1. Species level management can be harmful in the long-term to the ecosystem as a whole if it does not include community and regional management, as well. Some species are so-called "focal" species, which indicates that their success is indicative of the success of the community or the region as a whole. However, it is often difficult to determine which species may be these focal species at the time when management efforts are undertaken.
If management efforts focus on species-level management and do not take into account the ecosystem as a whole in the community or the region, the interrelationship among several ecosystems—including water and land-based systems—may be overlooked. This, in turn, can lead to unintended consequences that could have severe effects for species in both the short-term and the long-term (Kintsch & Urban, 2002).
By focusing on the overall management of ecosystems at the regional and community levels, the biodiversity of the area can be maintained and the health of the area can be enhanced so that no one species is favored over another. This can encompass plant life as well as animal life, and can integrate the various competing needs of those species that comprise the region, including the needs of human residents. A species-level focus can shift the emphasis to a single species—often humans—to the detriment of the biodiversity and the long-term destruction of habitat that eventually may negatively impact those the management was designed to benefit.
2. To suggest that there is no urban environment to manage is to greatly understate the nature of environment as a whole, and the role that urbanization plays in environmental management specifically.
The urban environment includes not only the natural environment as it is affected by human habitation, but also the socio-economic environment and the built environment ("Urban Environmental Management," 2005).
Humans impact any ecosystem ...