread rapidly and, if unchecked, can colonize other
niches, thereby establishing a set of interconnections
and creating problems involving a broad range of
interests and types of expertise. Given these fea-
tures—explosive system growth and rapid transforma-
tion—the urban ecosystem is basically an enormous
permanent laboratory in which researchers can study
the mechanisms of adaptation and evolution in animal
and plant communities and in which information can
be gathered to draw up guidelines establishing an
acceptable level of urban sustainability for the entire
community of living beings (Sachs 2004).
Being able to manage the urban environment,
therefore, requires knowledge of the delicate balance
governing the relationships among various species,
knowledge of the environmental conditions necessary
for growth and reproduction, and knowledge of the
mechanisms blocking that growth (de Neufville 1986;
Twardowska 2004).
Proper regional planning, which is part and parcel of
an overall integrated management system of an urban
environment, requires a correct grasp of these very
topical issues, which becomes a factor impacting ecol-
ogy, ethology, and pathology (Patz and others 2004).
The interaction of a pathogen, a host, and the biotic
and abiotic environment to produce disease can be
viewed through an ecological lens (Borrella and others
2005; May and Anderson 1979; Zeier and others 2005).
It follows that all these issues must be studied from a
number of viewpoints, in a multidisciplinary fashion.
Methods
Integrated and Participatory Planning Approach
Tackling the above-described issues requires what can
be termed an ‘‘integrated-participatory’’ control
801
(Blonda and others 1997; Tanner 1989; Tarsitano
2003b). Cities are true ‘‘organisms’’ belongs to a more
complex system, the surrounding or catchment area.
The principles of the development and growth of an
ecosystem can be applied to planning and to the
establishment of a rational regional planning policy
(Nancy and others 2000). Integrated-participatory
planning (IPP) is the most modern instrument avail-
able for planning and organizing human activities in
urban areas—areas that are both urban and extraur-
ban. One of the basic aspects involves carrying out a
detailed analysis of the area and the flows of material
and energy coursing through it, in order to define how
to restructure and reconvert the area itself, from every
point of view: social, business, infrastructure, housing,
and environment. The plan should focus on gathering
datasets and developing models and tools for assessing
and forecasting the impacts of socioeconomic mecha-
nisms on biodiversity and ecosystems (including pets
and synanthropic animals) and, so, contribute to the
development of mitigation and restoration strategies
(Cadenasso 1999; Foresman and others 1999; Green-
land and others 2003; Nancy and others 2000). All of
this must be done in an integrated and participatory
way. ‘‘Integrated’’ means managing a system in all its
complexity in such a way as to ensure that all of its
component parts work together harmoniously while
respecting the environmental and social/cultural equi-
librium. ‘‘Participatory’’ means that planning includes
deep and active cooperation among the social part-
ners, the business community, and the citizenry at
large. In other words, the plan is not only the upshot of
the work of some ‘‘experts’’; it is not some top-down
plan foisted on a community but a plan that has
developed organically with the full support and input
of citizens and subject to checks and balances, chan-
ges, and restructuring during the course of its imple-
mentation. The scheme in Figure 1 describes the steps
of the IPP procedure. A brief plan of each step is in
boxes; interactions and feedbacks are represented by
arrows:
Step A. Draft plan. Basic criteria after local area
research and data processing for detailed planning
Step B. First stage. Public, business community, and
social groups presentation, which starts the participa-
tory comparison that facilitates and encourages the
active participation of those affected in the decision-
making and implementation process
Step C. Second stage (updated basic plan)
Step D. Third stage. Detailed project and assessment
Step E. Fourth stage. Implementation and field
assessment. Development of integrated goal-setting
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Fig. 1 Scheme of IPP with relationships
between society, economy and ecology in
urban settings
and policy formulation at the national, regional, and
local levels that takes into account environmental,
social, demographic, and economic issues.
An integrated and participatory action plan requires
that all management, prevention, and control activities
involving animals (both pets and synanthropic) in an
urban setting include the following elements: planning,
management, and control (Tables 1–3) (Ballarini 2003;
Molyneux 1993; Tarsitano 2003b). The quality results
of the operating plans varies considerably from area to
area depending on its complexity degree, the skill and
commitment of the technical staff and operating
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companies, and the administrative management capa-
bilities of city councils, province, and region. It has to
be stressed that certain unforeseen criticalities might
emerge at a later date that will need to be carefully
considered and tackled during the various control
activities. The sheer size of urban territories compli-
cates the management of the different environments
affected by the plan; therefore, it is better to precisely
define the specific area to which the study refers (urban
territory), dividing it into zones and subzones in order
to facilitate operation settings. A standard format that
can be specifically tailored to emerging operational
requirements and to the features of the specific
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Table 1 Integrated and participatory action plan in urban settings

COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAM

Acknowledging and defining the problem

The definition and classification of the relevant issue includes defining neighboring ‘‘urban areas’’ and ‘‘extra-urban areas’’.
The aim is to correctly frame and avoid thwarting subsequent control activities
General interfaces with the territory
Relations with rural areas. Relations with water management plans. Relations with road network. Relations with urban
and industrial communities and the problem of dispersion. Relations with parks and sports/recreational facilities.
Planning processes. Aims of the plan Preliminary data and documents. Orographic and geological status. Geographical/
demographical data: town perimeter, total area of district affected by the plan, resident town population,
total district population, mean population density, seasonal population flows (tourism, employment, trade fairs). Climactic data:
mean annual and monthly temperature, mean annual and monthly rainfall, humidity, wind conditions.
Altimetric data: variations or uniformity of altitude. Pedological data: soil type (limestone, clay, sand etc.), tendency of
area towards stagnation of water, presence of aggregates. Eco-environmental data. Subsoil and water table data.
Data on critical spots along the coast. Data on air and sea ports. Data on number of drainage holes in streets.
Pumping stations and storage facilities, rainwater tanks. Water purification plants. Sewerage system. Water supply.
Waste storage and disposal facilities. Data on most important channels. Hydraulic load on water courses.
Irrigation water distribution schedule.
Mapping and monitoring the territory
Following a detailed preliminary analysis, the territory needs to be mapped using appropriate cartographic resources;
this task may be completed during the planning phase.
Choosing the strategy
When choosing among various strategic options, a global assessment of possible alternatives must include economic
and financial considerations, alongside other criteria such as:
Presence of protected areas
Impact on water bodies and the ecological balance
Operating safety
Odor and noise emissions
Risks associated with products used
Impact on non-target flora and fauna
Time-related effects (urgency, stages of completion)
Funding
Funding may be supplied at the EU, national, regional, provincial and city council level, depending on the severity
and extent of the problem. For identical problems in neighboring towns, planning should give preference to integrated
solutions, via coordinated agreements with the various towns and Provinces and the competent Regional authorities.
Naturally the outcome of this approach will be to optimize the cost/benefit ratio, and increase the likelihood of
the initiative’s success.
Operating plan
This stage consists in processing the data gathered as per the abovementioned points and drafting a details plan based on:
Operational methods and procedures
Sampling methodology
Laboratory analyses and testing
Identification of areas requiring corrective action
Training of operating personnel
Overall financial plan
Continuous assessment of results
Accordingly, it is essential to use various methods to continuously monitor the results of the program, including:
Reviewing the outcome of the project
Gauging the level of familiarity with the project on the part of the citizenry
Assessing financial resources
Seeking the financial support of members of the business community who care about the success of the project
In this stage, it is useful to monitor other parameters such as the development of resistance, and any increase
in the spread of the problem.
Program expansion based on control activities
The plan is subject to modification and re-arrangement at any time based on the outcome of continuous
inspections and monitoring activities, which will provide invaluable indications for steering the future
direction of the action plan, and fine-tuning strategic decisions to maintain and strengthen the plan.

territory for a more detailed approach could be em- that differ from zone to zone. Each situation requires
ployed; such a standard format might include different the creation of different symbols, and each community
elements. Urban settings feature countless situations needs to be pinpointed on special topographic maps, to

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Table 2 Integrated and participatory management

MANAGEMENT COMPONENTS

Management of the environment

These actions include:
-promoting the natural outflow of ground waters, by removing waste that obstructs waterway beds, and by
leveling counter-slopes;
-preventing the beds of depressions from becoming waterproof due to dumping of fine materials (including, but not
limited to aggregates);
-examine and complete sewerage systems so as to avoid areas of stagnation such as trapdoors, where raw sewage
can harbor many insect species;
-combat illegal dumping of fluid and solid wastes;
-adopt effective coastline management systems. Coastal cities are characterized by principally rocky coastlines,
where rock-pools are often formed even in the vicinity of ‘‘promenades’’. These cavities in the rocks become
filled with a combination of seawater and rainwater: these conditions offer the perfect degree of salinity for the
growth of Diptera larvae. Clearly, the preliminary remediation of areas prone to stagnating ground water
can be undertaken after a sufficiently in-depth investigation to discover:
1) the nature and origin of the water: it may be rainwater, or water coming from legal or illegal landfills;
2) the climatic conditions and pluviometric status of the area under examination. Such a study, based on
multi-annual observations, and including an assessment of the dimension of the discharges, will help to
establish if and when conditions favorable to stagnating water occur during the year.
3) the duration of pools, depending on air temperatures and the amount of incoming water, but primarily the
permeability of the substrate.
4) the nature and condition of outcropping rocks (including backfill, and in the subsoil (composition, granulometry,
degree of cementation, fissuring, permeability, etc.
5) morphology of the area, identification of surface features that may favor the channeling of water, a study
of the size and current status of hydrographic basins.
Planning of urban parks and gardens
Parks and gardens perform a multitude of functions in cities: they contribute to defending nature and
safeguarding biodiversity, representing a mosaic of varied biotopes, and to defending and enhancing
the urban landscape.
Establishment and management of animal rights offices
I – PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES
1) Implementation functions
- Preparation of an ‘‘Urban Animals’ Statute’’
- Preparation of an ‘‘Urban Fauna Plan’’
- Preparation of an urban animal population management plan
- Preparation of Municipal Ordinances (noise, hygiene, health, safety, environment, animal protection, etc.)
2) Coordination functions
2-a – Direct interventions
- Town planning actions
- Management and control of animal populations (management of stray, feral or harmful animals, etc.)
- Detection and reporting of breaches of the regulations
- Control and corrective actions to improve behavior related to the trading of animals
2-b – Management activities with interventions relative to:
- improving the cleanliness of public places, and areas where animals are bred and sold
- noise control (dogs and birds)
- animal disease control (epidemiological investigations, health and medical prophylaxis, on-call and emergency
veterinary service, etc.) ( Cooperation with practicing vets and public veterinary services)
- protection of animals in public and private places, and in public transport networks
- urban programs designed to facilitate the presence of animals in cities
- assistance to the local community for improved identification of pets (dogs and cats), control of dog and cat
populations. In conjunction with vets, free veterinary services for animals owned by handicapped
individuals, low-income and unemployed individuals, etc..
3) Training, education and information (in cooperation with practicing veterinarians, animal protection associations, etc.).
- public awareness-raising and education by means of films, conferences, poster campaigns, etc; in schools and
among the community at large, professional categories, pet owners, etc.
II – PERSONS INVOLVED:
- Representative from the City Council
- City Council officials with relevant specific full-time duties (a Vet from the Veterinary Hygiene department;
Head of the dog-catchers department, Parks and gardens, etc.)
- Representatives of: local animal lovers groups; college of veterinarians, physicians, pharmacists; Local
health unit; Public health and hygiene services.

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Table 2 Continued
MANAGEMENT COMPONENTS

III – FUNDING:
- Public institutions
- Subsidies etc. from private sources
Preparation of an urban fauna plan
- Accurate definition and identification of urban biotopes, and mapping of same, if possible using computerized methods;
- Census-taking of individual species and biotopes, and mapping of same, if possible using GIS
(Geographical Information System) technology;
- Analysis of individual biotopes in relation to the following parameters:
* Concentration of principal species and/or special constituting a local emergency in the specific biotope,
also in relation to emerging problems;
* Correlation between animal overcrowding and biotope characteristics;
* Correlation between animal populations in the individual biotope;
* Health monitoring of individual biotopes, by sampling emerging (overcrowded) animal species or special
defined as ‘‘Environmental Health Sentinels’’.

Table 3 Control activities involving animals in urban ecosystems

CONTROL ACTIVITIES

Vector control: Biology, ecology and ethology

It is therefore worth noting that in the battle against native vectors, the aim must be to bring target species down to
manageable levels, not to completely eradicate them: if a species is completely eradicated from its ecological niche,
there is a chance that it might be replaced by another more aggressive and dangerous species: as the saying goes,
‘‘better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know’’. For instance, a possible competitor of Culex pipiens might
be Aedes albopictus (tiger mosquito), which is a far more aggressive and annoying species.
Reservoir control: Biology, ecology and ethology
Many higher order animals (vertebrates) live in close contact with humans for a variety of reasons. Often these
animals act as healthy carriers of disease and therefore are vehicles of contagion for numerous pathogens. The most common
reservoirs in the urban environment are dogs, foxes, rodents, pigeons and others. Here too, it is
vital to understand the biology, ecology and ethology of both reservoirs and the microorganisms they carry and transmit. It is
essential to efficiently manage the environment so as to prevent populations of stray dogs and pests like rodents
and pigeons from growing and reproducing by eliminating the degraded conditions in which they thrive.

be produced in the planning phase. The success of all
subsequent actions will partly depend on the local
maps being kept current via scheduled on-the-spot
inspections. This will enable areas requiring priority
action to be identified based on land morphology, cli-
mate, and land-use patterns. Thus, all of the gathered
information will represent the result of the following
actions: researching the specific problem, mapping the
relevant territory via on-the-spot inspections, and car-
rying out continuous monitoring activities with the
purpose of effectively managing the problem at hand.
The strategy adopted will vary depending on the issue
under examination, the situation detected, and the
severity and prevalence of the problem. To ensure the
success of the action plan, there will be a need for
short-, medium-, and long-term strategies based on the
coordinated and combined use of skills and expertise
provided by professionals representing many different
sciences. The application of an integrated-participatory
plan that is associated with the presence of animals in
an urban environment cannot overlook the fact that
animals are biological entities and, as such, feature
innumerable variables (Table 1) (Tarsitano 2003b).
Our understanding of the environments that act as
foci for several animal species makes it clear that
control strategies must be based primarily on preven-
tion (i.e., on the elimination of sites that foster animal
reproduction and development). A suitable local area
planning enables the appropriate corrective actions to
be adopted. The choice of an efficient planning of ac-
tions to install and manage city parks and green areas
can prevent the onset of problems caused by animal
species that constitute a nuisance or even a public
health threat, as well as problems caused by plant-
eating species that feed on the plants found in public
parks and gardens. For example, in cities where tree
trimming is carried out irrationally, it is not unknown
for ‘‘rot’’ to develop that harbors Diptera larvae,

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particularly mosquitoes. Effective local area planning
as part of an integrated-participatory management
system envisages strict control of all urban green areas
and includes preventing the spread of synanthropic
fauna. Based on a preliminary examination of the
urban fauna, as indicated earlier, using the IPP meth-
od, it should be possible to prepare Urban Fauna Plans
to be used for developing and implementing actions
designed to control overcrowding, abnormal concen-
trations, and other phenomena that might represent a
health hazard (in particular, emerging or reemerging
zoonoses) or damage to urban environments (e.g.,
ecological, artistic or related to traffic safety) (Table 2)
(Ballarini 2003; Molyneux 1993; Tarsitano 2003b). In
order to adopt the most effective and targeted defense
and control strategies by means of integrated and
participatory planning, it is essential to classify the
various species of vectors and reservoirs present in a
given territory and to gain a clear understanding
of their biological, ecological, and ethological
characteristics (Table 3) (Tarsitano 2003b). A standing
coordination committee of technical units under the
coordination of the city council must be set up to
facilitate the ongoing exchange of information among
the various institutions involved in managing the
problem of the environment–animal interface in urban
settings.
Ecological Balance Sheets and Ecoplans
During the planning stages, it is necessary to assess all
aspects of the interaction between the environment
and animals in urban ecosystems; it is also necessary to
identify the positive impact of using ecological balance
sheets (Tarsitano 2003b). Ecological Balance Sheets
(EBSs) are an important instrument for recording all of
the significant impacts of anthropic activities on the
environment (Greenland and others 2003). The EBS
can help enhance and improve feedback; this can be
achieved by redefining management by means of an
environmentally correct approach (Meadows and oth-
ers 1992; Oleskòw and others 2003). The ecoplan
method uses theme maps as cognitive instruments and
guidance instruments; assessments are carried out and
sustainable planning solutions are found (Sachs 2004)
(ecomanagement) (Figure 2); that is to say, sustainable
plans are predicated on a reduced ecological footprint
as compared to the past. Using ecological criteria for
both protection of the environment and planning can
help in merging cities with the countryside by under-
standing appropriate urban sustainability indicators
(Chambers and others 2000) (application of Agenda
21) such as the following: biodiversity zones and
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Fig. 2 Ecomanagement cycle. For ecomanagement to work
properly, it is necessary to ensure that data are updated and
processed and that feedback information from data analysis is
read and understood on several levels
natural zones—it being understood that cities are
structured like a mosaic of habitats; emergency indexes
and the ratio of use of renewable energy in cities; in-
dexes of the ratio of population (including animal
population)/recycling/restoration; material recycling
ratios, and introduction of the ecological footprint
parameter (Wackernagel and Rees 1996) as an com-
pulsory element to be used in city planning. Urban
sustainability indicators (Sachs 2004; Wackernagel and
Rees 1996) taking into account even the presence of
animals in cities can become very useful analytical and
evaluative tools for the assessment of actions and
strategies adopted in cities. The indicators can also be
used as guidance tools for adjusting sustainable city
planning policies to foster quality of life, public health,
and the health of the environment (Cole and others
1998; T. Hancock 2002; McCool and Stankey 2004). It
is necessary to exercise caution when applying urban
sustainability indicators (Chambers and others 2000);
care must be taken to avoid falling into the trap of
oversimplifying complex phenomena occurring within
urban ecosystems. All indexes must be considered in
their entirety, yet also in their specificity, and therefore
must be applied on a local scale (Wackernagel and
others 2002).
Useful tools for this task are an environmental atlas of
the city, a mapping of city biotopes and biocenosis, and
the drafting of EBSs in order to gain a deeper under-
standing of the state of health of the environment and to
draw up detailed and itemized plans such as for infra-
structure, housing, business zones, city fauna, city gar-
den, public gardens, and agricultural ecosystems. Using
an EBS is of great benefit in understanding the state of
health of the environment and in achieving a better
Environ Manage (2006) 38:799–809
grasp of the pressures of human activities on a specific
area, not to mention its usefulness in terms of protecting
the environment and of helping the environment re-
cover when responding to environmental, health, and
social problems (de Neufville 1986; Sachs 2004).
Regional Ecological Balance Sheet
The data gathered at all the various stages of action
and in the course of the final assessment will be pro-
cessed using the Regional Ecological Balance Sheet
(REBS) method .On the basis of the initial screening,
the REBS method is mainly predicated on a general
analysis and sectoral analysis of all those ele-
ments—the REBS input and output elements that
contribute towards a definition of the factors at play.
Specifically, for each environmental component, a
study is made of the relative factors of incidence and
human actions taken (Cadenasso 1999; Foresman and
others 1999; Nancy and others 2000). General indica-
tors referring to various sectors are established in order
to proceed to the decision-making stage and the
weighing of specific indicators. These steps are all
taken from an holistic point of view. The next stage is
to aggregate the data or weigh both the general and the
specific indicators in order to establish indexes. The
final stage is the construction of simulation models of
the specific reality (Tarsitano 2003b), with updating
stages built into the process. These assessments per-
tain, above all, to the levels of vulnerability, to the level
of critical state, and to the potential of the ecosystem
under study (Jardine and others 2003). At the end of
this assessment stage, a sustainability matrix is estab-
lished (cause/effect and the incidence levels); inter-
vention plans are drafted, including proposals for
changing the current technical management levels of
the interaction between the environment and animals
in urban settings.
Conclusion and Discussion
If current city-planning practice is to be sustainable
(Sachs 2004), then it must involve and include the
cooperation of experts from a broad range of fields (de
Neufville 1986): veterinarians, biologists, physicians,
naturalists, city planners, economists, and administra-
tors (May and others 2002).
Cities are high-energy-consumption systems that
impact on nature in order to maintain their balance.
That is why it is important to preserve the ‘‘natural
capital,’’ so as to be able to guarantee the necessary
input of natural resources without running the risk of
807
incurring a dangerous decline in the quality of life:
Cities must be tailored to their inhabitants.
Nature must be preserved within a circumscribed
administrative unit (city, region, state) in order to en-
sure and maintain a suitable level of development of
human society. Indeed, nature is a system that in and of
itself can protect and maintain life, stabilize substrates,
maintain balance in air and water cycles, moderate
extremes of temperature and other physical factors,
and so on. It follows that the basis for planning must be
the ability for life to maintain itself.
The aim of integrated-participatory planning is to
understand and protect the natural environment that is
so vital to the maintenance of life, to protect the
quality of life in cities, to regulate—insofar as this is
possible—the type and pace of development in order
to ensure that it does not exceed the carrying capacity
of nature and to ensure that pressures on the envi-
ronment be kept to a minimum, to exploit nature less
and more efficiently, and to recycle more.
Gaining an ecological understanding of an area
means reestablishing and guaranteeing harmony be-
tween urban settlements and the surrounding extraur-
ban territory. Appropriate strategies must be chosen to
combat environmental deterioration, by planning and
applying rules governing human settlements both in-
side and outside cities, which will generate a new and
lasting environmental equilibrium. In this context, it is
useful to point out how important it is to ensure that
the medical and environmental sciences learn to com-
municate with the social sciences such as economics,
politics and legislation (Burger 2002; Shapiro 1999).
One of the main goals of an urban ecologist and an
expert in urban hygiene is to supply information that
can be used by politicians and administrators (de
Neufville 1986) for the best possible management and
control of health risks that might arise from specific
man-made activities.
One of the main problems encountered when
endeavoring to apply these criteria is learning to
overcome the language barrier erected between such
different disciplines. Experts must learn to communi-
cate results in an understandable fashion and in a way
that can be used by social scientists (May and others
2002).
It is necessary to make use of a broad range of
objective criteria for the assessment of potential risks
involving health and hygiene issues, as well as criteria
refined down to the finest detail. A higher degree of
health and hygiene protection is possible if urban hy-
giene issues are tackled in their entirety, without
shining the spotlight on some aspects to the detriment
of others (Tarsitano 2003a). The old-fashioned idea
123
808
that urban hygiene issues are entirely questions of
etiology and pathology instead of problems of general
public health is obsolete (Tarsitano 2003a). It is wrong
to pay more attention to the disease than to the general
reasons why and how that pathology arose in the first
place; each aspect cannot be considered solely on its
own merit but must be looked at as part of a greater
whole (Tarsitano 2003a).
A specific set of data (Eyles and Furgal 2002) should
be used as a basis for the establishment of suitable
hygiene and health criteria; on that basis, then,
appropriate ‘‘safety factors’’ should be built in, allow-
ing for an extrapolation of test values to levels that can
be safely considered protection safety levels for the
environment and for public health.
These areas of expertise coming from various sci-
entific disciplines must be coordinated and combined
in order to ensure that appropriate planning strategies
be drawn up so as to implement preventive measures
and control measures for the best possible use of the
urban environment (Burger and others 2003; Parr and
others 2003).
These are all considerations to be carefully assessed
when taking an ecosystemic approach to city planning.
The application of this strategy could well yield
an enormous amount of useful experience; this expe-
rience should be appreciated as valuable data likely to
generate a positive fallout in terms of upcoming pro-
jects for the future of urban civilization and the sus-
tainability of life. The relationship between human
activities and the dynamics of ecosystems should be
such as to ensure the continuation of human life;
individuals must be able to satisfy their needs in such a
way as to ensure that any and all changes made to
ecosystems due to human activities do not exceed the
carrying capacity of said ecosystems. This is a goal well
within our grasp. The important thing is that we switch
from a mechanistic, utilitarian, and consumerist vision
of cities to a vision of cities as sustainable ecosystems.
There are difficult and arduous hurdles to overcome.
The problems must be dealt with in a serious and pro-
fessional manner, which is possible only if those most
directly affected—the—are involved at every stage.
Acknowledgments I would like to thank Professor Canio
Buonavoglia and Professor Maria Tempesta for critical reading
of and comments on the manuscript.
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