My Habilitation in Urban Ecology. The end of a long, long journey

On the 23rd of June 2021, I gave my habilitation lecture putting an end to a very long process of academic qualification. The habilitation in Germany is the academic degree (a sort of doctorate of a doctorate) required to become a professor. Officially the title is Privat Dozent (PD) and is mandatory for those willing to take a seat as a professor in a German, Swiss or Austrian University. The habilitation procedure is long and hard, lasting for several years where high-level postdoctoral training is required, with evidence of peer-reviewed publications, lecturing and conference presentations. The formal requirement is the presentation of a thesis (monograph or cumulative) and a lecture on a particular topic not contained in the thesis, followed by a colloquium where university members ask several questions to test the teaching ability of the candidate. I did a cumulative thesis gathering together 13 articles around a central core idea that is framing my transdisciplinary expertise. Wisely advised by my mentor Prof. Dr. Harald Zepp, I have chosen Urban Ecology (Stadtökologie) as my venia legendi, the subject that I love and now I am allowed to teach.

Receiving the habilitation certificates with the Dean (rigth) and my mentor (left).

My thesis was approved by the faculty by unanimity and was informed by two internationally renowned scholars, plus the positive review of my mentor. I am happy and proud of such a thesis, especially because I never thought I will write another one after my PhD. It gave me the opportunity to profoundly reflect upon the last several years of research around a common question and understanding, from which I have formed a new approach to my own research. Here is the resume and index. I am happy to share the full text if somebody is interested to have a look.

Biomass and technomass are highly entangled at all scales. There is nothing unnatural about New York city.

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A Dragon in my Garage. The myth of the 9 m2 of green space per capita

In a classic book called The Haunted-Demon world: science as a candle in the dark, Carl Sagan presents an appealing history of a person who claims to have a dragon in a garage. The problem with that Dragon is that it doesn’t give any material clue about its existence. Regardless of the insistence of Sagan on the many possible ways to test whether the Dragon is there physically, the “owner” always finds excuses to avoid such trials. The tale ends up concluding that there is no difference between a dragon that cannot be tested and not any dragon at all. …

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Understanding the use of language in science. Some limitations on abstractions

The common language used in non-scientific environments tends to be largely vague, at times inconsistent, elusive and recursive. What one person is saying or writing can hold almost uncountable different interpretations. Rather than being a defect, such ambiguity and imprecision underpin the success of language as a communication instrument. These features indeed enrich communication, foster imagination and lubricate social interaction. Language is a fundamental component of human life, making us what we are as animals. Science has a fundamental and undeniable dependence on language. However, scientific language is not perse neutral, objective and free of the aforementioned shortcomings. On the …

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Can be cities sustainable at all? My inaugural lecture

On 30 November 2021, I gave my inaugural lecture to conclude the formalities of my habilitation. The inaugural lecture (Antrittsvorlesung) is a very special occasion, a moment of celebration for the successful finalization of the habilitation and a tradition in the German academic system.  I choose the title: “The urban ecosystem. Can cities be sustainable at all?” to be broad enough while also provoking students and colleagues. I post here the full video (with subtitles in English and Spanish) and curious to hear any feedback. Abstract – The urban ecosystem. Can cities be sustainable at all? While the urban era is fully determining our lives, as it was announced by Lefebvre in the early ’70s, we continue experiencing increasing challenges to conceptualize, analyze, and measure cities and their impacts. The conceptual apparatus we inherited from theoretical and applied disciplines to deal with the urban question seems overcome by the paramount challenges posed by planetary urbanization, the ecological crises and climate change. However, at the beginning of the XXI century, our urban challenge remains more epistemological than operational. Can urban ecology help in reshaping our understanding of urban systems, guiding us in a process to learn to live with uncertainty and dynamic ever-changing urban challenges? I would like to explore some angles of these questions looking at urban as dynamic systems far from equilibrium, determined by the laws of thermodynamics, having, therefore, a particular metabolism that is materialized in distinguishable spatial structures, that can be conceptualized and measured as ecosystems. I will concentrate on aspects of expansion, informality, metabolic fluxes and heat to explore the regularities that we found present in most urban systems. Using examples from Latin America and Europe I will illustrate some possible entry points for a generalized urban hypothesis that brings ecology from the periphery to the center of the urban epistemological discussion. In the light of the necessary inclusion of humans as a fundamental natural force and an undeniable component of the urban ecosystem, ontological as well as operational aspects for such inclusion will be also discussed using the ecosystem services framework. Being cities the answer to a particular question, I would like to reflect on what type of question could that be.

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De la ciencia, las ciudades, los animales y otras cosas. Conversando con Rodrigo Bravo

Esta semana tuve el gran placer de conversar con mi amigo (personal 🙂 ) Rodrigo Bravo, que conduce un entretenido programa de entrevistas a expatriados, gente que comparte la experiencia de haber dejado su pais natal y haber comenzado una vida en el extranjero. Pudimos tocar algunos temas interesantes, conversar de cosas mas personales y tambien algunas reflexiones de la vida cotidiana. Hubo varios temas que me hubiera gustado compartir, como mi fascinacion con la filosofia epicura y porque creo que es fundamental para nuestro futuro, el alto excepticismo y pensamiento critico que guia mi vida o la coherencia que …

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Goodbye Leon

Today has been a special day, a very sad day. Our ecosystem services community has received the terrible news that our beloved friend Leon Braat has died after a short but severe illness. It is hard to accept. Only a few days ago I was chatting with him, and although he was suffering from pain, he remained optimistic. I received the bad news today in the morning and I just stop working. His departure deeply affected me. I took the day off. I cried, a lot, unexpectedly. I like so much my friend, but I realize that I never told …

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Metabolism & Urbanisation? New publication in Cities

I put my bet into scientific integration, conceptual and operational tunning, transdisciplinary integration, rather than compartmentalization of knowledge. I have been for long trying to integrate urban metabolism with urbanisation research, using a materialistic – i.e. technomass based – approach. This last piece, of which we are very happy, is an attempt in that direction. It provides a path to understand not only how urbanisation might arise from the metabolism of the urban ecosystem, but also showcase how this is rather a planetary process, highly hierarchically organised. I am always happy to share a copy, just write me an email.

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¿Que son, realmente, los servicios ecosistemicos?

Aun cuando en general siempre estoy atento siguiendo la investigacion que se hace en Latino America, y en idioma castellano en general, este año puse un poco mas de interes en ver que es lo “que hay alli afuera” en materia de servicios ecosistemicos, esta vez poniendo mas atencion a los canales sociales de diseminacion del conocimiento, como blogs y youtube. A decir verdad quede sorprendido por el nivel de desinformacion y confusion conceptual que encontre. Es cierto que el concepto de servicios ecosistemicos despierta incomodidades no solo en nuestra lengua castellana, lo he presenciado muchas veces, tambien es cierto …

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The Homogenization of cities in the world

Regardless of location, culture and even size, cities in the world depict similar trends in terms of the evolution of their spatial structure in time. As surprising as this statement might sound, we have recently compiled empirical evidence analyzing a sample of 194 cities over 25 years span, from 1990 until 2015. The article was published last week in Landscape and Urban Planning. I would be happy to share a copy with anybody interested to read. That cities are homogenizing is not surprising in urban ecology. Is almost common sense that we can find the same species of birds, small …

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Studying Ecosystem Services at the Ruhr University Bochum

Within the Master Program Transformation of Urban Landscapes (M.Sc) I have been teaching Ecosystem Services using a practical approach, learning by doing. The students are free to choose a topic to develop a practical application, a spatially explicit assessment of Ecosystem Services. We have prepared a video interviewing our 2019 master students, asking them to share their experience.

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