IndexBackground and MeaningCase Study A: Singapore Sunda PangolinsCase Study B: Chicago CoyotesConclusionThis article examines the resilience of the natural environment to the impacts of urbanization through two specific case studies: Singapore and Chicago, USA and attempts to offer solutions for environmentally sustainable urban development. Urbanization refers to the process of an area becoming increasingly urban and can be characterized by the migration of people from surrounding rural areas to concentrate in a single urban area, the transition from an agrarian to an industrialized economy, as well as the accompanied development of infrastructures and services. The term resilience refers to the system's ability to adapt and cope with changes and continue to grow (Moberg & Simonsen, 2014). Although the resilience of the natural environment can be studied in a variety of aspects, in the context of this paper, the resilience of the natural environment will be examined through the population of local species and how the population of relevant species may have been affected due to the impacts of urbanization on their habitats, food sources and threats to their lives. A resilient species will therefore be one whose population is able to thrive thanks to urbanization, while a non-resilient species will suffer a significant decline in population to the point of becoming, perhaps, naturally irreversible. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThrough the analysis of case studies and other literature on environmentally sustainable urban development, this paper will also attempt to suggest possible solutions for cities to develop through environmentally sustainable methods. Context and MeaningToday, more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas and it is predicted that by 2030, more than two-thirds of the world's population will live in urban areas (United Nations, 2018) . Furthermore, this document recognizes that natural environments have both intrinsic and instrumental value (Sandler, 2012). The intrinsic value of natural environments refers to the value accorded to natural environments by natural law. The instrumental value of natural environments arises from the role the natural environment plays in regulating both global and local climate, producing resources for human consumption, and providing recreational benefits for humans. Therefore, given the macrotrends of urbanization and the importance of nature both to humans and itself, it is imperative to examine the resilience of the natural environment to urbanization and explore solutions for environmentally sustainable urban development in so that future cities can grow without significantly deteriorating the natural environment. Compared to other literature on sustainable urban development, this document places greater emphasis on the environmental dimension. This emphasis is due to the fact that the other two dimensions, economic and social, tend to have greater priority in decision-making due to the satisfaction of political, economic and social interests (Brundtland et al., 2012). Furthermore, the natural environment is typically seen as a constraint on development and must be removed for the city to achieve economic and social sustainability (Basiago, 1999). What needs to be understood, however, is that the environment is the broader sphere that encompasses the economic and social functions of the city and that it is therefore necessary to protect the natural environment to guarantee even more sustainable economic and social development (Basiago, 1999). Caseof study A: Sunda PangolinsSingapore has rapidly urbanized into a thriving metropolis over the past 50 years. Such development has caused the removal of most of Singapore's primary forest cover and its replacement with buildings and transportation infrastructure or secondary vegetation. Today, less than 0.2% of primary forest cover remains, compared to approximately 80% in the mid-1800s (Noreen & Webb, 2013). Rapid urbanization in Singapore has led to a decrease in species biodiversity, notably 34–87% of presumed and documented extinctions of various forest wildlife species with fewer observed extinctions (Brook, Sodhi, & Ng, 2003). This paper will focus more specifically on the construction of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) in 1986 and its impact on the surrounding environment since then. The BKE is an 11 km long highway and is the focus of this case study as it passes through one of Singapore's last primary rainforest regions: the Central Catchment. In doing so, the Central Catchment Basin was divided into two parts of forests which are now known as the Central Catchment Nature Reserve (CCNR) and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR). However, during the construction of the BKE, little was done to evaluate the impacts on the wildlife living in these forests. As a result, habitats were destroyed, food sources depleted, and some animal populations were divided and left stranded in the two patches of forest. Many animals attempting to cross the four-lane highway often ended up in road accidents. This was particularly concerning as CCNR and BTNR were home to some of Singapore's endangered species, such as the critically endangered Sunda pangolin (Challender et al., 2013). The Sunda pangolin is a shy anteater that lives in mature forests and plays an important role in controlling ant and termite populations within reserves, as well as promoting soil aeration during feeding (Lim, 2010). However, due to their poor eyesight, slow movements, and instinct to curl up into a ball when threatened, Sunda pangolins are often hit by oncoming vehicles when they attempt to cross the BKE to look for more food (National Parks Board, 2019). From 1994 to 2014, a total of 24 pangolins were killed by oncoming vehicles and in 2016, the pangolin population in Singapore was estimated to be approximately 100 (Chew & Pazos, 2015; Tan, 2016). As threats to their survival and habitat increase with urbanization, Sunda pangolins are unable to adapt and cope with these changes. Coupled with a low fertility rate of 1-2 offspring per year, the Sunda pangolin population is declining. The endangerment of these creatures was only partially saved thanks to the construction of the EcoLink@BKE bridge in 2013 which allowed the small animals to cross safely between CCNR and BTNR. However, such efforts have proven insufficient, with already 8 vehicular pangolin deaths in the first half of 2019 alone (Lim K., 2019). The unadaptable nature of Sunda pangolins requires human intervention and conservation plans for pangolins have already begun, such as the 2018 National Sunda Pangolin Conservation Strategy and Action Plan and Captive Breeding of Pangolins since 2011. However, it is unclear how successful such an intervention will be in place, with the captive breeding program producing just 5 pangolin pups in a 6-year span and the conservation plan slowly starting to take off. Therefore, given the lack of resilience of unadaptable species such as Sunda pangolins, it is important that citiesattempt to prevent a decline in the population of such species in the first place instead of focusing solely on post-urbanization conservation as a cure. B: Chicago Coyotes While Sunda pangolins in Singapore have shown a lack of resilience to the rapid changes brought by urbanization, elsewhere in Chicago, United States, where urbanization has largely stabilized, coyotes are slowly returning to their homeland. Coyotes were rare in the third most populated city until the 1980s due to intense hunting of the species in the early 1900s, with poachers killing 6.5 million coyotes at peak hunting (Worral, 2016). ASas a result, coyotes lived primarily on the wooded outskirts of the city. However, they have made a comeback due to the lack of predators and abundance of food in the city. The coyote population in Chicago has increased from approximately 25 in 1991 to approximately 2000 coyotes in 2018 (Gehrt SD, 2004; Anchor, 2018). In contrast to the Sunda Pangolins of Singapore, Chicago coyotes are much more resistant to urbanization and, in fact, specific animal species such as coyotes, raccoons and red foxes, are known to thrive in urban areas due to their high adaptability (Dell'Amore, 2016). Chicago coyotes, in particular, have been documented navigating vehicular traffic, adopting a nocturnal lifestyle to avoid people, and creating dens in the smallest crevices within urban settlements (Dell'Amore, 2014). These coyotes are known to be misanthropic synanthropes. They are misanthropic in behavior, largely avoiding humans, and synanthropic in demography, having a high population density and possibly breeding while close to humans. The characteristics of misanthropes and synanthropes are further explained in the table below. The natural introduction of coyotes into the city and their high adaptability to the urban environment exemplifies a high level of resilience of the coyote population to urbanization. However, coyotes in Chicago have been perceived as a threat largely due to existing stereotypes that coyotes are wild and have the ability to harm pets or even a human child, as well as publicized cases of coyote attacks. Therefore, due to public pressure and fears, the government has sought to curb the coyote population through lethal removal, which involves trapping and euthanizing coyotes. However, these methods soon proved futile as the coyote population would easily recover by breeding at an earlier age and having larger litter sizes (Quirin & Gehrt, 2012). This reproductive capacity was the result of many years of evolution in the struggle to survive under intensive hunting in the past (Worral, 2016). The coyote population's resistance to lethal removal further exemplifies their high level of resilience and suggests that other management strategies need to be developed. However, given the misanthropic behavioral nature of coyotes, researchers at the Urban Coyote Research Project say urban coyotes do not pose much of a threat to city dwellers. In fact, rather than posing a threat, coyotes could prove beneficial to Chicago's human population in curbing the resident rodent population, thus preventing the spread of rodent-borne diseases to humans, as well as deer and Canada goose populations. Furthermore, these researchers argue that coyotes become “nuisance” animals only when fed by humans, thus losing their fear of humans, as well as when defending their territory (Gehrt & Quirin, 2012). Therefore, due to the high.