Rizal High School

Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue, Caniogan, Pasig City

BARANGAY PALATIW AND

MAYBUNGA: URBAN ECOLOGY

A partial fulfillment with one of the requirements in the subject Practical

Research 1

Bello, Jecie Anne D.

Benitez, Kaian V.

Elican, Joana Loraine G.

Rumbaua, Bea Marie C.

Torres, Liel

Tuico, Jenina C.
XI – STEM C

Mrs. Marlyn Tolosa

November, 2018
 CHAPTER I
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

INTRODUCTION
Ecology visualizes a living, breathing system of organisms, their interactions with the
environment, and their impacts on the surrounding, whether small-scale or a planet. Often times
however, ecology ignores the human influence and goes solely for an environment free from it,
yet these areas where human impact is readily observed had become increasingly significant.
Urban ecology is the ecology of the very environment, where humans prolific (Into the Intro:
Urban Ecology, 2016). There is a side of urbanization known as "urban heat island", where the air
temperature is more elevated than that of the surrounding rural areas mostly due to human
activities. This further increase in the temperature accounts for a lot of heat-related stresses and
definitely poses a threat to most of the population.
Urban ecology has quickly become established as a central part of ecological thinking. As
cities continue to grow in size and number, two questions serve to unify this broad and
multidisciplinary research landscape. Research in urban ecosystems can be developed from many
different perspectives, and we suggest that each perspective has something to offer both society
and the science of ecology. (Jennings, Floyd, Shanahan, Coutts, & Sinykin, 2017, April 18). Urban
vegetation can provide a number of benefits and hazards to health and well-being. For example,
trees with a high leaf area index can have a greater capacity to remove atmospheric pollution;
however, its species should have low emissions of biogenic hydrocarbons to minimize ozone
formation (Taha et al. 1997). Major global organizations and initiatives such as the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment (MEA 2005) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB
2008) have recognized the importance of ecosystem integrity to human well-being. (Tanner, Adler,
Grimm, Groffman, Levin, Munshi-South, . . . Wilson, 2014).
Urban Ecology as defined by nature.com which is based by the latest research; Urban
Ecology is the study of ecological processes in urban environments. This includes all aspects of
the ecology of any organisms found in urban areas as well as large scale considerations of the
ecological sustainability of cities. In this study emphasized the impact of urban growth, Metro
Manila including here in Pasig that are facing many environmental challenges with its continuous
accelerating urban growth rate. The more the population increases, the more the vegetation will be
affected because of many facilities needed to build up. Metro Manila to its relating environment
on demography, solid waste problem and also the air pollution and greenhouse gas emission. Metro
Manila encounters many environmental problems. There are a lot of environmental problems like
flooding, air and water pollution and climate change. These environmental problems that will not
stop, the problems will continue to arise because it doesn’t receive any political attention. This is
the primary reason why the researchers are conducting this study. Researchers aim to find out
causes and effects of the said problem in order to establish a definite solution based on reliable
information that will be gathered specifically in the area of Brgy. Maybunga and Palatiw, Pasig
City.
According to Regmi R.K., Metro manila’s population is rapidly expanding, and it is a
rapidly urbanizing city in the world with a population project to reach 14.8 million by 2025. Like
some of the developing countries, Metro Manila also experience a lot of environmental problems
related to urbanization like flooding, solid waste problems, a proliferation if informal families,
deterioration of air quality, deterioration of water and increasing of greenhouse gas emission.
There were also important differences in views about how to address the challenges of sustainable
provision of ecosystem services. The scenarios should also attempt to embrace the diversity of
viewpoints in scenarios. We must know the importance of vegetation in our places. So we should
be alarmed in our cases right now. And we should be alarmed on what might happen. Especially
in our case right now or population is rapidly increasing.
Planting has already been a practice in urban areas, though, most specifically Pasig City,
which will be the focus of the study. Often you'll see a lot of vegetation here and there, mostly in
areas where the traffic is heavy. Most of them are wilted and dying and the lush green shrubs are
more likely to be dead plants replaced with healthier ones. Vegetation help cities assists in
moderating temperatures but as more and more buildings, pollution and population increased, our
vegetation have been decreasing in a faster rate resulting to an increasing in heat temperature in
most cities.
In highly urbanized environment, like the City of Pasig, it is important to recognize the
importance of maintaining and increasing the health of our urban ecosystems to improve living
conditions not only for the living organism in that area but also ourselves. The so called "heat" can
affect an area's environment and quality of life. Some of its impact may be beneficial while some
impacts may be beneficial, like that lengthening the plant-growing season, the majority of them
are negative, like increased in energy consumption, air pollutants, the existence of greenhouse
gases, and human health and discomfort. Urbanization greatly affected the overall temperature of
the barangays in Pasig City, especially these two barangays, Palatiw and Maybunga, which will
be our setting in conducting our study. This increasing temperature has affected the vegetation
cover and mostly the health of each and every individual in both communities. A detailed
comparison is what we are going to work on, in terms of vegetation, population and air
temperature. With these we conduct a study in these areas in Pasig City.
The purpose of this study is to explore and to know how our ecology changes, or changes
in every past period of time. To know the relationship of man to his environment. In order from
strength, extreme disturbances of ecosystem services have a moderately wide range with a
relatively high mode. These scenarios needed to address the concern of decision-makers and
represent key aspects of ecosystem dynamics behind these concerns. The result of the study may
provide a clearer understanding about where does the "abnormal" heat and humid that we feel
came from. Also, this research may provide an idea to the residents about how urbanization works
and if successfully spread among residents will nobly help the city.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The researchers conceptualize a model of the study, it uses the input, process, and output
as the reference of the study. The input is the profiles of the residents of Brgy. Palatiw and
Maybunga who are in different age and gender.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

Input Process Output

Suggestions for the two
Respondent's Profile Identifying the differences areas in terms of their
(Age, Gender, in the quality of temperature ecology and answer
in that particular area research questions based on
Barangay) through the residents the deduced findings
perspective

In this study, the researchers use the respondent’s profile such as the age, gender and
what barangay do they live in as the input to make it more systematic. The process part is where
we identify the differences in the quality of temperature through the long-term residents’
perspective by the use of interview and questionnaires. Last part is the output where the
researchers will conclude what differences to the following barangay have and suggestions to
give to them.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The Study aims to determine the quality of air and temperature in places here in Pasig with
differing amount of vegetation through the experiences of long-term residents living on that
particular place. This study also aims to answer the following questions:
 1. What are the differences in the quality of temperature and air in different places in
Pasig?
2. What places/ barangay in Pasig that have a completely opposite in terms of
vegetation?
3. What are the ecological processes that need to be adapted in urban planning for
sustainable urbanization?
4. How can this study contribute to the future improvements of the environment of
Barangay Palatiw and Maybunga?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will contribute to the environmental development of Barangay Palatiw and
Maybunga and to give them an overview of the changes in the surrounding of a small scale
environment.
To the students, this may benefit them from the little actions that they can do to help not
only the barangay but also the environment as a whole.
To the community, this study may provide information to the Local Government Units
regarding the problems of urbanization. This can be used as a reference for planning of
development projects dealing with the problems of urbanization.
To the future researchers, this may help them in their research as a related literature.
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
This study is focused on two parts of the whole city; Barangay Palatiw and Maybunga and
the long-term residents of the said places. The study will also be focused on determining the
differences in temperature in those areas with varying amount of vegetation. Other parameters
such as the other residents, quality of air or the other parts of the city will not be included in the
study.
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
The following terms are used in the research paper and defined conceptually and
operationally for better understanding.
Ecology - a study wherein it discusses the coexistence of living organism with one another
and their surroundings.
Long-term Residents – people who resides on the area for 10 years and above.
 Urban - an area in which it is populated by inhabitants with non-agricultural jobs. These
areas have developed and organized way in living. Most of the area have man-made infrastructure
such as buildings, railroads, bridges and more making it dense in size.
Urban ecology - a study of relationship of living organism and their environment and how
they coexist with each other. It is important because most of us lives in urban areas.
Urbanization - development of rural areas into a comfortable place to live in with the help
of technology.
Vegetation – a ground area covered with plants and other plant species which regulate the
flow of air.
 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents discussion on urban ecology, urbanization, and other related studies
and gaps to be bridged by the study.

Urbanization
Urbanization in urban areas and rural areas has modified the habitat and procedures like
for example, the soil drainage, over lands, canals, access on light and a natural surrounding for
animals, especially winged creatures and other untamed lifeforms (Urban Ecology Building
Design for a Sustainable Future, 2015). Developed through the study of urban environments has
recently led to a proliferation of research focusing on comparative analysis of cities. This research
emphasis has been concentrated in the more developed cities of the northern hemisphere, yet the
urbanization is now occurring mostly in the developing world, with the fastest rates of growth in
sub-Saharan Africa (McHale, Bunn, Pickett & Twine, 2014).
As stated by Sieber and Pons (2015) in the past years, there is a change in perspective
towards urban sprawl and the development of ecosystem. Urban areas and cities became a fast
contraction of “systems of systems”. It gained interests in most research and decision making for
the development of city in following terms: “Urban Nature”, “Urban Ecosystem Services and
Disservices” and “Quality of Life” According to Mcdonald (2016) ever since the industrial
revolution, the Earth’s surface had undergone a complete alteration because of immense
urbanization.
The increase in human population became a sequence of urbanization; the transformation
is very quick when it is measured in the evolutionary time scale of human confederation or
association with the environment (Zhang, Tan & Diehl, 2017). Cities drive all small group of
individuals and species which brings up an issue whether a rapid urbanization of Earth affects the
environment by causing changes in the functions of individuals or organism in regulating the
environments productivity and strength (Alberti, Marzluff & Hunt, 2017) . The rapid increase in
the urban population and the contracting of urban surfaces had raised concerns over more than that
of an individuals’ quality of life; most of the researchers are concerned about the ecosystem
services and the strength and security of urban ecosystem and infrastructure (Li, Liu X., Zhang,
Zhao, Liu H., Zhou & Wang, 2017). Urban infrastructure is important to stabilize the resources for
the people in the urbanized area (Dong, Wang, Scipioni & Park, 2017).

Urban Ecology
According to Tanner et al. (2014) as cities continue to grow in size and number two
question serve to unify this broad and multidisciplinary research landscape: (1) how can urban
ecology contribute to the science and ecology and (2) how can urban ecology be applied to make
cities more livable and sustainable? In spite of the advantages made this far, there are many
unexplored ways of integrating the science and application of urban ecology.
In the early 21st century, the majority of the global human population live in cities. Future
population growth will occur mostly in cities. The Anthropocene challenges us to reimagine native
in cities and novelists and poets such as Kim Stanley Robinson and Harryette Mullen have recently
used strategies of high-modernist urban literature (Urban Ecology and the Imagination of the
future, 2015).
According to Indiana University Southeast, the international scientific journal, Urban
Ecology, defines its eponymous discipline as “The study of ecosystems that includes human living
cities and urbanizing landscapes. It is an emerging, interdisciplinary fields that aims to understand
how human and ecological processes can coexist in human-dominated systems and help societies
with their efforts to become more sustainable. Because of it, the term “urban ecology” has been
used variously to describe the study of humans in cities, nature (of) in cities, and of the coupled
relationships between human and nature. By 2030, the population of the world’s cities will grow
by 2 million more people. At present, about half of the humans on earth live in urban areas. In
2030, according to the CIA Word Factbook, 60% or almost 2/3 of people will live in the cities. In
addition to space in which to live, all of these people will need breathable air, drinkable water, and
food, which will mostly be grown outside of cities and transported into them. Large areas of green
spaces exist within cities. Forman (2014) said that as the population grows, the number of
urbanization arises.
But for Cengiz (2013) “Urban Ecology studies the relation of mankind with each other and
their surroundings including cities and urbanizing landscapes. This recent and interdisciplinary
fields tries to understand the coexistence of human and ecological processes in urban environment
and help humans to build more sustainable living.” In short “Urban ecology is the ecology of right
where we live” (Into the Intro: Urban Ecology, 2014).
Vegetation
There are many benefits of Urban Vegetation. It has benefits for people, natural balance
and in the economy. They said that plants water evaporates into the atmosphere in order to regulate
the temperature. Water uses energy that makes the temperature cooler. The presence of the plants
and trees around the facilities makes the air more cooling because it reduces the flow of warm air
in summer and cold air in winter (Pauline, Damien, François & Julien, 2013).
For several reasons, one of the current needs of urban settlements is a higher urban density,
a topic that still causes some debate, but from mobility and urban climate points or view, low-
density areas can be even worse. The urban climatic issues of heat, heat, humidity, lack of daylight,
solar access and urban ventilation is a topical concern to urban planners and government the need
for appropriate designs for high density cities is clear. In high-density cities, land is scarce and
there is little provision of space for the incorporation of urban greenery such as urban parks and
landscaping (Duarte, Shinzato, Gusson & Alves, 2015). Urban trees and forest provides the cities
by giving a greater quality of air and the health of the citizens. A single tree protects us from the
heat of the sun. The urban forest improves state health by persuading the people to do activities to
make them healthy like taking a jog or ride a bicycle with its attractive environment. A beautiful
landscape lessens stress and makes us feel relaxed (Tyrväinen, Pauleit, Seeland, & de Vries, 2005).
Trees have their own ability to lessen temperature of the air. In their research they
compared the effects of just a single tree to a bunch of trees. An individual tree has a greater
temperature than the clusters (Bowler, Buyung-Ali, Knight, Pullin, 2010). As stated by Dock and
Hutchings (2013) magnitude of cooling also depends on tree growth rate and longevity, and
placement of tree relative to the building to be shaded. Tree selection: not all tree species have the
same cooling effect, the lower the foliage temperature the greater the cooling, and canopy size,
structure and density also influence the extent shading. The right trees for a changing climate portal
provides a searchable database and guidance on selecting suitable trees species to plant in urban
areas in a changing climate. Trees close enough to directly shade buildings can have lower
summertime energy demand to cool building’s indoor climate.
According to Day and others (2010) Soil Characteristics common to the urban environment
include soil compaction and other physical impediments to root exploration elevated pH, altered
temperature and moisture patterns, and presence of contaminants. Root influence is further
mediated by the intimate role of roots in soil biological activity and thus carbon storage and
nutrient cycling, at the same time, roots have a profound effect on the soil environment, with trees
directing 40%-73% of assimilated carbon below ground.

Issues in Urban Ecology

Urban areas should maintain the natural habitats of our environment. As of now our
population rapidly increase every year. So we should know how to work on it & we should plan
to make our ecology better for another generation. Especially now there are more infrastructure,
than planting trees. So how should we maintain the vegetation in our places, if right from the start
we're not able to help to make/ maintain our vegetation? So now we should know what are the
limitations or the things that we should do in our surroundings. Urbanization takes opportunities
& challenges to us, as a residents, towards sustainability (Luederitz et al., 2015).
Urbanization affects many in our surroundings. Especially to us a human we are the most
affected in this kind of condition. There are more places before it was green and peace places, but
now it was full of infrastructure. We're not saying that infrastructure are not good, it was the sign
that our place or province are improving or developing. But we should know or we have to set the
limitation, because cities now are polluted (Jennings, Floyd, Shanahan, Coutts, & Sinykin, 2017).
 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN
Narrative research is a term that subsumes a group of approaches that in turn rely on the
written or spoken words or visual representation of individuals. These approaches typically focus
on the lives of individuals as told through their own stories. The emphasis in such approaches is
on the story, typically both what and how is narrated. Narrative research can be considered both a
research method in itself but also the phenomenon under study.
Narrative method can be considered “real world measures” that are appropriate when “real
life problems” are investigated. In a basic linear approach, they encompass the study of the
experiences of a single individual embracing stories of the life and exploring the learned
significance of those individual experiences. (Narrative Research - Analysis of Qualitative Data -
Design & Method. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://atlasti.com/narrative-research/ )
Narrative research is appropriate for this study because our study was relying on written
and these are approaches typically focus on the lives as told through story of the residents. This
appropriate because if real life problems.

POPULATION AND SAMPLE

Research commonly (used) examine traits on characteristics of population in their studies.
A population is a group of individual units with some commonality.
The sample will be representative of the population if the researchers uses a random
selection procedure to choose participants, the group of units or individuals who have a legitimate
chance of being selected are sometimes referred to as the sampling frame. As for the number of
respondents, Guetterman T. C. had said in their study that the specific size for a narrative study is
ranging from 3 to 24.
In this research, we will use a non-probability sampling because it is very cost – and time
effective. It’s also easy to use and can also be used when it’s impossible to conduct a probability
sampling. The researcher employed the purposive sampling method for the selection of the
participants. Purposive sampling refers to intentionally chosen sample according to the needs of
the study. This means the researcher selects participants because they have indicated their
willingness to participate in the study. Likewise, this strategy enables the researcher to collect
relevant and useful information for answering the research question. A purposive sampling will be
used in conducting the research specifically a homogeneous type of purposive sampling to carry
out the study. The research will be conducted on the long-term residents living in Barangay
Maybunga and Palatiw.
Research methodology is basically a process of how a research is being conducted. It
encompasses tools and techniques to conduct a particular research or finding. According to
Walliman, research method is a range of tools that are used for different types of enquiry.
Therefore, it is important to select an accurate method that suits the research objective. In this
section the researcher will break the components into two: Research Instrument and Validation
Procedure.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
In this study, the researchers are formulated a questionnaire as an instrument to gather data.
The questionnaire will provide questions that the respondents can answer in an interview. The
researcher, with prepared written questions to the interviewees, used the structured interview. In
this context, the structured interview protocols ask specific objective questions in an arranged
order. In addition, the questions were well structured, planned and organized in line with the
objective of the study. In order to collect adequate and relevant data to address the research
objectives of this study. Nonetheless, the researcher used qualitative research method.

VALIDATION PROCEDURE
The researchers choose two experienced person and sent them the formulated questions for
them to validate. Also, the researchers collected data and analyzed them to make a better questions
in line with our research objectives. Through this process the researchers revised and changed
some parts for the satisfaction of the experts and for the better questions to present to the
respondents.

Below is the formulated/revised questionnaire.

Figure 2. Questionnaire
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