Ecological approaches in planning for sustainable cities: A review of the literature

Rapid urbanization has brought environmentally, socially, and economically great challenges to cities societies. To build a sustainable city, these challenges need to be faced efficiently and successfully. This paper on the environmental issues and investigates the ecological approaches for planning sustainable cities through comprehensive review of the relevant literature. The review focuses on several differing aspects of sustainable city . The paper provides insights on the interaction between the natural environment and human activities by environmental effects resulting from this interaction; provides an introduction to the concept of sustainable development by underlining the important role of ecological planning in achieving sustainable cities; introduces notion of urban ecosystems by establishing principles for the management of their sustainability; describes urban sustainability assessment by introducing a review of current assessment methods, and; offers an outline of urban environmental sustainability. The paper concludes with a summary of the findings.