Urban Wildness: Protection and Creation of Wild Nature in Urban Areas

Urban wildness refers to the land dominated by natural processes in or near urban areas. In these areas, human exploitation and control are relatively low, allowing natural succession and ecological processes to occur to a certain extent, and thus allowing for wildlife to coexist with humans. Urban wildness has an important and unique value in reconnecting man with nature, promoting human physical and mental health, conserving biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem services. Based on literature review and case studies, this paper puts forward and explains four approaches to protect and create urban wildness, including protection, restoration, design and integration, which refer to protecting wild nature in urban protected areas, rewilding specific urban areas, designing wildscapes in urban parks, and systematically integrating the wild nature into the urban areas. It is suggested to integrate the protection and restoration of wild nature into the urban planning and design in China, and further explore the theories and methods of urban wildness protection and creation.