Torrens River, Adelaide, South AustraliaParklands along the Torrens River, Adelaide, South Australia.(more)Although has traditionally been associated with a higher for urban as opposed to rural dwellers, a number of ills such as concentrated urban , environmental inequity, and reduced economic opportunity plague new cities in the developing world as well as old postindustrial city centres. Such problems might be addressed by better planning and by ecologically conscious . One solution could involve an increase in “green spaces” and their more effective distribution through the urban landscape. In fact, the amount of green space actually present in cities is difficult to predict based on the density or age of the settlement. In some dense, older American cities, green space is present—as in ’s 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares) of parks, which are part of the city’s nearly 39,000 acres (about 15,800 hectares) of open space. and are two other older cities with well-developed open space networks. Some sprawling cities, such as , which have grown substantially since the 1970s and ’80s, have very little parkland, whereas others, such as , have large mountain parks nearby but little open space integrated within the urban fabric. Urban green space, including desert and wetland habitats, provides opportunities to improve the ecological processing of pollution and to moderate the local climate. Open space also imparts green amenities—shade from trees, the aesthetic benefits of natural scenery, and recreational space—for all citizens., Urban ecosystem, any ecological system located within a city or other densely settled area or, in a broader sense, the greater ecological system that makes up an entire metropolitan area. The largest urban ecosystems are currently concentrated in Europe, India, Japan, eastern China, South America,, The ecosystem approach incorporates nature into urban settings to make them more sustainable, liveable and resilient, and means managing cities themselves as ecosystems: intricately connected.