Urban planning decisions profoundly affect the welfare of wild and companion animals in cities. Incorporating animal welfare into urban planning frameworks is an emerging area with significant potential impact.
Urban planning decisions are typically made without explicit consideration of their welfare implications for non-human animals. Yet decisions about road design, building materials, lighting, green infrastructure, and development patterns profoundly affect the welfare of the many wild species that inhabit cities alongside humans. Buildings with glass facades kill millions of birds annually from collisions; this is a planning and design problem with available technical solutions. Road networks fragment urban habitats and create crossing mortality; underpasses and wildlife crossings reduce this. Urban heat islands intensify heat stress for wildlife during increasingly frequent heat events. Cities that are beginning to incorporate animal welfare into planning frameworks — through wildlife-friendly building design requirements, mandatory green infrastructure, and wildlife crossing provisions — demonstrate that this integration is achievable without significant cost.