Plugging urban ecology science into design practice: a research perspective

There is a broad consensus that urban ecology science needs to be more effective in informing and supporting urban planning and design. How to bridge the two disciplines is still a grand challenge because scientific research often cannot find its way into practice. Underlying reasons have often been explored around governance, policies and institutional aspects. From a scientific research perspective, this paper briefly outlines the divergence between the two disciplines and seeks potential intersections of them. Overall, starting from the practical needs, this paper argues that there are many "plug-in" opportunities that should be explored in the whole research chain to accommodate successful co-development of research in practice, such as sharing similar research interests, jointly identifying research questions and objectives, adopting suitable research methods, well-designed research experiments and parameters (e.g., matched scales, resolution levels, metrics and indicators), co-collection of site-specific data. Furthermore, this exploration can be enhanced, particularly at a local scale, where urban dwellers' perceptions, interests and the consequent influences on decision-making and actions can be well incorporated.