Around the world, urban planning is inextricably linked to both historic and current power structures. Urban planning in Palestine over the past century is no exception. Perhaps what differentiates Palestine today is the ongoing settler colonialization.
Urban planning often serves existing power structures to the detriment of the marginalized and as such has been used as a tool for racial segregation and discrimination in many contexts. As UCLA Professor Ananya Roy puts it: “Urban planning has repeatedly produced segregation and displacement”. Much has been written, for example, on the discriminatory urban planning practices in the United States and their impact on exacerbating racial injustices against African Americans, in particular.
Yet, even as a planning professional of Palestinian origin who has visited the occupied West Bank many times and witnessed and experienced the discrimination against Palestinians there firsthand, the extent of the influence of planning policy was not obvious to me until I began researching it. Spatial planning policies, systematically introduced and enforced over the past century first by the British Mandate and then the Israeli government, have been instrumental in creating the unjust physical realities experienced by Palestinians today.
Below, I provide a glimpse of this planning history, which is vitally important to understanding today’s reality. I do this by highlighting excerpts from some of the research and scholarly work on this topic. The rest of this essay is organized mostly chronologically to address each of the key periods of the past century, with a final section focusing on the city of Jerusalem.
While this essay focuses on the planning history, I have provided brief commentary and infographics connecting to the wider context and broader history. For further reading on this history as told and experienced by the occupied (not the occupier), I recommend sources like Decolonise Palestine and Palestine Remembered. For a visual representation of how the creation of the State of Israel physically transformed Palestinian cities and villages, I highly recommend this excellent project by Visualizing Palestine.
Planning during the British Mandate (1920 – 1947)
After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, Palestine came under the control of the British government. As Martin Crookston, a contemporary British planner, describes in this review, the plans developed by the British under this mandate did not even record all the existing Palestinian villages, let alone plan for their development or expansion to meet the future needs of the indigenous population (as is normal practice). What is even more shocking is that these plans are still in use today by the Israeli government.
“The map below indicates in yellows circles the villages. But the Plans did not record all the villages in 1940s Palestine; so these yellow circles do not represent a complete picture of rural settlement even then. There was intended to be a layer of more local planning below these ‘regional’ plans, but it never really happened, or only to a tiny extent. In the whole of Mandate Palestine, some 900 Arab villages saw only 25 outline plans prepared for them – eight of them in what is now the West Bank.”
A British Mandate Plan for part of Historic Palestine (1947). Source: Martin Crookston (2017) Echoes of Empire: British Mandate planning in Palestine and its influence in the West Bank today, Planning Perspectives, 32:1, 87-98, DOI:10.1080/02665433.2016.1213183
Furthermore, as is typical with the international transfer of planning expertise, British planners brought with them planning solutions which may have worked in Britain but did not necessarily work in Palestine. Crookston elaborates below:
“The echoes of empire ring down to the present in other ways in the Mandate Plans, too… Importing a ‘solution’ intended to tackle the sprawl that was stretching along the radial roads of UK cities, the plans declared wide building-lines to set development well back from primary roads. These are now cited as reasons for demolitions. And the regional plans’ zoning of areas for only a few main uses (roads, an agricultural zone, development zones, nature/forest reserves, and beach reserves) has become a tool for hyper-restriction of natural village expansion.”
In other words, British planning policies which were meant to restrict linear sprawl of town and cities in 20thcentury Britain were imposed on Palestinian villages and are now being used as legal justification for restricting the natural growth of these villages. Critically, the same planning policies were not applied to the Jewish colonies being set up by international Zionist organisations to accommodate hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants, who came mostly from Europe and the United States with no immediate ties to the land of Palestine. Not only were these colonies permitted, but they were also allowed to grow and develop without planning requirements or restrictions.
Rassem Khamaisi, professor at the University of Haifa, describes this dichotomy in applying planning policies as follows in his paper on the British Mandate and the control of Palestinians:” The Arabs were subject to restrictive statutory and physical planning, and land surveys were used as a tool for confiscating their land, particularly in situations of ethnic conflict.
By comparison, new Jewish colonies and towns were rapidly developing to absorb largescale Jewish immigration that came to Palestine, especially after the Second World War. The Mandate planning institutions did not involve approved structure plans for the Jewish agriculture colonies. Besides which, most employees in the Planning Adviser’s office and in the district commissions were Jewish, and some of them paid more attention to the Jewish towns plans than to the implementation of the Mandate policy.”
The Creation of the State of Israel over Palestinian villages (1948 – 1967)
Between 1947 and 1948, to enable the creation of a Jewish state, 750,000 Palestinians were made to flee their homes through violent assaults first by militant Jewish groups and then by the newly formed Israeli state. This moment in history had a significant impact on all aspects of life for Palestinians, including the strength and connectivity of their cities. The quote below is from another work by Khamaisi focusing on the major Palestinian urban centers and how they were affected by the creation of the State of Israel.
“In 1947, the United Nations Assembly partitioned Palestine into two states, Arab and Jewish, under Resolution 181. The War of 1948 between the Arabs and the Jewish, as an aftermath of this resolution, lead (sic) to the establishment of a viable, functional sovereign Jewish state with Tel-Aviv its urban core. This urban core began to develop in the 1930’s even though the Israelis aspired to establish Jerusalem as its Political core after the War of 1948, and according to the Rhodes ceasefire agreement of 1949. The Arab Palestinian state failed to establish, with Palestinian territory outside the Israeli state fragmented into two units lacking territorial continuity. As a result of this war, known as “Nakba” [disaster] to the Palestinians, and territorial fragmentation, the normal growth of Palestinian cities and towns changed in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel. Israel divided Mandate Palestine under Jordanian rule (West Bank, “WB”) and Egyptian administration (Gaza Strip, “GS”). Between 1948-1967 the Palestinians lost their urban centers in territories within the newly established Israel proper, and the urban centers outside Israel’s borders, ruled by foreign Arab States, remained relatively small and dependent on the Jordanian core and the Egyptian core, Amman and Cairo, respectively. Jerusalem, which had previously functioned as the
Palestinian core, was divided into West Jerusalem, under the sovereignty of the State of Israel, while East Jerusalem was under Jordanian sovereignty and dependent on Amman.” The catastrophic loss of the Nakba was also felt, perhaps even more painfully, in Palestinian villages, hundreds of which were wiped off the map:
“After May 15th 1948 the War expanded and Israeli forces took over portions of the territory that was set aside for the establishment of a Palestinian state through the Partition Plan and expelled much of the population that lived in these areas. By the end of the war approximately 750,000 Palestinians had been made refugees and between 500 and 600 Palestinian villages had been depopulated. Many of these communities were later destroyed.”
— Source: https://www.afsc.org/resource/palestinian-refugees-and-right-return
To cover the traces of these acts of ethnic cleaning, many of the sites of the destroyed villages were later designated by Israeli authorities as nature reserves or cultural sites:
“The razed grounds of 182 erstwhile Palestinian villages — almost half of the villages depopulated by Israel in 1948 — are today included within the boundaries of Israeli nature and recreation spaces: mainly national parks, nature reserves and Jewish National Fund (JNF) forests and parks. Most of the Palestinian villages were intentionally destroyed by Israel during and after the 1948 war or gradually dilapidated due to lack of official care as they were not considered heritage sites worthy of preservation. However, many of the villages were centered on ancient ruins, whose historical value led in some cases to declarations of national parks on the grounds of former villages. Similarly, villages near a natural spring were later classified by Israel as nature reserves or recreation areas; and, lastly, one of the goals behind the planting of some of the JNF forests in Israel — later turned into recreational areas — had been to obscure the remains of destroyed Palestinian villages.”
—Source: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/232332
The multiple layers of colonisation and appropriation involved in such acts of forestation over ruined villages are described piercingly by Liat Berdugo in her essay reflecting on the tree she planted as a child in Jerusalem at the age of six:
“So the planting of forests is a politically charged endeavor that links ecology and aesthetics to cultural survival. It is a way for Israeli Jews to say ‘we are here’… But more than that: it is a strategy for expropriating land. Prior to the declaration of Israeli statehood, the leaders of KKL-JNF [Kayemeth Le’Yisrael, also known as the Jewish National Fund] saw afforestation as ‘a biological declaration of Jewish sovereignty’ that could be used to set up ‘geopolitical facts’.”
She goes on to describe:
“A half-century later, it remains a public secret that at least 46 KKL-JNF forests are located on the ruins of former Palestinian villages. American Independence Park, where the names of foreign donors are etched on the Wall of Eternal Life, is superimposed on the villages of Allar, Dayr al-Hawa, Khirbat al-Tannur, Jarash, Sufla, Bayt ‘Itab, and Dayr Aban, which were captured, ‘depopulated’ of their 4,000 inhabitants, and razed by Israeli state actors in 1948.”
Berdugo also implicates the Israeli legal system which rejects claims of Palestinians to village sites after they have been forested:
“And the Israeli courts have determined that when a forest is grown on expropriated land, Palestinians who return to that land are trespassing. In 2010, the Supreme Court rejected a petition by Palestinian refugees from the village of al-Lajjun to reclaim land in the Megiddo forest, ruling that afforestation justified Israeli control under the Land Acquisition Law of 1953.”
Planning during the military occupation of the West Bank (1967 – 1994)
Planning process in Palestinian centres
In 1967, Israel occupied the remainder of historic Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza). As an occupying power, Israeli authorities now had direct control over planning laws in these areas.
Rassem Khamaisi describes how the Israeli state took away agency and representation in planning from the indigenous Palestinian population through the issuance and implementation of Military Order (MO) 148 which transferred planning powers from local village councils to commissions appointed by the Israeli military:
“The MO no. 418 also abolished the local planning commission in village councils, later establishing six Regional Rural Planning Committees (RRPC). It also granted the Military Commander the authority to appoint members of the HPC [Higher Planning Commission] and RRPC. Under the MO, the HPC was also authorized to set up subsidiary or ad hoc committees as it deemed necessary. Once the MO had been issued and implemented, the Palestinians were robbed of all authority and responsibility in the planning institutions; their presence in the province and RRPC, or in the sub-commission of the HPC, was merely formal. The ‘responsible’ in charge set up the HPC and appointed Jewish members with no Palestinian representation.”
In this new planning system, most Palestinian applications for detailed plans or building permits were rejected on the pretence of protecting agricultural land or lack of sufficient land ownership documentation. This is captured in numbers by Khamaisi:
“Thus, obtaining a building permit was a very complicated and serious process, which decreased the number of building permits issued to the Palestinians. For example, in the period between 1 January 1988–1 September 1988, the number of applications submitted was 994, but the number of permits given was only 221. It is worth mentioning that in the period between 15 November 1986 and 28 September 1987 no permits at all were issued by the local committees.”
Establishment of new Jewish settlements
The HPC prepared regional plans for the West Bank in the early 1980s with multiple colonial objectives including limiting the development of Palestinian villages, severing connectivity of Palestinian cities, and most importantly enabling the establishment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank with full spatial segregation from Palestinians. In Khamaisi’s words:
“To amend the Mandate plans in the regional tier, the HPC prepared two regional plans covering part of the West Bank. The first, called the ‘Partial regional plan no. 1/82, amendment to regional plan RJ-5’, emerged in 1982. This plan covered an area of about 45 km2, around the three sides of Jerusalem, forming a belt around Jerusalem in the area of the West Bank. Plan no. 1/82 determined five main land-use zones (agriculture, nature reserve, future development, reserved area and built-up village areas). An analysis of the goal containing proposals of land use and regulations, leads to the conclusion that this plan intended to prevent the securing of building permits in agricultural zones according to the Mandate plans, and to limit Palestinian development in villages and in congested built-up areas. However, the areas designated for future development were selected for the creation or expansion of Jewish settlements.
Planning in the West Bank after the Oslo Accords (1995 – today)
The Oslo Peace Accords signed in 1993 were expected to transfer control of the West Bank, including planning powers, to the Palestinians. The reality was markedly different, with the West Bank being divided into three zones (A, B, C). Area A (covering 18% of the West Bank) is administered by the Palestinian Authority and Area B (covering 22% of the West Bank) is under joint Palestinian-Israeli control. Area C, the largest of the zones covering approximately 60% of the area of the West Bank, is under exclusive Israeli administration including planning control. In Area C, planning restrictions on Palestinians have increased compared to the pre-Oslo era, with even less construction permitted. Simultaneously, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank continues.
The Israeli NGO Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights describes this juxtaposition of planning powers between Palestinians and the occupying State of Israel in their 2008 report:
“The two sides in this conflict do not have equal power. The Israeli Civil Administration enjoys substantial statutory and legal powers, and the average Palestinian citizen has no practical possibility of successfully challenging its decisions. Even according to the official position of the Israeli government, Area C is under temporary belligerent occupation and is not part of the sovereign State of Israel. This status implies that the powers of the Israeli authorities in the area to impose restrictions on Palestinian development and building are extremely restricted compared to those of a sovereign government. Nevertheless, the Civil Administration severely restricts Palestinian development in Area C, arguing that the future of this area remains to be determined in negotiations for a permanent agreement. At the same time, Israel continues to permit extensive construction in the settlements scattered throughout Area C, as if this construction does not establish facts on the ground and does not have grave ramifications for any future agreement.”
Source: The Prohibited Zone: Israeli planning policy in Palestinian Villages in Area C, Bimkom, June 2008
Jerusalem
The Israeli planning interventions in the city of Jerusalem, particularly after the 1967 war, offer a rich albeit disheartening case study of planning as a tool for segregation. Some of the injustices have risen to the world scene earlier this year as Palestinian families in neighbourhoods such as Sheikh Jarrah fight illegal dispossession from their homes. Jonathan Rock Rokem has written extensively on this topic, terming Jerusalem as a “Contested City”. Below are excerpts from a 2012 paper on the politics of urban planning in the city:
“Israel, with the Ministry of Interior and the Jerusalem Municipality as its main legislative arms, has been responsible for urban planning and policy for the last 45 years, keeping a clear separation between Israeli and Palestinian living areas clearly visible in the location of disconnected living areas in the map below, dating from 2008.”
“In more details, over the last 46 years, Israel has used its military might and economic power to relocate borders and form boundaries, grant and deny rights and resources, shift populations, and reshape the Occupied Territories for the purpose of ensuring Jewish control. In the case of East Jerusalem, two complementary strategies have been implemented by Israel: the construction of a massive outer ring of Jewish neighborhoods which now host over half the Jewish population of Jerusalem, and the containment of all Palestinian development, implemented through housing demolitions, legally banning Palestinian construction and development, and the prevention of Palestinian immigration to the city.”
“Up until today, planning and development in Jerusalem has been officially determined by the last statutory authorized master plan dating from 1959. The 1959 “[The] Scheme, prepared at the time when Jerusalem was a divided city, includes only the Western part of the pre-1967 Israeli Jerusalem. Therefore, it has little relevance in determining planning and development in the current conditions. This means that without an updated master plan, for almost 50 years, the Municipality, the Ministry of Interior, and other government departments have shared the development and planning without an overall legally binding document.”
“Since 1967, the policy employed by the Jerusalem municipality has been affected by the Israeli national political discourse. The principal Israeli policy has been “reunifying” Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty while the Palestinian Eastern population sees the integration of East Jerusalem as illegal “annexation.” In ethnically divided cities, urban planning policy can take a major role in enhancing spatial and social division (Bollens 2000). The unequal funding of urban planning and construction projects between the Eastern and the Western parts has resulted in a city split into two distinct growth poles, with the crossover parts and old border areas remaining mainly neglected division points between the two sides.”
Source: Rock, J; (2012) Politics and Conflict in a Contested City: Urban Planning in Jerusalem under Israeli Rule. Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 23
What now?
Around the world, urban planning is inextricably linked to both historic and current power structures. Urban planning in Palestine over the past century is no exception. Perhaps what differentiates Palestine today is the ongoing settler colonialization. Unlike other settler colonialization “projects” (e.g., in the US and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa), the Israeli colonial regime is still formally in power today and continues to perpetrate injustices at every scale against the occupied Palestinian population. As I have attempted to argue in this essay, spatial planning policy has been an important tool in creating today’s inhumane reality affecting millions of Palestinians on the ground and in the diaspora.
Where do we go from here? The first objective is obvious: ending the colonial project in Palestine. After that point, there will be decades of injustices and abuses to rectify, including the legacy challenges of the planning system, in order to plan for just and liveable cities for all people on that land.
Until then, as built environment professionals, it is important that we denounce the fundamentally unjust systems governing the urban context in Palestine and elsewhere, and continue to work towards rectifying this. For professionals interested in working in Palestine, being fully aware of the colonial planning power dynamics and their impacts is essential to making informed decisions on the projects in which we chose to be involved and the stakeholders and communities we chose to include.
Cities face unprecedented challenges. Global environmental change is placing increasing pressure on ecosystem functions and their ability to support human activities. The exponential growth of human activities is a key driver of such change, so much so that Planet Earth has certainly entered a new Epoch—the Anthropocene, in which humans have as much influence as nature itself (Steffen et All 2007).
The Anthropocene (Steffen et al 2007). The term Anthropocene suggests that the earth has now entered a new epoch. Over the last 50 years, human activities have accelerated a range of key trajectories, as is clearly visible in the 12 indicators charted between 1750 and 2000. Some activities were not present before 1950; for others, the rate of change increased sharply after 1950.
Urban regions pose enormous challenges to ecological and human well-being from local-scale atmospheric and water pollution to global-scale phenomena such as climate change threatening ecosystem’s capacity to deliver important ecological services (Alberti 2010). At current rates of urban growth, expected global land cover change will result in significant loss of habitats in key biodiversity hotspots (Seto et al. 2012). Urban regions are also the place where the majority of the human population will face the potential consequences of expected irreversible changes in climatic, hydrological, and ecological regimes such as flooding, droughts, sea level rises (Figure 1).
Extreme Events Source: Mosaic by Michal Russo. Photos: fire: Maxim Gusakov, fotopedia.com; flood: Marco Dormino, fotopedia.com; wind: http://freeaussiestock.com; droughts: suburbanbloke, fotopedia.com.Beach community after Hurricane Sandy. Photo: Mark Olsen (USGS).
Rapid modifications of biophysical systems have the potential to trigger regime shifts (see below)—abrupt and irreversible changes—that will have significant consequences for human health, access to resources, human safety, security, and overall human wellbeing (Rockström et al. 2009). Researchers have found that the likelihood of regime shifts is higher in ecosystems where humans have reduced their resilience by modifying biogeochemical cycles, altering hydrological regimes, reducing biodiversity, and changing the magnitude, frequency, and duration of disturbance regimes (Folke et al. 2004). Potential regime shifts—from climate change and flooding to water pollution—pose enormous challenges to the stability of urbanizing regions and make them vulnerable (Miller et al. 2010). The recent Hurricane Sandy and the less recent but tragic Katrina, along with the Japanese tsunami, clearly illustrate the unexpected shocks cities face in the next decades.
How can cities navigate through such uncertainty and make robust decisions to ensure human wellbeing over the long term?
Regime shifts are large, abrupt, persistent changes in the structure and function of a system. An external shock can trigger a completely different system behavior, here represented by the ball moving into a new regime. But regime shifts also depend on slow changes in external drivers and internal feedbacks that change the domains of attraction of the regime: from a resilient state represented in the figure by the dotted line to a less resilient state represented by the continuous line. The resilience of a state corresponds to the width of a stability pit. The loss of system resilience changes the thresholds that push the system into a new regime. Definition: Biggs, R., T. Blenckner, C. Folke, L.J. Gordon, A. Norström, M. Nyström, and G.D. Peterson. 2012. Regime shifts. In: Sourcebook in Theoretical Ecology. A. Hastings and L. Gross, editors. University of California Press, Berkeley Photos: earth: woodleywonderworks; fire: Maxim Gusakov,fotopedia.com; flood: Marco Dormino, fotopedia.com; wind: http://freeaussiestock.com; droughts: suburbanbloke, fotopedia.com.
The Challenge
At the core of the challenge we face is the inevitable uncertainty of dynamic coupled human-natural systems (Liu et al. 2007). Both ecosystems and societies experience continuous fluctuations in their structure and function. Occasionally, change is punctuated by sharp shifts: abrupt transitions to an alternative state with significant implications for system function and dynamics (Scheffer et al. 2001, Scheffer et al. 2012). Scientists have documented examples of regime shifts for quite some time. More recently they have described several examples in urbanizing regions (i.e. urban lakes, invasive species, floods), but we still do not fully understand the significance of such dynamics.
Urban ecosystems are highly complex. Change and evolution in such systems emerge as interacting agents engage in simple behaviors. Uncertainty and the likelihood of surprise are driven by the complex interactions among ecological and social drivers and their unpredictable dynamics (Alberti 2008). In urban ecosystems feedback mechanisms that operate between ecological and human processes can amplify or dampen changes, and thus regulate the system’s response to external pressures. For example, land cover change and rapid loss of tidal marshes coupled with the hydrological and ecological changes associated with the development of hard flood control structures (e.g., dikes, dams, levees, groins, seawalls, and storm water) increase system vulnerability to extreme climate events and prompts more demand for flood-control infrastructure.
Extreme Climate Events
All around the world, extreme climate events are becoming normal when compared to historical records. Climate scientists predict more frequent hot days, heavy precipitation, high-speed winds, and a likely increase in hurricanes (in the United States and the Caribbean) and flash floods (e.g. in East Africa), with significant consequences for human and ecological wellbeing (figures below, IPCC 2012). Economic losses from climate-related disasters have increased, with large variations across places and years (below, IPCC 2012). Global losses due to the weather- and climate-related disasters reported over the last few decades mainly reflect the monetized direct damages to assets, and are not distributed equally. Since 1980, estimates of annual losses have ranged from a few billion US dollars to over $200 billion (in 2010 dollars), with the highest value for 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina (IPCC 2012).
Projected changes in precipitations. 20-year return values of the annual maximum 24-hour precipitation rates (IPCC 2012).
For a recent IPCC special report, ‘Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation’ (SREX), 220 scientists collaborated for 30 months, looking at historical trends and projected trajectories to assess current frameworks and strategies. Their report points out that existing measures for managing risk and adapting to change need to be improved dramatically to face projected extremes.
Projected changes in temperatures (in °C) in 20-year return values of the annual maximum of the daily maximum temperature (IPCC 2012).
When multiple phenomena with uncertain trajectories—for example, storm surges and power outages—affect the function of cities simultaneously, the element of surprise can be enormous. Suddenly, resources and activities that everyone takes for granted, such as mobility or an energy supply, are unavailable, causing ripple effects on people’s safety and wellbeing.
Regional Distribution of Climate Disasters. Weather- and climate-related disaster occurrence and regional average impacts from 2000 to 2008 (IPCC 2012).Losses from Disasters (1980-2010). Overall losses and insured losses from weather- and climate-related disasters worldwide (in 2010 US$) (IPCC 2012).
Climate scientists did predict that given the expected increase in extreme events such as hurricanes, the subway tunnels in New York could flood as they did during Hurricane Sandy, but far less predictable were the many interactions with rail and road closures and the potential consequences of the shifting mobility patterns of thousands of city dwellers, especially since power outages and other system failures were simultaneously limiting the access to food supplies and drinking water.
Submerged Costal Metro Areas (Boston). This map, first published in the New York Times illustrates the potential impacts of climate change on costal metro areas. For example, 86% of Cambridge and 37% of Boston land area will be flooded in the next centuries (100-300 years) based on the estimate Sources: Remik Ziemlinski, Climate Central; U.S. Geological Survey; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
By 2030, many coastal cities are likely to face raising waters at least 4 feet above the high-tide line due to storm surges and sea level rise (Climate Central 2012). A recent report by Strauss et al. (2012) estimates that urban areas and their communities are highly vulnerable to sea levels rising anywhere from 0 to 6 m above mean high tide. They found important threat levels: 22.9 million Americans live on land within 6 m of the local mean high tide.
The future of Planning
Strategic decisions about urban infrastructure and growth management are based on our assessment of the past and our expectations for the future. How we think about the future has significant implications for the choices we make and the decision-making process we apply. Traditional approaches to planning and management typically rely on predictions of probable futures extrapolated from past trends.
However, long-term trends are increasingly unpredictable given the complexity anduncertainty of coupled human-natural systems. Predictive models that are designed to provide accurate assessments of future conditions can only account for some of the interactions between highly uncertain drivers of change and the surprising, but plausible, futures over the long term. Important progress has been made in complex modeling, and improved simulation and computer power have allowed us to process quite astonishing amounts of data; still, our models are constrained by our limited knowledge, unverified assumptions, and short-sighted mindsets.
Myths in Planning
To address the inherent uncertainty of coupled human-natural systems, we need to expose some common myths in urban planning. I expand the discussion of the myths in a chapter in my forthcoming book Cities as Hybrid Ecosystems(2014).
Stability: Thresholds remain constant over time, and thus are predictable.
Planners have long assumed that systems are stable: that they return to equilibrium when confronted with external disturbances. Steady state is a condition in which nature exists at or near a persistent equilibrium. The steady-state paradigm holds that disturbance can be controlled and that by using an optimization strategy, systems can achieve sustainable carrying capacities. Within this perspective, thresholds that would produce change to a new state (i.e., a different equilibrium) remain constant over time, and are predictable and avoidable.
But this isn’t the case. Coupled human natural systems may exhibit nonlinear responses to perturbations. There can be more than one stable regime. Both the position of a threshold along a driving variable and the depth of the basin of attraction can change. Resilience is a dynamic property. In coupled human natural systems such as cities, reciprocal influences between system shifts in both the ecological and social systems may occur (Walker and Meyers 2004)
Optimality: There is an optimal resilient urban pattern and type of infrastructure.
The idea of optimality—that one can find the optimum among a set of possible alternatives given a set of conditions—is a direct consequence of the steady-state paradigm. Planners come to assume that an optimal solution exists. Decisions based on seeking the optimum assume that we can quantify risks. However, in the presence of irreducible uncertainties, we encounter multiple plausible futures whose relative probabilities are unknown. The farther we look into the future, the more the uncertainty increases—and it may increase even more with new understanding from advancement in scientific research. For systems to function in an uncertain environment, robustness rather than optimality is a more appropriate target for planning and decision-making.
Transferability: What is resilient in one region and at one scale is resilient in other regions and at other scales.
Many planning strategies are based on the assumption that what is resilient for a specific system function, at one scale, and in one region, is resilient for other functions, at other scales and in other regions. In complex social-ecological systems, multiple regime shifts may occur in multiple biophysical (climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry) and human (social, economic, and political) domains at multiple scales. Furthermore in evolving systems, changes in scale influence resilience (Walker and Meyers 2004). Increasing the scale of urban systems may expand resilience by adding a diversity of ecosystem types, they depend upon, but urban expansion may increase the relative costs and impacts of maintaining urban activities on a larger scale. If planners focus on the resilience of a specific subsystem, at a specific scale, that may cause the system to lose resilience in other ways. Instead, to maintain resilience we must focus on maintaining adaptive capacity and coping with uncertainty.
Adaptability: We can maintain resilience by adapting our current institutionalframeworks.
Human and natural systems have evolved through change, adaptation, and extinction. But researchers in separate domains have studied of how human systems and natural systems adapt. As a result, we do not fully understand how coupled human-natural systems evolve and adapt and what the limits are to their adaptability. Adaptation planners are assuming that we can maintain resilience by adapting our current institutional frameworks. In fact a co-evolving paradigm may require reconfiguring current planning frameworks and fundamentally transforming current institutions for managing our cities.
The Myth of a Resilient Urban Pattern
Evidence that urban planning subscribes to such myths is provided by the dominant idea and search in planning for an optimal resilient pattern of urbanization. The idea of an “optimal pattern” is based on the assumptions that thresholds remain constant over time, that they can be detected and predicted, and that what is resilient in one region and at one scale is resilient in other regions and at other scales. Furthermore, adaptation planning is grounded in the idea that we can maintain resilience by adapting our current institutional frameworks.
Building on the emerging evidence in urban ecology, I challenge the hypothesis that a shift in the pattern of urbanization toward a single “optimal” pattern is a desirable objective that will ensure resilience (Alberti, forthcoming). I argue that no single pattern is consistently more resilient than another. Resilience depends on variable biophysical and socio-economic conditions across regions and scales.Optimizing one function at one scale may increase the vulnerability of the whole system.
In my new book Cities as Hybrid Ecosystems, I advance the hypothesis that to enable resilience, it may be necessary to create a diversity of urban patterns within and across urbanizing regions.
Resilience in Urban Ecosystems
The resilience paradigm recognizes the existence of multiple stable states and focuses on adaptation as a strategy to maintain system function. Resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so it can retain essentially the same functions, structures, identity, and feedbacks (Holling 1973). In coupled human-natural systems, resilience emerges from the interactions of human and ecosystem drivers, patterns, processes, and functions (below).
My colleague John Marzluff and I together with my team at the Urban Ecology Research Lab (UERL) are currently working toward a new transdisciplinary network to advance scientific understanding of regime shifts, resilience and adaptation in urban ecosystems. This network aims to inspire, generate, and facilitate new modes of interaction and collaboration among diverse members of the scientific communities and practice to produce a new level of synthesis of existing knowledge, identify research priorities, and establish new empirical evidence on the relationships between ecological resilience and human wellbeing in urbanizing regions.
Evidence emerging from the study of complex systems can provide insights for planning and management. In a recent paper in Science, Sheffer et al. (2012) suggest that system shifts may result either from unpredictable external shocks or from critical transitions. Drawing on two separate lines of investigation—on complex networks and on the proximity of critical thresholds—they suggest that both the heterogeneity of the components and their connectivity affect the stability of systems on the long run. By building on such observations in ecological systems, we can develop hypotheses about the fragility and robustness of coupled human-natural systems and test them in urban ecological systems.
Patterns of Resilience
I suggest that the diversity of urban patterns (e.g., centralization, building density, road connectivity) may control the resilience of urbanizing regions, because it is the diversity of processes alternative patterns can support that expands the region’s capacity to adapt to a variety of conditions that can emerge in the future (Alberti, forthcoming). In the most recent examples of extreme climate events that have tested the resilience of large urban regions across the world, the greatest surprises are in what worked: the countless ways in which unintended functions and flexibilities created by an imperfect and redundant urban infrastructure (i.e., transportation systems) provided alternatives and ways out. When the subway floods unexpectedly and shuts down for a week, many interconnected activities will jolt, and mobility patterns will shift suddenly. It is under these circumstances that we come to see how heterogeneous and modular the city networks and systems actually are. Examples are provided by the power of real-time communication technology such as cell phone networks, by on-line retailers’ delivery systems, and by the redundancy and flexibility of multiple transportation and infrastructure systems.
Critical transitions pose great challenges and opportunities. Innovation and creativity are important ingredients of resilience; at the same time they are often triggered by the same forces that drive critical transitions (Allan et al. 2010). Critical transitions offer unique opportunities for positive transformation and generate he seeds for cities to become more resilient and innovative. When new frames of reference and new constraints emerge, they require people and planners to see opportunities and risks they have never experienced before. Such new frameworks highlight problems and unequal distributions, and expose tradeoffs and synergies; thus they expand the boundary conditions of what is possible and desirable.
From Resilience to Transformation
Resilience is about avoiding system shifts. But persistence is not always desirable. Many undesirable states, such as degraded ecosystems or social inequalities, may be quite resilient. So while resilience planning focuses on predicting and adverting potential thresholds and system shifts, moving towards a desirable state requires transformation (Walker et al. 2004).
Resilience in coupled human-natural systems requires transformation towards what is desirable (Folke et al. 2010, Ernston et al. 2010). This implies addressing the diversity of human values and the existence of conflicts. A co-evolving paradigm may be more appropriate. This view focuses not only on unpredictable dynamics in ecosystems, but also on institutional and political flexibility for learning, reconfiguring problem solving frameworks, and devising innovative policies. Instead of seeking to reduce uncertainty, planners and decision makers will need to identify and adopt robust strategies that will be appropriate under a broad range of alternative futures.
Future policies and management practices will succeed or fail based on their ability to take into account the complexities and uncertainties of these systems. When policies aim to stabilize the ecological system or eliminate its variability, the inevitable outcome is collapse (Carpenter and Gunderson 2001). This is where scenario building can be valuable, as both a systemic method and a framework to expand our ability to think creatively about the future by focusing on complexity and uncertainty (Peterson et al. 2003). Rather than focusing on accurately predicting a single outcome, scenarios let us examine the interactions between various key uncertain factors that will together create alternative futures. Using a series of hypothetical future scenarios, we can assess the robustness of alternative strategies.
Local governments need to make important decisions about land use management and investments in infrastructure that can influence the direction of urban development in the near future.
I suggest five principles for planning under uncertainty towards enabling resilience and innovation in urban ecosystems (Alberti, forthcoming):
Create and maintain diverse development patterns that support diverse human and ecosystem functions
Focus on maintaining self-organization and increasing adaptation capacity instead of aiming to control change and to reduce uncertainty.
Expand the consideration of uncertainty and surprise by designing strategies that will be robust under the most divergent but plausible futures.
Create options for learning through experiments, and opportunities to adapt thorough flexible policies and strategies that mimic the diversity of environmental and human communities.
Expand the capacity for change through transformative learning by challenging assumptions and actively reconfiguring problem definition and policy action.
As urban environments become more cosmopolitan, there is an increasing urgency to think critically about how to care for and be in relation to novel ecosystems and the plants they support. Artists and cultural creatives are showcasing a range of strategies to help shift worldviews, to embrace the traits of plants we deem invasive, and to begin a long process of healing and building empathy for the more-than-human world.
In early September 2019, a plant known as Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) was considered one of the top threats to public safety in New York City. Although fairly common in the region, a Tweet from Adrian Benepe, the former commissioner of NYC Parks & Recreation went viral after he found a specimen growing on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Within a day, local media outlets like the New York Post and an NBC affiliate circulated sensational headlines warning that one touch of this “killer” plant could turn you into a “zombie”, and cause convulsions or hallucinations. A post from the neighborhood blog Patch.com even went so far as to trace the history of the plant to Nazi Germany and the Manson family, alleging it was used as a poison in cult sacrifices.
Screenshots from media coverage of the Jimson weed sighting in New York City in September 2019.
While indeed, Jimson weed can be poisonous, it also provides a number of benefits or ecosystem services ranging from creating a habitat for nocturnal pollinators and moths, helping to filter air, stabilizing soils, and absorbing stormwater, and is used by Indigenous communities to treat mental illness, tumors, infections, and more. Despite this, headlines about plant and insect invasions are on the rise, filled with war-like rhetoric that seems to insinuate humans are in a battle with so-called alien invaders. Scholars and artists alike have been warning us for decades that these invasive narratives are not only xenophobic but perpetuate notions of human exceptionalism which can have a negative influence on our attitudes towards urban nature at precisely the same time we are suffering from a biodiversity crisis. This not only contributes to a biased view of naturally occurring plants but also distances urban dwellers from the lifeworlds of species they regularly encounter. While management and monitoring of changes to species diversity are important, ecologists increasingly argue we need to think differently about how best to manage and find kinship with the plant communities they support. Not only because of the multiple benefits they provide but also because of the equity, justice, and governance implications they present to communities.
Today, whether we like it or not, cities are now composed of novel ecosystems, which are self-assembling biotic communities that emerge in sites of disturbance with little or no human management. Chances are you’ve encountered some and haven’t even realized it ― from vacant lots and post-industrial sites, along roadways, and even in your backyard. In large part artists, designers and other creatives are on the cutting edge of developing new methodologies and creative actions that seek to repair our relationship to these sites and the urban plant communities they support. Here I want to explore some examples of what artist Ellie Irons describes as an emerging form of “eco-social art” ― artworks and creative practices that aim to cultivate a sociality in plant-to-human interactions and draw from new fields of study like critical plant and multispecies studies, and also emerging concepts such as Donna Harraway’s “naturecultures” or Robin Wall Kimmerer’s notion of “biocultural”. We’ll start with some initial grounding and context, and then consider three methods artists are using to envision a world beyond humans.
The emergence of invasion biology and the multispecies vegetal turn
In the US, the war on weeds and invasive species is nothing new and has shaped policy on land management and conservation for decades. Although there are many historical trajectories, much of the disdain toward “exotic” or “alien” species can be traced back to the early histories of European colonization. In a North American context, the arrival of colonists brought with it not only a divine calling to seize occupied lands but also many seeds and specimens of plants from Europe and other parts of the world, as well as a Western ethos of agriculture that continues to drive land stewardship today. The field of invasion biology, or the study of the adverse effects of “invasive alien species”, also plays a pivotal role. Mark A. Davis, a historian of invasion biology, points to the publication of Charles Elton’s “The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants” (1958) as an important milestone in the formalization of the field and popularization of the term “invasive alien species”. Research from Elton and other scientists quickly inscribed the notion of “biological invasions” as a preeminent threat to humanity, utilizing war-like language to describe certain plants and animals as potential “ecological explosions”. By the 1990s scholarship in the field had grown exponentially with many studies focused on the impacts of biodiversity on island nations, often used to support restoration agendas and conservation policies that do not reflect recent theories of ecological resilience or adaptation.
In a recent piece for the art space Pioneer Works, Banu Subramaniam reminds us that invasion biology, even today, suffers from a kind of collective amnesia by failing to recognize the centuries of human and more-than-human interactions that have continually shaped ecosystems across the globe. Today more than half of the plants deemed invasive in North America were actually brought here purposefully as agricultural imports or exotics cultivated for various purposes. Yet still, the Society for Ecological Restoration refuses to acknowledge the value of ecosystems that happen to harbor these plants and to update its International Standards to focus more on understanding the function and benefits of ecosystems. This is not to say that ecological restoration efforts have no value, in fact, they can be critically important in many parts of the world, especially in biodiversity hotspots where the abundance of certain species is critical for maintaining food webs and ecological services urgently needed worldwide.
However, the question of how we discuss these emerging issues remains a key concern. Many in the field highlight how the discourse of invasion negatively influences our perception of urban environments and supports restoration practices that aim to recreate the “historical continuity” of an ecosystem by attempting to “restore” or bring them back to some arbitrary time in the geologic record. Ecologists largely agree this is nearly impossible and quite subjective given natural systems are continually changing and impacted by human activities. What’s more, despite continued efforts to prove invasive species are a driver of extinction or biodiversity loss, the majority of global studies conclude that ‘alien species invasions’ have not resulted in any significant threat (See The New Wild by Fred Pearce). Many ecologists now agree that invasive species are merely passengers of disturbance and that climate change and human activities impact biodiversity more significantly. Nonetheless, most approaches to ecological restoration or conservation in the US remain unchanged, requiring expensive, carbon-intensive practices, and herbicides that are often not effective long-term and divert resources away from addressing the very systems driving biodiversity loss in the first place (See Tao Orion’s Beyond the War on Invasive Species). And it’s important to note, that this is not an issue resigned singularly to parks or natural areas but is, in fact, something inscribed into most local zoning and property ordinances, making it illegal to harbor any plants considered to be invasive or noxious above 10-12 inches.
Today, our perception and attitudes towards naturally occurring plants continue to be shaped by multiple forces ― from popular media to the social pressure and legal responsibility to maintain a manicured lawn, to political and cultural ideologies that presume nature is merely here to serve human ends. This has cultivated what many call a form of “plant blindness”, where we tend to ignore the value and presence of plants in our daily lives or demonize the perceived traits of weedy plants which many assume to be parasitic, destructive, and aesthetically displeasing. This is not something innate but rather learned over time, which I argue contributes to an implicit bias against naturally occurring plants and urban nature. A number of scholars have attempted to better understand this, notably Joan Iverson Nassauer’s (1995) research on landscape perception and the “Cues to Care” framework, which finds that many people prefer landscapes they recognize as designed or signal ongoing human care rather than semi-wild or unmaintained areas. Yet, decades after Nassauer’s work has circulated, little has been done to radically reorient how we conceive of and manage urban greenspaces and natural areas, prompting what many call a vegetal or multispecies turn in thinking about a range of fields/practices.
In recent years “multispecies thinking” has emerged as a way to consider the interdependencies between humans and other species. Examples range from multispecies ethnography, to kincetric ecology, ecological art, or the concept of “multispecies urbanism” which advocates for consideration of the well-being and needs of nonhumans within planning and design to ensure mutual flourishing and survival. Interdisciplinary scholars like Donna Houston, Anna Tsing, and Debra Solomon even promote the idea of “multispecies entanglements” to build empathy and relationships with organisms we may deem a nuisance or invasive. They describe this as a process of attunement involving interactions with urban nature that integrate embodied practices, Indigenous knowledge, and new ways of knowing to envision strategies for communication and inclusion of more-than-human actors, especially organisms we label as invasive, alien, or feral.
The turn toward multispecies thinking is also informed by a long trajectory of what others describe as a ‘vegetal turn’ in art, philosophy, and other fields noting how human history has been shaped by interactions with the plant world (For additional information read Vegetal Entwinements in Philosophy and Art). Anthropologist Natasha Meyers’ proposition of the Planthroposcene, in many ways, encapsulates this ethos. Meyers argues that because plants are the precursor to all life on the planet, (e.g., cyanobacteria, or aquatic plants found in the ocean made an oxygen-rich atmosphere possible 2.4 billion years ago) then we actually live in the Planthroposcene, an era shaped and enabled by plants. While Meyer’s proposal is purposefully provocative, concepts like the Planthroposcene are not necessarily useful unless we develop meaningful ways for others to reconsider our relationship to plants, advocating for interdisciplinary approaches that include the arts. Let’s take a look at some examples. [Note: It’s important to note the examples are drawn from my own experiences in the North American context, and do not necessarily reflect the diversity of approaches across the world.]
Using embodiment and somatic practices to cultivate vegetal kinship
The use of movement-based practices to connect people with plants has many histories. In the US, emerging art movements like Dadaism and Fluxus influenced new interpretations of classical dance and dramatic arts, inspiring experimentation with forms such as performance art and guerrilla theater. Works by Betsy Damon (A Shrine for Everywoman, 1980-88) and Mierele Ukeles (Touch Sanitation, 1979–1980), Anna Halprin (Planetary Dance: People power for peace, 1980), and Meredith Monk (On Behalf of Nature, 2013) among others seized this moment and created opportunities to explore the body’s relationship to plants and the environment. But when it comes to artists using embodied approaches to engage with novel ecosystems, this is a more recent phenomenon.
Meredith Monk, “On Behalf of Nature” 2014, Brooklyn Academy of Music. Wikimedia Commons
One example is artworks developed by the Environmental Performance Agency (EPA). In 2017, I co-founded the EPA, an artist collective using artistic, social, and embodied practices to advocate for the agency of spontaneous urban plants with collaborators Andrea Haenggi, Ellie Irons, and Catherine Grau. The EPA was founded in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election of Donald Trump and the subsequent dismantling of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under administrators Scott Pruitt and later Andrew Wheeler. Realizing the urgency of the situation, we created an alternative EPA as a political and artistic gesture focused on learning from spontaneous urban plants and cultivating what EPA Agent Irons describes as ‘plant-human solidarity’, noting the ways we are “entangled with vegetal life as a foundational aspect of working towards eco-social justice”.
Ellie Irons attunement with mugwort (Artemsia vulgaris) at the Environmental Performance Agency’s Urban Weeds Garden in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY. 2017
EPA agents work primarily through forms of somatic and performative practices that aim to cultivate a critical space for encounters between people and disturbed landscapes. Projects range from opening a fictional EPA field office in Washington DC called the Department of Weedy Affairs, to launching an online platform called the Multispecies Care Survey, to a practice we call public fieldwork which involves using movement, improvisation, and field science to engage with urban weeds in cities. EPA agents often use scores as a device to structure encounters, a loose set of instructions that invites the public to directly encounter, learn from, and be in relation to weedy plants or what EPA agent Haenggi calls “ethno-choreo-botan-ography”. One of our first projects was the Urban Weeds Garden cultivated within a 1,900-square-foot “vacant lot” in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Over several years the site, once an auto repair shop, was left to go wild and supported a dizzying array of 50+ species of plants and organisms (both “invasive” and native). We began to invite the public into the space, hosting improvisation workshops, and experimenting with scores and protocols to envision a world beyond humans.
Environmental Performance Agency Agents Andrea Haenggi, Ellie Irons, and Catherine Grau in the Urban Weeds Garden, Crown Heights Brooklyn, 2017
In one example, EPA agent Andrea Haenggi created a score called “Embodied Scientist: Creating Weedy Plant Labels.” After a brief introduction, a participant is invited to locate a plant they feel drawn to and to focus on the plant’s movement, shape, texture, and smell. Next, the participant is invited to change their body’s position, to be in relation to the plant in different ways, and to develop a movement in response. Finally, the participant creates a label for the plant, encouraging them to rewrite its story and imagine a new name and origin that rejects the classical Linnaeus binomial system. The label is then placed next to the plant.
What we found through these engagements was a marked change in how participants spoke about plants they may have overlooked just a few hours ago, as well as a kind of bodily awareness of the margins and edges of urban space. We would often receive follow-up text messages the following day or week with images of weeds and reflections. Return visitors would also bring specimens, and notations on wild garden plots they had found in the city as well as questions about how naturally occurring plants can be used as medicine, food, or resources for dyes and art making. Here we view the artwork not as a singular object or ephemeral experience, but rather a sensorial ongoing encounter that creates a lasting memory and space to confront our assumptions about plants and spaces we see as damaged, disturbed, or out of place. An embodied methodology in this sense invites a sensory immersion and interruption to the everyday ritual of city life that can cultivate an opportunity for shifting worldviews. Scholars like Elizabeth Ellsworth (2005) describe this as a “nonlinguistic event”, where the mind, body, heart, and soul coalesce in our experience and make sense of the world. As we engage and participate, learning unfolds as a radically relational activity, a network of experiences and unconscious awakenings.
Social resilience and communities of practice
Increasingly artists create spaces for learning and social exchange exploring issues related to novel ecologies and naturally occurring plants. These artworks and projects can cultivate meaningful communities of practice or a group of individuals who come together to share a common interest and engage in learning and collaboration. Through engaged work together, a process of social co-participation between a learner (or newcomer) and a member of a community of practice (or old timer) unfolds, and often allows one to delve deep into new discourses or worldviews.
One example is the Grafters X Change, initiated by artist Margaretha Haughwout, a collaborative project that explores the politics and potential of grafting fruit-bearing branches onto non-fruit-bearing trees in urban and post-industrial landscapes. Each exchange unfolds as a regional gathering of fruit tree enthusiasts who share scionwood and seeds, skills, fruit foods, and art projects and practices. The aim in many ways is to make visible the labor and expertise involved in ecological restoration, urban agriculture, and to interrogate forms of environmental care. As communities of practice form, the group experiments with different grafting techniques, sharing bioregional resources for food sovereignty, and stories that echo the implications of monoculture street tree plantings. A key element of each Grafters X Change gathering is also a critical examination of what Haughwout describes as “invasive thoughts” in a publication created for the 2022 event at Colgate State University:
Interrogate your belief system and your (perhaps invisible) relationship to settler-colonial coercion. If you have the knowledge to call a plant or critter “invasive,” you probably have the skills and tools to investigate why they are here in the first place. Ensure your stance in the landscape is not simply prolonging a harmful legacy of power-over mentality. Hold humility close and don’t you dare call yourself a “Master Gardener.”
Grafters X Change, 2022. Colgate University, Hamilton, NY. Images courtesy of Margetha Haughwout.
In New York City artist Candace Thompson launched the Collaborative Urban Resilience Banquet in 2019, which she describes as a multi-species experiment exploring how to adapt to the climate crisis by meeting (and eating) our non-human neighbors. Through community science experiments, dinners, foraging walks, and social media storytelling, Thompson explores food-based justice by learning from and with weedy edible plants, and organisms considered invasive. She forages and prepares the food in preparation for large gatherings she calls banquets, inviting the public to quite literally consume the very things we label as pests or invasive. Thompson diligently tests and researches the food stuff collected, measuring the concentration of heavy metals and other contaminants often found in urban soils, and then compares her findings with similar tests performed on ingredients found in local supermarkets. Thompson regularly finds that the levels of certain contaminants are actually quite higher in the supermarket, in comparison to plants collected at a brownfield or post-industrial site. Her activities are rarely singular, inviting communities on foraging walks, to dinners and performances that forge a community of practice.
Preparing a CURB Banquet 2019. Photograph courtesy of Natalie Conn.CURB Foraging Walk with Candace Thompson, pictured next to wild goldenrod flower. Photograph courtesy of Amy Youngs
In Detroit, Michigan, artist Bridgette Quinn established the A.W.E. Society (Area Wilds Exploration Society) as a platform inviting the public “to play within the borderlands between the city and nature, between the psyche and the environment.” Quinn utilizes society as a mechanism to bring together diverse groups of people to tour urban creeks and greenspaces contaminated by nearby auto and oil refineries. The Society’s activities often include elements of acoustic ecology, collecting the sounds of a newly hybridized landscape, and the plants and organisms that coexist. Sometimes the work becomes political. In The Resonant Underbelly, Quinn sought to explore creeks and running water near her home, leading her to a culvert in Warren, Michigan. When she looked closely at the water, she discovered an oil spill and E. coli contamination, a finding she submitted to the Warren City Council in 2018. Despite fairly convincing evidence, the city did little to address the issue prompting Quinn to invite participants on a kayak tour of the creek where they engaged in improvisational singing in creek culverts. The field recording was pressed into a limited-edition vinyl record, with one side the sounds of the creek, and Quinn’s testimony at the Warren City council hearing.
Left: “Flowers of the Anthropocentric Relaxation Garden”. Right: Image: Bridgett Quinn, “Ooze Cruise” (2020), Community organizer Lauren Schandevel attaches flowers to the EPA’s containment fence surrounding a site of toxic PFOAs pollution in Hazel Park, MI. Images courtesy of Bridgett Quinn.“A meditation on the dispersal of power” (2021), a sketch for a walking event that invites people to trespass in the interstitial ecology under a river of electrical current. Images courtesy of Bridgett Quinn.“The Resonant Underbelly of Suburbia” (2019), documentation after a performance of an experimental choir where participants sang with the water of the Red Run Creek. Images courtesy of Bridgett Quinn.
One last example comes again from Ellie Irons and her collaborator Anne Perccoco. In 2013, they launched The Next Epoch Seed Library (NESL) which collects and preserves seeds from plant species that are considered invasive or opportunistic within their respective ecosystems. Through workshops, foraging walks, and seed burial performances, the NESL creates a platform for artists, scientists, and communities interested in studying and understanding these plants and their potential uses. By gathering and sharing seeds, the project recognizes the ecological and evolutionary significance of these plants and seeks to explore their potential contributions to future ecosystems in a changing climate. Through the seed library and foraging walks, individuals and communities can access seeds for artistic projects, scientific investigations, and ecological experiments.
The Next Epoch Seed Library (Ellie Irons left; Ann Percoco right). Photo by Colleen Gutwein, taken at the show Landholdings at Index Art Center in Newark 2017Photograph courtesy of Anne Percoco, William Paterson University 2016. The show was called Living Together: Nurturing Nature in the Built Environment
In these works, the co-creation of a community of practice surrounding issues of invasion, novel ecologies, and plants has the potential to create spaces for dialogue and circulate public pedagogies that may not surface otherwise. The communities of practices that form also have the potential to cultivate and improve social resilience, or the capacity to make meaningful connections with others and the ability to increase well-being and health. In conversations with each of the artists who created these works, they attest that creating alternative spaces for exchange can help address fears and assumptions surrounding the role of naturally occurring plants and importantly motivate a radical kind of stewardship for disturbed ecologies. I like to think of these inflection points as ruderal carescapes ― places where communities can begin to develop a relationship with damaged terrains, which may help reframe conventional notions of care and restoration toward regenerative models of self-healing and mutualism. And raise important questions about the ethical obligation to care for more-than-human worlds.
Spaces of encounter, confrontation, and healing
Artists experimenting with eco-social practices also work within and around the confines of art institutions and spaces, creating spaces for encounter, confrontation, and healing. One example is Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves’ artwork, Seeds of Change (1999-ongoing), which has traveled to multiple locations across the world, exploring the historical, cultural, and ecological significance of plants and their role in shaping human societies. Alves specifically highlights ballast flora (seeds/plants brought over on cargo ships) from the port cities of Europe exploring how the global redistribution of plant species through colonial and imperialist endeavors has impacted diverse cultures throughout history. She creates participatory installations in museums, galleries, or community spaces consisting of display cabinets, containers, and sculptural gardens where the seeds are grown, or meticulously arranged and labeled with detailed information about their origins and histories.
Similarly, artist Okoyomon, a Nigerian-American artist has created participatory installations and artworks exploring the politics of invasive species. In their immersive exhibition of her work “Earthseed” (2020) at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Okoyomon installed young kudzu vines and mounds of topsoil in the Zollamt gallery highlighting how the plant was used in the American South to address issues of soil erosion when cotton was grown extensively in the region. Rather than presenting kudzu as a rapacious weed to be exterminated, Okoyomon uses the plants as a living medium to help cultivate a habitat for other organisms and as a support structure for six faceless “angels”, constructed from black lambswool, dirt, wire, and colorful yarn. Like Alves, Okoyomon explores how plants portrayed as ominous or deadly can help surface underrepresented histories.
Left: ‘Healing the Cut Bridging the Gap’ – before restoration (Vancouver circa 1992). Right: ‘Healing the Cut/Bridging the Gap’ – after restoration (Vancouver, 2000).
Finally, in Toronto and other cities across the world, artist Oliver Kellhammer creates work that intersects with invasive plants and post-industrial landscapes. Through his artistic practice, he explores the ecological and social dimensions of these landscapes, focusing on themes of regeneration, resilience, and the adaptive capacities of both plants and communities. In projects like other gardens, he invites participants to explore overlooked gardens that he characterized as ‘ruderal’ or plants growing from wastelands, dumping sites, or post-industrial. In other works, Kelhammer experiments with methods such as ecological restoration, permaculture, and community gardening to transform degraded or abandoned sites into vibrant and productive spaces. He often works with invasive plants like cottonwood as pioneering species that can help regenerate soil, provide habitat for wildlife, and improve overall ecosystem health. In works like Healing the Cut Bridging the Gap (1992), he uses hundreds of willow and cottonwood cuttings, which would root and stabilize the soil until the original alder and big-leaf maple forest re-established itself.
Co-creating a world beyond human
Further research to assess participatory art methods is urgently needed, especially as the presence of novel ecologies and urbanization accelerate. In finding ways to reframe how we relate to and kind kinship, even with organisms we deem a nuisance or pest, there may be an opportunity for greater understanding of the systematic drivers of ecosystem change worldwide, as well as mutually beneficial approaches to care for, conserve, and reimagine disturbed environments as sites of possibility and not merely spaces devoid of life.
Artists and cultural creatives are showcasing a range of strategies to help shift worldviews, to embrace the traits of plants we deem invasive, and to begin a long process of healing and building empathy for the more-than-human world. If we take Meyers’ assertion that our history and survival are indeed indebted to plants, then the call for plant-human solidarity needs to be taken seriously, especially in this time of incredible change and disruption.
We are now living in the Planthropocene. This is a time to listen to our plant allies, to repair a broken trust, and support the many creative communities working to envision multispecies kinship. The next time you see a weedy friend, try to find an opportunity to meet the plant, to listen, and find resonance. You might find they have something to tell you, but first you have to be open to listening.
Christopher Kennedy Austin (Working in New York City)
The city landscape, because of the holistic nature of city-forming factors and urban community, is like a book in which the various characteristics of the city and its citizens are visible: values and norms, economic conditions, tastes and aesthetic criteria, commitment to the living environment, and so on. Throughout history, the city, as a dynamic system, is a result of the interaction between city-forming factors and the urban community. It has a powerful and significant impact on the cultural, economic, aesthetic aspects of its citizens’ lifestyle.
Tehran is in critical condition ecologically. Thoughtful design based on a set of ecological values is key. Unfortunately, what is going on is the complete opposite.
Vegetation and urban green areas are one of the most significant ecological elements in the urban landscape. Their location, their density and distribution, biodiversity, native vegetation, and maintenance costs, are crucial factors in determining both current and future sustainability and resiliency status. So, anthropogenic interventions or other main factors that effect floristic composition and vegetation structure in the city can lead to fundamental irreversible changes in the ecology of the region.
This article addresses the human interventions in the selection of plant species in green spaces of Tehran, and the cultural, social and lifestyle roots of these interventions.
Plant selection models and abundance of non-native species in Tehran’s green areas
Today, Tehran is in critical condition ecologically. Tehran’s water sources are alarmingly declining. The effects of global warming are clearly visible on weather conditions, rainfall and the annual maximum and minimum temperatures of the city. The problems of air pollution and groundwater pollution are growing. In this situation, thoughtful design based on a set of ecological values is key. Unfortunately, what is going on is the complete opposite.
Plants are an important and effective element for environmental designers and landscape architects to create one of the most important soft parts of the landscapes—the greenery. Although it may be appealing to be innovative in design and in the choice of materials and tools, to create a new atmosphere and the perception of a unique space it is prudent to be cautious. When plants play the key role of the in creating a new space, decisions about the other design features should be made rationally. There must be considerations beyond the morphological expression and aesthetic features such as texture and color, and the visual and sensual attraction that they can add to space. Ecologically, botanically, and biochemically they have a specific quality which must be elevated above any other design element.
The invasion of exotic and non-native plant species into urban areas and private gardens is the result of neglecting these very important ecological aspects of plants. This can lead to the extinction of native species and a disturbance in the ecological balance of the floristic community of an area. “Today, many native wildlife and plant species struggle to compete with exotic, invasive horticultural and anthropogenically related non-native species for survival. Aggressive species with no natural predators are, in many areas, replacing native plants and animals at an alarming rate.” (Kevin Songer, TNOC Roundtable, August 12, 2015).
For more than two decades, the use of exotic and non-native plant species which are not ecologically adapted to the climate in Tehran has resulted in high maintenance costs. The expense is the result of the lack of effort among designers to create innovative aesthetic combinations of native species.
Recently, in many of the world’s most important and beautiful cities, such as London or New York, planting designers have been choosing native species with low input maintenance, and that are climatically and ecologically adapted to the region. Researchers such as Professor Nigel Dunnett and designers such as Piet Oudolf and many others have been successful in this regard. The spaces they have created are very impressive, soulful, aesthetically eye-catching, biodiverse and sustainable, and in harmony with the ecosystem. The methods of meadow-like, low input planting, the reuse of forgotten, resident species in creative combinations, and the simultaneous screening out of invasive species are important achievements of these designs. All of these efforts are being made because of the growing demand for more sustainable development, especially in cities like Tehran, with severe climatic conditions and limited natural resources.
If the use of non-native exotic plants, especially water-loving species, with high-cost maintenance, is a concern in a city like London, it is ecologically critical in Tehran. The use of creative combinations of native and resident plants is more necessary in Tehran than London.
Grass in Tehran urban green areas
Currently, grass is one of the main plantings in public and private green areas in Tehran. Despite the various municipal and environmental organizations’ declarations to prohibit the use of this plant, it is still used because of the rapid growth and rapid greening of flat lands, in vast areas like highway corridors, neighborhoods, and extended flat areas in city parks. The most important reason for using grass as a ground cover in cities with adapted climates is its ability to tolerate trampling and providing a leisure space for citizens.
Grass-covered highway corridor. Tehran. Photo: Tehran Parks and Green Spaces organization
In Tehran, there are many spaces such as highway corridors that are not accessible by citizens and pedestrians, which are covered by grass. Why? In parks and green spaces, areas that ought to be accessible to pedestrians, citizen access is limited due to the severe vulnerability of this grass in the semi-arid climate. Entrance barrier signs are installed in the lawn, preventing people from using parks and green spaces as they are intended. In both of these situations, the use of grass as ground cover seems ridiculous.
The very shallow depth of the grass roots, in comparison to the other meadow-like and ground cover species, increases the need for irrigation several times in semi-arid climates like Tehran, due to high evaporation and rapid outflow of water from the grass root. The reliance on grass as a ground cover, whether in highway corridors or parks imposes significant damage to water resources, the ecosystem and the economy of the city, and yet most important feature of this plant—its ability to withstand foot traffic—is not used.
Eye-catching wildflower native meadows in Tehran neighborhood. Photo: Maryam AkbarianA genome of Frankenia salina, a native to the desert regions of Iran, Meyghan Desert, Arak. Photo: Maryam Akbarian
In such a situation, the use of native meadow-like species seems a very good idea. Some of them, such as Taraxacum officinale (dandelion), red Kan poppy (Kan is a green lush mountainous region in the west neighborhood of Tehran), Achillea millefolium (yarrow), Berberis thunbergii, Origanum vulgare, Mentha pulegium, Ferula gummosa and other species can be used to create aesthetically eye catching ecological mixes. Drought resistant species such as Sedum are another solution. As is a species of the perennial herb Frankenia salina that is native to the desert regions of Iran, beautiful in different seasons, and is very tolerant of severe climates.
Use of evergreen non-native exotic species in Tehran
Platanus is one of the most nostalgic and native species in Tehran which is being seriously damaged. Photo: Maryam Akbarian
Living organisms and biodiversity have naturally reached a degree of equilibrium and adaptation so that in some cases small inappropriate changes may cause great stresses in a region. The plant community diversity and floristic composition of Tehran is no exception to this general principle. The invasion of non-native exotic species has caused many ecological problems in recent years and has been costly in terms of natural and economic resources, such as reduced groundwater levels, and losses of soil quality from both macro and micro features.
For example, the excessive planting of inappropriate and non-native varieties of cedar and pine species has led to a change in the nutrients and acidity of the soil, which has led to the disappearance of many native species such as Platanus and Populus. The problem of water and air pollution are the main reasons for increased use of some non-native species such as Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica ) and other needle-leaved evergreens in recent decades.
“Evergreens”, poorly suited to the climate in Tehran. Photo: Maryam AkbarianNon-native species filled planter. Photo: Maryam Akbarian
In addition to their ability to withstand pollution, evergreens, due to their novelty in shape and aesthetic aspects, are very popular with people and plant designers in private and medium-scale public green areas. And so, at a very high rate of speed, these non-native, ecologically incompatible and climatologically inappropriate species made their way into construction areas and now fill the city’s public and private green space. Acer palmatum, Buxus semperviren, Cycas, Thuja occidentalis, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Myrtus communis, Juniperus excelsa and others are found in Tehran’s public and private green spaces. And annually, hundreds of such species disappear because of winter and summer drying. Vast sums of money are spent on the costly purchase and maintenance of these plants, which in many cases are not long-lasting.
Old Platanus trees in northern Tehran, which were dried and cut during construction. Photo: Tabnaak News Agency
Tehran has been a city under construction for many years. In any part of the city if you stand on the roof, with a 360° degree view, five or more tower cranes, are visible. This permanent state of construction, with the its associated damage to the resident trees during the construction process, has destroyed the precious, and original native green areas of the city.
On the other hand, because of the heavy cash fines the municipality receives from owners due to the loss of the original trees, there is no incentive to re-plant. If the new tree dies, the owner will be subject to yet another heavy fine. Perhaps a better solution for municipal associations would be to require project owners, in lieu of cash fines, to plant native and high-tolerance trees in urban areas and city green belts in large numbers.
The prevalence of planting styles related to humanism
In some periods of the world’s garden design history, due to the historical and social conditions of that era, the designers used the plants in a very formal and pruned way. They created harmony with symmetrical plans, and were in keeping with the humanistic values of the time. The art of topiary, rooted in ancient Greek gardens, once again climbed into to the green spaces. The garden was arranged in a logical way and was filled with manmade features meant to display the power of humans over nature and the whole of the universe, and to maximize enjoyment for the landowner. The glory of this style is seen in the Italian Renaissance garden.
Saraye Ameriha, Kashan. The eyvan (iwan) is one of the most original and important elements in Persian style architecture. Its main function is to create a place for the best view of the natural features of buildings or landscapes. Photo: Maryam Akbarian
Contrary to this trend, one of the most important features of Iranian traditional gardens is naturalism, and avoidance of non-practical decorations and non-productive plant species. Optimization and the use of indigenous materials is one of the main features of Iranian architecture and gardening. No species in the traditional Persian garden was planted solely for decorative purposes. Water was used as a very valuable element, with great caution and skill, throughout the garden for both dramatic and irrigation purposes. In traditional Persian-style gardens, nature is the dominant element due to cultural beliefs and climate demands.
Nature as a bracing and divine element has always been a special interest of Iranians rooted in both religious belief and life-style. Green areas were greatly valued in this semi-arid land. The courtyard (Hayaat), the site for planting trees and placing the Persian traditional water pond (houz), is the most important part of the traditional Iranian house plan. All parts of the house are visually and locationally arranged around it and based on its axes. The tradition has always been to plant native species with the highest tolerance and lowest maintenance. When studying historic examples of traditional houses in Iran, from north to south, you can see the climate adapted changes in plant choice.
With such a historic and cultural background, the current trend in creating planting designs for Tehran landscaping projects is to be more contemplative and strange.
Non-traditional garden design. Photo: Google image
It seems that the new trends ignore the traditional patterns and achievements in general. Not of course in the direction of improving natural environment and quality of life for citizens, but only for the purpose of demonstrating luxuries and inappropriate temporary modes. For many years, the overwhelming influx of imported, non-traditional, and eclectic architecture style has changed the face of Tehran into a combination of super-luxe neo classic style informed by Arabian taste.
A design featuring indigenous plants and elements of traditional Iranian architecture. Photo: Google image
However, in recent years, many efforts have been made by contemporary architects and municipality organizations to reduce and correct this trend with greater emphasis on indigenous materials and prototypes of Iranian traditional architecture. Unfortunately, tastes of investors, builders and owners still trend toward super-luxe and costly architectural styles from beyond the region.
Lands that were once covered with native mature trees, are converted into “luxury” buildings with low-depth planters filled with exotic non-native species, small green areas and decorative roof gardens which with the slightest neglect of the gardener, or sudden changes in the weather during winter or the hot drought days of summer could be lost. Suddenly, these “luxurious” buildings with their decorative “green” spaces, in both public and private areas, will not be appealing to buyers.
This trend has already been exported to other major cities in Iran. Not only private spaces, but also small-scale urban areas have been affected. The use of resident native species of Tehran such as Nerium oleander, Syringa vulgiris, Chimonanthus, Alcea, Forsythia, Cercis canadensis, Spiraea vanhouttei, Fraxinus excelsior, Ulmus, Platanusand others are almost obsolete. The planting style that fits the luxury, neo-classical architecture has become widespread. Inexpensive native plants are not used due to the lack of attractiveness for buyers of these properties, and formal and sculptural looking plants are so popular, that only the most apparent characteristics of species are considered. Plant nurseries are also reluctant to produce better samples of native species, preferring exotic imported ones with high sales profits.
The “green” roofs associated with this neo-classical construction has also become an epidemic luxury element. These roofs are for appearance only, having nothing at all to do with the ecological goals of creating a green roof. Elements such as a roof top swimming pool, water features, antique pots and expensive stone sculptures and other decorative elements are the featured elements of these green roofs. The plants are just decorative, contributing no more than the hardscape.
In summary, both the public’s taste, and prevailing popular cultural trends on how to design and create urban and private constructed environments has had a damaging direct impact on Tehran’s ecosystem, floristic composition and diversity. It has led to the vanishing of native species and changed the greenscape of the city as a whole. The visual impact of these changes on the landscape, and the tendency for Iranian middle-class culture to follow the predominant style, unfortunately means that these anthropogenic interventions and their after-effects will continue to increase over time.
A review of Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary, by Harryette Mullen. Greywolf Press 2013. Buy the book.
Mullen delves into the nature of the urban environment, where a plastic bag on the road becomes an urban tumbleweed and city parks become an oasis of joggers and podcast-listeners. She challenges us to be aware of the small things around us.
For renowned poet and professor, Harryette Mullen, awareness is walking. Inspired by the Japanese syllabic verse form of the tanka, Mullen set out to explore her environment in a series of captured moments to create one of her latest collections, Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary (Greywolf Press 2013). The tanka form is a traditional Japanese style poem devised of thirty-one syllables that were originally printed as one line then later broken into five lines of strict syllable patterns when the poems were translated into English (Mullen ix). Mullen draws inspiration from this style and adapts it into her own three-line, free syllabic style that echoes her rhythmic and fluid inspiration. This collection was my first experience with the tanka form, and although Mullen purposefully breaks from the syllabic meter, her work draws attention to the unique natural spaces of her environment that might have been overlooked as city-centric in the traditional style.
Because of the drizzling rain, you listened
to the sound of the wind. There, for a brief moment,
you found shelter under boughs of pines.
—Harryette Mullen, 49
The tanka form that Mullen’s makes use of brings a heightened awareness to everyday living. The short lines and quick, often unpunctuated line breaks resemble the thought process of a single snapshot moment. The space between poems allows the reader to savor each moment and reflect on the everyday experience. This balance between pinched and fleeting thoughts and the intentional white space for reflection between moments underscores Mullen’s motive and means of expression as she creates intentionality and meaning through every inch of this collection.
The more thought-provoking of Mullen’s pieces are the poems that make use of the second person, addressing the audience “you” with specific actions and feelings. These “you” poems push beyond the casual observations of surrounding pieces and put the audience directly in the path of Mullen’s expression. After reading these “you” poems, I found myself taking a conscious step back as I walk around my city, narrating my experiences from the outside, as Mullen does, to draw my attention to the experiences I had come to mark as mundane.
One of the important inspirations for the tanka form comes from the idea of “the human being’s place in the natural world,” as Mullen explains in her introduction (ix). Mullen’s execution of this idea is solid throughout, while also wavering between thoughts on the biological, humane, abandoned, and constructed. Distracting from the experience of the everyday moment is the heavily biological terminology that sticks out in the latter half of the collection in general. Mullen’s narrator makes fun of this technical word usage in an attempt to strike another balance between the critical consideration of nature and the humanistic experience of plants and flowers in the sunny Los Angeles scenery. By cultivating an uncomfortable balance between biology and being, Mullen begins to question just how many layers are being built in order to create everyday experiences, most of which go unappreciated and unanalyzed.
A bird flew across the border and when it came to rest, was suspected of being an alien and possibly a spy.
—Harryette Mullen, 100
Urban Tumbleweed: Notes from a Tanka Diary calls upon its readers to take notice of the little moments and the everyday experiences that seem to fill the majority of our lives to no noticeable change. Mullen’s work as a whole questions the role of these moments and examines them with the same poetic care as the most life-changing experiences. That being said, one of the hallmarks of Mullen’s style is the realism and frankness of her expression. Mullen does not call for readers to take Thoreau-ian approach to the natural world, abandoning the experiences of the city in favor of secluded and undisturbed nature. Instead, Mullen delves into the nature of the urban environment, where a plastic bag on the road becomes an urban tumbleweed and city parks become an oasis of joggers and podcast-listeners. The broader message of this collection points out the lack of awareness of every day pedestrians, city-dwellers, and the participants in the modern world. As the natural world continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, I read collections like this not as a call to action but as a call to appreciation, and I would recommend Mullen’s work to anyone looking for escapism into the micro-moments of our lives.
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A review of The Ecopoetry Anthology, edited by Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street. 2013. Trinity University Press, San Antonio, TX. 628 pages. Buy the book.
Are cities beyond the help of poetry?
Donald Trump and his administration seem to think so, and their recent actions give the question urgency for both the U.S. and the world. Reports of their plans to slash the National Endowment for the Arts appeared in the same week that Trump, in his first press conference since the inauguration, continued his blanket tirade against the “inner city,”—an obstinate and unevolving polemic couched in a blunt, transparent racism. (Full disclosure: The Nature of Cities has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2017).
…“We’ve become ever more convinced that the environmental crisis is made possible by a profound failure of the imagination.”
In the United States of late, we have been so inundated with vitriol relating to all facets of American life, it has become difficult to remember that language can be a tool of inspiration, an implement for acknowledging, praising, and elegizing the contradictions of the urban human—and non-human—conditions, so that we can act to address those conditions: to fix them, or celebrate them.
For this reason, urbanists’ stand to gain much from Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street’s The Ecopoetry Anthology, a broad and luminous collection of historical and contemporary ecopoetry (not strictly from the U.S.), which delivers us from Ezra Pound’s edifying inhabitation of a “tree amid the wood”—to Marianne Moore’s scintillating evocation of light in “The Fish,” in which
“the submerged shafts of the
sun, split like spun
glass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness
into the crevices—
in and out, illuminating”
—all the way to A.R. Ammons’ quasi-design-oriented meditation on order (or lack thereof) in the world:
“in nature there are few sharp lines: there are areas of
primrose
more or less dispersed.”
On first look, the book is imposing: almost 700 pages from the editors’ prefaces and poet Robert Hass’s introduction to the ending credits and acknowledgments. Yet the intimidation of its appearance is reduced by the emotion of the editors’ words, both in their joint preface and individual introductions to the project, which remind us of the radical capacity of poetry to alter our thinking. Over the course of editing, Fisher-Wirth and Street write, “we’ve become ever more convinced that the environmental crisis is made possible by a profound failure of the imagination.” And although the editors do not speak specifically about the environment in urban contexts, their assessment holds for cities in the Trump Age: there is perhaps no greater failure of the imagination than Trump’s reliance on an evil Other, on the “hellish” inner city as it has stubbornly persisted in our cultural imagination, despite our knowledge that in the United States and around the world, our cities—while far from perfect—tend to be centers of inclusiveness, diversity (including biodiversity), and innovation.
In this anthology, hallmarks of United States identity, including creativity, freedom, ingenuity, and humor—but also oppression by the market, degradation of the environment, and disruption of community—emerge and intertwine with each other in a complex whole. The American city, its archetypal inhabitants and its present challenges, are implied—if sometimes left to linger just out of frame—in all of these poems.
For example, the city is the circulatory muscle at the center of the connective railroad wires that witness Hart Crane’s “last bear, shot drinking in the Dakotas /” who “Loped under wires that span the mountain stream. / Keen instruments, strung to a vast precision” that “Bind town to town and dream to ticking dream.”
Likewise, in his 1962 poem “California,” George Oppen thinks through the strange vertigo produced by globalization long before “globalization” is a defining parameter of the urban experience, let alone a household term. He marks the linkage between geologic formations—“the headland” that “towers over ocean / At Palos Verdes”—to the delightful incongruity of modern transportation—“But I am sitting in an automobile”—which renders far places newly proximal, newly possible. “And I look down at the Pacific,” he writes, “blue waves roughly small running at the / base of land, / An area of ocean in the sun—” and he sees, viscerally, that, “Out there is China.”
Other urban problems become visible in the suburban, in the systems that feed or are fed by cities. Julianna Baggott’s contemporary Delaware is “ripe” with carcinogenic pollutants, “but we don’t speak of it, the hometowners,” she wryly writes—thereby speaking of it, and gesturing to some of the outcomes of urbanization.
Crane’s, Oppen’s, and Baggott’s signals, whether conscious or subconscious, to the United States city—their illustrations of the urban and its consequences with words of despondency, spare wonder, and pain—reflect fragments of U.S. citizens’ fight for our national identity across the rural-urban continuum. Indeed, these are battles being waged the world over as people attempt to handle resource scarcity, worldwide political instability, and a rapidly changing climate.
Yet it is Lucille Clifton’s “Grief” that captures the specific rawness of our mood, and asks for the kind of inadvertently enforced pause in which the United States, in particular, now finds itself poised, wary and waiting for what will happen now that the “myth of america” has been upended. “pause then,” she writes, “for the human / animal in its coat /of many colors. pause/ for the myth of america. / pause for the myth / of america.”
Urban nature graffiti considers themes from the American West in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo: Laura Booth
To what myth is Clifton referring? Is it the myth of the United States’ erstwhile “greatness,” a condition which Donald Trump believes we once achieved and must return to—and which other societies have been guided, by hook or by crook, to emulate? A pathological, sick myth that looks to the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps as precedent for future policy, that perpetuates the racism of voter suppression by spreading lies about voting fraud, that would prefer to supply separate—certainly not equal—facilities for transgender students than their cis-gender peers use?
I believe this myth, which subsumes these and countless other horrors under the wrong heading of “greatness,” is the “myth” to which Clifton is referring. In this fraught moment in U.S. and world history, Trump’s is the inevitable story that emerges from a failure of imagination—a story made mythic only because of our unwillingness to take responsibility for its reality. It is a complicated (but not inexplicable) story that has resulted in the accumulation of immense power for a very few, via the unconscionable and systematic oppression of vast numbers of others and the degradation of the Earth.
But Clifton’s use of “myth” as the operative word, the fulcrum on which her poem turns, is also the word in which we can locate the possibility of a profound imaginative success: the formulation of a true greatness, in which U.S. cities—and, by extension, U.S. and global society—can “pause” in solemnity, and bear witness to “the human animal in its coat of many colors.” It is rich, diverse, overflowing with creatures of tremendous emotional capacity and landscapes of immense wisdom.
The poems in The Ecopoetry Anthology give us the coherent, multi-faceted evidence of a society—indeed, a global urban environmental one—that is strong enough to take ownership of our past, to call attention to its echo in the present. This society is self-aware, introspective, and capable of forging understanding across disciplines. As citizens and urbanists, it is our responsibility to draw on this evidence to help in shepherding a new mythic identity in cities. Going forward, we must listen and learn, as Pound did by embodying the tree—to come away, as he did, with “many a new thing understood / That was rank folly to my head before.”
One way that we can learn is by repeatedly returning to Fisher-Wirth and Street’s big book for an illustrative phrase here, a provocative phrase there. We can infuse these into our work to create cities that are more resilient, livable, sustainable, and just. And we can remember that, as Adrienne Rich says, “No one has imagined us. / We want to live like trees, / sycamores blazing through the sulfuric air, / dappled with scars, still exuberantly budding, / our animal passion rooted in the city.”
A review of Urban Nature: Poems About Wildlife in the City. 2000. Edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis. ISBN: 1571314105. 265 pages.Buy the book.
How can poems advance our understanding of nature in cities? If cities themselves are ecosystems of people, nature, and infrastructure, it follows that these elements can coexist in a balance that yields sustainable, livable, resilient, and just outcomes, even if that synergy is not evident in cities of the world today. Poetry, with its capacity to invert the lexicons of “nature” and “culture” so that they are not artificially divided per our current paradigms, is uniquely positioned to play a role in visioning such cities. By playing words, phrases, sensory evocations, and ideas off each other that would, in the prose discourse of practitioners, remain separate, poetry allows us to discover our future cities through the act of description.
A parking lot can be more than a parking lot. A rusting ship can be more than a symbol of decay. “Nature” encompasses more than a pristine, vegetated space untouched by human influence.
At its most novel, this is how Urban Nature: Poems About Wildlife in the City, edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, engages readers. The collection, organized around several themes, occasionally manages to subvert the built vs. natural environment dichotomy, allowing the inextricability of wildlife, landscape, infrastructure, and people to manifest as an emergent property of city life.
Take Carter Revard’s piece, “Christmas Shopping”. The author describes a prosaic scene—pulling into a parking lot near sunset in St. Louis, on a mission to buy Christmas gifts, but emerging unsuccessfully. Where is “nature” here? In another poem, even another poem in this collection, “nature” might have been the suffocated vegetation, mercilessly paved over to make way for a decaying strip mall; the ubiquitous parking lot gulls tussling over a strip of plastic bag; the iridescent shimmer of puddles, a reminder of misplaced fossil fuels.
“—nothing was ordinary; it seemed
we’d floated up into the sunset air all
filled with gold and dark shining, like
being in a cathedral with the moon…”
—Carter Revard
In the subset of poems that looks optimistically on the influence of nature in cities, each author chooses to characterize nature in cities unconventionally.
For example, in Carolyn Miller’s meditation on the unity of things, people sleep “like bees packed in a hive” as, “out on the edge/of land, the ocean rocks and shifts and folds”. Miller draws an emotional connection between people and bees, all simultaneously sleeping in the hive of the city. Likewise, X. J. Kennedy describes pieces of ships in both human and natural terms: the masts become “mechanical conifers” that “redden slow as leaves”.
In the case of “Christmas Shopping”, Revard chooses to see (and say) that “nothing was ordinary”, interrupting his own stream of attempts to describe the scene with this simple message to the reader: a parking lot can be more than a parking lot. Bees and humans share fundamental behaviors. A rusting ship can be more than a symbol of decay. “Nature” encompasses more than a pristine, vegetated space untouched by human influence. “Nature” in cities does is not only decimated.
This is rather a radical proposition for a poet to make, requiring both an open mindedness on the reader’s part and a verisimilitude in the writer’s drawing together of human with natural elements. Based on the binaries with which modern society inculcates us, it is easier to think that nature and cities are diametrically opposed than it is to seek their mutual resonances—hence the relative dearth of anthologies dealing with nature and cities.
Indeed, I could find only one such collection released since “Urban Nature” was published in 2000, relative to the numerous compilations of eco- and urban poetry available today. Even in Urban Nature it is evident that editor Laure-Anne Bosselaar has artfully arranged the collection, managing to highlight the idea of nature in urban contexts while including poems that were not necessarily written to address that theme, and introducing a few household names—Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, Philip Levine—to bolster the appeal of many critically acclaimed, but lesser-known poets.
After all, to succumb to the notion of cities as the locations of poignant juxtapositions—filth with luxury, gluttony with poverty—is almost inadvertent, because these are the cities that we already know. But placing “nature” and “cities” on opposite ends of a spectrum oversimplifies the rich, chaotic reality of nature in cities, where evolution proceeds under the influence of urbanization, where the chemistry of soils sings of our presence, where children experience nature in the physics of buildings and unprecedented night migrations rather than in forests or camping under the stars. It precludes us from the harder task of envisioning what it would take to make cities sustainable, livable, resilient, and just.
The choice implied in seeing nature and cities as two tones of the same color—where LA’s “Floral loops/Of the freeway express and exchange”, per Gary Snyder’s “Night Song of the Los Angeles Basin”—reminds me of the conscious choice that David Foster Wallace talks about in his famous 2005 commencement speech, “This is Water”. In the speech (and I’m paraphrasing here), Foster Wallace laments how much easier it is for us to walk through the world as though it revolves solely around us, as individuals, than it is for us to choose to project ourselves into the equal complexity of others’ lives. It is a far harder exercise, he says, to imagine that the person driving an obnoxious Hummer on your evening commute does so out of debilitating fear of getting in a car accident, than it is to snippily declare them representatives of everything that is wrong with middle America.
It may very well be, Foster Wallace acknowledges, that the Hummer driver has no legitimate, humanizing reason for her car choice. But this is beside the point: that the practice of opening ourselves to the experiences of others allows us to conceptualize better ways to be human beings. “The alternative”, he says, “is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing”.
This “default setting”, as it relates to our association of nature in cities with degradation and a profound sense of loss, is also on display in Urban Nature. Take Mary Oliver’s “Swans on the River Ayr”, in which she writes of the swans: “These ailing spirits clipped to live in cities / Whom we have tamed and made as sad as geese.” Here, city swans are literally deprived by people of their born capacity for flight. Instead, they lead “clipped”, domesticated existences in the dirty shadows of their non-urban counterparts. Oliver links this diminishing to people’s alteration of species and systems. Similar laments appear throughout the anthology in chronicles of species gone extinct (“And so, my dear, unheard, a single Santa Barbara sparrow / Will sing its last spare song”, writes Stephen Yenser in a poem dedicated to his daughter) and bodies crushed violently in the name of automobile-driven progress (“No mercy for that twist of fur, the rush of travelers / streaming home”, writes Madeline Defrees).
These poems are not wrong; indeed, many of them are painfully stunning. But by capturing this one kind of truth—this manifestly obvious, bitter, default kind of truth—of nature in cities, they reinforce the motif of the concrete jungle inhospitable to anything but three-toed pigeons (“Beaks evolved for gutter cracks, handouts. / Hooked toes fit for a witch’s brew”, as in Daniel Tobin’s “Pigeons”).
Honest as they feel, these kinds of poems do not represent the sole truth of nature in cities. There is also the truth we can choose to understand, if we work a little harder: a biophilic moment in Tilden park, where Alison Hawthorne Deming sees the human culture of the San Francisco Bay Area—“the tie-dyed, book-happy city”—seeping into natural forms, where “water sings with the stones” and trees may “have consciousness,/can feel their wood thicken”. There is wonder at the sight of wildlife, adapting and using cityscapes, like Barton Sutter’s Peregrine Falcon, who “folded his wings and dropped, / A living bomb, in his heart-stopping stoop, / One hundred eighty miles an hour headfirst toward the pavement. / And then the opening of wings, the swoop, / The rising up, and all that open sky”.
As we well know, the human species is entering into a new relationship with cities and nature: one where most people’s experiences with natural phenomena will occur, for better or worse, in urban spaces. We are still grappling with how we want those cities to perform on behalf of communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. In doing the kinds of revelatory linguistic turns that make cities natural, and nature in cities whole, Hawthorne Deming, Sutter, Revard, and many others whose work appears in Urban Nature access a new function of poetry: as a tool of choice that we should exercise far more frequently as we continue in the challenging task of visioning future cities.
September 18 is Park[ing] Day, a day when metered car parking spaces are transformed and reclaimed for other purposes. This annual event was first held in the USA in 2005, but has now grown to include Park[ing] Day events in cities around the world. In looking at the innovation and creativity that accompanies these and other parklet and pop-up park transformations, I am struck once again by the potential they offer as a massive experiment on a global scale. What do these temporary installations reveal about the social-ecological nature of cities?
Designed experiments are a relatively new approach to science and design that embeds a scientific experiment into a physical real-world design project. Landscape Architects and other practitioners collaborate with ecologists and other researchers in the development, establishment, and monitoring of the design project. Designed experiments offer scientists an opportunity to place scientifically rigorous studies into areas of the urban landscape where access would otherwise be problematic, and they offer practitioners an opportunity to improve their practice through assessing the performance of their built projecst. The process is iterative and, when done well, can deliver useful and relevant information to all of the parties involved.
Globally, there is increasing recognition of the importance of greenspaces and biodiversity to the ecosystem services that cities can provide. This has been accompanied by a strong and growing call for an effective evidence-base that will contribute to improved outcomes for people and nature. By incorporating designed experiments into our current investment in pop-up parks and other mobile and temporary greenspace interventions, there is an enormous potential to address some of these critical knowledge gaps. The remainder of this essay will explore this idea in more detail.
Mobile Biodiversity Boxes as experimental building blocks for cities
Parklets, pop-up parks, and other temporary greenspaces can take many forms. I am going to propose one form of temporary greenspace and then demonstrate how it can be used to address a raft of social and ecological research questions using a designed experiment approach. For simplicity, I am going to call my mobile greenspace element a “Biodiversity Box”.
What is a Biodiversity Box?
The best way to envision a Biodiversity Box is to imagine a giant piece of Lego turned upside-down, filled with soil (and perhaps a wicking bed), and planted to create an established garden that can be easily moved around a site and/or around the city.
Biodiversity Boxes as mobile experiments
Depending on your interest, the established garden could consist of a fruit tree, grassy meadow, sensory garden, vegetables and herbs, different forms of trees, shrubs and groundcovers, or it could represent a locally indigenous plant community. In reality, the Lego could be replaced with a wooden crate, a bathtub, a suitcase, weatherproof bags, or anything else that may be available or takes your fancy. The ideas I present related to designed experiments using Biodiversity Boxes can also be applied to more permanent features such as water sensitive urban design installations, although there will be some limitations in the scope of the questions that can be addressed using these established features, as they cannot be moved around a site.
The important thing is that we can take these Biodiversity Boxes and use them to find out more about cities as social-ecological systems and how we can build cities and towns with better outcomes for people and nature.
Opportunities for designed experiments using Biodiversity Boxes
Designed experiments can be used to inform research on both social and ecological aspects of greenspace. The ideas I present are illustrative rather than exhaustive, and I would be delighted to hear about other ideas and examples of projects in the comments section at the end of this essay.
Experimenting with design elements and sense of place
The recent diagnosis of nature-deficit disorder, our increasing connection with virtual worlds, and the implications for human health and wellbeing signal the urgent need to create greenspaces that inspire and motivate people to reconnect with nature. Design has a very important role to play in creating a sense of place and cultivating a meaningful connection between people and their environments. The styles and solutions that work in one context, such as a large park, may not work well in another situation, such as a small plaza.
There are also differences in the needs and wants of people living in different parts of the city which may be tied in with environmental justice, historical legacies, or trends associated with different development or planning approaches. In many cities, the impact of the public on the decisions that affect them is increasingly moving from education and consultation to collaboration and empowerment when it comes to addressing these issues.
In all of these cases, Biodiversity Boxes have the capacity to contribute to decision-making through designed experiments that allow the public to help identify the solution that would work best for their given situation. Biodiversity Boxes offer an opportunity for the public to participate in place-making activities by providing them with the resources that would allow them to configure a temporary space to suit their needs. Imagine an empty parking lot with Biodiversity Boxes on wheels or a track that allows them be moved to different locations in response to traffic, shade, or other local factors. Then add in mobile picnic tables, benches, sports equipment and other amenities, as well as chalk for adding new elements to the space. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to see the interplay between the configuration of these elements, the activities that are undertaken, and the perceptions people then have of that site? Now move these mobile elements from the empty parking lot into other spaces across the city and you suddenly have the tools to redesign your city in the real world! This is where the creativity and the flexibility come into play, the innovation and place-based solutions start to unfurl, and the idea of pop-up parks revealing the nature of cities really comes to life.
Experimenting with planting and management options in different contexts
The local extinction of indigenous biodiversity from urban areas and the prevalence of greenspace designs that rely heavily on supplemental additions of water, nutrients, and other resources into our urban landscapes all point to a need for revisiting human experiences of, and expectations for, greenspace in cities. Biodiversity Boxes offer an opportunity to explore how planting palettes and vegetation management options might impact people and nature in urban environments.
Vegetation structure, leaf litter, fallen branches, rocks, and bare soil are all habitat elements that influence which animals and other organisms are present in a landscape. For example, solitary native bees in south eastern Australia require a combination of bare soil for nesting and plants from the Myrtaceae family, which bear their nectar in open, shallow cups. The importance of different elements is also dependent on the landscape context within which they occur. Small, insectivorous woodland birds may be absent from areas where they can forage effectively and retreat from potential predators.
People also respond to these same habitat elements, as evidenced by the large field of studies investigating landscape preference in terms of aesthetics, recreational activity, perceptions of safety, and other cultural ecosystem services. Biodiversity Boxes offer an opportunity to explore these relationships in real-time in the real world.
By retrofitting habitat elements into existing parks and other areas within cities, Biodiversity Boxes allow us to experiment with the optimal sizes and shapes of habitat required for specific social and ecological outcomes. The mobile nature of the Biodiversity Boxes also means that the experiment can commence immediately and can be modified over time, offering the advantage of quicker, cheaper, and more flexible experiments when compared with in situ plantings.
By experimenting with planting and management options, we have the opportunity to develop more ecologically informed management and design outcomes that are also preferred or desired by people. The F3UES Experimental Meadows is an excellent example of an experimental approach to design that could easily be applied using a Biodiversity Box approach.
Sampling local biodiversity
Biodiversity Boxes also offer an opportunity to explore the relationship between urban habitats and biodiversity itself. One of the most basic questions we can ask using our Biodiversity Box is: which animals and micro-organisms are present in this landscape and visiting this Biodiversity Box?
This question can be addressed by incorporating passive ecological sampling techniques into the design of the Biodiversity Box. Track trapscan be used to sample terrestrial mammals and reptiles; hair snarescan be used to sample small mammals; pitfall traps, pan traps and sticky traps can be used to sample invertebrates; and settle plates, sterile filter paper or other techniques can be used to sample fungi and micro-organisms. Camera traps and other audio visual recording devices offer additional options for passive ecological sampling.
More active survey techniques can also be used, such as field observations conducted by researchers or citizen scientists.
To be confident about which new organisms are visiting the Biodiversity Box, compared with those which are already in the landscape, a modified version of the Before–After Control–Impact experimental approach can be used. This would involve sampling the location where a Biodiversity Box will be installed (Impact site) and a similar location nearby (Control site). Sampling would be conducted for a period of time before the Biodiversity Box was moved to the site in order to establish a baseline, continue during the time the Biodiversity Box was present in the landscape, and for a period after the Biodiversity Box has been removed. This Before-During-After Control-Impact (BDACI) approach allows the effect of the Biodiversity Box to be disentangled from the baseline levels of biodiversity in the area (comparing Before and After data with data collected During) and any possible trends in change over time (comparing Control site data with Impact site data). While scientific rigour would require a large number of sites to be sampled in this way, it still may be worthwhile to consider collecting this information for a single installation, as there is the potential for data to accumulate over time and between organisations, where individual pieces of data would begin to make an important contribution to a larger whole. While many of the designed experiments I discuss could benefit from this BDACI approach, there will be some situations where the emphasis is on the effect of the Biodiversity Box while it is at a site and the additional sampling is unnecessary.
Sampling local ecosystem processes
Ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, water and pollution filtration, and the life cycle of organisms underlie the provision of many Ecosystem Services, particularly regulating and supporting services. Quantifying the inputs, outputs, and transformations of nutrients, water, energy, pollution, etc. in different locations across the city will reveal insights into how ecosystem processes are modified by urban environmental conditions.
In much the same way that the Hubbard Brook Sandbox Studieshave contributed to a more detailed understanding of forest ecosystem processes, Biodiversity Boxes offer an opportunity to quantify ecosystem processes in urban environments. To be confident in the data collected for this type of designed experiment, it is essential that the nutrient levels (or other response variables) in the Biodiversity Boxes are standardised and accurately quantified prior to placing the boxes in landscape.
Quantifying inputs, outputs and transformations.
Studying ecological relationships and dynamics in urban systems
Understanding the role of biodiversity, functional diversity, and ecosystem dynamics is one of the key questions in ecology, design, and ecosystem services. Biodiversity Boxes offer an opportunity to set up a designed experiment that can shed light onto these questions, in much the same way that the Grassland Diversity-Stability Experiment, conducted at Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in Minnesota, USA, revealed important relationships between the diversity of plant species and the stability of grassland plant communities. Detailed understanding of these relationships is critical if we wish to create urban ecosystems that are sustainable and resilient, as it will allow us to develop planting designs that will be effective in responding to future changes in the environment.
Experimenting with composition and performance.
Urban island biogeography
The extent and configuration of vegetation within a landscape can have a significant influence on the movement and persistence of plants and animals. According to Island Biogeography theory, smaller or more isolated patches will have lower biodiversity than larger patches or patches that are closer together. Landscape Ecology research expands on this theory, and proposed that the shape of patches and their degree of connectivity are also important influences on biodiversity. However, the theories of Island Biogeography and Landscape Ecology were largely developed in non-urban landscapes and there are questions around how these principles translate to the build environment. Using the same designed experiment approach that was employed to investigate configuration and placement at the site level (see Experimenting with planting and management options in different contexts), Biodiversity Boxes can also be used to investigate equivalent questions at the landscape scale. Biodiversity Boxes offer an opportunity to add to our understanding of Urban Landscape Ecology and the Island Biogeography of the Anthropocene by understanding species-area relationships, species-isolation relationships, and colonisation dynamics in urban landscapes. This information will be critical in helping us to make decisions about where to place vegetation for the most effective urban acupuncture, as well as giving us a better evidence-base on which to evaluate whether biodiversity interventions have been “successful” by providing a more realistic understanding of “success” in different landscapes.
Revealing and rebuilding the nature of cities
Just like Legos can be used to build and re-build many different things, Biodiversity Boxes have the potential to be the building blocks that provide us with a stronger foundation for more sustainable and resilient cities in the future.
I am positive that some of you who read this will know of examples where pop up parks or other temporary or mobile greenspaces are already being used as designed experiments. Please feel free to share your stories and knowledge by leaving a comment here. It would be wonderful to hear about these projects and they may even provide inspiration for future designed experiments in other locations.
Disclaimer: Human and/or Animal Ethics approval may be required for some of the designed experiments discussed in this article. As application processes vary, it would be worthwhile checking out any responsibilities or obligations that may apply prior to setting up a potential experiment.
Une version en français suit immédiatement dans cet espace.
Just as human activities change the face of our planet, the habits of maritime and port city residents have a disproportionate influence on the fate of coastal and marine biodiversity.
We already know that what happens to life on Earth will depend on how people live in cities, but for ports, two factors further leverage their impact. First, they are the most significant global trade and transportation hubs, meaning they can influence and regulate key processes with huge implications on biodiversity. Second, given ongoing urbanization in coastal regions, their urban areas host an increasing population. Thus, their dense populations and high resource consumption patterns can cause offshore and onshore pollution in sensitive ecosystems, but their sustainable governance offers immense opportunities for reducing footprints and set best practices.
It is also clear that local authorities in port cities, as managers, mediators, regulators and stewards of their natural capital at the closest level to citizens, can make an enormous difference for the sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The successful transfer and adaptation of their different experiences through decentralized cooperation is challenging but critical for the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources. In this context, the urban community of Brest, France, set up an international network of around 20 coastal territories, local authorities and their scientific partners, in North and Latin America, Europe and Asia, called the Maritime Innovative Territories International Network (MITIN), dedicated to promote and develop “blue growth”, the sustainable economic use of coastal and marine resources, through effective collaboration and exchanges.
What can port authorities do?
The mandates and best practices of city governments with regards to biodiversity have been extensively detailed in this blog and in the groundbreaking “Cities and Biodiversity Outlook”, launched at the recent Conference of the Parties of the Convention in Hyderabad, India in October 2012
Decision makers in port city governments, however, can further promote awareness on biodiversity-related issues, and can ensure cost-effective freshwater supply and security through the wise use of wetlands and, increasingly, desalination of sea water (with potential impacts on groundwater salinity and energy consumption). Port city governments can enhance food security by supporting sustainable urban and peri-urban agriculture and aquaculture (which will also reduce coastal and marine pollution), and control urban expansion on sensitive coastal habitats via land-use zoning. They can also protect their cities from the impacts of sea level rise and storm surges by preserving the ecosystems which provide resilience to those coasts (such as estuaries, mangroves and coral reefs), can stimulate development in areas less subjected to these risks, and can participate in early warning systems that minimize actual damage by giving residents and officials time to prepare at critical times.
By applying the right combination of economic incentives and attracting green investments, port cities can ultimately promote the wise use of their natural marine and coastal resources, while also addressing poverty eradication and the economic development of their citizens. Working with retailers and advertisers, as well as with civil society, and implementing sustainable public procurement guidelines, coastal local authorities can promote sustainable consumption. Fish stocks and fisheries are managed and regulated mostly through subnational and local authorities – even when guidelines and quotas are defined by national governments, the enforcement of no-fishing zones and the monitoring of activities and volumes rely heavily of local agencies and authorities.
Port cities also play a crucial role in the prevention, control and eradication of invasive alien species. Shipping can disturb coastal ecosystems by introducing these species through exchange of ballast water and fouling. By establishing treatment protocols for ballast water and ship containers, as well as by introducing biosafety measures, port cities limit the contamination of coastal environment by invasive alien species. Their choices of technologies for urban infrastructure define the ultimate ecological footprint of their cities, their use of regulatory policy tools and voluntary economic incentives can bring greener businesses, and the quality of the urban environment they offer will attract, or not, discriminating citizens to settle, get engaged and pay taxes.
Finally, local authorities in ports will contribute in decisive ways to expand global networks of coastal and marine parks — the 193 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to protect 10 per cent of all coastal and marine areas by 2020 through integrated systems of protected areas and other conservation measures as part of Aichi target 11 — we’re at around 6 per cent now and we’ve barely got another 8 years to reach the deadline!
Brest Métropole Océane and the development of the MITIN network
Brest sous le soleil couchant. Photo: Frédérick Le Mouillour
The urban community of Brest is ranked in the world‘s top-10 for science and maritime techonologies, with more than 1,800 researchers currently developing cutting edge work. As France’s main harbour for the Navy’s fleet maintenance and civilian ship repair, the community owns 5 ports, with different functions (military, scientific research, fishing, trade, leisure), and hosts many centres of excellence in scientific and technological research and education, such as IFREMER and Oceanopolis. As such, the local authority of Brest is involved in different European networks, such as the Conference of Peripheral Port Cities and the Conference of Atlantic Arc Cities, promoting maritime issues including marine and coastal biodiversity.
At the international level, Brest métropole océane supported the creation of a new network, the Maritime Innovative Territories International Network (MITIN). Officially launched on July 13th 2012, MITIN is an initiative of Brest Science Park (Technopôle Brest Iroise), supported by Brest métropole océane and several international partners of the local authority. Today, MITIN gathers 20 maritime territories represented by their technology poles, development and scientific agencies, and local authorities, including the US (San Diego), Mexico (Veracruz), China (Qingdao, Shangaï), Argentina (province du Chubut), Vietnam (Haiphong), Italy (Tarente), UK (Southampton), Portugal (Porto), Spain (Vigo), and Quebec (Rimouski). The network aims at promoting sustainable “blue“ growth and addresses the sustainable use of marine bio-resources, transportation, maritime safety and security, renewable marine sources of energy, marine instrumentation and information technologies.
A web portal has been created to provide virtual spaces for working groups, practical actions and technology transfer. As president of the local authority of Brest, Mayor François Cuillandre also represents port cities in the Sustainable Ocean Initiative, a platform in the Convention dedicated to information sharing on best practices for the achievement of Aichi Targets 6, 10 and 11 related to marine and coastal biodiversity.
What works and what doesn’t
While MITIN is work in progress, we can draw some lessons from its past experience, also to guide future activities. The International Meeting on marine and coastal biodiversity, organised by Brest métropole océane in November 2012, represented an excellent opportunity for Brest partner networks, including MITIN, to reflect on some characteristics of effective decentralized cooperation:
Problems are the same for port cities across the world, but cultural and institutional circumstances are different and the transfer of experiences requires equal efforts from the two sides
The needs of each participating city are different, as are the level of expertise, available materials and suppliers of goods and services. One of the most effective ways to address this is the actual exchange of partners, allowing hosts and suppliers to benefit from a different perspective and further building the capacity of all experts involved, who are then able to work in the context of both cities and institutions. Thus, MITIN identifies priorities, including sustainable uses of marine resources, gathers partners and experts on common issues, offers an information-sharing platform and engages practitioners in the exchange of “know-how”. The network can rely on the Summer University, with training sessions suggested by local scientific stakeholders in Brest and supported by Brest métropole océane.
Proposals need to be systematically action-oriented and relevant to each partner
MITIN focuses its cooperation on the concept of Blue Economy, adjusting its context to the needs of each stakeholder group and economic actor to facilitate engagements and commitments. For instance, the implementation of marine protected areas taking into account local economic activities has proved to be an efficient mean to protect and restore marine stocks and habitats. In this context, Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Marine Spatial Planning are well-tested policy tools for public authorities to manage the growth of maritime activities, taking into account fragile or rich marine ecosystems.
More flexible international or multilateral funding mechanisms need to be put in place to support decentralized cooperation
Very few funding mechanisms exist in this domain, limiting the scope and effect of those productive partnerships to the capacity of participating local authorities. In Europe, the Committee of the Regions promotes the role of local actors to develop regions and all around the world some local initiatives are implemented. The involvement of Brest’s international partners through MITIN reveals the interest and capacity of action of local actors in issues that have been considered mostly from a national point of view for a long time.
But, to be fully efficient, decentralized cooperation would benefit from the development of international or multilateral funding. We therefore plead in favor of the establishment of more mechanisms, either financed by States or international organizations, for instance based on the model of the European Committee of Regions, not only to promote implementation but also to coordinate the funding and technical efforts of various subnational and local authorities.
Scale up lessons learned at a global level
Regarding new partnerships, it is essential to scale up lessons learned at global level, and to keep doors open for the further engagement of different networks and possible partners. In the case of MITIN, further collaboration between Brest métropole océane, its partner networks and ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, an experienced international network gathering local authorities on sustainable development in urban areas issues, is being examined.
Plans and expectations
To expand its objectives, Brest métropole océane has initiated a partnership with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity for technical cooperation and dissemination of experiences to CBD Parties and their subnational and local authorities. This partnership implies both the involvement of local stakeholders (main organizations working on biodiversity) and the invitation to its international and European networks to commit.
As such, this initiative is a model for thematic and regional networks of local authorities supported by the Secretariat and ICLEI within the Global Partnership on Subnational and Local Action on Biodiversity, which also includes the Mediterranean network MediverCities supported by Montpellier. Similarly, this partnership will benefit from the technical support of ICLEI and its pioneering Local Action on Biodiversity programme as a global source of expertise in local governance of biodiversity.
Two events, initiated by MITIN members, and supported by Brest métropole océane, will take place this year: a specific workshop organized by the State of Veracruz dedicated to environmental issues in the Gulf of Mexico in September 2013 and, at the end of October, the city of Qingdao (China) will host a Conference on “Blue Economy”, an innovative approach to the management of human production and consumption patterns and the efficient use of natural resources and energy through the use of nature-inspired technologies and solutions that are environmentally beneficial and have wider financial and social benefits. In 2013, Brest métropole océane will also offer to its partners the possibility to attend a summer school university on site.
Finally, Brest and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity plan to cooperate on the production of a more detailed study on the role of port cities on marine and coastal biodiversity, building on the recently published Cities and Biodiversity Outlook.
Armelle Labadie-Ouedraogo, Isabelle Lavail-Ravetllat and Oliver Hillel
Brest, Marseille & Montreal
Armelle Labadie-Ouedraogo
Mission Strategy and Perspectives
Urban Community of Brest [email protected]
Oliver Hillel
Programme Officer
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Montreal [email protected]
Les Villes Portuaires et la Nature: L’expérience de Brest Métropole Océane et le Réseau International des Territoires Maritimes Innovants
Tout comme les activités humaines modifient le profil de la planète, le comportement des habitants des villes portuaires et côtières a une influence disproportionnée sur le sort de la biodiversité marine et côtière.
Nous savons déjà que ce qui arrive à la vie sur terre dépendra de la manière dont les populations vivent en ville, mais pour les villes portuaires, deux facteurs augmentent leur impact : d’abord, elles sont des plaques tournantes incontournables du transport maritime et du commerce international (ce qui signifie qu’elles peuvent influencer et réguler les principaux processus qui ont d’immenses implications sur la biodiversité) ; ensuite, du fait d’une urbanisation croissante dans les régions côtières, leurs zones urbaines doivent faire face à une population grandissante. Ainsi leurs populations denses et leur modèle de consommation élevée de ressources est une cause de pollution marine et terrestre pour les écosystèmes sensibles des zones littorales, mais leur gestion durable offre d’immenses opportunités pour réduire leur empreinte et mettre en place de bonnes pratiques.
Il est certain que les autorités locales des villes portuaires, en tant que gestionnaires, médiateurs, régulateurs de leur capital naturel, au plus proche des citoyens, peuvent faire une énorme différence pour une gestion durable de la biodiversité et pour les services écosystémiques. La réussite du transfert et de l’adaptation de leurs différentes expériences à travers la coopération décentralisée est un défi ambitieux pour la conservation et l’utilisation durable des ressources marines et côtières. Dans ce contexte, la Communauté Urbaine de Brest, en France, a mis en place un réseau international regroupant une vingtaine de territoires côtiers, d’autorités locales ainsi que leurs partenaires scientifiques, d’Amérique du Nord et du Sud, d’Europe, d’Asie, appelé Réseau International des Territoires Maritime Innovants (RITMI). Ce réseau est dédié à la promotion et au développement de « l’économie bleue », l’utilisation et exploitation durable des ressources marines et côtières, au travers d’une collaboration et d’échanges de bonnes pratiques.
Cependant, les élus de villes portuaires peuvent promouvoir davantage la sensibilisation sur les enjeux de biodiversité et peuvent assurer l’approvisionnement en eau douce et sa sécurisation via une utilisation raisonnée et rationalisée (coût-efficacité) des zones humides et le recours de plus en plus fréquent au dessalement de l’eau de mer (avec des impacts potentiels sur la salinité des eaux souterraines et la consommation d’énergie). Les villes portuaires peuvent garantir la sécurité alimentaire en soutenant une agriculture et une aquaculture urbaines et périurbaines (ce qui réduira également la pollution marine et côtière) et contrôler l’étalement urbain dans les zones sensibles d’habitats côtiers via des plans d’occupation des sols (Plan Local d’Urbanisme en France). Elles peuvent également protéger leurs territoires des impacts de l’élévation du niveau de la mer et de l’augmentation des tempêtes en préservant les écosystèmes qui apportent la résilience nécessaire à ces côtes (telles que les estuaires, les mangroves et les récifs coralliens). Elles peuvent favoriser le développement de zones moins sensibles à ces risques et peuvent participer à la mise en place de systèmes d’alerte préventifs qui permettent de minimiser les dégâts en donnant aux habitants et aux élus le temps de se préparer.
En développant un bon équilibre entre incitations économiques et en attirant les investissements durables, les villes portuaires peuvent promouvoir l’utilisation raisonnée des ressources marines et côtières, tout en apportant des solutions pour réduire la pauvreté et favoriser le développement économique local. En travaillant avec les commerçants,les publicitaires et la société civile, et en mettant en œuvre des mesures de développement durable dans le cadre des marchés publics, les autorités côtières peuvent promouvoir un mode de consommation durable. Les stocks de poissons sont principalement gérés et régulés par les autorités infranationales et locales – même lorsque les orientations et quotas sont définis par les gouvernements nationaux, l’application plus stricte des zones interdites à la pêche et la gestion des activités et des volumes dépendent fortement des autorités locales.
Les villes portuaires ont également joué un rôle essentiel dans la prévention, le contrôle et l’éradication des espèces invasives. Le transport maritime peut perturber les écosystèmes côtiers en introduisant ces espèces lors du déversement des eaux de ballast et des salissures. En établissant des procédures de traitement des eaux de ballast et des containers des navires, en introduisant également des mesures de sécurité biologique, les villes portuaires limitent la pollution de l’environnement côtier par les espèces invasives. Leurs choix de technologies pour les infrastructures urbaines définissent l’empreinte écologique finale de leur territoire, le recours à des outils d’aide à la décision et des mesures d’incitations économiques, peuvent favoriser des économies plus durables, et la qualité de l’environnement urbain qu’elles offriront sera susceptible d’attirer une partie de la population prête à s’engager et à contribuer à l’effort commun.
Au final, les autorités locales portuaires contribueront de manière décisive à étendre les réseaux internationaux de parcs marins et réserves littorales – les 193 Etats Parties de la Convention sur la Diversité Biologique se sont entendus pour protéger 10 % de l’ensemble des zones côtières et marines d’ici 2020 par l’instauration de zones protégées et autres mesures de protection précisées par l’objectif 11 d’Aïchi – la barre des 6 % est à peine franchie et il ne reste que 8 années pour atteindre cet objectif !
Brest Métropole Oceéane et le developpement du reseau RITMO
Brest sous le soleil couchant. Photo: Frédérick Le Mouillour
La Communauté urbaine de Brest figure parmi les 10 premières places mondiales en sciences et technologies de la mer, comptant plus de 1 800 chercheurs menant des travaux d’excellence. En tant que principal port français de réparation navale civile et militaire, le territoire est doté de 5 ports aux fonctions différentes (militaires, recherche scientifique, pêche, commerce, plaisance), et héberge de nombreux centres d’excellence dans le domaine de l’éducation et de la recherche scientifique et technologique, tels qu’Océanopolis ou IFREMER. L’autorité locale de Brest est partenaire de différents réseaux Européens, comme la Conférence des Villes Portuaires Périphérique (CVPP), la Conférence des Villes de l’Arc Atlantique (CVAA), pour promouvoir les enjeux maritimes y compris la biodiversité marine et côtière.
Au niveau international, Brest métropole océane a soutenu la création d’un nouveau réseau, le Réseau International des Territoires Maritime Innovants (RITMI). Officiellement lancé le 13 juillet 2012, RITMI est une initiative du Technopôle Brest Iroise, avec l’appui de Brest métropole océane et de plusieurs territoires internationaux partenaires. Aujourd’hui, RITMI rassemble 20 territoires maritimes représentés par leur technopôle, agence de développement, organismes scientifiques et autorités locales. Il comprend : les Etats-Unis (San Diego), le Mexique (Veracruz), la Chine (Qingdao, Shangaï), l‘Argentine (province du Chubut), le Vietnam (Haiphong), l‘Italie (Tarente), la Grande-bretagne (Southampton), le Portugal (Porto), l‘Espagne (Vigo), et le Quebec (Rimouski). Le Réseau a pour objectif de promouvoir une « croissance bleue » durable et aborde l’utilisation raisonnée des bio-ressources marines, du transport maritime, de la sécurité et sûreté maritimes, des énergies marines renouvelables, de l’instrumentation marine et des technologies de l’information.
Un portail Internet a été créé pour mettre à disposition différents espaces virtuels pour les groupes de travail du Réseau, et pour faciliter le développement d‘actions concrètes et le transfert de technologies. En tant que Président de Brest métropole océane, le Maire de Brest François Cuillandre représente également les villes portuaires au sein de l’Initiative pour un Océan Durable, plateforme de la Convention sur la Diversité Biologique dédiée au partage de l’information sur les bonnes pratiques permettant d’atteindre les objectifs d’Aïchi 6, 10 et 11 en lien avec la biodiversité marine et côtière.
Ce qui fonctionne et ce qui ne fonctionne pas
Alors que RITMI vient d’être créé, on peut d’ores-et déjà tirer quelques leçons de son expérience passée, permettant de mieux orienter les activités futures. Les Rencontres Internationales sur la biodiversité marine et côtière, organisées par Brest métropole océane en novembre 2012, a représenté une excellente opportunité pour les réseaux partenaires de Brest, y compris RITMI, présentant les principales caractéristiques d’une coopération décentralisée efficace.
A travers le monde, les villes portuaires doivent faire face à des problématiques similaires, cependant, le contexte culturel et institutionnel varie, c’est pourquoi l’échange d’expérience nécessite une implication égale des deux parties. Les besoins de chaque territoire impliqué sont différents, tout comme le sont le niveau d’expertise, l’équipement disponible et les fournisseurs de biens et services. Une des façons les plus efficaces d’aborder cela est un échange effectif entre les partenaires, permettant aux fournisseurs et aux bénéficiaires de tirer profit d’une perspective nouvelle et d’augmenter ainsi la capacité de tous les experts impliqués, qui sont alors capables de travailler dans le champ des deux villes et institutions. Ainsi, RITMI identifie des priorités, incluant une exploitation durable des ressources marines, rassemble des partenaires et des experts sur des problématiques communes, offre une plateforme d’échange d’information et permet l’engagement des professionnels à échanger les savoir-faire. Le réseau peut s’appuyer sur une Université d’été, avec des sessions de formation suggérées par les acteurs locaux scientifiques de Brest et soutenues par Brest métropole océane.
Des propositions qui doivent systématiquement être orientées vers l’action et doivent être pertinentes pour chaque partenaire. RITMI concentre ses coopérations sur le concept de l’« économie bleue », adaptant son contexte aux besoins de chaque groupe d’acteurs locaux afin de faciliter son engagement. Par exemple, la mise en œuvre de zones marines protégées prenant en compte les activités économiques locales a prouvé son efficacité pour protéger et restaurer les habitats et les réserves marines. Dans ce contexte, la gestion intégrée des zones côtières et l’aménagement de l’espace marin sont des outils testés au service des autorités locales pour gérer le développement des activités maritimes, en prenant en compte les écosystèmes marins riches ou fragiles.
La mise en place de mécanismes de financement international/multilatéral et plus flexible au service de la coopération décentralisée. Très peu de mécanismes de financement existent dans ce domaine, limitant l’étendue et les effets de ces partenariats productifs à la capacité des organisations impliquées. En Europe, le Comité des Régions vise à promouvoir le rôle des acteurs locaux pour développer les régions et des initiatives locales sont mises en œuvre à travers le monde. L’implication des partenaires internationaux de Brest via RITMI révèle l’intérêt et la capacité de l’action des acteurs locaux sur des problématiques qui ont presque uniquement été envisagée d’un point de vue national pendant de nombreuses années. Mais, afin d’être toujours plus efficace, la coopération décentralisée, devrait bénéficier du développement des financements internationaux ou multilatéraux. C’est pourquoi, nous plaidons pour la création de plus de mécanismes, financés soit par les Etats, soit par les organisations internationales, basés, par exemple, sur le modèle du Comité des Régions, non seulement pour promouvoir la mise en œuvre mais également pour coordonner les efforts techniques et financiers d’autorités infranationales et locales.
En ce qui concerne la perspective de nouveaux partenariats, il est essentiel de faire remonter au niveau international les expériences locales et de garder la porte ouverte à l’engagement de différents réseaux et partenaires. En ce qui concerne RITMI, la possibilité d’une plus grande collaboration entre Brest métropole océane, ses réseaux partenaires et ICLEI – Les Gouvernements Locaux pour le Développement Durable, un réseau international expérimenté rassemblant des autorités locales sur la problématique du développement durable des zones urbaines – est actuellement étudiée.
Poursuites et attentes
Afin d’étendre ses objectifs, Brest métropole océane a initié un partenariat avec le Secrétariat de la Convention sur la Diversité Biologique pour une coopération technique et une diffusion des expériences aux Etats Parties de la CDB et de leurs autorités infranationales et locales. Ce partenariat prévoit, à la fois, l’implication des acteurs locaux (principales organisations abordant la biodiversité) et une invitation à ses réseaux européens et internationaux à s’engager.
Ainsi, cette initiative constitue un modèle de réseau thématique et régional d’autorités locales, soutenu par le Secrétariat et ICLEI, dans le cadre du Partenariat mondial sur l’action infranationale et locale sur la biodiversité, qui inclut également le réseau méditerranéen MediverCities, soutenu par Montpellier. De même, ce partenariat bénéficiera du soutien technique d’ICLEI – Les Gouvernements Locaux pour le Développement Durable et de son programme innovant « Action Locale pour la Biodiversité », comme source mondiale d’expertise dans la gestion locale de la biodiversité.
Deux événements, initiés par les membres de RITMI, et soutenus par Brest métropole océane, se dérouleront cette année : un atelier organisé par l’Etat de Veracruz et portant sur les problématiques environnementales du Golfe du Mexique en septembre 2013 et, à la fin du mois d’octobre, la ville de Qingdao (Chine) accueillera une conférence sur « l’économie bleue », une approche innovante pour la gestion de la production humaine,des habitudes de consommation, une utilisation efficace des ressources naturelles et de l’énergie par le développement de technologies inspirées de la nature et des solutions aux nombreux bénéfices sur le plan environnemental, économique et social. En 2013, Brest métropole océane offrira également à ses partenaires la possibilité de participer à une université d’été.
Enfin, Brest et le Secrétariat de la Convention sur la Diversité Biologique projettent de coopérer pour produire une étude détaillée sur le rôle des villes portuaires sur la biodiversité marine et côtière, basée sur la récente publication « Les villes et les perspectives de la biodiversité».
Armelle Labadie-Ouedraogo, Isabelle Lavail-Ravetllat and Oliver Hillel Brest, Marseille & Montreal
Societies need spaces for radical thinking to confront not only the climate-change challenges of the future, but also the present-day conditions that create, reinforce, and reproduce vulnerability.
It is beginning to feel like the anticipated future under climate change is even closer than we once thought. After a particularly harsh hurricane season in North America and following another year of record high global temperatures in 2017, many people recognize that we are entering a new climate reality. Current and projected trends in extreme weather events highlight the need for fundamental and transformative change, to improve living conditions for urban residents.
It seems increasingly clear that urbanization pressures and climate change are on a collision course in cities all over the world. Cities are influenced directly by climate change as they deal with increased extreme weather events such as tropical storms, hurricanes, flooding, heat waves, and prolonged droughts. Therefore, the need for adaptation takes on a particular urgency when it comes to municipal policy. Indeed, municipal governments might be best placed to mobilize resources in the face of sluggish international government agreements and the inaction of their federal counterparts. From coast to coast, municipalities big and small are developing ambitious climate action plans. For example, New York City famously vowed to divest billions of dollars for their pension funds from companies in the fossil fuel industry; San Diego is planning to be 100 percent renewable by 2035; San Francisco announced its plan to honor the Paris Agreement through a combination of strategies to reduce waste, increase sustainable transportation, switch to renewable energy, and improve urban tree canopy; meanwhile, Miami is elevating roads, upgrading stormwater infrastructure, and building sea walls in exposed areas.
Out of this need emerged the Urban Resilience to Extreme Events Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN), formed in 2015 with funding from the US National Science Foundation. Bringing together over 100 researchers and practitioners in ten Latin American and North American cities, the UREx SRN’s mission is to build sustainable, resilient, and equitable futures. Working with communities and residents to develop positive visions of the future is a critical component of resilience and sustainability planning, providing an opportunity to step outside the dominant dystopian narratives of our futures and to develop pathways from the present to a good Anthropocene. A keystone of the UREx SRN approach is a series of workshops in each of the network cities, in which scenarios are co-developed. The “movers and shakers” of municipal decision-making are invited, thus bringing together municipal officials, a broad spectrum of civil society groups, community leaders, and sometimes residents. Developing the workshops in partnership with municipal actors who have a pulse on the city allows us to ensure that the scenarios support ongoing processes and future planning. For instance, if a city is extending a light-rail line, we may choose to create a scenario dealing with transit and connectivity to explore the impact of alternative policies. Workshops yield rich data in a variety of formats —maps, timelines, transcripts, narratives, vignettes—from which representations of the future emerge.
Figure 1: Outputs from scenario workshop from Valdivia (Chile). Top: timeline identifying when strategies will be implemented; middle: map of Valdivia physically situating strategies; bottom: illustration of one of the narratives. Photo: Authors
We have already completed scenario workshops in San Juan (Puerto Rico), Valdivia (Chile), Harlem (New York), and Hermosillo (Mexico), where a wide variety of positive visions emerged. For example, in San Juan participants envisioned a future of food and energy self-sufficiency for the island; in Harlem residents thought of a future in which their community was resilient to increasingly severe heat waves; in Valdivia participants imagined a new paradigm of “living with water” where people embraced their wetland ecosystems. In the next two years, we will conduct additional workshops with the cities of Phoenix (Arizona), Baltimore (Maryland), Syracuse (New York), Portland (Oregon), and Miami (Florida). Being at the halfway point, it seems fitting to offer some reflection on what we have experienced and learned thus far.
Figure 2: Participants in San Juan (Puerto Rico) working through different activities during a scenario workshop in 2016. Photo: Authors.
We have learned a lot about workshop design. By now, we have formalized our workflow even though we constantly adjust our activities based on feedback from facilitators. Our day starts with an exploration of historical trends and vulnerability from social, ecological, and technological perspectives. For instance, in our workshop in Hermosillo, we mapped together indicators of social vulnerability, alongside topographical analyses to identify low-lying areas, and information about the size and age of the water pipe infrastructure to show the parts of Hermosillo most vulnerable to urban flooding. Participants are assigned to tables that represent specific city imaginaries that we modify with our local team of city practitioners to make them relevant to their context. For example, the ever-popular green city imaginary might turn into the golden city imaginary for South Phoenix to reflect its desert environment and culture. The day is structured to go from formulating broad aspirations to identifying concrete strategies to developing rich narratives. Activities alternate between formal analytical and informal creative approaches to elicit different kinds of knowledge and information. Our outputs are multidimensional and complex. Building upon the participants’ stated goals and aspirations for their vision, during the workshop participants identify specific strategies to fulfill those goals, they construct timelines to determine when and how strategies will be deployed, draw maps of where they would implement strategies, outline governance actors who will be responsible or affected by the strategies, and finish up the day by creating a narrative about the future of that vision. Following the workshop, dynamic models capture the biophysical dimensions of the changes that stakeholders wish to see in their city. However, models are just one output, other products such as design renderings, vignettes, and qualitative analyses are used to explore the alternative scenario visions.
Our workshops are participatory and, by design, we invite a diverse group of municipal stakeholders to the table. This is our strength and our challenge. It is our strength in that we get a picture of the future that reflects truly interdisciplinary, rich, and nuanced points of view. However, it also presents a challenge. It is our challenge because participants do not have equal footing in the political landscape of their cities and these dynamics carry into our workshops, even when efforts are made to amplify marginalized voices. Furthermore, we recognize our privilege as researchers. Our positionality with respect to these stakeholder groups is sometimes uncomfortable as we find ourselves both confronting and participating in reproducing historical patterns of inequality. Even the very act of thinking about the long-term future can be seen as a privilege of those who have their immediate needs covered. We are also cognizant that the benefits of the workshop and the visioning exercise are likely to be unequally distributed among stakeholders in the room.
Thinking about transformational change is challenging. In our workshops, we have scenarios that are meant to address immediate challenges that cities face—e.g., flooding—and some scenarios that are intended to explore more utopian futures—e.g., a socially just city. We refer to the former as “adaptive scenarios” and the latter as “transformative scenarios”. However, even among the transformative visions, we encounter a lot of shorter-term thinking that fails to challenge the status quo. Myriad factors might explain the lack of more innovative ideas. For example, to push thinking outside of the box, people have to dare to suggest unusual things. It is indeed daring to say unusual things in front of a very diverse group of actors who may or may not know or trust one another. Having more homogenous groups can help participants feel more at ease and reduce fears of ridicule. Yet, the second ingredient of innovation has to do with the idea of “bricolage”, that is, the combining in creative ways things (methods, perspectives, problems, and interventions) that do not often go together. Finding the right mix is very much a work in progress.
So, why do we create these positive visions of the future? Fernando Birri’s[1] words on the need for utopia resonate with our purpose:
“Utopia is something that sits on the horizon. Every time you get ten steps closer, utopia seems to move ten steps further. No matter how much you walk, utopia will always be out of reach. So what’s the point of chasing utopias? Precisely that, it keeps you walking.”
We believe that societies need spaces for radical thinking to confront not only the climate-change challenges of the future but also the present-day conditions that create, reinforce, and reproduce vulnerability. While we feel that our scenario workshops can and should push the boundaries further, they nevertheless serve as spaces to produce complex, richly-described, world-building visions of a future that are full of nuance and tradeoffs. That is, we offer a model to open up the physical and mental spaces to imagine alternatives and to create a solution space where we can question critically the path that we are on. Visualizing positive futures is meant to inspire—but more importantly, it is meant to guide action and forge the necessary alliances to push for change.
Marta Berbés-Blázquez, Tempe, David M. Iwaniec, Atlanta, Nancy B. Grimm, Phoneix & Timon McPhearson, New York City
David Iwaniec is Assistant Professor of urban sustainability at the Urban Studies Institute and Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. His research is focused on the development and application of sustainability and transitions concepts and methods, with an emphasis on urban transformation in transdisciplinary settings.
Nancy B. Grimm is an ecologist studying interactions of climate change, human activities, resilience, and biogeochemical processes in urban and stream ecosystems. Grimm was founding director of the Central Arizona–Phoenix LTER, co-directed the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network, and now co-directs the NATURA and ESSA networks, all focused on solving problems of the Anthropocene, especially in cities. Grimm was President of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and is a Fellow of AAAS, AGU, ESA, SFS, and a member of the NAS. She has made >200 contributions to the scientific literature with colleagues and students.
Dr. Timon McPhearson works with designers, planners, and local government to foster sustainable, resilient and just cities. He is Associate Professor of Urban Ecology and Director of the Urban Systems Lab at The New School and Research Fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Environmental education is often associated with environmental learning and pro-environmental behaviors. Some approaches to environmental education, however, also enable young people’s personal growth through the development of confidence, self-efficacy, and other assets that support an individual’s well-being. This chapter explores the intersection of urban environmental education and positive youth development. It can inform teachers, environmental educators, science educators, youth workers, and others who want to advance environmental learning and a positive developmental trajectory for young people in varied educational settings, such as school classrooms, after-school programs, community organizations, youth development organizations, churches, camps, nature centers, science centers, museums, and gardens.
Positive youth development is an assets-based approach for cultivating competencies essential to personal well-being.
We begin by defining positive youth development and applying it to environmental education. We then describe three programs from the U.S. and Australia to illustrate different pedagogies for integrating positive youth development in environmental education aimed at urban sustainability. By “youth,” we refer to the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, which varies across cultures. The United Nations defines youth as individuals age 15-24; however, others include children younger than 15 or young adults older than 24 in their definitions. The programs we describe also included some children younger than 15.
Positive youth development in environmental education
A paradigm shift in the youth development field has occurred from a focus on reducing specific problems like unintended pregnancy or drug use to “positive youth development,” which builds upon young people’s strengths to develop competencies essential to well-being. Among multiple frameworks describing positive youth development, one of the most comprehensive describes four categories personal assets promoting well-being: physical (e.g., good health habits); intellectual (e.g., critical thinking, good decision-making); psychological (e.g., positive self-regard, emotional self-regulation); and social (e.g., connectedness, commitment to civic engagement) (Eccles and Gootman, 2002). In addition to its emphasis on strengthening assets, positive youth development acknowledges that developmental experiences do not occur as isolated events, but throughout young people’s daily lives as they interact with peers, family, and non-familial adults in schools, after-school programs, and their broader communities.
Settings that promote positive youth development in the U.S. have been found to share similar characteristics (Eccles and Gootman, 2002):
Physical and psychological safety (e.g., safe facilities, safe peer interactions);
Appropriate structure (e.g., clear and consistent expectations);
Supportive relationships (e.g., good communication);
Opportunities to belong (e.g., meaningful inclusion);
Positive social norms (e.g., rules of behavior, values and morals);
Support for efficacy and mattering (e.g., responsibility granting, meaningful challenge);
Opportunities for skill building; and
Integration of family, school, and community efforts.
The more of these features within an urban environmental education program, the more likely that positive youth development outcomes will result. However, all features need not be present and some might require adaptation to be culturally relevant in other countries.
Youths’ physical and psychosocial development is also influenced by the quality of the urban environment, such as environmental toxins, noise, indoor air quality, and access to green space (Evans, 2006). Urban environmental education can enable young people to play a role in ameliorating environmental conditions that negatively impact well-being. Around the globe, youth have demonstrated their capacity to assess and act to improve environmental conditions in cities (Hart, 1997, Chawla, 2002). When youth have genuine opportunity to address environmental concerns, they can develop valuable personal assets and also increase their own and others’ well-being by enhancing urban environments (Figure 1). In short, urban environmental education can promote positive youth development and youth, in turn, can positively contribute to urban sustainability and resilience.
Figure 1. Urban environmental education that encompasses young people’s participation in improving urban environments can also build assets promoting their well-being, while also changing environmental conditions that impact youth development.
Studies suggest that when youth participate in programs where they act positively for the environment, they themselves grow positively in various ways (Schusler and Krasny, 2010). For example, Hawaiian students working together to select, investigate, and act on a local environmental issue improved their critical thinking; reading, writing, and oral communication skills; familiarity with technology; self-confidence; and citizenship competence (Volk and Cheak, 2003). A food justice education program in New York City proved a valuable developmental experience for youth because it offered somewhere to belong, be pushed toward developing one’s potential, grapple with complexity, practice leadership, and become oneself (Delia, 2014). The evaluators of two environmental service-learning programs in East Africa, Roots & Shoots and Wildlife Clubs of Uganda, found that youth in both programs most valued forming relationships with club members, leaders, and community members as an outcome of environmental education (Johnson-Pynn and Johnson, 2010).
While more research is needed into the opportunities and barriers of integrating positive youth development with urban environmental education, the two can be synergistic when programs are intentionally designed with both in mind. To illustrate the synergy that arises between urban environmental education and positive youth development when youth are offered genuine opportunity to effect environmental change, we describe three programs below. The first involves young people in participatory action research through a child-framed approach. The second develops young people’s leadership capacities as peer educators. And the third facilitates youth civic engagement through local environmental action. In each urban environmental education example, young people were given the opportunity to understand and effect change in urban environments and, as a result, also developed assets promoting their own well-being (Figure 1).
Youth as co-researchers
Children and young people are experts on their own lives, yet research involving children is often conceived of and led by adults. Barratt Hacking, Cutter-Mackenzie and Barratt (2013) call for including children as researchers rather than objects of investigation. To that end, the project “Is ‘Nature’ Diminishing in Childhood? Implications for Children’s Lives” engaged young people in Australia in research about childhood and nature from their own perspectives. The project used a child-framed methodology incorporating qualitative and quantitative research in five distinct stages. It involved 10 children ages 9-14 as co-researchers in each of two sites, one urban and the other an urban fringe suburb.
When environmental education enables children and youth to contribute to improving urban environments, it can not only increase cities’ sustainability and resilience but also foster young people’s personal growth.
Stage 1 involved training sessions where the children and youth learned about qualitative research, specifically ethnography (participant observation, semi-structured interviews) and arts-based methods (photography, video, mapping), which enabled the children to study themselves and local culture (Cutter-Mackenzie, Edwards and Widdop Quinton, 2015). One child’s description of this experience was typical: “I am excited about being able to voice my opinion…There are lots of young people who are passionate to be heard, but this is the only project I have heard of or taken part in that allows them to do so.” Such opportunity to be heard may contribute to positive developmental assets, such as self-efficacy and a sense of social integration.
In Stage 2, children and youth conducted research over two months examining nature-deficit disorder within their own cultural settings. The children received a device with Wi-Fi and GPS for mapping everyday experiences, appropriate research protocols, and a secure dropbox for uploading data. The latter encouraged children and youth not only to take responsibility for their data but also begin preliminary analysis (Barratt Hacking et al., 2013). Stage 3 involved children analyzing their data during research think tanks completed over one intensive session. Participants presented, discussed, mapped, and analyzed their findings. Focus group interviews with the children co-researchers and their parents or guardians also served to triangulate the research findings.
Stage 4 incorporated an online survey that the children co-researchers co-developed with researcher Cutter-Mackenzie. Finally, Stage 5 centered on disseminating the young people’s research to academics, practitioners, and other children. The young people prepared ways to communicate their findings including a documentary and photomontage (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Photomontage designed and created by young co-researcher showing what she described as “nature by road” taken at different times throughout the day. She explained that roads in her community both connected (like “blood lines”) and disconnected children to nature. Credit: Graciella Mosqueira.
Together the stages of this child-framed methodology highlight how youth can genuinely engage as research collaborators. Through such experiences, children may develop positive developmental assets, such as self-efficacy, connectedness, and research, critical thinking, and communication skills. The results of children’s research also may enhance understanding of children’s experiences of nature in ways that can inform design and management of urban environments (Figure 1).
Youth as peer leaders
Peer education involves people with similar characteristics or experiences learning from each other. Used successfully in the health field, it also can be effective in other arenas, including environmental issues (de Vreede, Warner and Pitter, 2014). Evidence suggests that educating teens to facilitate learning experiences for younger youth can have positive developmental impacts for both younger program recipients and “teens as teachers” (Lee and Murdock, 2001). This strategy provides teens with ownership over the direction of program activities, leading to investment in the outcome of their work (Larson, Walker and Pearce, 2005).
A peer education or “teens as teachers” strategy was piloted in a 4-H environmental education initiative in New York City during the summer of 2015. 4-H is the youth development component of the Cooperative Extension System at many US public universities. Twenty New York City 4-H teens attended the 4-H Career Exploration Conference at Cornell University, where they participated in science and leadership mini-courses led by faculty and staff. During the closing assembly, New York City 4-Hers engaged over 400 peers and adult volunteers in creating “Pollinator Seed Bombs” as part of the National Pollinator Initiative, a US presidential directive to conserve pollinators and thus protect the nation’s food supply. Seed bombs are compressed bundles of clay, compost, and/or soil containing seeds that can be tossed into a bare patch of land to grow new plant life (kidsgardening.org). The 4-H teens and adult volunteers pledged to share their new knowledge and seed bombs with friends and 4-H clubs in their respective communities. One New York City 4-H Peer Educator reflected, “I could see action being taken to improve the world and I was proud to have been a part of it!” This illustrates how participating as an environmental peer educator contributed to this teen leader’s self-efficacy and feelings of mattering, which are positive developmental assets.
When they returned home, the New York City 4-H teens also served as “teen teachers” for the 4-H Exploring Your Urban Environment summer day camp program (Figure 3). The teens were trained to implement a 5-week program with younger youth in eight community agencies in New York City. The teen leaders connected 392 youth to their communities through service-learning opportunities that promoted environmental stewardship and community beautification. In a survey assessing program impacts, all 35 teen teachers agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “I can make a difference in my community through community service;” commitment to community service is a social asset for positive youth development. Teens’ psychological assets were also enhanced as reflected by their agreement or strong agreement with the statement, “I am more confident in helping others.” These results align with our conceptual framework (Figure 1), highlighting the positive impact that connecting youth to their environment in meaningful ways can have for the youth as well as their environment and communities.
Figure 3. In New York City, “teen teachers” in the 4-H Exploring Your Urban Environment program guided younger children releasing butterflies as part of their environmental stewardship project. Credit: Teishawn W. Florestal-Kevelier.
Youth as civic actors
Youth civic engagement refers to young people developing their civic capacities by actively collaborating with others to shape society. One form of youth civic engagement is environmental action, whereby learners collectively analyze a problem and act to solve it. Environmental action can involve directly improving the environment, such as planting native vegetation to restore habitat in a city park, or can indirectly influence others to act through education or policy advocacy. Critical to environmental action is shared decision-making; participants collaborate in defining a problem and then envision and enact solutions (Jensen and Schnack, 1997; Hart, 1997). Adults can experience tensions in sharing decision-making power; navigating these tensions is essential to ensuring genuine opportunity for youths’ participation and positive development (Schusler, Krasny and Decker, 2016).
A youth development specialist and an environmental educator collaborated in an after-school program to facilitate a project in which seven middle school students produced a documentary about “Green Homes” in the City of Ithaca and surrounding towns in upstate New York. The adult leaders chose the project focus, i.e., producing a video about green building, and invited youth to participate. Youth then made decisions with educators’ guidance throughout all facets of video production over seven months, from planning to filming, editing, and debuting to area residents their 18-minute documentary. The role of the adult leader and youth participants in decision-making in this project reflects results of a study on youth environmental action programs, in which educators spoke about striking a balance between providing needed guidance as well as opportunities for youth to assume decision-making and leadership (Schusler et al., 2016).
The students’ video featured three local homes demonstrating building with natural materials, recycled materials, and renewable energy. It also included a “green home” for dogs and cats at the Tompkins County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The “pet home” highlighted the use of recycled materials, natural lighting, a geo-exchange heating and cooling system, and native landscaping.
Participatory action research, peer education, and youth civic engagement can lead to positive change for both urban environments and youth living within them.
Youth reported gaining knowledge about green building and being motivated to do more. As one youth said, “it’s really inspired me to look more at our environment and what I can do to help.” They also spoke of developing skills in video production, problem-solving, communication, teamwork, interacting with adults, persisting to complete a long-term project, and being patient. They valued the opportunity to contribute to their community. As one reflected, “This is going to have an impact on how people build their homes. People that see [the video], at least they’re going to do some of the minor things talked about. And maybe when they see that kids have done something like this, people will give the kids much more respect in the community.” This form of indirect environmental action—youth acted to try to influence residents to make environmentally friendly choices—demonstrates one way that young people develop assets while educating others towards increased urban sustainability (Figure 1).
Conclusion
Participatory action research, peer education, and youth civic engagement are three approaches that have been used in urban environmental education to advance sustainability and foster positive youth development. These three approaches are not mutually exclusive; for example, youth environmental action often involves young people as researchers to understand a situation before proceeding in collective action to change it for the better, and thus integrates participatory action research and civic engagement. All three approaches value young people’s capabilities, build upon their strengths, and offer opportunity for genuine, meaningful participation with the potential for impact on the environment and their communities. They also require adult leaders who provide a caring environment, as well as appropriate levels of guidance, expectations, and freedom for youth to take on leadership and other responsibilities. Through such experiences, young people can contribute to creating more sustainable and resilient cities while developing valuable physical, intellectual, psychological, and social assets that enhance personal well-being.
Tania Schusler, Jacqueline Davis-Manigaulte, and Amy Cutter-Mackenzie
Chicago, New York City, and Gold Coast, Australia
This essay will appear as a chapter in Urban Environmental Education Review, edited by Alex Russ and Marianne Krasny, to be published by Cornell University Press in 2017. To see more pre-release chapters from the book, click here.
References
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Chawla, L. (Ed.) (2002). Growing up in an urbanizing world. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Cutter-Mackenzie, A., Edwards, S. and Widdop Quinton, H. (2015). Child-framed video research methodologies: Issues, possibilities and challenges for researching with children. Children’s Geographies, 13(3), 343-356.
Delia, J.E. (2014). Cultivating a culture of authentic care in urban environmental education: Narratives from youth interns at East New York Farms! (Masters thesis). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University.
de Vreede, C., Warner, A. and Pitter, R. (2014). Facilitating youth to take sustainability actions: The potential of peer education. Journal of Environmental Education, 45(1), 37-56.
Eccles, J. and Gootman, J.A. (Eds.). (2002). Community programs to promote youth development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Evans, G.W. (2006). Child development and the physical environment. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 423–451.
Hart, R.A. (1997). Children’s participation: The theory and practice of involving young citizens in community development and environmental care. London: Earthscan.
Jensen, B.B. and Schnack, K. (1997). The action competence approach in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 163-178.
Johnson-Pynn, J.S. and Johnson, L.R. (2010). Exploring environmental education for East African youth: Do program contexts matter? Children, Youth and Environments, 20(1), 123-151.
Larson, R., Walker, K., and Pearce, N. (2005). A comparison of youth-driven and adult-driven youth programs: Balancing inputs from youth and adults. Journal of Community Psychology, 33(1), 57-74.
Lee, F.C.H. and Murdock, S. (2001). Teen as teachers programs: Ten essential elements. Journal of Extension, 39(1).
Schusler, T.M. and Krasny, M.E. (2010). Environmental action as context for youth development. Journal of Environmental Education, 41(4), 208-223.
Schusler, T.M., Krasny, M.E., and Decker, D.J. (2016). The autonomy-authority duality of shared decision-making in youth environmental action. Environmental Education Research.
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Jackie Davis-Manigaulte is a Senior Extension Associate, Family Program Leader for Family and Youth Development and Director of Community Relations with Cornell University Cooperative Extension in New York City.
Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie is the Deputy Head of School Research, as well as the Research Leader of the SCU ‘Sustainability, Environment and Education’ (SEE) Research Cluster at Southern Cross University.
Greenways (GW)—from wide wild areas to narrow urban trails—are linear bands of land and water designed and managed for multiple purposes such as nature conservation, flood water management, water quality protection, recreation and many other social functions. Revalued since the middle of last century, when ecology became prominent in planning and design, and strengthened by a solid theoretical framework (island biogeography and landscape ecology) and by analysis tools such as GIS and remote sensing, GW have a renewed popularity through their significant social and ecological functions, performing many services at the same time.
In this collaborative manual editors Paul Cawood Hellmund and Daniel Somers Smith explain the biophysical natural and social ecological functions of GW, and how they can help to solve fragmentation, conservation and functional problems of the landscape in a changing world adding value to ecosystems and people alike.
Paul C. Hellmund is an educator, landscape planner + designer, director of the Conway School of Landscape Design in western Massachusetts, North America. His co-author, Daniel Somers Smith has a background in forest science and is an educator in environmental studies. Other chapters that complete the work are due to R.F. Noss, M.W Binford, R. J. Karty and L. Fisman. In their contributions all authors emphasize the imperative to find a balance between nature and people being creative and critical as a key factor in building sustainable landscapes through collaborative and adaptive design.
Designing Greenways belongs to a series books with mentors such as Design with Nature (McHarg 1969), The Granite Garden: Urban Nature And Human Design, (A. W. Spirn 1985), and more recent books such as Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities (M.A. Benedict and E.T. McMahon, 2006), Sustainable Infrastructure: The Guide to Green Engineering and Design (S. Bry Sarte 2010), Green Infrastructure: A Landscape Approach (D.C. Rouse and I. F. Bunster-Ossa 2013), just to mention a few. All these works have a common theme: the aim to broadcast the benefits of green infrastructure taking advantage of the natural landscape as mitigation efforts in a world of social and ecological fragmentation.
The six chapters Designing Greenways, includinga special chapter on riparian GW (Chapter 4) present definitions, conceptual theoretical and practical frameworks, scientific knowledge based on an abundant bibliography and case studies, describing the multidimensional GW functions and various human activities that impact corridors. Chapter 5 gives a framework to understand the connections and relationships between Society and Nature.
The key chapter in this book (chapter 6) provides a useful method in five stages to guide the conceptualization and planning of GW projects. This tool, of great use for applications in design, integrates concepts and technical outfits from previous chapters.
Although the book seems to be directed at the American readers—most of the examples noted are U.S. based—the content has a global scope, giving readers most of what they need to know about these issues. To me, here is the only weakness shown in this book. In a global world there are many enriching GW examples in other parts of the world. These would have been interesting to mention.
Authors describe the evolution of GW in the USA from parkways in the 1860s, when mentor Olmsted recognised the great potential of linear greenspace to connect neighbourhoods providing access to city parks. No reference is given to influences of Olmsted’s travels in China and Europe, which were definitely inspirational sources linking also to a predilection for the pastoral picturesque architecture of the English countryside, a model that has lasted until the present day. Early English influences can be also found in the green belt policy, a restriction of building around cities that can be traced back to the ancient times. Leaving aside this, Designing Greenways can be considered a masterpiece, being comprehensive from different theoretical perspectives and practices of the multiple disciplines involved in a GW design and implementation.
The book succeeds posing the significance to work in achieving landscape integrity without forgetting that GW are not a conservation panacea. The features that strengthen the corridors—such as linearity, connectivity, accessibility, multitasking—represent at the same time many weaknesses. For example, the high ratio of edge to interior make the ecology of GW very vulnerable to human pressure, predation and biological invasions.
GW projects are nowadays popular because of their multiple benefits. A disadvantage of this popularity is that they are associated with the wrong assumption that they are relatively easy to implement. They are not, and along the pages the authors confront us with the reality of the real world. They warn readers not to be dazzled by the many attractive benefits, calling us to reflect that designed GW projects, in order to succeed, should be integrated in the landscape. They recommend that designers must firstly understand the structures and functions of the system they want to restore. Secondly, they should move to the project stages by answering a series of strategic questions through spatial (local to global) and temporal scales, being aware of possible risks and failures that can result from oversimplification or wrong assumptions.
This book presents scientific information in a way that may be accessible to non-specialists integrating scientific principles into a comprehensive design method. Easy to read from start to finish, it can be used in several ways: as a unit, with a focus on some chapters following personal interests, or as a guide.
Although eight years have passed since its publication Designing Greenways remains valid as a great contribution and provides a practical guide for planners, landscape architects, educators, students, citizen groups and conservationists to move from theory to action.
I strongly recommend this book.
Star rating: Excellent, in achieving its own objectives and as a valuable contribution to TNOC readers
Community environmental education prioritizes community wellness, and uses learning in and about the environment as a means towards community wellness and healing. It draws from place-based, youth and community development, participatory, and resilience approaches in environmental education. Recognizing that community environmental education is an emerging field lacking a clear definition (Aguilar, in revision, Aguilar, Price and Krasny, 2015), here we use a definition developed in the U.S. urban context (Price, Simmons and Krasny, 2014): “Community environmental education aims to enhance a community’s wellness through thoughtful environmental action. It fosters collaborative learning and action, taking into account the social, cultural, economic, and environmental conditions of a community.”
Community environmental education uses environmental learning and action to foster community wellness in cities and other settings.
The term community also has multiple definitions, including those built around a common location, social connections or belonging, cultural identity, and interests (Delanty, 2003). Our use of the term integrates local (e.g., a neighborhood), common interests (e.g., youth development, organic food production), and relational or belonging aspects of community, which is consistent with our focus on community wellness. We define community wellness as social, environmental, and economic conditions that support health and quality of life, including the presence of healthy green spaces, food, and water, and opportunities to engage in healthy activities with others. Although environmental education focusing on community wellness can occur anywhere, much of our understanding of community environmental education comes from work in cities.
Because building connections among people is important to achieving community wellness, a learning theory that emphasizes how learning occurs through interaction with others is useful in elucidating the learning process and outcomes of community environmental education. Social learning encompasses a group of theories that have in common a focus on learning through interactions with others and with the environment (Wals, 2007).
Two social learning theories used in understanding environmental education include communities of practice and cultural historical activity theory. For example, Aguilar and Krasny (2011) applied communities of practice theory to understanding how learning occurs in environmental after-school programs in small cities in Texas, and Krasny and Roth (2010) applied cultural historical activity theory to watershed programs occurring near Victoria, British Columbia. Importantly, these two theories privilege not just the knowledge and perspectives of professionals, but also of community members and of youth participants in environmental education programs. For the urban environmental educator, these theories enable understanding of how learning occurs in programs designed to foster individual and organizational transformations leading to community wellness.
Communities of practice
Originally developed to understand how people learn a craft or skill through interactions with more skilled craftsmen, communities of practice theory examines individual and group identity formation and transformation as a learning process. According to Wenger (1998), a community of practice is a place where people with a common interest or concern engage and become members, agree on and pursue a particular enterprise (e.g., community wellness), and cultivate a common repertoire (e.g., cultural values). The framework considers learning as a social process that occurs as individuals participate in groups associated with a specific physical, historical, and cultural context, often in an apprenticeship manner around a common interest or concern (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Researchers have used this framework to identify apprenticeship-like approaches to learning, while others have examined individual identity and power differentials as a result of participation in communities of practice.
Water Watchers: an environmental education community of practice in Austin, Texas
Water Watchers (organization name has been changed to protect participants’ privacy) is an environmental education program that engages low-income youth in Austin, Texas, whose mission is to: “advance personal and academic achievement through environmental monitoring, education, and adventure.” It provides an example of how program staff’s attention to multiple elements of a community of practice fosters youth engagement. During the academic year after the school-day ends, program staff transport students to test water quality at various sites, and then to program headquarters where students socialize, share food, and do homework with peers who tested a different site. During the summer, staff transport students to their water monitoring sites, after which they go swimming or on a field trip. Through this process, Water Watchers has developed a community of practice, including membership, common enterprise, and shared culture (Aguilar, in press).
A community of practice relies on consistent membership with multiple entry points for joining. Water Watchers offers meetings through the year, provides transportation and a stipend (thus encouraging attendance), offers multiple activities and volunteer opportunities, and brings in speakers and community members. This allows students to participate for different reasons: they like science, they want to be with friends, their teacher recommended them, or they simply want something to do after school.
The program common enterprise revolves around youth development—including academic achievement, social support, agency and empowerment—and around environmental stewardship, both of which foster community wellness. While students often identify the program enterprise as one of water-quality monitoring and socializing, they also acknowledge the program has given them a voice and feelings of respect and acceptance. The program leaders feel students should leave the program “prepared to create a life for themselves that will be better,” and thus ask students to develop goals not only for program participation, but also for their school and family lives. Students work as mentees until they pass a test to become mentors. Mentors in turn develop confidence in their skills as they help newcomers with water testing procedures. Students also apply their water quality knowledge in new arenas, like canoeing and service-learning. Finally, the community of practice includes trajectories that enable members to expand their academic and social skills and bridge with other communities of practice.
Water Watchers also projects a shared culture of respect for each participant and of helping each other. This culture is reinforced when students depend on one another for a successful water test, and through overnight camping and trips to learn about colleges. For example, an African American male who had recently opened up about his homosexuality on an all-boys overnight trip found acceptance rather than ridicule in the Water Watchers community. Another student admitted that high school was a difficult place to feel accepted, but Water Watchers made it easier for her to find a sense of belonging.
Social learning encompasses a diversity of learning theories, all of which focus on learning through interaction with others.
In addition to consistent membership, common enterprise, and shared culture, Water Watchers provides for needs like food, financial assistance in the form of a stipend, and a base for homework and recreation. These services result in a “safe space” and enable a “sense of belonging” for students, many of whom come from unstable homes. In short, Water Watchers empowers participants by improving their social and educational skills, and fosters community wellness through these youth development outcomes and monitoring water quality.
Cultural historical activity theory
Cultural historical activity theory is based on the idea that humans change or learn when they engage in productive activity within a particular cultural and historical context and environment, and in doing so, they change that environment. Productive activity occurs within an activity system, which is comprised of a goal or outcome for the activity, tools, rules, object, subjects, community, and division of labor, as well as the interaction of these elements (Engeström, 1987). Learning occurs through interaction of the learner with other components of this system.
Learning also occurs when contradictions between different elements of the activity system generate conflicts; for example, when rules specifying how to conduct an activity are not consistent with project goals. This can lead to transformations or expanding the activity to include new rules, tools, or goals. Further, one activity system may produce outcomes that are used by another activity system, such as when knowledge produced through a water monitoring activity system is used by policy makers in a legislative activity system. In short, a learning activity system is dynamic and has multiple interactions among its elements and with other activity systems, which can lead to transformation of the activity system and related learning.
By applying cultural historical activity theory to two cases in South Africa—one involving organic agriculture, and the other medical wastes—we expand North American notions of community and urban environmental education that have focused largely on youth audiences. The lessons drawn from the two cases about identifying and resolving contradictions through interactions among academic, professional, and practical knowledge holders, leading to transformations and outcomes consistent with community wellness, are relevant to community environmental education more broadly.
Expansive learning in organic agriculture learning system, Durban, South Africa
In 2008, Rhodes University, which has cultural knowledge that functions as activity system “tools,” and the South African Qualifications Authority, which makes educational policies and standards and thus provides “rules,” began implementing the Researching Work and Learning program in environmental education. The Isidore Organic Network and its marketing arm Earth Mother Organic, constituted one research site (Mukute, 2010). In trying to address growing demand for organic produce in Durban, these organizations faced challenges meeting organic standards, getting certified as organic producers, and becoming profitable. Cultural historical activity theory, in particular its focus on collaborative learning, transformations of current practice, and contradictions, is useful in understanding how the organic farmer group and its stakeholders sought to overcome obstacles.
Through collaboration with Rhodes University researchers, members of the organic agriculture organizations used a series of steps to contribute to expansive social learning at the local level, and potentially to education nationally. They analyzed Isidore and Earth Mother Organic agriculture and agribusiness practices, which surfaced key challenges and their underlying causes (contradictions). Then they collectively developed and implemented a solution to address the contradictions.
Over 20 organic farmers, trainers, and marketers jointly defined key challenges, surfaced their causes, and developed solutions in an expansive learning process. They identified the goal of their collaborative learning as human health, wealth, and environmental sustainability—which could only be enabled by a qualitatively new practice. The research participants decided to work on the contradiction between organic regulations (rules) and local social-ecological conditions (community). They concluded that this contradiction was caused by lack of collaborative linkages in the organic sector, which in turn was explained by: difficulties in making a profit, part of which would be used for collective learning and innovation; historically constructed cultural barriers among organic value chain actors and associated low levels of trust; strong culture of individualism fostered by past failures of cooperatives; and inadequate infrastructure to support the organic farming movement, including collection centers, training, inspection, and certification.
Responding to this contradiction, the project conducted a workshop which led to formation of a Green Growers Association consisting of organic farmers, trainers, marketers, certifiers, and the municipality, with the goal of linking and coordinating learning and actions of the Durban area organic farming community. The project also identified 11 stakeholder groups and accompanying activity systems that it needed to intentionally engage, including agro-processors, suppliers of agricultural tools, consumer groups, funding partners, research organizations, universities, and colleges (see the Figure). The second model solution was the identification and adoption of the International Federation for Organic Agriculture Movements’ Participatory Guarantee System, which would enable the local organic farming community to set, implement, monitor, and certify local organic production using agreed-upon criteria. The Green Growers Association recruited organic inspectors and an information technologies specialist to adapt international organic farming standards, communication, and marketing.
Urban organic farmers activity system, Durban, South Africa. Diagram adapted from Engeström, 1987.
While the above process helped the Durban organic agriculture community learn jointly and generate solutions to agricultural challenges, it also revealed that organic trainers and mentors needed higher order skills to perform their tasks. In addition, the study concluded that agricultural cognition comprised not just the knowledge of trainers, but also of farmers, farmworkers, inspectors, and marketers, which should be drawn on and developed (Mukute, 2010). Finally, it recommended the formation of local, lasting collective learning, innovation, and action structures. These insights were shared with the South African Qualifications Authority and Rhodes University, which influence education policy in South Africa. The insights and recommendations demonstrate a link between local and national level learning processes, which could strengthen environmental education impacts across multiple scales.
Knowledge-sharing practices in community home-based care, South Africa
Community home-based care in South Africa is in high demand due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and related diseases, resulting in waste that poses a public health risk if not disposed of correctly. Typically, healthcare waste includes swabs, adult diapers, and used dressings, needles, and surgical gloves. Young children have been seen playing with surgical gloves found dumped on a vacant plot, inflating them, filling them with water, and drinking out of them.
Different community players contribute toward achieving sustainable healthcare waste management. Some partners enforce waste management regulations, some produce healthcare waste, while others sort, manage, and dispose of it. Cultural historical activity theory sees these players as interacting in activity systems that are dynamic and multi-voiced, and as individuals whose ideas and practices can be transformed through ongoing dialogue in expansive learning processes.
Research revealed that problematic waste management practices in home-based care facilities were linked to limited knowledge and knowledge-sharing (Masilela, 2015). It became clear that environmental education processes were needed to strengthen environmental management practices. For example, healthcare waste is commonly disposed of in domestic waste bins or illegally burned, but environmental health officers lack knowledge about such practices. Similarly, community home-based caregivers, despite extensive experience in nursing and palliative care, did not know how to dispose of waste generated outside of a clinic. Although senior managers seem to hold more detailed knowledge about healthcare waste management, channels to disseminate this knowledge to environmental health officers or community home-based caregivers were non-existent. The result: impoverished waste-pickers rummaging through piles of domestic garbage in search of items to recycle or resell faced risks of encountering healthcare waste.
Three workshops provided the basic framework for an expansive learning process in which the managers of home-based care facilities, environmental health officers, and waste inspectors identified their strengths and weaknesses and collaborated to seek long-term solutions. The voices of waste-pickers and caregivers were brought into the workshops through interview transcripts and photographs, enabling stakeholders to develop a richer perspective on the complexity and contestation of the problem. The workshops created opportunities for people with diverse skills and backgrounds to build common knowledge and develop new practices around a shared outcome (i.e., improving waste management). Participants learned about daily practices related to healthcare waste management (“who does what”); gained insight into tensions and contradictions; and asked “why,” “how,” “where,” and “what” questions to clarify misconceptions.
The healthcare waste management activity system suggests lessons for community environmental education more broadly. Environmental sustainability challenges in urban settings require collaboration among multiple players who need access to contextually relevant knowledge. Processes that stimulate dialogue and the production, circulation, and reflexive critique of knowledge within and across activity systems, such as the workshops addressing healthcare waste management, create opportunities for expansive learning leading to sustainability innovations.
Conclusion
The communities of practice framework allows us to examine social learning that occurs through participation in a community focused on a common enterprise. Cultural historical activity theory enables us to see how activities expand through encountering challenges or contradictions, resulting in learning at higher levels.
Communities of practice and cultural historical activity theory are two social learning frameworks useful in understanding community environmental education.
A focus on learning through interactions also suggests equitable knowledge sharing, which is important to urban environmental education. It reveals a subtle change in perspective from expanding existing outreach programs to be more inclusive of non-traditional audiences, such as low-income youth, farmers, or community healthcare workers. Instead, youth, farmers, and healthcare workers, alongside university scientists and professional environmental educators, all have knowledge to bring to the table. Recognizing and honoring each actor’s assets not only uncovers ideas potentially useful in addressing sustainability issues, but also empowers less powerful community members. For these reasons, it is a critical component of social learning and of urban environmental education that seeks to foster community wellness.
This essay will appear as a chapter in Urban Environmental Education Review, edited by Alex Russ and Marianne Krasny, to be published by Cornell University Press in 2017. To see more pre-release chapters from the book, click here.
This essay also appears at the North American Association of Environmental Educators site.
References
Aguilar, O.M. (in revision). Examining the literature to reveal the nature of community-based environmental education programs and research. Environmental Education Research.
Aguilar, O.M. and Krasny, M.E. (2011). Using the community of practice framework to examine an after-school environmental education program for Hispanic youth. Environmental Education Research. 17(2), 217-233.
Aguilar, O., Price, A., and Krasny, M.E. (2015). Perspectives on community environmental education. in M. Monroe and M.E. Krasny, editors. Across the Spectrum: Resources for Environmental Educators. Washington, DC: NAAEE.
Delanty, G. (2003). Community. Routledge, London.
Engeström, Y. (Ed.). (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity – theoretical approach to developmental research. Orienta-Konsultit, Helsinki, Finland.
Krasny, M., and Roth, W.-M. (2010). Environmental education for social-ecological system resilience: A perspective from activity theory. Environmental Education Research, 16(5-6), 545-558.
Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Masilela, K. (2015). Draft MEd thesis. Environmental Learning Research Centre. Grahamstown, South Africa: Rhodes University.
Mukute, M. (2010). Exploring and expanding farmer learning in sustainable agriculture workplaces. PhD dissertation. Grahamstown, South Africa: Rhodes University.
Price, A., Simmons. B., and Krasny, M.E. (2014). Principles of excellence in community environmental education. (unpublished document).
Wals, A.E.J. (2007). Social learning towards a sustainable world: Principles, perspectives, and praxis. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mutizwa works on various regional projects related to sustainable agriculture in the southern African region. While working with cultural historical activity theory, Mutizwa pioneered expansive learning approaches in environmental education and sustainable agriculture. .
Olivia received her PhD in Natural Resources at Cornell University in 2009 studying environmental and science education. She obtained her BS and MS in Horticulture from Texas A&M, where she studied the effects of a Junior Master Gardener Program on the environmental attitudes of children.
Working for the provincial and local government as an Environmental Health Practitioner, both in education and management, Priscilla’s primary focus is on public education and how it impacts the relationship between communities and their environments.
Lausanne has been a tenured staff member in the Education Department at Rhodes University since 2009 and currently teaches at Honours, Masters and Doctoral levels.
Any urban greenspace without a “friends group” and cadre of stewards faces an uncertain future. Guerrilla action may be necessary.
There is seldom a “silver bullet”, single pathway to success when it comes to protecting urban greenspaces. Multiple strategies, often modified, sometimes abandoned, are typically the only way grassroots-based urban conservation efforts succeed in the face of bureaucratic resistance. Efforts to preserve and restore a 160-acre wetland in the Willamette River floodplain near downtown Portland, Oregon is a classic case study of a “by any means necessary”, decades-long campaign to protect what would become Portland’s first official urban wildlife refuge.
Al Miller. It was impossible to say “no” to Al Miller, who recruited several of us graduate students from Portland State University. Photo: Mike Houck
In the fall of 1970 I was sitting in a mammalogy seminar at Portland State University where I was a teaching assistant in the university’s biology department when Al Miller, a gangly, be-spectacled volunteer with the local Audubon chapter walked into the room hoping rope some naïve young biologists in the running battle between the city parks department and local conservationists to protect a neighborhood wetland.
Soon thereafter I found myself sitting in stuffy, cramped Audubon library hammering out letters to the city on an old Underwood manual typewriter, the sort where keys stick together every few strokes. That I had never set foot in Oaks Bottom was irrelevant. Our recruiter’s passionate pitch, combined with the fact that he had worked for the state fish and wildlife agency and was an Audubon emissary, was good enough for me. Trust among co-conspirators is an essential ingredient for success.
View of Oaks Bottom looking across Ross Island and the Willamette River to downtown Portland. Photo: Mike Houck
Twelve years as Audubon’s Urban Naturalist my first assignment was a resurrection of the campaign to save Oaks Bottom. The challenge by then was more about benign neglect than by earlier plans to fill the wetland for a motocross course, children’s museum, and “walk of heroes.” City parks were still resistant to designating the wetlands as a wildlife refuge, something for which the local neighborhood association, Audubon, Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, and local outdoor writer had long lobbied.
The “future vision” for Oaks Bottom in the early 1960s. Photo: Mike HouckWhat Might have been. The city envisioned filling the 16-acre wetland as a site for museums, motocross course and other developments. Photo: Mike Houck
It’s a Sign!
Wildlife Refuge sign provided by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife that were used in their slightly modified form to declare Oaks Bottom a wildlife refuge. Photo: Mike HouckJimbo Beckmann. Jimbo was always up for any form of chicanery that presented itself and was my partner in crime for the great sign caper. Photo: Mike Houck
Such sustained recalcitrance demanded new, more direct action tactics. If the city would not act, we would. A sympathetic state fish and wildlife biologist was an early ally in what would be a prolonged campaign to secure the wetland’s permanent protection. Joe, the biologist, supplied us with official “wildlife refuge” signs. They were intensely bright, highly visible yellow plastic signs that would be visible from great distances. To avoid implicating the biologist, I sheared off the reference to the agency, created a stencil and spray painted “City Park”, creating a passably official looking sign that read, Wildlife Refuge, City Park.
With forty brilliantly lettered signs in tow my side-kick Jimbo Beckmann (image 6) and I toted a twelve-foot ladder, hammer, nails and, armed with a bottle of Jim Beam bourbon proceeded to nail up the signs around the wetland perimeter, thereby establishing, by fiat, that we unilaterally declared the city’s first urban wildlife refuge. Amazingly, in a short two weeks our local newspaper, The Oregonian, ran an unrelated story that a deceased person that had been found in…Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. Not the publicity we sought, but the first-ever public recognition of the wetland’s new, guerrilla-ordained status was fine with us. From that point onward the media routinely referred to the wetland, which formerly it had derisively labeled a “bottomland swamp”, as Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. Progress.
Rewriting history
If you want to change public policy, sometimes hearing it from officialdom is the surest, quickest route. Later that same year a city official was to give a speech commemorating the dedication of Audubon’s new Wildlife Care Center. Having worked with city staff I for some time I was on friendly enough terms that I was shown the prepared text. I asked if it would be possible to alter the text…just a tad….to insert an insignificant reference to “Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge.” The staffer, seeing no harm in making such a small change, agreed. Later that morning came the first formal reference to the wetland’s refuge status from a prominent elected official. Progress.
Bottom Watchers!
Martha Gannett (Martha Gannett Graphic Design) has volunteered for years at Portland Audubon and designed the Bottom Waters T-Shirts. Photo: Mike HouckBottom Watchers, the motley crew who schemed and worked over many years to protect and restore Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge. Photo: Portland Audubon Society
Any urban greenspace without a “friends group” and cadre of stewards faces an uncertain future. What can be done today can be undone tomorrow, through neglect or development pressure. We needed to create a movement of grassroots activists. I went to Martha Gannett, a graphic artist and Audubon volunteer, who created colorful Bottom Watchers t-shirts (image 8) with two colorful kingfishers keeping watch over the bottoms. Voila, we launched the Bottom Watchers and Friends of Oaks Bottom. With an organized group of volunteers, we reached out to the park’s volunteer coordinator and started annual clean-ups and trail maintenance crews. The Youth Conservation Corps had created an unpaved, two-mile loop trail in the early 1970s which was soon overrun with a prickly, impenetrable wall of Himalayan blackberry. The bottoms has also become a favored location for pickups to lose tons of household garbage, construction debris, and decaying animal carcasses. An annual garbage haul was instituted and signage…official this time…helped staunch the flow of garbage into the bottoms.
Getting formal
By the late 1980s, the time had come to (mainly) drop the guerrilla tactics and get more formal status from city bureaucrats. Formalization came by way of writing a wetland management plan. Working with Portland Parks and Recreation’s natural resource staff and the local Soil and Water Conservation District two other advocates, one an EPA wetland ecologist the other a local high school science teacher and I drafted an Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge Management Plan, which was promptly adopted by City Council. This came eighteen years after Al Miller’s recruiting gambit and going on thirty years earlier game, but ultimately unsuccessful, efforts. It’s no wonder I adopted another conservations motto of endless pressure, endlessly applied as my own. That mantra speaks to one of the most frequent paths to success…dogged determination.
Once the Master Plan was adopted, we were on the road to permanent protection of the wetland as the city’s first official urban wildlife refuge. However, we quickly learned a plan without funding is a hollow victory. Next came intense battles over the bureau’s natural area budget, which was perennially underfunded even though eighty-five percent of the city’s 10,000-acre portfolio were habitat parks. Once we secured additional park funding and engaged another bureau with a more robust ecological staff, the city initiated ongoing restoration efforts to manage the bottoms with an emphasis on ecological function. Public access was controlled by retention of an unpaved perimeter path while a new “rails with trails” regional path provided unfettered access on the wetland’s western edge.
Over the past twenty years, professional ecologists with Portland Parks and the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services have removed blackberry, English ivy, and other invasive species and replanted with native species. Formal interpretive signs have replaced the now disintegrated signs Jimbo and I posted over three decades ago. A massive habitat restoration plan is in the works which will re-connect the bottoms’ floodplain with the adjacent Willamette River to enhance salmonid habitat.
Art and nature
My most recent, and probably last major effort to focus public attention on the importance of Oaks Bottom to the city’s commitment to protecting urban biodiversity and providing nature nearby was the creation of what I believe is the largest hand-painted wall mural on a building in the country. This effort grew from a 1986 project with our then mayor, Bud Clark and local muralist Mark Bennett of ArtFX. Bud and I worked to declare the Great Blue Heron Portland’s official city bird, and Mark created a huge heron mural on a building overlooking Oaks Bottom. Twenty years later Mark called me and asked when we were going to finish off the entire building, the Portland Memorial Mausoleum.
Original heron mural overlooking Oaks Bottom. Photo: Mike HouckPortland Memorial Mausoleum mural. Photo: Mike Houck
The result is 55,000 square foot mosaic depicting birds and other wetland denizens. The mural is visible from across the Willamette River, more than a mile distant. Just another way to celebrate nature in the city and draw the attention of thousands of cyclists, walker, and joggers who use the regional greenway trail at the wetland’s western edge.
Portland Memorial Mausoleum owners with our mural design. Photos: Mike Houck
While Oaks Bottom is a singular story capturing the need to engage in a “by any means necessary” approach to urban conservation, there are myriad other stories, locally, nationally and internationally, all spearheaded by creative urban greenspace advocates each providing inspiring tales of preserving nature in the city, thereby contributing to the nature of cities. The Nature of Cities is dedicated to telling those stories.
While the suburban mega city is largely the product of unbridled real estate speculation, their existence establishes a new starting point for urban design—hopefully one that produces cities by nature.
A Brief History of Climate Change
Issued in November of 2018 by a collection of 13 government agencies known as the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the environmental assessments of The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) present a deeply disturbing forecast and polarizing confrontation to most anyone reading the report.
“Disturbing”, given the grave assessments and the magnitude and nature of the anticipated climate events and their impact to the human condition and natural life of the earth. “Polarizing”, in that the report confronts virtually every individual who reads the 500-some page document, especially those in design-related disciplines, and environmental fields, to make a fundamental choice. One, change how one personally lives, works and the content and expertise they advocate through their work. Or two, ignore the report and go on with one’s life and business.
The environmental forecast is dire.
Sea levels are already about a foot higher around US continental shores. Heat waves are increasing and more are predicted. Unusually long droughts are already happening and more of these are predicted and expected to unfold at accelerating rates. The same is forecasted for wildfires. The last three consecutive years have been the warmest years on the measurable record for the globe. The last five consecutive years have been the warmest ever recorded at the polar ice caps.
When first encountered by explorers in 1850, Glacier National Park had 150 distinct glaciers. Today, only 26 remain. Experts are already suggesting that Miami will become “unlivable in the future” not only because of low-level flooding, but also due to salt contamination of the Okeechobee fresh water lake where it draws water.
Dallas Trinity River in Flood
While I unfortunately can’t claim to possess fantastical abilities to tell the future or conjure a crystal ball for a topic that is unquestionably overwhelming and comprehensive, the following article offers a set of realistic proposals to embolden the work of landscape architects, architects, designers, policy-makers and environmentalists. In response to the ever-present question, “What can I do as an individual?” each topic was selected because of the potential it offers to individuals to make a difference.
Topic One: Vitamin N
Health should always be the number one priority and objective that guides city planning, building orientation and their design, to paraphrase the Roman architect Vitruvius in his multi-volume treatise on architecture, “De Architectura” written in the 1stcentury AD. It’s challenging, if not difficult to comprehend how advice taken from a 2,000-year-old document, could be relevant today, given the extraordinary advances in technology and human population. However, a simple diagram puts the challenge and issue of health into a new kind of perspective and unlocks a new awareness about health and the status quo.
The diagram above illustrates the 2.5 million years that encompass the evolution of humanity. The thin magenta line on the right is more than ample thickness to represent the entire amount of time where the physical backdrop to life that has shaped the human condition has been life spent living in organized settlements, villages and cities. The 150-year era of anthropogenic climate change would fit into an even thinner, microscopic slice of the same line.
It might seem like this diagram is a graphic trick to arouse alarm about the rapidity of climate change and how, if it persists to become a more measurable width on this diagram, it would probably mean the end of human civilization. However, the actual point of the diagram is to call attention to the time and the entire area to the left of the right edge, and a particular realization it unlocks about health and human development.
As the legendary biologist Dr. E.O Wilson of Harvard characterizes, for approximately two and half million years, “Humanity was a biological species living in a biological environment.” While most everyone loves the cold medicine and indoor plumbing of the modern world, thirty-some years of credible, peer-reviewed research by individuals such as Dr. Wilson and Dr. Ming ( Frances ) Kuo of the University of Illinois, along with other colleagues of a like-mind, are revealing that human contact with nature produces extraordinary health and human welfare benefits, as follows.
According to studies taken from the Chicago Police and Crime reports, individuals living in public housing projects, where the “housing projects” were cookie cut buildings, people living in the buildings that were surrounded by more trees and nature – “greener in other words” – produced fewer violent crimes and fights. In the greener buildings, when altercations and disputes arose they were less likely to be settled with violence.
Girl and Butterfly at Airfield Falls, Fort Worth
Further studies with children who suffer from ADHD and depression, revealed that, when in a controlled test group, children experienced a daily twenty minute walk in a park, another group a residential street with no trees, and a third group in an urban downtown, the children who experienced the park saw a reduction of their symptoms and a higher ability to concentrate than the other two groups whose symptoms were actually amplified by the nature-deficient environments.
Physical, biological and cardiovascular health is also measurably affected by contact with nature. Controlled studies of individuals who were instructed to take “a walk in the woods” developed a healthier cardiovascular blood profile than those who did not. Blood pressure lowered and, astonishingly, blood chemistry altered toward a healthier biochemistry. The health benefits continue.
Individuals who lived in greener neighborhoods also demonstrated a higher ability to survive a stroke, if one happens. As Dr. Kuo has come to summarize, “Nature appears to be a new kind of vitamin” that cultivates cardiovascular health and cardiovascular resilience in humans.
Even a basic question of how much “nature” does one need before measurable benefits appear, reveals that even shorter, periodic “doses of nature” during just a three day weekend trip to a natural area, elevates the production of antibodies and blood chemistry that is beneficial to fighting the advent of cancer cells, an astonishing 50 percent. One month after the three-day weekend with nature, blood tests of the same individuals reveal that blood chemistry is still 28% above where it was before the trip.
The old saying to “stop and smell the roses” portended that actually doing so can improve your health. Thirty-year long studies show that smelling roses (and other flowers that are fragrant to humans) reduces the release of stress and obesity-producing cortisol.
Le Corbusier designed the Villa Savoye between 1929 and 1931. ca. 2002 Poissy, France
Taken together, along with many other studies with similar results, that “green nature-focused neighborhoods” (and buildings by logical extension) reduce the number of preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease and diabetes, by one half.
Considering that cardiovascular disease cost the US Health Care System over
$500 billion dollars in 2016, and the costs of diabetes related to cardiovascular disease cost were $245 billion dollars, a new Health Imperative for architecture, landscape architecture and environmental design may be coming of age and toward a new purpose with unassailable and measurable results.
To extend the original axiom from Vitruvius, “health” can apply not only to buildings and arranging cities and a physical environment that is healthy to humans, but also how the cities and buildings we arrange reverberate health and healing to a planet that is groaning with the symptoms of Climate Change.
This leads to ReWILDING, which is the next topic.
Topic Two: REWILDING
ReWILDING is a process and an approach to landscape and environmental development that begins by constructing an inventory of the species and natural life that the landscape can shelter, that is also appropriate to the place. Architects, who typically design buildings that are tailored to a similar inventory of occupants, refer to this formative activity as “the program” of a building.
What is known as ReWILDing began some thirty years ago as environmental reconstruction that was intended to rebalance ecosystems through the re-introduction of species, largely alpha predators such as the grey wolf project in Yellowstone and also species that repopulated African preserves and the surrounding savannahs.
The idea that ReWILDING can apply to virtually any landscape project, at any scale as a new programmatic imperative for the landscape of any project or building program, is sweeping the world. The key to understanding the application of ReWILDING as a design activity, is to recognize that all projects and sites are not appropriate environments for all the possible species a region might offer for consideration.
For example, where the left-over landscape around a suburban motor bank isn’t possible to ReWILD for coyotes, red fox and the bobcats that freely roam the watershed corridors in Dallas Fort Worth, a small landscape project like this still can, successfully ReWILD for native bees, pollinators, migratory songbirds and, if storm detention is involved, aquatic plants and the amphibians and species they support.
Egrets in Dallas
With ReWILDING, almost every new project, site renovation or construction can, to some degree, also be an act of environmental recovery. Once the program of natural species is established, plant communities and arrangements take place accordingly.
The final step in the process is to reintroduce human activity into the ReWILDED landscape, carefully with design, so the two conditions can co-exist.
Topic Three: City by Nature
Cities that flourished in the mid to late twentieth century such as Phoenix, Dallas / Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and Atlanta, all materialized as thinly arrayed patterns that were enabled by the motor car, cheap energy and an environmentally unbridled and unconstrained culture. While pre-twentieth century cities largely formed around densely urban, colonial cores that generated cultural densities (between 30 persons per acre in San Francisco to over one hundred persons per acre in Manhattan), the endless landscape of the suburban megacities average around one person per acre.
An unintended effect of suburban megacities is the appearance of wildlife inside city limits that thrive in an abundant geography of open areas and the ribbons of trees and nature that exist along metropolitan creeks, rivers and ravines of a cities watershed network. While cities have always had “pests” such as rats, fleas, lice and other vermin, the appearance of coyotes, red foxes, turkey flocks, bobcats and nesting eagles are all species that are presently thriving within the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, where my private practice works and studies. DFW is a textbook demonstration of solutions and possibilities that can transfer and apply to cities with similar problems and opportunities.
Downtown Dallas Trinity River Corridor
Settled on the gently rolling topography of the North Texas Blackland Prairie, Dallas Fort Worth (DFW ) is traversed by a vast, web-like watershed network of small rivers, creeks, ravines, tree belts and man-made ponds and reservoirs, that some experts might refer to as the Green Infrastructure of the city. Areas such as the luxurious Turtle Creek corridor in Highland Park, Dallas and the historic White Rock Lake reservoir demonstrate how urban planning can leverage a cultural affinity for nature to form neighborhoods of exceptional economic and cultural value around the nature of these kind of resources.
The DFW Branch Waters Network is an emerging planning initiative to make the ad hoc process of development that is forming along the green corridors of the watershed network a more deliberate process with predictable results.
Vitruvian Park Drone View
Such an initiative is reinforced by the health benefits of nature, the cultural affinity for nature which attracts density patterns, the connectivity of the watershed nature for recreation and transportation and all the attendant economic benefits and value that could arise, that taken together, could compel suburban mega cities to restructure in potentially, the same number of decades it took to originally produce the unsustainable, endless and sprawling form.
While the suburban mega city is largely the product of unbridled real estate speculation, their existence establishes a new starting point for urban design.
Intersecting these needs with a cultural affinity for nature offers the potential to eventually produce cities by nature, that offer health for the human condition and the environment of the planet, delight and a new kind of prosperity that will not be at the expense of the earth and ourselves.
SUMMARY: Energy, The Common Denominator
According to the 2005 bestselling book “The Tree” by Colin Tudge, wood will be the building material of the future. Tudge’s assertion is not based on his affinity for wood, but rather, an assertion that is entirely based on energy. Wood requires the least amount of energy for its production, given that natural energy of the sun. Depending on how it will be harvested and milled, it is a material that has the lower latent energy that is possible. Finally, wood naturally recycles into the earth through biodegradation.
Spain Metropol Parasol
Imagine how the professional design awards would change if criteria principals weren’t only aesthetics, concepts and artistic conceits, but rather were based on a new set of criteria:
Energy use – what projects use the least amount of energy to construct, operate, and sustain and/or to eventually demolish.
Human health – the health benefits the building or project engenders in the inhabitants through contact with vitamin N – or nature.
Ecological conservation – the depth and magnitude of the non-human species a building or a new project site and landscape accommodates and the amount of domestic water use the project preserves.
Given the clear-eyed and disturbing picture painted by the recent The Fourth National Climate Assessment,the path forward demands that the look and style of something may not be as important as the impact it makes and the healing it offers to the environment and human condition.
Where popular culture has many issues and layers that perhaps separate individuals from truly comprehending the gravitas of the situation, landscape architects and the environmental sciences are on the front lines and ready to take action. We are in a unique position to make an immediate and measurable difference.
Art BioFarm
“Form follows performance” may replace the industrial preoccupation of the twentieth century and its priority for “function” that is damaging to the environment. It will take the effort of many, if not everyone’s, hands to get a grip on all the solutions that are needed. It is a purpose and priority on which all should agree.
The work of any and every landscape architect can contribute the next granular improvement to the environment, and that improvement will aggregate with the other granular good works of others to eventually accumulate results.
As one example, in Dallas Fort Worth, if one in every ten households installed a 5 x 5 ReWILDED pocket prairie in their back yard, 1,000 acres of the original Blackland Prairie could be recovered. Even for most commissions that stipulate a cultivated landscape design, edges and fringes always exist in most situations to introduce concentrations of native species that could give respites to migrating pollinators and songbirds.
Potentially of equal or greater importance, is for landscape architects to become advocates and explicators of the environment through writing, speaking and producing videos shorts. Landscape architects are one of the very few professional groups that exist, uniquely educated to understand, predict the consequences, and propose realistic solutions for the climate crisis.
Local newspapers, reeling under the impact of blogs and the Internet, are in need for volunteer writers and ideas and topics worth circulating. Reach out and ask to become a voice in your community newspapers and write for the environment. Community, school and church groups frequently struggle to convene interesting programs for their membership. Reach out and volunteer to give a lively and memorable presentation on the virtues of the landscape architecture you love and the profound ability it has, if redirected in purpose, to affect them individually and the climate crisis positively, and with beauty.
Moreover, landscape architects should learn and then be unhesitant about developing their skills in persuasion, of linking the good intentions of ReWILDING with the superior economic advantages that it often produces. While it’s desirable to bring a larger culture along to a more informed environmental position, in the day-to-day activities, gaining approval of a good idea, even if the basis for preference is cheaper cost and a better bottom line, is the real objective. The environment that needs the solutions and the wild life in search of habitat has little awareness for how their needs are met.
Activities and opportunities like this will often go uncompensated, although not unrecognized. Return on the effort and time it takes to prepare often materializes as another invitation for commissions that align with a landscape architects interest.
In imprecating artists to be leaders, the late sculptor Isamu Noguchi offered remarks that should embolden most landscape architects and planners to act. To paraphrase, “No one is going to pay you in the beginning. Instead, convince yourself and then go out and convince the world what it needs by leading with your unassailable and good intentions, and then, they will know how and why they need to hire you for what’s next.”
A versão em Português segue imediatamente.
Une version en français apparaît immédiatement après la version portugaise.
Designing nature is a challenging task in an urban environment. For example, how can a 38 years old individual (myself) safely edit a 3.8 billion years old system (Nature)? It is quite a test for creative confidence. An arrogance, really.
I remember when I began studying landscape architecture and struggled with the blank page. Twenty years later there is no longer a blank page. Instead, I am challenged by a world of millions of individuals and trillions of interrelations; a never ending border between our knowledge and the regenerative possibilities of nature.
Scales of time, nature and culture
Biodiversity is the greatest value a territory can offer to a human community. Most cities ignore biodiversity.
Why do we create cities this way?
What were the dreams of the generation that drew our cities in this way?
What city do we want?
In what kind of city can we live today?
In what kind of city can we dream?
These are a lot of questions! And in our era of certainty, we may need more questions than answers. I used to work with technical and aesthetic solutions to improve social and ecological performances of territories and ecosystems. However, I think that cultural change in a society can have higher and quicker positive impact than transforming land use or land cover. We may need to change our culture to change the way we develop and conserve our earth and its cities.
This blog is aimed to be a provocation, a utopian design to promote a debate about the place of nature in cities. I used to say that when you ask something for nature you should ask for twice as much, since our society is a fierce negotiator. The proposal is about creating new and audacious layers for the city, building aerial cores of biodiversity and link them to create new usage of the aerial space what is actually the space that is remaining for nature in the middle of the city, something high (including different meanings of the term).
Not writing but reading
In this essay I will try to give a personal and not definitive answer to a few of the questions above. So, first of all, I will to do more of the same—mais do mesmo, a Brazilian expression for when you are not doing something new. It is the way nature works: more and the same, but improved.
I will keep the idea of doing something local, even more local in fact. I will stand at my bedroom window, and start to take a look at my city’s nature and just keep watching. Let us read nature.
I am looking at a public nature. It is the eastern part of Tijuca National Park, and it is actually bigger than public: it is a world heritage cultural landscape. It is the first time an urban landscape has been included in this list and I understand it as an appeal for more protection and conservation of this scenic landscape of tropical Atlantic rainforest, granitic hills …and a lot of concrete occupying most of the lowlands.
Personally, I have my doubts if God is Brazilian as many say, but I am sure that Biodiversity is Brazilian. It lives here, and this country is its temple. There is proof of it. It can be found in biodiversity indices about Brazilian Biomes and species, making Brazil not only a soccer world champion but also a biodiversity world champion.
The neighborhood we are watching in the above picture is called Humaitá. According to the etymologist Machado, the meaning is derived from the Tupi “mbaitá”, meaning a small parrot. Today we place this bird, smaller than a parrot, in the family Psittacidae, and the common name is maitaca or maritaca. You can see pictures and its typical song here. They used to fly through the city at the beginning and at the end of the day, in small groups, making during the flight a typical sound of the city. So as the name of the district says Humaitá: the place of the maitacas.
When Carolus Linnaeus denominated and “taxonomized” our species as Homo sapiens in 1758 in Systema Naturae, we were in the middle of the Siècle de Lumières, the major scientific revolution that occurred in the human history.
Science, art and design were at this time integrated, in part because it used to be more common for people to practice ALL THREE at once. Now they have become separate, and urban design has weakened because of it. And urban nature is abused because of it. How can they be reintegrated for the good of urban spaces, both as places of nature and as human settlements?
Let’s look outside and see what nature teaches us, what she shows us that Works (and doesn’t work).
Let’s learn from this to design better.
So, how should we read nature, especially in the context of reintegrating science with design? Nature is movement, nature is dynamic, so we may use dynamic tool to read it. I am fascinated by time lapse photography, a visual sequencing through a fixed frame rate permitting to see natural movements by changing our vision, our dimension of the fourth dimension of time.
This observation absolutely inspires this proposal, as the dynamic movement of this aerial cloud dance here suggests directly to use the aerial space of the city. It is important to watch this video of around one minute to understand better the origin of the proposal.
Think in four dimensions
When we talk about space we commonly use four dimension parameters. In computer aided design (CAD) software, the X and Y axis are quite similar and define planarity and are the most used dimensions in design and representation of our planet, our communities and our habitats. Z, the vertical axis is the axis of the gravity, it is one of the factor that has shaped and continues shaping the forms of our species and environment, most cycles use its force to promote movements and changes.
Time is the fourth dimension, the dimensional system of actions, interactions and results. Each dimension should have the same importance as the others when analyzing and planning spaces and places.
Dynamic shapes of water cycle from forest to clouds. Credit: Pierre-André Martin
Fight for space
Spatial competition is an ecological interaction between species in the environment since life exists. Today the “best” competitor for space is the human species, with a massive territorial sprawling of agriculture, deforestation, reforestation, mining, cities and their many infrastructures, which generate not only land cover change but also chemical and thermal change of our environments (Living Planet Report 2012).
We have succeeded to giving our name to the next geological era, the Anthropocene. The world is ours, and in a bad way. The proposal drawn for Humaitá, the maitaca´s district is conceptually based on principle of equal rights: equal rights for plants, insects, animals and humans (Michael Marder, The time is ripe for plant rights). Rights for space and place are included in the proposal and offer the nutrient for the utopia of designing a nature for the city.
Humaitá, before and after human occupation. Credit: P. Martin, based on Atlas da evolução urbana da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Canabrava Barreiros
Thinking about more nature, or places for more nature in a city where there are not even places for people to walk in the street is very difficult. Potential areas are shrinking quickly — selling public areas to the private real estate sector is common in Rio. The district is a mix of old villas, old houses, some mansions, and new 10 to 20 story residential buildings popping on top of the other categories.
The official site of urban data of the city hall about the district reveals an astonishing number about vegetation in public parks (2001): 0%. There must be an explanation for why we have zero-tree public parks in the city, but it gives the taste of the environment many experience in the urbanized area of the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Conceptual melting-pot of the proposal.(spider web + hammock + roots bridges + zip-line + rock climbing vegetation). Credit: P. Martin
Change culture like ecological succession
Ecological restoration is based on a range of concepts, one of them is ecological succession, the process by which the species of an ecosystem change over time and the restorative efforts that may required for the creation of environmental conditions for natural successional processes to be activated. But the concept of this essay is to think about a cultural succession, a way to imagine the city. Our city nowadays is not so far from the vision of the Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ or Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’ in terms of overanthropized spaces. Science Fiction is a great philosophical device to discuss new forms of nature for urban environment. And it may save many human habitats in Humaitá if we really think of equal rights for space.
Render of a suspended biodiversity cloud in the sky of the Humaitá neighborhood. Credit P.Martin
Natural structures: cores and flows
Island biogeography is one of the main theories of landscape ecology and is a tool for debate in reserve design and other discussions about nature conservancy and design. Here I intend to promote “nature science fiction”, so it will slip a little bit from plausibility and deviate from literal technical and feasibility “details” (purists forgive me, please). And it will draw a utopian proposal for nature in the Humaitá neighborhood, thinking about core and flows as a framework for design.
The idea of creating a radical biodiversity island is not new, Gilles Clément, has done it in its île Derborencein the Parc Matisse, in Lille, France, creating an untouchable part of nature in the middle of an urban planning: 3500 square meters of native mixed stratus of vegetation, 7 meters higher than the common level. The design is a direct reference to one of the few primary forests in Europe located in the Valais (Switzerland).
The main idea of the proposal for Humaitá is to create a new layer above the city in its aerial space, with different types of connections for adventurous fauna, flora and people.
Between clouds and rivers
Water is a fascinating dynamic compound of nature and it is vital for all forms of life. The time lapse observation of the forest creating clouds and receiving rain show us a natural beauty that you cannot see when you are walking in the middle of a polluted flooded street during rush hour. Rain is a true beauty, a source of life and our cities succeed to transform these moments in an urban nightmare. Like every form of life, we are part of the water system, but now there are major negative impacts in the different scales of the water environment of our blue planet. Should offsetting water cycle from human relation be safest for it? For sure it is a polemical idea, but given that we have succeeded to change the chemistry of most of the water on the surface of earth, it is not so radical. Using gravity we can make water pass through suspended gardens and so may think about suspended wetlands to stock water and create habitats for avifauna in the sky.
Hydrological diagram/render of suspended wetlands and thicket connected to lost underground riversthrough lianas and wires. Credit: P. Martin
Social scale, ecology and dynamics
In my opinion, the positive scales for the Human species are the individual and the community scales. Cities in a certain way change the scale of our communities to landscape scale, regional scale and macro scale. If we look at our neighborhood and the social tissues of it through landscape ecology methodologies we might find fragmentations, edge effects and so much more ecological phenomena. Ecological Thinking may be the new holistic approach into all disciplines, not only for biology and earth science.
When you live in Rio de Janeiro, moving from one place to another is a concern — the city has grown but the streets do not get larger. The last brilliant idea of the government was to promote individual motorized transport: the car. So as transport is both a relationship and a flow, the proposal creates suspended pathways and zip-lines between the hills to connect buildings, public spaces, public equipment, schools, slums and natural areas. I think this system creates a richer environment not only for nature, but also for humans.
Rendering of people walking through suspended pathways, vegetated island looking at monkeys and maitacas. Credit: P. Martin
Utopia and reality considerations
I hope this proposal will generate debates and instigate more utopias. For sure many points have not been deeply developed and there is some considerations about integrity of ecosystems, but this proposal is meant to be provocative and novel, creating new communities around new relationships.
Everybody may be concerned by plants falling on the top of their head, but as we already throw a lot of concrete on top of swamps, rivers and forest it is a hard lex talionis logic, an eye for an eye. For safety, don’t try to do this at home, but please dream of new forms of nature for our cities
Pierre-André Martin
Rio de Janeiro
***
Urbanismo Prospectivo—Usando a Ciência e a Ficção para Imaginar uma Nova Natureza Urbana
Escalas da natureza, tempo e cultura
Projetar a natureza é uma tarefa difícil em um ambiente urbano. Por exemplo, como um indivíduo de 38 anos (eu) pode de maneira segura editar um sistema de 3,8 bilhões de anos (Natureza)? É um bom teste para a confiança criativa, uma arrogância, na verdade.
Eu me lembro quando eu comecei a estudar a arquitetura da paisagem, lutando com a página em branco e passando dificuldades com ela. Vinte anos depois, não há mais nenhuma página em branco, agora eu sou desafiado por um mundo de milhões de indivíduos e trilhões de inter-relações, uma borda sem fim entre o nosso conhecimento e as possibilidades de regeneração da natureza.
A biodiversidade é o maior valor que um território pode oferecer a uma comunidade humana. A maioria das cidades ignoram a biodiversidade.
Por que criamos as cidades dessa maneira?
Qual eram os sonhos da geração que desenhou nossas cidades dessa maneira?
Que cidade queremos?
Em que tipo de cidade podemos viver hoje?
Que tipo de cidade podemos sonhar?
Quantas perguntas! Na nossa era de certezas talvez precisamos mais de perguntas do que respostas? Eu uso no meu ofício de paisagista soluções técnicas e estéticas para melhorar as performances sociais e ecológicas de territórios e ecossistemas, mas percebo que a mudança cultural de uma sociedade pode ter um impacto maior e mais rápido do que a positiva transformação do uso ou da cobertura do solo. Talvez seja necessário mudar a nossa cultura para mudar a forma como desenvolver e conservar as nossas terras e as suas cidades. A proposta ora apresentada é uma provocação, um projeto utópico para promover um debate sobre o lugar da natureza nas cidades. Costumo dizer que quando você pede algo para a natureza, você deve pedir em dobro já que a nossa sociedade é muito dura nas suas negociações com ela. A proposta consiste em criar novas e audaciosas camadas para a cidade, pela construção de núcleos aéreos de biodiversidade e ligar eles criando um novo uso do espaço aéreo, que é realmente o espaço que resta para a natureza no meio da cidade, algo alto (incluindo os diferentes significados do termo).
Ler e não escrever
Vou tentar dar uma resposta pessoal e não definitiva para algumas dessas perguntas nesse blog. Então, antes de tudo, eu decidi fazer “mais do mesmo” (artigo anterior). É a maneira que a natureza trabalha, mais e melhor.
Vou manter a idéia de fazer algo local, e dessa vez ainda mais local. Vou ficar na janela do meu quarto, e vou começar a olhar a natureza da minha cidade, vou ler a natureza. Parece uma excelente ocupação.
O relevo da foresta da Tijuca como plano de fundo da cidade. Foto: P. Martin
Estou olhando para uma natureza pública. E a parte mais oriental da Parque Nacional da Tijuca, e na verdade ela é mais do que pública: é um patrimônio mundial da humanidade. É a primeira vez que uma paisagem urbana foi incluída nessa lista e eu entendo isso como um apelo para uma maior proteção e conservação desta paisagem de mata atlântica, morros de granitos … e um monte de concreto ocupando a maior parte das terras baixas. Pessoalmente, tenho minhas dúvidas se Deus é brasileiro, como muitos o dizem, mas tenho certeza de que a biodiversidade é Brasileira. Ela mora aqui, e este país é o seu templo. Há provas disso e elas estão nos índices de biodiversidade dos Biomas Brasileiros, fazendo do Brasil não só um campeão mundial de futebol, mas também o campeão mundial da biodiversidade.
Esse bairro que estamos vendo na foto acima é chamado de Humaitá. De acordo com o etimologista Machado, o significado poderia ser derivado do tupi “mbaitá”, significando um papagaio pequeno. Hoje damos a esse pássaro, da família dos psitacídeos, o nome comum de maitaca ou maritaca. Você pode ver fotos dele e seu canto típico aqui. Eles costumam voar pela cidade no início e no final do dia, em pequenos grupos, fazendo deste vôo um som típico da cidade. Assim como o nome do bairro Humaitá diz: é o lugar das maitacas.
Quando Carolus Linnaeus denomina e “taxonomiza” a nossa espécie como Homo sapiens em 1758 no Systema Naturae, estávamos no meio do Siècle de Lumières, a maior revolução científica ocorrida na história humana. Ciência, arte e design eram integrados neste momento, em parte porque a pratica DOS TRÊS ao mesmo tempo era mais comum. Agora eles se tornaram separados, principalmente no que se remete a projeto urbano. E a natureza urbana sofre com isso. Como eles podem ser reintegrados para o bem dos espaços urbanos, tanto como locais de natureza, tanto como assentamentos humanos?
Vamos olhar para fora e ver o que a natureza nos ensina, ela nos mostrará o que funciona (e não funciona).
Vamos aprender com isso para projetar melhor.
Então, como devemos ler a natureza, especialmente no contexto de reintegração da ciência com design? A natureza é movimento, a natureza é dinâmica, portanto deveríamos usar uma ferramenta dinâmica para lê-la. Sou fascinado pela fotografia Time Lapse (intervalo de tempo), um sequenciamento visual através de uma freqüência fixa de fotos permitindo ver movimentos naturais, alterando nossa visão, nossa dimensão da quarta dimensão, o tempo. Técnica que muitos tem chamado de realidade aumentada. Esta observação dinâmica inspirou esta proposta, com o movimento dinâmico da dança das nuvens sugere diretamente para usar o espaço aéreo da nossa cidade. É importante assistir esse vídeo de um minuto para entender o resto da proposta.
Quatro dimensões
Quando falamos sobre o espaço geralmente usamos quatro parâmetros de dimensão. Em softwares ditos CAD, os eixos X e Y são bastante semelhantes e definem o plano, atualmente são as dimensões mais utilizadas no projeto e na representação do nosso planeta, das nossas comunidades e dos nossos habitats. O eixo Z, a verticalidade é o eixo da gravidade, é um dos fatores que formou e continua esculpindo as formas de nossa espécie e do nosso ambiente, a maioria dos ciclos usam sua força para promover movimentos e mudanças. O tempo é a quarta dimensão, o sistema dimensional das ações, interações e resultados. Cada dimensão deve ter a mesma importância que os outros quando analisamos e planejamos espaços e lugares.
Desenho dinâmico do ciclo da água entre a floresta e as nuvens. Crédito: Pierre-André Martin
A luta por espaço
A competição por espaço é uma interação ecológica entre as espécies no ambiente, que acontece desde que a vida existe. Hoje, o “melhor” concorrente para o espaço é a espécie humana com um enorme alastro territorial pela agricultura, desmatamento, reflorestamento, mineração, as cidades e suas infra-estruturas que geram não apenas mudanças na cobertura da terra, mas também mudanças químicas e térmicas dos nossos ambientes (Living Planet Report 2012). Conseguimos dar o nosso nome para a próxima era geológica, o Antropoceno, o mundo é nosso, e não é no bom sentido do termo. A proposta elaborada para Humaitá, o bairro das maitacas é conceitualmente baseada no princípio da igualdade de direitos. Igualdade de direitos entre as plantas, insetos, animais e seres humanos (Michael Marder. O momento é propício para os direitos das plantas). Direitos ao espaço e a um local de existência estão incluídos nessa proposta e oferece o nutriente para a utopia de se conceber uma natureza para a cidade.
Humaitá, antes e depois da ocupação humana. Crédito: P. Martin, baseado no Atlas da evolução urbana da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Canabrava Barreiros
Pensando re-introduzir mais natureza ou mais locais para a natureza numa cidade onde não há sequer lugar para pessoas caminhar na rua é muito difícil se for pensar de maneira tradicional. As áreas potenciais estão encolhendo rapidamente, já que a venda de áreas públicas para o setor imobiliário privado é comum para a prefeitura e o estado do Rio de Janeiro. O bairro hoje é uma mistura de casas antigas, algumas mansões, órgãos públicos e edifícios de 7 a 20 andares surgindo por cima das outras categorias. Os dados oficiais da prefeitura sobre o bairro confessam-nos surpreendentes números sobre vegetação em parques públicos (2001): 0,00%. Deve haver motivos burocráticos para explicar por que vivemos num bairro sem arvores nos parques públicos, mas dá o tom sobre o ambiente nas situações de pequena escala na área urbanizada da cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
Caldeirão conceptual da proposta. Crédito: P. Martin
Sucessões ecológicas de um ambiente cultural
A restauração ecológica é baseada em uma série de conceitos, um deles é a sucessão ecológica, o processo pelo qual as espécies de um ecossistema mudam ao longo do tempo e os esforços de restauração que podem ser exigidos para a criação de condições ambientais favoráveis para os processos de sucessão natural. Mas o conceito desta proposta é pensar em uma sucessão CULTURAL, uma mudança na forma de imaginar a cidade. Nossas cidades hoje em dia não estão tão longe da visão do Fritz Lang em ‘Metropolis’ ou de Ridley Scott em ‘Blade Runner’ em termos de espaços hiperantropizados. A ficção científica é um excelente dispositivo filosófico para discutir novas formas da natureza para o ambiente urbano. E vai permitir conservar habitats humanos nessa proposta aqui em Humaitá se realmente formos aplicar direitos iguais para o espaço. Dessa maneira, poderemos ocupar um lugar que não existe hoje, pelo menos de forma sólida.
Nuvem de biodiversidade. P. Martin
Estruturas naturais: Núcleos e fluxos
A Biogeografia de Ilhas é uma das principais teorias da ecologia da paisagem e é uma ferramenta para o debate nos projetos de reservas e outras discussões sobre a conservação e o projeto da natureza. A proposta aqui pretende promover uma obra de “ficção científica natural”, um projeto cultural, por isso nos afastaremos de alguns critérios de plausibilidade e questões de viabilidade técnica (puristas, por favor, me perdoem) e será desenhada uma proposta utópica para a natureza do Humaitá pensando em núcleos e fluxos como estrutura de design numa forma literal. A idéia de criar ilhas de biodiversidade em meio urbano não é nova, Gilles Clément, tem executado uma na sua île Derborence no Parc Matisse, em Lille na França, criando um núcleo intocável de natureza no meio de um planejamento urbano, 3.500 metros quadrado de estratos mistos de vegetação nativa situados 7 metros acima do nível de uso comum. Esse projeto é uma referência direta a uma das poucas florestas primárias da Europa localizada no Valais (Suíça). A idéia principal da proposta para o Humaitá é de criar uma nova camada acima da cidade em seu espaço aéreo, com diferentes tipos de conexões para pessoas aventureiras ou não, fauna, flora, sendo que essas conexões podem ser separadas ou não. A legislação urbana do Rio considera que acima de 60m a ocupação é reduzida e, acima de 100m mais ainda, a proposta irá ocupar esses espaços aéreos.
Entre nuvens e rios
A água é um componente fascinante na dinâmica da natureza e é vital para todas as formas de vida. A observação por meio de Time Lapse da floresta criando nuvens e recebendo chuva nos mostra uma beleza natural que você não consegue ver andando no meio de uma rua inundada e poluída na hora do rush. A chuva é maravilhosa e a cidade transforma esse evento vital num transtorno de grandes proporções. Como todas as formas de vida fazemos parte do ciclo da água, mas agora estamos nos mesmo propiciando os principais impactos negativos em variadas escalas sobre ambiente do nosso planeta azul. Será que separar parte do ciclo da água dos ambientes urbanos seria mais seguro para a vitalidade dos nossos corpos hídricos? Com certeza é uma idéia polêmica, mas pensando que conseguimos mudar a química da maior parte da água na superfície da Terra não é tão polêmico numa visão de igualdade de direitos para as diferentes formas de vida. Utilizando a gravidade pode se fazer a água passar pelos jardins suspensos e porque não pensar em zonas úmidas suspensas para estoque e filtração criando habitats para a avifauna no meio do céu?
Ciclo da água da floresta aos rios, deslocado do sistema humano. P. Martin.
Escala social, ecologia e dinâmicas
Na minha opinião, as escalas positivas da espécie humana são a escala individual e a escala comunitária. As cidades, de certa maneira, alteraram a escala de nossas comunidades para a escala da paisagem, a escala regional e macro escala. Se olhar para o nosso bairro e os tecidos sociais usando metodologias de ecologia da paisagem poderá se encontrar fragmentações, efeitos de borda e outros fenômenos típicos da ecologia. O Pensamento Ecológico pode ser uma nova abordagem holística em todas as disciplinas, e não apenas para a biologia e as ciências da terra.
Quando você vive no Rio de Janeiro, se deslocar é um problema cotidiano, a cidade cresceu verticalmente, mas as ruas não ficaram maiores. E a última idéia brilhante do governo é de promover o transporte motorizado individual: o carro, piorando o cenário urbano a curto e longo prazo. Assim como o transporte é uma relação e um fluxo, a proposta cria caminhos suspensos e tirolesas entre os morros para conectar edifícios, espaços públicos, equipamentos públicos, escolas, favelas e áreas naturais. Pensando o sistema das nuvens de biodiversidade como um lugar, não só para a natureza, mas também para o uso humano.
Fluxos humanos lentos e rápidos usando o sistema natural suspenso em cima da cidade. P. Martin
Utopia e considerações sobre realidade
Eu espero que esta proposta irá gerar debates e instigar outras utopias. Com certeza há algumas considerações sobre a integridade desses ecossistemas suspensos, entre outras questões. A proposta se insere num pensamento pós-ecossistemas antropizados, criando novas comunidades em torno de novos relacionamentos, um tipo de novela urbano-natural.
Todo mundo deve estar preocupado com a idéia de que uma arvore caia em cima de sua cabeça, mas como já jogaram um monte de concreto em cima de brejos, rios e florestas é uma lógica de lei do Talião, “olho por olho”. Por obvias razões de segurança não tentem fazer isso em casa, ou pelo menos pedem a ajuda de um especialista motivado, mas por favor não deixe de sonhar novas formas de natureza para as nossas cidades.
Pierre-André Martin Rio de Janeiro
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Urbanisme Prospectif – Science et Fiction pour imaginer une nouvelle Nature en Ville
Concevoir la nature est une tâche difficile dans un environnement urbain. Par exemple, comment un individu âgé de 38 ans (moi-même) peut éditer un système vieux de 3,8 milliards d’années (la Nature)? C’est un bon test pour la confiance créative, c’est presque une arrogance à la rigueur.
Je me souviens encore de mes combats avec la page blanche quand je commençais à étudier le paysage, vingt ans plus tard, il n’y a plus de page blanche. Au lieu de cela, je suis défié de manière permanente par un monde constitué de millions d’individus et de milliards d’interactions, un bord sans fin entre notre savoir et les capacités régénératives de la Nature.
Échelles de temps, nature et culture
La biodiversité est le patrimoine majeur qu’un territoire puisse offrir à une communauté humaine et la plupart de nos villes ignorent cette biodiversité.
Pourquoi avons-nous créé les villes de cette façon?
Quels étaient les rêves de la génération qui a projeté nos villes de cette façon?
Quelle ville voulons-nous?
Quel genre de ville pouvons-nous vivre aujourd’hui?
Quel genre de ville pouvons-nous rêver?
Ce sont beaucoup de questions! Et en nos temps jonchés de certitudes nous avons peut-être davantage besoin de questions que de réponses? J’ai l’habitude de travailler avec des solutions techniques et esthétiques pour améliorer les performances sociales et écologiques des territoires et des écosystèmes, mais je pense que le changement culturel d’une société peut avoir un impact plus large et plus rapide que la transformation positive de l’utilisation ou de la couverture des sols. Nous avons peut-être besoin de changer notre culture de manière à changer la façon dont nous développons et conservons notre terre et ses villes. Ce blog est destiné à être une provocation, une conception utopique pour promouvoir un débat sur la place de la nature dans les villes. J’ai l’habitude de dire que lorsque vous demandez quelque chose pour la nature, il faut en demander deux fois plus, puisque notre société est une féroce négociatrice. La proposition vise à créer de nouvelles et audacieuses couches sur la ville, en construisant des noyaux aériens de biodiversité et de les relier entre eux pour créer de nouveaux usages de l’espace aérien, ce qui aujourd’hui est réellement l’espace subsistant pour la nature au sein de la ville construite de Rio, quelque chose qui vole haut (dans tous les sens du terme).
Pas d’écriture, mais de la lecture
Dans ce court essai, je vais essayer de donner une réponse personnelle et non définitive à quelques-unes des questions ci-dessus. Alors, tout d’abord, je vais faire « mais do mesmo », une expression Brésilienne qui signifie que vous ne faites pas quelque chose de nouveau. C’est la façon dont fonctionne la nature: en faisant la même chose, sauf qu’en mieux, toujours un peu mieux.
Je vais garder l’idée de faire quelque chose de local (article antérieur), encore plus local, en fait. Je vais me pencher à la fenêtre de ma chambre, et juste regarder. Lisons le paysage, cela semble être une bonne occupation.
C’est une Nature publique. Il s’agit de la partie la plus orientale du parc national de Tijuca, et c’est en fait plus que public: c’est un patrimoine culturel mondial. C’est la première fois qu’un paysage urbain a été classé dans cette liste et je le comprends comme un appel à une plus grande protection et conservation de ce paysage pittoresque de forêt Atlantique, de collines granitiques … et d’accumulation de béton occupant la plus grande partie des plaines côtières.
Personnellement, j’ai des doutes si Dieu est brésilien comme beaucoup le disent, mais je suis sûr que la biodiversité est brésilienne. Elle vit ici et ce pays est son temple, il ya des preuves de cela et peuvent être trouvés dans les indices de biodiversité des biomes Brésiliens et de ses espèces, faisant du Brésil non seulement un champion du monde de football, mais surtout champion du monde de la biodiversité, un patrimoine un peu plus utile.
Le quartier que nous observons dans l’image ci-dessus est appelé Humaitá. Selon l’étymologiste Machado, le sens est dérivé du Tupi “mbaitá”, qui signifie petit perroquet. Aujourd’hui, nous plaçons cet oiseau, plus petit qu’un perroquet, dans la famille des psittacidés, et son nom commun est ‘maitaca’ ou ‘maritaca’. Vous pouvez voir des photos de cette espèce et connaitre son chant typique ici. Ils ont l’habitude de voler à travers la ville en début et fin de journée, en petits groupes, ce qui fait de leur vol un son typique de la ville. Ainsi le nom du quartier Humaitá signifie le lieu des maitacas. Une bien belle toponymie dont peu de gens connaissent l’origine.
Lorsque Carolus Linnaeus étiquette et « taxonomise » notre espèce comme Homo sapiens en 1758 dans son ouvrage Systema Naturae, nous étions au milieu du Siècle des Lumières, la plus grande révolution scientifique de l’histoire de l’humanité.
À l’époque la Science, l’Art et le design été intégrés, en partie parce qu’il était plus fréquent pour les personnes qui les pratiquaient de les pratiquer ensemble. Aujourd’hui, ils sont séparés et c’est un des points faibles majeur du projet de Ville, ce qui fait que la nature en milieu urbain est souvent malmenée à cause de cela. Comment ces domaines théoriques peuvent-ils être réintégrés pour le bien de l’espace urbain, à la fois comme lieu de Nature et lieu d’Humanité?
Regardons vers l’extérieur et voyons ce que la nature nous enseigne, elle nous montre déjà ce qui fonctionne (et ne fonctionne pas). Apprenons avec elle à mieux concevoir.
Alors, comment devrions-nous lire la nature, en particulier dans le contexte de la réinsertion des sciences dans la conception? La nature est mouvement, la nature est dynamique, il serait intéressant d’utiliser un outil dynamique pour la lire. Je suis fasciné par la photographie time lapse, un séquençage visuel à un taux fixe qui permet de voir les mouvements naturels en changeant notre vision, notre dimension de la quatrième dimension, le temps. Cet outil est la base de l’inspiration via le mouvement dynamique de cette danse aérienne des nuages qui suggère ici directement l’usage de l’espace aérien de cette ville tropicale si humide. Il est important de regarder cette vidéo d’environ une minute afin de mieux comprendre l’origine de la proposition.
Penser en quatre dimensions
Lorsque nous parlons de l’espace nous utilisons couramment quatre paramètres de dimensions. Dans un logiciel de CAO, les axes X et Y sont assez semblables et définisse la planéité, ce sont les dimensions les plus utilisées dans la conception et la représentation de notre planète, de nos communautés et de nos habitats. Z, l’axe vertical est l’axe de la gravité, il est l’un des facteurs qui ont façonné et continue de façonner les formes de notre espèce et de l’environnement, la plupart des cycles utilisent sa force pour favoriser les mouvements et les changements. Le temps est la quatrième dimension, le système dimensionnel des actions, des interactions et des résultats. Chaque dimension doit avoir la même importance que les autres lors de l’analyse et de la planification des espaces et des lieux.
Dynamique du cycle de l’eau, de la forêt aux nuages. Pierre-André Martin
La lutte pour l’espace
La compétition spatiale est une interaction écologique entre les espèces dans l’environnement depuis que la vie existe. Aujourd’hui, le “meilleur” compétiteur pour l’espace est l’espèce humaine, avec une expansion territoriale considérable via l’agriculture, la déforestation, le reboisement, l’exploitation minière, les villes et leurs infrastructures, qui génèrent beaucoup d’impacts non seulement sur la couverture terrestre, mais provoque aussi le changement chimique et thermique de nos environnements (Rapport Planète Vivante 2012).
Nous avons réussi à donner notre nom à la prochaine ère géologique, l’anthropocène. Le monde est à nous, dans le mauvais sens du terme. La proposition élaborée pour Humaitá, le quartier des ‘maitacas’ est conceptuellement basé sur le principe de l’égalité des droits: des droits égaux pour les plantes, les insectes, les animaux et les humains (Michael Marder. Le moment est opportun pour les droits des plantes). Droits à l’espace et à l’existence sont inclus dans la proposition et offrent l’engrais essentiel pour l’utopie de la conception d’une nature dans la ville.
Humaitá, avant et après l’occupation humaine. Crédit: P. Martin à partir de l’Atlas da cidade Evolução urbana da do Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Barreiros Canabrava
Penser à plus de nature ou plus de lieux pour la nature dans une ville où il n’y a pas même d’endroits pour que les gens marchent dans la rue est très difficile. Les espaces potentiels se réduisent rapidement vu que la vente d’espaces publics au secteur immobilier est de plus en plus commune à Rio. Le quartier est aujourd’hui un mélange de vieilles villas, de maisons anciennes ou d’hotels particuliers et de nouveaux bâtiments résidentiels de 7 à 20 étages qui surgissent sur les autres catégories.
Le site officiel des données urbaines de la Mairie révèle pour le quartier un nombre étonnant pour la végétation dans les parcs publics (2001): 0%. Il doit y avoir une explication bureaucratique pour avoir aucun arbre dans les parcs publics de la ville, mais cela donne le ton des espaces urbains à l’intérieur de la zone construite de la ville de Rio de Janeiro.
Pot-pourri conceptuel de la proposition. P. Martin
Successions écologiques d’un environnement culturel
La restauration écologique est basée sur un ensemble de concepts, l’un d’entre eux est la succession écologique, le processus par lequel les espèces d’un écosystème changent au fil du temps ainsi que les efforts de restauration pouvant être nécessaires à la création des conditions environnementales naturelles pour les processus de succession à favoriser. Mais le concept de cet essai est de penser à une succession culturelle écologique, une autre manière d’imaginer la ville. Notre ville aujourd’hui n’est pas si loin de la vision de “Metropolis” de Fritz Lang ou de “Blade Runner” de Ridley Scott en matière d’espaces superanthropisés. La science-fiction est un excellent outil philosophique pour discuter de nouvelles formes de nature pour notre environnement urbain. Et il peut sauver de nombreux habitats humains dans Humaitá si l’on pense vraiment à appliquer l’égalité des droits pour l’espace.
Nuage de biodiversité suspendu dans le ciel du quartier d’Humaitá. Crédit: P. Martin
Structures naturelles: noyaux et flux
La biogéographie insulaire est l’une des principales théories de l’écologie du paysage et est un outil de débat dans la conception de réserves naturelles et autres discussions sur protection de la nature et de sa conception. Ici, j’ai l’intention de promouvoir «la science-fiction naturelle”, avec donc des écarts par rapport à la plausibilité à la faisabilité des “détails” techniques (que les puristes me pardonnent), et la formulation d’une proposition utopique de la nature dans le quartier Humaitá, en pensant aux noyaux et aux flux en tant que charpente littérale de conception.
L’idée de créer une biodiversité insulaire radicale en ville n’est pas nouvelle, Gilles Clément l’a fait dans son île Derborence au Parc Matisse, à Lille, en créant un espace inaccessible de nature au milieu d’un plan urbanisme: 3.500,00 mètres carrés de végétation native en strates mixtes, à 7 mètres de hauteur du niveau d’usage commun. Le projet est une référence directe à l’une des rares forêts primaires en Europe situé dans le Valais (Suisse).
L’idée principale de la proposition pour Humaitá est de créer une nouvelle couche au-dessus de la ville dans l’espace aérien, avec différents types de connexions pour la faune, la flore et les aventureux.
Entre nuages et rivières
L’eau est un composant fascinant de la dynamique naturelle et elle est vitale pour toutes les formes de vie. L’observation via Time Lapse de la forêt créant des nuages nous montre une beauté naturelle que vous ne pouvez plus voir quand nous marchons au milieu d’une rue inondée et polluée en pleine heure de pointe. Comme toute forme de vie, nous faisons partie du cycle hydrologique, mais maintenant des impacts négatifs majeurs sont présents à différentes échelles de l’environnement de l’eau et de notre planète bleue. Séparer les cycles de l’eau de l’action humaine serait plus prudent pour notre patrimoine hydrologique? C’est une idée polémique, mais étant donné que nous avons réussi à changer la composition chimique de l’eau sur la surface de la terre, ce n’est pas si radicale. En utilisant la gravité, il serait possible de faire passer l’eau à travers jardins et zones humides suspendus, filtrant et stockant l’eau et créant des habitats pour l’avifaune.
Cycle de l’eau, de la forêt aux rivières, deconnecté du système humain. P. Martin.
Échelle sociale, écologie et dynamiques
À mon avis, les échelles positives pour l’établissement et la saine pérrénité de l’espèce humaine sont celles de l’individu et de la communauté. Les villes d’une certaine manière ont changé l’échelle de nos communautés à l’échelle du paysage, à l’échelle régionale et à l’échelle macro. Si nous regardons notre quartier et les tissus sociaux de celui-ci à travers des méthodologies d’écologie du paysage nous pourrions y trouver des fragmentations, des effets de bord et bien d’autres phénomènes écologiques. La pensée écologique, au sens scientifique de l’écologie du paysage, peut-être la nouvelle approche holistique dans toutes les disciplines, et non seulement en biologie et sciences de la terre.
Quand vous vivez à Rio de Janeiro, se déplacer d’un endroit à un autre est un sujet de soucis, la ville a augmenté, mais les rues ne se sont pas élargies. La dernière idée géniale du gouvernement brésilien fût de promouvoir le transport motorisé individuel: la voiture. Comme le transport est à la fois une relation et un flux, le projet crée des voies suspendues et des tyroliennes entre les collines pour relier les bâtiments, les espaces publics, équipements, écoles, favelas et zones naturelles. Permettant de créer un environnement plus riche et efficient non seulement pour la nature, mais aussi pour les humains.
Flux humains lents et rapides dans une nature suspendu au dessus de la ville. Crédit: P. Martin
Utopie et considérations sur la réalité
J’espère que cette proposition générera des débats et suscitera l’envie d’autres utopies. Bien sûr de nombreux points n’ont pas été profondément développés et il ya quelques considérations sur l’intégrité des écosystèmes, mais cette proposition se veut provocante et novatrice autour de l’idée de la création de nouvelles communautés autour de nouvelles relations.
Tout le monde peut être préoccupé que des plantes nous tombe sur la tête, mais comme nous avons déjà jeté beaucoup de béton sur les marais, rivières et forêts, ce ne serait que le début de la facture dans la dure logique de la loi du talion, un oeil pour un oeil. Par mesure de sécurité, ne tentez pas de faire à la maison sans l’aide d’un spécialiste motivé, mais s’il vous plaît rêvez de nouvelles formes de nature pour nos villes.
By combining the benefits of structured decision-making with optimization, harnessing the power of markets, and the nuances of human behavior, we can achieve more nature in cities.
Not long ago, cities and nature were usually seen as two separate things. Thankfully nature and cities are now being acknowledged as inextricably linked, and an exciting and expanding movement is emerging to invest in green infrastructure that helps make cities sustainable, resilient, and livable.
Billions are spent annually around the world to support nature in cities. One investment strategy is to protect nature next to cities—creating defined edges or transition zones between developed areas and their surrounding natural areas and working landscapes. Another investment strategy is to integrate nature into cities—purposefully protecting and restoring green infrastructure inside urban areas, including the reuse of vacant and underutilized lands.
Despite the countless opportunities to implement each approach, very little attention has been paid to how cost-effective these investments are and whether governments and communities are getting the most “bang for their buck”. For over 10 years, Dr. Kent Messer (Unidel Howard Cosgrove Chair for the Environment at the University of Delaware and Codirector of the USDA-funded national Center for Behavioral and Experimental Agri-Environmental Research) and I have been on a journey to apply promising approaches that are commonly used in the business world, scientific inquiry, and policymaking areas outside conservation that help ensure more strategic and cost-effective outcomes. We are committed to bridging the “implementation gap” between academia and the conservation profession to use the best available tools from economics, operations research, behavioral science, decision analysis, and computer science to support cost-effective conservation and environmental stewardship of natural resources. We have successfully applied these tools in a variety of project contexts, leading to more strategic conservation, more acres protected, and shrewd use of available financial resources. Now we have completed our new book, The Science of Strategic Conservation: Protecting More with Less, as an effort to help publicize these efforts and scale the core principles of strategic conservation.
Significant advancements have been made in the theory and practice of conservation science to strategically identify the most important urban lands for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and other conservation objectives. Landscape ecology, conservation biology, and land use planning are some of the fundamental disciplines of strategic conservation planning that have been effectively applied to help achieve on-the-ground successes. We have attempted to harness these tools through the development of optimization decision support tools and applied projects that demonstrate how the comprehensive integration of these scientific disciplines into strategic conservation can help ensure the best conservation outcomes at a given level of financial investment—or, how specific conservation goals can be achieved at the lowest possible cost.
As a conservation planner, I am engaged in advancing structured decision-making tools able to quantify the benefits of potential conservation investments that result in better project selection and implementation. As a behavioral economist, Kent is engaged in cutting-edge research and outreach efforts related to efficient and effective environmental conservation. Our book highlights many of these advances in integrating these techniques into a variety of conservation contexts.
We provide examples in the book on how nature can be incorporated both “next to” and “into” cities. For instance, we showcase the development of regional forest conservation and restoration models for the Mid America Regional Council (MARC). MARC is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Kansas City region, so it oversees investments in transportation infrastructure. MARC was interested in forest conservation and restoration opportunities to avoid and minimize potential impacts to forested lands and to identify strategic mitigation opportunities when impacts were unavoidable. We built a GIS model that quantified the benefits of forest conservation and restoration within four categories: clean water (quality and quantity), clean air (carbon storage, pollution), quality of life (recreation, protected lands), and wildlife habitat (green infrastructure network). The resulting maps provided a spatially explicit framework for MARC and other partner organizations to optimize their investments in forest conservation and restoration projects.
Figure 1. Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) forest conservation and restoration prioritization model Credit: The Conservation Fund
We also showcase how the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative in North Carolina is using strategic conservation to creatively protect land parcels that support clean drinking water for the region’s municipalities. The Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative is a collaboration by The Conservation Fund, Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, Eno River Association, Tar River Land Conservancy, Triangle Greenways Council, Triangle Land Conservancy, local governments, and state agencies and is coordinated by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina. Together with willing landowners, these partners protect natural areas that are critical to the long-term health of drinking water from the Upper Neuse River basin by either purchasing parcels or establishing conservation easements on them. In its first 10 years, the initiative acquired ownership or an easement for 88 properties, protecting 84 miles of stream bank across 7,658 acres. In 2015, the initiative set a goal of protecting 30,000 acres over the next 30 years. We built a GIS model that examined every potential parcel in the watershed using multiple criteria and ultimately identified more than 17,000 parcels totaling more than 260,000 acres that would support the protection goal.
Figure 2. Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative conservation strategy Credit: The Conservation Fund and Hawkins Partners
To protect more nature in cities using the science of strategic conservation and cost-effective conservation approaches, it is important to take a multiple benefits approach. For example, urban tree planting programs provide an array of human and natural benefits, including their value in ensuring clean air and clean water as well as providing habitat for wildlife. These ecosystem service benefits can be quantified using a variety of techniques and structured decision-making methodologies. The book illustrates numerous examples of quantifying the value of green infrastructure, including using decentralized stormwater management tools that can capture and absorb rain where it falls, thereby reducing stormwater runoff and improving the health of surrounding waterways.
More nature in cities can be accomplished on the ground by combining the benefits of structured decision making with optimization and the harnessing of the power of markets and the nuances of human behavior. By effectively developing, organizing, and prioritizing decision-making criteria in a structured and consistent way, cost-effective conservation tools can then be applied to get the most “bang for your buck” in an array of nature-based investments.
The conversation about justice and the city must begin with directly confronting social and economic inequality and prioritizing them as the main issue around which institutions must be reorganized. Contemporary architectural and urban practices must engage this political project head-on. We must question the neoliberal hegemony that has been imposed on the city in recent decades, which has exerted a violent blow to our collective economic, social and natural resources, producing an anti-public agenda whose ultimate consequence is an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.
If we are interested in the Just City, we must begin by confronting the political machinery that endorses uneven urban development.
Today’s urban crisis is exponentially complex, as the consolidation of exclusionary power is both economic and political in nature, driven by one of the largest corporate lobbying machines in history. In the name of freedom, this machine has deregulated and privatized the public assets of our cities, subordinating collective responsibility to serve individual interest. Though the term “crisis” has become ubiquitous, we have become institutionally paralyzed in the context of these unprecedented shifts, silently witnessing the consolidation of the most blatant politics of exclusion, the shrinkage of social and public institutions and their role in the construction of the city. In that way, our crisis can’t be written off as a purely economic or environmental emergency. Rather, it is one of culture—a crisis of institutions unable to rethink unjust and unsustainable urban growth.
If we are interested in the Just City, we must begin by confronting the political machinery that endorses uneven urban development. In other words, we must possess critical knowledge of the conditions that produced our urban crisis. Without altering the exclusionary policies that have decimated our public culture today, urban design and planning will remain decorative enterprises camouflaging the greedy politics and economics of urban development that have eroded the primacy of public infrastructure worldwide.
In this context, the most relevant new urban practices and projects promoting social and economic inclusion are emerging not from sites of economic power but from sites of scarcity and zones of conflict, where citizens themselves, pressed by socioeconomic injustice, are pushed to imagine alternative possibilities. It is from the sense of urgency that a new political agenda is emerging, one in which urban design and architecture will take a more critical stance against the discriminatory policies and economics that produced inequality and marginalization. At this moment, it is not buildings but the fundamental reorganization of social and economic relations that is the essential for the expansion of democracy and justice in the city.
2. A just city reengages the public
Since the early 1980s, with the ascendance of neoliberal economic policies based on the deregulation and privatization of public resources, an unchecked culture of individual and corporate greed has resulted in dramatic income inequality and social disparity. This new period of institutional unaccountability and illegality has been framed politically by the erroneous idea that liberty is the “right to be left alone,” a private dream devoid of social responsibility. But the mythology in which free-market “trickle down economics,” assures that we all benefit when we forgive the wealthy their taxes, has been proven wrong by political economists Saez and Piketty. They have exposed that both great economic upheavals in 20th century America—the crashes of 1929 and 2008— were also periods of the largest socioeconomic inequality and the lowest marginal taxation of the wealthy. The deepening of inequality in America is a direct result of the polarization of public and private resources, and this has had dramatic implications for the erosion of public institutions, and the uneven growth of the contemporary city, with its dramatic increase of territories of poverty.
However, these trends are not inevitable. Broad, structural political and social changes are still possible. Such changes have occurred at certain moments in history, when the instruments of urban development were primarily driven by an investment in the public. For example, there was the New Deal in the U.S. after the 1929 crisis, when a multi-sector institutional momentum took place that re-engaged public priorities by investing in public infrastructure, housing and education to re-energize the economy. Or the post-war Social Democratic urban politics in Europe, that framed the urban and economic growth of the European city by investing in public goods, such as Mitterrand’s Grand Project for Paris. How do we reinvigorate public investment? And how do we ignite new forms of civic participation, to demand these investments?
A “just city” needs progressive public governance, driven by an ethical assertion that the good of the individual depends on the health of the collective, and an imperative to recalibrate the relations between individuals, collectives and institutions. At a time when the extreme right and the extreme left on the political spectrum share a distrust of government, we urgently need to reclaim the role of government to prioritize public interests, and enact the protection systems—social and economic—that can stem the trend toward radical inequality. We need a new political leadership that engages the marginalized sectors of our societies, committed to efficient, transparent, inclusive and collaborative forms of local governance.
3. A just city redistributes knowledge
Social Justice today is not only about the redistribution of resources; it should also promote the redistribution of knowledges. The polarization of public and private interests in the city has produced a rupture between institutions and publics. At the University of California San Diego, where we lead the Cross-Border Initiative, we have been pursuing new strategies of “knowledge exchange” between the top-down and the bottom-up. In one direction, we examine how specific, bottom-up urban activism can trickle upward to transform top-down institutional policy and practice; and, in the other direction, we investigate how top-down resources can reach sites of marginalization and support bottom up intelligence. This journey from the bottom-up to the top-down is urgent today to rethink urban justice, and it requires new forms of institutional representation and urban education that can translate and facilitate the everyday practices and needs of marginalized communities into new development logics for inclusive urbanization.
Our campus is barely thirty minutes away from the most trafficked border in the world, occupying one of the most contested and uneven trans-national global regions, where urbanizations of wealth and poverty collide and overlap daily. In the context of such social and economic disparity, many underserved neighborhoods in our region have constructed alternative models of urban sustainability, resilience and adaptation to redefine urban growth. We claim that learning from these bottom-up forms of local socio-economic production is essential to rethinking urban density through new strategies of urban coexistence and interdependence.
We created the Cross-BorderCommunity Stations Project as a platform for these exchanges, linking the specialized knowledge of the university with the community-based knowledge embedded in marginal neighborhoods on both sides of the border. This two-way flow, as universities engage communities but also communities enter into the universities, suggests the need for new forms of teaching and learning that can expand pedagogical processes beyond the classroom and embed them in the everyday social life of communities.
This encounter between formal and informal knowledge requires new conceptions of public space, as a space of education and knowledge production. This involves the transformation of empty spaces into active civic classrooms, spaces of knowledge, research production and local economy. The University of California, San Diego refers to these field-based laboratories as “Community Stations,” new public spaces where research, teaching and community activism are co-curated collaboratively and where a new environmental literacy and cultural action can stimulate political agency at the scale of communities.
In particular, this collaborative urban pedagogical model between research universities and local community-based agencies emphasizes that marginalized communities and major universities can be meaningful partners with knowledge and resources to contribute, in the search for solutions to deep social and economic challenges, to improve the quality of life across these underserved, demographically diverse neighborhoods.
4. A just city rethinks beautification
A Just City will move the idea of beautification from aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake into an expanded, more complex idea of beauty. As cities become increasingly defined by architecture that only serves to camouflage and deepen exclusionary politics and economics, it is urgent that we challenge the steady march of decorative revitalization.
Beautification has long been an excuse for the displacement of communities. Yet today, the issue seems more relevant than ever, given the way it has been leveraged for exclusionary ends by seemingly progressive urban agendas such as New Urbanism and the Creative Class movements. It is not enough for New Urbanism, with its obsession with form-based code and stylistic historicism, to retrofit suburbia with a “prettier” themed façade, if the ownership models that define such infill developments remain mono-cultural, aesthetically homogeneous and unaffordable. These neoconservative urban trends have been adopted by many municipalities across the U.S., and have done nothing to rethink existing models of property by redefining affordability and the value of social participation, enhancing the role of communities in coproducing housing, or enabling a more inclusive idea of ownership.
Equally, the Creative Class agenda has only capitalized on the aesthetics of cosmopolitan hipster enclaves that are supposedly driven by artists and cultural producers, without providing truly affordable rents for artists and accessible infrastructures for fabrication and cultural production that are necessary to incentivize local economic growth in and for neighborhoods. With their facades of beautification and innovation, both agendas pave the way to gentrification and fail to advance social or economic justice in the city.
The Just City requires a more experiential dimension of beauty, less based on a visual quality and more on a sort of subliminal drama and vibrancy, a process of encountering and co-existing with the “other;” an aesthetic quality that embraces contradictions. It is about the construction of a sense of aesthetics that requires risk. In other words, it is an idea of beauty that does not smother and suppress contradictions or conceal conflict, but emerges out of socio-economic and political inclusion. A city is beautiful to the extent that it is inclusive, and one whose public spaces are not merely catalysts for architectures of privatization, but are generative of urbanizations of social justice.
5. A just city reimagines citizenship
Antanas Mockus, former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia, insisted that before transforming the city physically, we need to transform social norms. To Mockus, urban transformation is as much about changing patterns of public trust and social cooperation from the bottom-up as it is about changing urban, public health and environmental policy from the top-down. Mockus enacted a distinctive kind of egalitarian political leadership, declaring emphatically the moral norms that should regulate our relations: that human life is sacred, that radical inequality is unjust, that adequate education and health are human rights and that gender violence is intolerable. He reorganized public policy by nurturing a new citizenship culture, grounded in a moral claim that human beings—regardless of formal legal citizenship, regardless of race—have dignity, and deserve equal respect and basic quality of life.
In rethinking urban justice, Mockus developed a corresponding urban pedagogy of distinctive performative interventions to demonstrate precisely what he meant, inspiring generations of civic actors, urbanists and artists across Latin America and the world to think more creatively about engaging social behavior. Meeting urban violence with stricter penalties will not work. Law and order solutions don’t interiorize new values among the public.
For example, he believed in modeling desired behavior by, for example, showering on public television to demonstrate how one turns off the water when soaping up. One famous example of urban pedagogy is that early in his administration, Mockus replaced the corrupt downtown traffic police force with a troupe of 500 street mimes who stood on street corners and shamed traffic violators by blowing whistles, and pointing, and holding up signs of disapproval: “incorrecto!” To many it looked like a circus, and Mockus drew criticism; but in this act of public shaming, the mimes were instituting a new social norm of compliance with traffic signs; and it worked. Their antics became a citywide sensation; every one was watching on television, and traffic fatalities declined by 50% in Mockus’ first administration. Additionally, Mockus distributed placards across the city, one with a thumbs up sign, the other with a thumbs down; and he encouraged citizens to use these placards to communicate approval and disapproval to one another. The changes were palpable: people began to look at each other and recognize each other. In a very short period of time, a new sense of civic responsibility began to emerge in a city that had fallen into complete dysfunction and violence. At the same time, a new trust in government began to take hold as Mockus won the hearts of citizens, and he accompanied this bottom-up normative change with massive top-down municipal investment in social service and public works, improving peoples lives in very tangible ways. Naysayers could not deny the proof: During Mockus’ first administration, murders were reduced by 70 percent, traffic fatalities by 50 percent, tax collection nearly doubled, and water usage decreased by 40 percent while water and sewer services were extended to nearly all households.
What Mockus’ work demonstrates is that urban social norms can be reoriented through top-down municipal intervention through community processes. These are fundamental lessons that can be brought to the American city, primarily today when neighborhood violence has been exacerbated by the resurgence of racism and police brutality, but also by current anti-immigration ideology, which together with the exclusionary policies it engenders has deepened injustice in the city.
From the vantage point of the border territory where we live and work, social norms here have incrementally hardened against immigrants and immigration, alongside the hardening of the legal, social, economic and physical walls between the United States and Mexico. Our borders have been militarized in tandem with legislation that erodes social institutions, barricades public space and divides communities. Such protectionist strategies, fueled by paranoia and greed, are defining a radically protectionist social agenda of exclusion that threatens to dominate public life for years to come.
A community is always in dialogue with its immediate social and ecological environment: this is what defines its political nature. But when the productive capacity of a community is splintered by political borders, it must find ways to recuperate its social agency and entrepreneurial potential. This is why we have always been inspired by the poor, immigrant neighborhoods on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border, whose residents are redefining urban sustainability and pointing to new ways of constructing citizenship. A just city depends on a political leadership that recognizes our interdependence and reaches across borders to produce new strategies of coexistence. And it is precisely within the marginalized yet resilient immigrant communities flanking the border that such a conception of civic culture will emerge, one whose DNA is composed of empathy, collaboration and shared values.
Isolationism is no longer an option in today’s world of global interconnectedness. Ethically, we cannot ignore the negative impact that our decisions, choices and habits have on others near and far; nor can we impose our will on others by force. The problems of Mexico and Central America are ours. The fallout of climate change on the global poor, most of which the rich countries of the North have caused, is our responsibility. The dramatic injustices perpetrated against marginalized populations in Ferguson, MO and undoubtedly countless other cities across the U.S. cannot remain invisible, isolated from the halls of Washington.We cannot wish the problems of such places away with market solutions, or with guns and fences; instead we must listen to and cooperate with those most affected by our policies, globally and domestically.
At bottom, we need to recover a sense of collective commitment to the least well-off among us. Social justice must reassert itself at the center of today’s public discourse, and we must also recover a sense of cultural empathy, the sort emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty’s plaque:
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
In a just city, economic and urban growth cannot come at the expense of social equality and inclusion. The drive to privatize must be tempered by an interventionist, disruptive commitment to public investment in infrastructure and general social welfare. The market will not solve our problems. Public and private interests must be harmonized. The public, particularly the poorest members of it, must take their cities back. Government must become transparent, efficient, and inclusive, with massive investment in new strategies of civic engagement to reignite a new public culture capable of making claims on its own behalf. Today, mistrust of government and hollow notions of progress and freedom for all have undermined the possibility of drawing upon the shared democratic values that unite us. Citizenship has become a polarizing concept, caught up in narratives about protecting “our” resources from “them.” In the just city, a more inclusive citizenship culture, based on shared values, commitments and common interests, rather than rigid jurisdictional categories that dehumanize the other, must be the foundation of a new public imagination.
Fonna Forman is a Professor of Political Theory at the University of California, San Diego and founding Director of the UCSD Center on Global Justice. Current work focuses on climate justice in cities, on human rights at the urban scale and civic participation as a strategy of equitable urbanization.
It is an irony that despite the magnificent natural beauty of Rio de Janeiro, the city itself is largely devoid of functioning nature. It is now time for Rio to not only to host global events such as the World Cup and Olympics, but to host its primary nature, not outside the city, but in the middle of its streets, plazas and buildings. This blog discusses a case study – the greening of the Carioca River watershed that emerges from Tijuca National Park – as an example of what we could accomplish for the good of all Cariocas (which is what residents of Rio are called).
The land cover map around Rio de Janeiro. The watershed that is the focus of this blog is shown in orange to the left of the red star. Credit: Instituto Pereira Passos
The presence of nature is decreasing in the daily life of Rio due to the expansion of the impervious area at many scales, from street to district scale, architectural models of arid constructions and street tree plantings that are getting old. Slowly the nature is being “expelled”, transforming the city in an hot and arid landscape.
Hot days are more frequent, transforming the city in an uncomfortable and stressing way. Credit: P. Martin.
The city of Rio de Janeiro has a semi-humid tropical climate, with hot and humid summers and mild and dry winters. Climate change forecasts in the medium to long-term for this region indicate more peaks of heat and rain, more drought, a rise in average temperature and larger drought periods (Megacidades, Vulnerabilidades e Mudanças Climáticas: Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro). The future may be one of environmental imbalance, mainly because of alteration of quality and quantity of water and strong changes of the vegetation land cover, plus other alterations to natural systems and their co-relations.
What can Rio, its government, and its citizens do to face these new challenges? Urban design issues focused on nature efficiency can be a response. Here are some conceptual experiments and designs on the potential presence of nature into the city.
Case study: the Carioca River watershed
Rio de Janeiro will host the World Cup and the Olympic Games in the coming years but it will also host global changes like rising temperature and more extremes of humidity. We know that ecosystems can be effective regulators of the environment, especially at local scales (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment), so we will propose nature, in this speculative exercise, as a method of regulating heat and humidity for our urban environmental scenario in the medium term.
Painting showing the old aqueduct that diverted the river from the watershed to the downtown, nowadays it used as a bridge for a tramway. Leandro Joaquim (Brasil, c. 1738 – c. 1798). Oil paint on wood. Museu Histórico Nacional, Rio de Janeiro
To illustrate Rio’s current conditions and create contemporary design proposals to reverse the lack of nature and its immediate consequences, we will study the Rio Carioca watershed for its iconic abiotic, biotic and social status. It is unfortunately not valued by the city or many of its residents, but it will at least illustrate problems the city is facing in its everyday life but not in its political decisions. (See also here.)
The watershed of Rio Carioca has been occupied by humans since the dawn of colonial occupation because of its fresh water, firstly by local farms, later by industries, and then finally by planned residential neighborhoods. The Carioca River was a source of fresh water for most of the settler population. In 1750 the river was diverted to supply the downtown Rio’s fountains and the arches of Lapa aqueduct, which conducted the water, remains today. The aqueduct is now a historical monument is used as a bridge and is the most iconic element of this neighborhood. However, only a very few remember what was its original purpose.
A city between hills and lowlands
The geology of the city mainly separates the territory in two main classes that are hills of granite or gneiss and lowlands constituted by silt, sands or landfills. During the 20th century many hills were used for landfill and wetlands filled to create more territory near the ocean and the bay. This territory has been highly transformed by built infrastructure, and even its national park, Parque Nacional da Tijuca, was reclaimed, at the end of the 19th century, after coffee plantations drained most of the rivers of the city. Major Archer was responsible for planting 100,000 trees and restored this forest with native plants.
Aerial image and elevations of the watershed showing land uses and relief Credit: P.Martin using mixed public data.
Most of the watersheds pass through these geologies and the natural lowlands were occupied by marshes, lagoons and meandering rivers. Nowadays the city is concentrated in the lowlands and and the natural history has largely been removed from the urban landscape. The Carioca River watershed, even if it is not the worst environmental example in the city, has a clear and strong gradient: green in the hills, but very grey in the city.
Analysis maps showing the different characters, uses, and structures of the watershed. Credit: P. Martin using mixed public data.
Blue system, lost river
Today the Carioca River has disappeared from the city. It is covered by infrastructure soon after it enters the formal city and only reappears near Guanabara Bay in the middle of Flamengo Park, a masterpiece of landscape architecture by Burle Marx. Ironically, the river passes through a sewer treatment plant as it arrives in the park, revealing the true official recognition by the authorities that the Carioca River is no longer a river but a sewer system.
We cannot hide our problems under the rug (or concrete) and it is time to rethink the role of water resources in the city and recognize that the health of our environment must be measured against the health of our urban waters.
Left: the last vision of the Carioca River before it enters in the piped system of the underground artificial hydrology. Right: the river going off into the bay a few meters after passing through a sewage treatment station . Credit: P.Martin
Green systems, fragmentation and anthropization
Rio de Janeiro recently won the title of UNESCO world heritage site and reasons for winning this award abound in this watershed. For example, Tijuca National Park, an approximately 4000 hectare conservation unit (CU) created in 1961, successfully protects Atlantic Rainforest biodiversity in the middle of the city, although it has always suffered influences from the actions of Man (As marcas do homem na floresta – História ambiental de um trecho urbano de mata atlântica). Nowadays the sum of all CUs in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro represents one third of its territory. However, most of these conservation parks are at the edges of the city with few entrances and distant from the central cores. On the one hand they provide excellent stages for conservation, but their remoteness means that most residents have little contact with nature except for distant views. Natural landscapes in Rio are more background than foreground.
Full city or empty nature?
To examine the watershed more closely we divided it into seven parts of equal length as a tool for interpretation and analysis – like botanists do in surveys of biodiversity – drawing grids and surveying parcels on the land. Summarizing, we can read on the landscape the following four main typologies.
The top of the hills with scenic views acting as natural belvederes and monuments, such as the Cristo Redentor statue – highly touristic sites but only suitable for short visits.
The border between the forest and the city, where there are expensive residences occupying big parcels and slums situated in between infrastructure and residual spaces.
Middle-class residential vertical neighborhoods and their infrastructure.
A large modernist park on landfill areas.
Seven zones along the Carioca River, used in this territorial morphology analysis. Credit: P.Martin using mixed data
Reading this territory it is clear that the gradient of green to grey is also a gradient of population density in a city that has been emptied of nature. When I say nature I mean efficient ecosystems, not man made gardens with mainly esthetic purposes. So actually we have quite an empty city with a full nature only around the city at its edge.
The forest
Tijuca National Park does a really great job at interpretation for visitors, with all of its trails mapped and signage in place. It interacts actively through neighborhood meetings with all communities touching its border, but the two million+ visitors each year are mainly tourists who enter into a funicular in the middle of the city, jump out of it when arriving at the Corcovado statue (Cristo Redentor) and return after taking a few pictures of the city and its unique territory from above.
It is a missed opportunity that so many people from all over the world pass through the forest but do not have real contact with it or an understanding of its particular ecology. This is the point that should be better developed in one of the biggest urban forests of the world: connecting the forest and the touristic points with accessible and educational trails expanding the tourists’ knowledge of one of the best fragments of Atlantic Rainforest and its ecosystem services, such as biodiversity habitats, atmospheric and temperature regulation and water purification.
Upper: a photo from the forest near the Cristo Redentor statue. Lower: the same photo, with a drawing of potential tourist trails, including a canopy walks with environmental education. Credit: P. Martin.
The border between the forest and city
This area is complex, with a mix of environmental, urban and historical restrictions and sometimes many public owners, such as the city, the state and the federal government. There is interpenetration of private and public spaces and some “nobody” places that are, for example, the buffer zones around energy and transportation infrastructure and properties of undetermined ownership. This area needs to be activated ecologically, and given sustainable uses. For example, small scale slums have social and economic demand for natural land uses such as agroforestry. This border could be co-managed in a model of land use similar to the Satoyamas in Japan.
These borders experience significant pressure from ecological edge effects and invasive of species such as the jackfruit tree, Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam., which compete on the Forest floor with native species. An active and planned use with co-management of population and public entities will result in more security for the population and the ecosystems.
Using earth retaining infrastructure to implant urban agriculture and agroforestry into the border of the city. The position is strategic for education as around 200,000 vehicles per day pass through this tunnel. Credit: P. Martin.
The city
In Rio our public spaces such as street and plazas suffer from deficient maintenance and no systemetic planning for urban trees and permeable surfaces (i.e., areas without concrete where water can be absorbed). The main activity of public agents in public spaces is just cleaning or tree pruning. There is still a culture of concrete as a symbol of modernity, which results in an urban environment that acts more like a bathtub than as a natural system normal water flow and biodiversity.
Our proposals look to increase vertical biodiversity as a response for the vertical city that occupies most of the watershed with urban territory that lacks trees, soil, and permeable surfaces. Our idea is to use the huge range of epiphytes of the Atlantic rainforest that can be used for vertical gardening that does not require irrigation or strong support structures. Complementing this action would be extensive natural green roofs that could restore native herbaceous ecosystems of this biome and also serve as habitat for birds.
Using nature on the built structures through the use of native epiphytic plants on the walls and roofs, reducing heat and pollution. Credit: P. Martin.
The big park
This is for sure a polemical issue because Flamengo Park is a masterpiece of designer Roberto Burle Marx, and a landmark for the city, its citizens and their common history. We will not enter here into a discussion about the park’s esthetic or historical value. The issue here is mainly about ecology and environmental efficiency of this 1.2 million square meters of public space.
Actually the park is almost a giant lawn with a really diverse trees but virtually no shrubs or wet zones. You can see gardeners cutting its lawn all year long making a lot of air and noise pollution…not so efficient for maintenance.
The way the herbaceous layer is designed should be rethought so as to complement it with shrubs, native grasses with only one or two cuts a year. The first ecological renovation could be implemented as a test for social understanding: the Carioca River, after it is no longer used as a sewer line.
Above: Flamengo Park today, with the river under a deck. Below: a design for re-naturalized Carioca River and park area, providing habitat an natural areas. Credit: P. Martin.
Conclusion
This proposal is clearly a meant as a provocative and reactive initiative but it is surely aligned to the importance of the Brazilian biodiversity and its main biodiverse biome: the Atlantic Rainforest. It is now in time for Rio de Janeiro not only to host global events but to host its main nature, not outside the city, but in the middle of its streets, plazas and buildings.
Cities need to put nature objectives in strategic agendas and then commit to achieving them through meaningful investment and means for accountability. Simply put: get nature on the agenda and act for it.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how important urban nature is for our physical and mental health. As urban strategists embark on ideas and think of pathways for recovery and “building back better” our societies and especially cities, it is paramount that the green recovery include nature in the mix of options that cities consider. Nature (varying from remnant ecosystems, novel ecosystems and various nature-based solutions) needs to be one of the highest priorities on the agenda for building resilient and thriving cities. With this thesis in mind, we bring three core messages to the global community of practice for urban nature: (1) cities play.a critical role in biodiversity conservation; (2) cities must put nature at the forefront of planning and action; and (3) cities must promote and enable inclusive governance for urban nature.
Bracken Creek Northcote during Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown. Photo: Judy Bush
First, cities have a role to play in dealing with the extinction crisis and with protecting biodiversity and that means they need to act upon it (Oke et al., 2021). The first step is to recognize the potential of cities as places for biodiversity and as spaces where nature can be restored and protected (Ives et al 2016; Garrard et al 2018). Global reports for biodiversity and climate adaptation (e.g. United Nations Environment Program, 2021) document and provide evidence for the effectiveness of actions as well as for the opportunities that cities offer. Yet, simply being sites of opportunity, however, does not guarantee that the opportunities are seized nor materialized. Cities, and their multilevel governance partners, need to realize and act upon the opportunities they have in contributing to urban biodiversity finding solutions to the extinction crisis through connecting global perspectives with a local focus.
While cities may feel constrained by contested interests and a nexus of necessary institutional arrangements that need to be in place; however, many cities are showcasing that when there is a will there is a way. Across the globe, cities grappling with opportunities for making transformational changes with nature have paved the way for others to follow. In the mix of daring cities, we find Melbourne with a global first metropolitan-wide strategy for Urban Forests, connecting and coordinating multiple actions across 32 municipalities and setting an enabling (policy) context for more actions to emerge along the way (Fastrenrath et al 2020; The Nature Conservancy and Resilient Melbourne 2019).
In fact, many cities in Australia are motivated to take action by regenerating urban parks, making biodiversity plans at city level and responding to state-level targets on canopy cover with broader than simply ‘trees in parks’ strategies incorporating biodiversity and renaturing initiatives. The recent announcement by the city of Paris for making an urban green park in its iconic Champs-Élysées boulevard as a next step to its rolling out rooftop cover strategy also falls into this category. It is about realizing the important role that cities can play in dealing with biodiversity crisis and taking daring action to realize in full potential the role, and for this to be recognized by governance peers.
Cormorants at Albert Park, Melbourne. Photo: Judy Bush
Second, cities need to put nature objectives in strategic agendas and then commit to achieving them through meaningful investment and means for accountability (Oke et al 2021). Simply, put nature on the agenda and act for it. Cities’ agendas drive action and are the institutional ‘signposts’ for committing political will or showing political commitment. Until now, guidance and research for designing and implementing city agendas for nature, is rather heavy on critique and light on constructive guidance, yet we recognize that science and research can play a critical role in co-shaping and informing city agendas.
For cities to put nature first in strategic urban agendas they need to:
Employ a system’s approach to guide biodiversity agendas. Approach the full planning cycle with a system’s perspective, from objectives setting to developing implementation programs. This means looking at interactions, feedback loops, and co-benefits between solutions and interventions as well as between biodiversity and other strategic priorities. In this way, more opportunities and also institutional spaces for innovation can be enabled.
Mainstream resilience principles in planning with and for nature-based solutions. With much knowledge and evidence from practice of how to achieve urban resilience through global city initiatives and city networks (e.g. 100 Resilient Cities now evolved into Global Resilience Network, as well as other city networks such as ICLEI-led Cities with Nature), a more daring step will be to adopt resilience principles as guiding or foundational principles for urban planning. Instead of spending resources and time to advocate for the need of an urban resilience approach, cities now have to leapfrog into mainstreaming them to support further the planning and implementation of nature-based solutions as critical for biodiversity and climate adaptation in cities (Race to Resilience: https://racetozero.unfccc.int/race-to-resilience/).
Mainstream experimentation to enrich and strengthen in-house expertise in cities. Urban planners and urban strategists have deep knowledge and expertise on their thematic spheres. This is a resource to be tapped into when putting nature on the agenda as well as for designing plans and programs for it. The in-house expertise should to be woven with recent academic knowledge in ‘safe spaces’ through experimentation and co-creation. In addition, urban governments may benefit from building in-house ecological and scientific expertise where this is lacking. Experimentation requires commitment to monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of actions, and to identifying opportunities to turn ‘failure’ into new approaches and improved responses. We thus propose that many cities can mainstream experimentation as a way to extend and update and put learning into the ‘making of’ the city with nature (Frantzeskaki et al 2019, 2020).
Third, cities need to engage with diverse actors so as to plan and govern nature in cities inclusively (Oke et al 2021). Cities are connected landscapes: landscapes of nature and cultures. As such, every intervention or transformation in the fabric of urban landscapes needs to weave in and engage inclusively with multiple actors. For finding ‘whose nature it is’, there are different lenses and approaches to take on board, each one with benefits and blind spots. A common aspect in all cities is that globalization as an unstoppable driver creates multicultural cities and urban spaces that are always in flux.
For cities to govern nature (and nature-based solutions) inclusively they need to:
Renature co-creatively with Indigenous communities. Bringing and/or sustaining nature in cities is an action for ecological, economic and social sustainability and responds to the quest for intergenerational justice. But thinking and caring for future generations comes hand in hand with respecting, understanding and caring for our history and predecessors. Here is where Indigenous communities and their care for nature, care for place and planet and specifically in Australia “Caring for Country” is of vital importance to lead urban renaturing.
Give voice to cultural meanings of nature in cities. Alongside strategic narratives and business cases for nature in cities, cities should include cultural meanings of nature in the form of narratives, imaginaries, songlines, or images. Place-based understandings and narratives can provide a new form of understanding of how to better integrate or re-introduce nature in cities especially in places that are contested, under conflict or socially or ecologically vulnerable. Cities can foster and enable this weaving of cultural meanings through, for example, transforming existing (and often long-standing) city festivals to embrace multi-cultural meanings, to make the “invisible visible” and to represent diversity.
Embrace citizen science to make inclusive urban nature programs. Citizen science offers an additional lens and means through which to shed light to people’s use of, preferences for and meanings of urban nature. It can complement traditional social science or marketing methods to unravel citizens’ needs and activate feelings of belonging and empowerment that are important both for embracing nature in cities and being active urban citizens.
Bringing nature into the heart of the city, Melbourne Town Hall’s vegetable and herb planter boxes. Photo: Judy BushA view of nature of Melbourne city. Photo: Judy Bush
Cities are critical places for tackling the global challenges of climate change, extinction crisis and pandemics. But to do so, we need to foreground biodiversity in actions for nature in cities. This implies a shift in the way urban priorities are set, a move from considering biodiversity and nature in cities as a luxurious after-thought or beneficial add-on to acknowledging them as a key starting point for planning and building inclusive, resilient cities of the future.
Niki Frantzeskaki, Cathy Oke, Judy Bush, Sarah A. Bekessy, James A. Fitzsimons, Georgia E. Garrard, Maree Grenfell, Martin Hartigan
Melbourne
Oke, C., Bekessy, S.A., Frantzeskaki, N., Bush, J., Fitzsimons, J.A., Garrard, G.E., Grenfell, M., Harrison, L., Hartigan, M., Callow, D., Cotter, B., Gawler, S., (2021), Cities should respond to the biodiversity extinction crisis, npj Urban Sustainability, 1, https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-020-00010-w
The Nature Conservancy and Resilient Melbourne (2019). Living Melbourne: Our Metropolitan Urban Forest. The Nature Conservancy and Resilient Melbourne, Melbourne. https://resilientmelbourne.com.au/living-melbourne/
Fastenrath, S., Bush, J., and Coenen, L., (202), Scaling-up nature-based solutions, Lessons from the Living Melbourne strategy, Geoforum, 116, 63-72, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.07.011
Frantzeskaki, N., Vandergert, P., Connop, S., Schipper, K., Zwierzchowska, I., Collier, M., and Lodder, M., (2020), Examining the policy needs for implementing nature-based solutions: Findings for city-wide transdisciplinary experiences in Glasgow, Genk and Poznan, Land Use Policy, 96, 104688, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104688
Frantzeskaki, N., McPhearson, T., Collier, M., Kendal, D., Bulkeley, H., Dumitru, A., Walsh, C., Noble, K., van Wyk, E., Pinter, L., Ordonez, C., Oke, C., Elmqvist, T., (2019), Nature-based solutions for urban climate change adaptation: linking the science, policy and practice communities for evidence based decision-making, Bioscience, 69, 455-566, doi:10.1093/biosci/biz042
Dr Cathy Oke is Melbourne Enterprise Senior Fellow in Informed Cities at the Connected Cities Lab, Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning University of Melbourne.
Judy is a Lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on policies and governance of urban green spaces in the transition to nature-based cities.
Sarah leads the ICON Science group at RMIT University (Interdisciplinary Conservation Science). She co-developed the ‘biodiversity sensitive urban design’ protocol and works with governments and industry to improved biodiversity outcomes in cities.
Dr James Fitzsimons is the Director of Conservation and Science for The Nature Conservancy’s Australia Program where he oversees conservation planning, science, implementation and policy across all the projects the Conservancy works on throughout the country.
Georgia is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist and Senior Lecturer in Sustainability in the Office for Environmental Programs and School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at The University of Melbourne, Australia.
Maree is an accomplished change strategist with a track record of achievement across the community, private and government sectors. Her work focuses primarily on complex multi-stakeholder initiatives and pioneering projects to build capability and collaborative capacity at a community, city and national level.
Martin is an experienced manager of environment and sustainability teams in local and state government, developing and implementing a range of environmental strategies.
For a recent IPCC special report, ‘
When multiple phenomena with uncertain trajectories—for example, storm surges and power outages—affect the function of cities simultaneously, the element of surprise can be enormous. Suddenly, resources and activities that everyone takes for granted, such as mobility or an energy supply, are unavailable, 
Grass in Tehran urban green areas
In this anthology, hallmarks of United States identity, including creativity, freedom, ingenuity, and humor—but also oppression by the market, degradation of the environment, and disruption of community—emerge and intertwine with each other in a complex whole. The American city, its archetypal inhabitants and its present challenges, are implied—if sometimes left to linger just out of frame—in all of these poems.
For example, in Carolyn Miller’s meditation on the unity of things, people sleep “like bees packed in a hive” as, “out on the edge/of land, the ocean rocks and shifts and folds”. Miller draws an emotional connection between people and bees, all simultaneously sleeping in the hive of the city. Likewise, X. J. Kennedy describes pieces of ships in both human and natural terms: the masts become “mechanical conifers” that “redden slow as leaves”.
In this collaborative manual editors Paul Cawood Hellmund and Daniel Somers Smith explain the biophysical natural and social ecological functions of GW, and how they can help to solve fragmentation, conservation and functional problems of the landscape in a changing world adding value to ecosystems and people alike.
Designing Greenways belongs to a series books with mentors such as Design with Nature (McHarg 1969), The Granite Garden: Urban Nature And Human Design, (A. W. Spirn 1985), and more recent books such as Green Infrastructure: Linking Landscapes and Communities (M.A. Benedict and E.T. McMahon, 2006), Sustainable Infrastructure: The Guide to Green Engineering and Design (S. Bry Sarte 2010), Green Infrastructure: A Landscape Approach (D.C. Rouse and I. F. Bunster-Ossa 2013), just to mention a few. All these works have a common theme: the aim to broadcast the benefits of green infrastructure taking advantage of the natural landscape as mitigation efforts in a world of social and ecological fragmentation.
Star rating: Excellent, in achieving its own objectives and as a valuable contribution to TNOC readers
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