What is a human habitat?

March 13, 2009

Here is an open question to the group and readers:

Is there a typical human habitat, and if so, what does it look like?

More than likely, there is a distribution of different habitat types that humans occupy at a global, regional, and even local levels, but perhaps there are some common patterns. I realize that the number of people living in the ‘urban’ environment is increasing rapidly around the world, but even so, what does their habitat look like? Several of us in this lab live in clearly urban environments, but not one is the same. Do a majority live in dense apartment building style environments? Does each person perhaps have (statistically or practically) x trees or x square-meters of lawn or vegetation?