After recently learning about local knowledge and the role it can play in risk assessment and in the environmental justice, I see an opportunity for its use in urban ecology. City-dwellers are inhabitants of the urban environment and their relationship to it is as close any other ecological relationship. However, the urban environment brings about many unique risks and hazards due to the close quarters and large population density.
Yet, these massive populations share a common environment and a power in numbers to bring about considerable change for the wellbeing of their city. Introducing their own experiences and local knowledge into the urban ecological debate of their city brings new opportunities for change. The smaller environment and shared space of a city creates solidarity among the city-dwellers for a common goal in consciously benefitting the environment. By voicing their own knowledge and experiences, inhabitants will bring up the most important issues and risks facing their urban environment. The city is their environment and by voicing the concerns created by their local knowledge, the ecological status of their city will only grow because it reflects the minds and personal thoughts of the people who inhabit it.
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