When Daniel Burnham exhorted the planners of the early twentieth century to “make no small plans,” ecology was not something that very many urban planners knew much about. Indeed, the ecology of that time probably seemed irrelevant to planners, because it had little to say about humans in ecosystems, or even about the structure and function of broad-scale landscapes. These concerns were late inventions in ecology, but they have finally emerged and come together to generate a sound and growing body of knowledge that relates to urban mosaics as ecological systems. The new knowledge and perspectives of landscape ecology and urban ecological studies bring the science of ecology, the practice of urban planners, and the needs of dwellers in urban regions to an unprecedented threshold of truly ecological planning at regional scales. Richard Forman has written a satisfyingly original and compelling book to carry us over that threshold.

As an ecologist I find several things particularly exciting about this book. It identifies the big issues and concerns about urbanization at the beginning of the first urban century – the century in which humans become numerically an urban species. The growth, intensification, and global spread of urbanization are staggering. Ecology must find a way to engage with this wave, and not retreat in its face. With the rapid changes in urban systems, they take on new forms and establish new interactions with their regions.