Dean L. Urban
Dean L. Urban
Professor of Landscape Ecology
Senior Associate Dean, Academic Initiatives
Primary Appointment
Environmental Science & Policy Division
My interest in landscape ecology focuses on the agents and implications of pattern in forested landscapes. Increasingly, my research is in what has been termed "theoretical applied ecology," developing new analytic approaches to applications of immediate practical concern such as conservation planning. A hallmark of my Lab is the integration of field studies, spatial analysis, and simulation modeling in extrapolating our fine-scale empirical understanding of environmental issues to the larger space and time scales of management and policy.
In The News
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Belote, RT, Dietz, MS, McKinley, PS, Carlson, AA, Carroll, C, Jenkins, CN, Urban, DL, Fullman, TJ, Leppi, JC, and Aplet, GH. "Mapping Conservation Strategies under a Changing Climate." Bioscience 67, no. 6 (June 2017): 494-497.
Austin, KG, Lee, ME, Clark, C, Forester, BR, Urban, DL, White, L, Kasibhatla, PS, and Poulsen, JR. "An assessment of high carbon stock and high conservation value approaches to sustainable oil palm cultivation in Gabon." Environmental Research Letters 12, no. 1 (January 5, 2017): 014005-014005.
Schwartz, NB, Urban, DL, White, PS, Moody, A, and Klein, RN. "Vegetation dynamics vary across topographic and fire severity gradients following prescribed burning in Great Smoky Mountains National Park." Forest Ecology and Management 365 (April 2016): 1-11.
Somers, KA, Bernhardt, ES, McGlynn, BL, and Urban, DL. "Downstream Dissipation of Storm Flow Heat Pulses: A Case Study and its Landscape-Level Implications." JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association 52, no. 2 (April 2016): 281-297.
Wilson, RS, Hardisty, DJ, Epanchin-Niell, RS, Runge, MC, Cottingham, KL, Urban, DL, Maguire, LA, Hastings, A, Mumby, PJ, and Peters, DPC. "A typology of time-scale mismatches and behavioral interventions to diagnose and solve conservation problems." Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology 30, no. 1 (February 2016): 42-49.
Courses
ENVIRON 724: Landscape Analysis & Management (ENVIRON 724: Landscape Analysis & Management)
ENVIRON 714: Landscape Ecology (ENVIRON 714: Landscape Ecology)
area(s) of expertise
Biodiversity Conservation Ecology Endangered/Threatened Species Forests Geospatial Technologies Global Change Ecology Land Use Advisor: UPE Doctoral ProgramContact Information
Box 90328
Durham, NC 27708-0328
A320 Lev Sci Res Ctr
Durham, NC 27708
Education
Ph.D., University of Tennessee at Knoxville (1986)
M.A., Southern Illinois University (1981)
B.A., Southern Illinois University (1978)