Reimagining Future Cities as Shared Ecological Spaces for Humans, Domestic Animals, and Urban Wildlife

Abstract

Rapid urbanization has accelerated habitat fragmentation, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and increasing human–wildlife conflicts, posing significant challenges to the long-term sustainability of modern cities. Conventional urban planning primarily emphasizes infrastructure development and economic growth, often overlooking the ecological interactions among humans, domestic animals, and urban wildlife. This study proposes a novel Shared Ecological City Framework that reimagines future cities as resilient, biodiversity-positive ecosystems capable of supporting harmonious coexistence among multiple species. The proposed framework integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, ecological monitoring, habitat connectivity analysis, green infrastructure optimization, and participatory governance into a unified decision-support architecture. A comparative assessment was conducted using key performance indicators, including biodiversity conservation, habitat connectivity, human–wildlife coexistence, environmental monitoring, climate resilience, community participation, smart decision support, and overall sustainability. The proposed framework achieved significant improvements over conventional urban planning models, increasing biodiversity conservation from 58% to 94%, habitat connectivity from 52% to 92%, human–wildlife coexistence from 55% to 91%, environmental monitoring from 63% to 96%, climate resilience from 67% to 93%, and overall sustainability from 59% to 94%. These findings demonstrate that integrating intelligent technologies with ecological planning substantially enhances urban resilience, ecosystem services, and environmental governance. The proposed framework provides a scalable roadmap for policymakers and urban planners to develop inclusive, climate-resilient, and regenerative cities that balance technological innovation with biodiversity conservation and sustainable urban development.