This course addresses how different types of systems thinking and disciplinary lenses are relevant to understanding the context, structure, and situation of the American urban landscape—including the ecology, culture, and politics of its urban forms and processes. The American urban landscape is a mirror for society’s values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and norms about what is “good” urban nature. American society’s values, attitudes, and beliefs reflect deeply-rooted ideas about what urban nature is “best” appreciated, what urban nature is “best” protected, what urban nature is “best” produced, what urban nature is “best” consumed, what urban nature is “best” abandoned. prereq: LA grad student or instr consent