Introduction

The driving ideas at the backdrop of the current discussion of urbanization, sprawl and sustainability is the notion that urbanization is associated with low-density sprawl (Duany and Talen 2002; Sushinsky et al. 2013) and that sprawl reduces the amount of open spaces, fragments open spaces (Forman 1995, p. 418) and as a result adversely affects biodiversity (Fahrig 2001; Fahrig 2003; Alberti 2005; Donnelly and Marzluff 2006; Groom et al. 2006; Theobald et al. 2012). It is far from certain that these notions describe precisely the extant reality. While sprawl does reduce the amount of open space within boundaries of cities and does cause fragmentation, it does not necessarily reduce biodiversity. In some cities, the fragmented patches of open spaces remain interconnected allowing living spaces for plants and animals. Indeed, some view polycentric urban expansion as an opportunity to possible amelioration of declining biodiversity (Czamanski et al. 2008; Olson et al. 2011).