Why Adelaide's backyards are so important and how backyards have changed will be discussed at the public seminar Adelaide, Nature of a City being presented at the University of South Australia on Tuesday 20 March 2007.
UniSA's Professor of Urban Ecology in the School of Natural and Built Environments, Chris Daniels will present a cook's tour through the last 200 years of South Australian history from the viewpoint of the animals and plants.
Sponsored by UniSA's Institute for Sustainable Systems and Technologies, the seminar will focus on the findings of the book Adelaide, Nature of a City produced by BioCity, which is the first ever complete historical analysis of a city as a natural ecosystem, from its beginning to its future.
"The seminar includes a review of the plants, animals and environmental communities that were here at the arrival of HMS Buffalo, what has changed, come and gone, and what now shapes our urban environment," Prof Daniels says.
"It is a study in human evolution in the city and all of the life around it, where we are destroying or working to save our urban environment, and where to find the wildlife that's in our backyard.
"I will talk about the biodiversity that we must conserve in our backyards, how we can achieve the changes necessary to sustain the flora and fauna in our urban environment, and to ensure the future of Adelaide's bio reserves."
A zoologist with an abiding interest in reptiles, particularly lizards, Prof Daniels is a passionate communicator to the general community about science and the environment. He is also Director of BioCity: Centre for Urban Habitats and formed BioCity in 2002 with Dr Tim Flannery and scientists from the SA Museum, Botanical Gardens, Royal Zoological Society, SARDI and the Department for Environment and Heritage, to look at the issues relating to biodiversity in the state.
Institute for Sustainable Systems and Technologies 2007 Public Seminar
Adelaide, Nature of a City
Tuesday, 20 March 2007 from 6.00 pm to 7.00 pm
Room H2-02, Mutual Community Lecture Theatre, Basil Hetzel building, City East campus
RSVP Monday 19 March. Contact Alanna Wang on (08) 8302 5347.
