A River Cresting in New Orleans: A Complex Choreography of Water, Technology and Bureaucracy that Only Sometimes Serves People and Nature

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

The sustainability and, indeed, future existence of New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta depends upon a complex choreography of water, bureaucracy and infrastructure. The quandary for New Orleans can be summed up like this: how can we manage North America’s largest river in a way that mitigates seasonal flooding, while simultaneously making use of the river’s fresh water and sediments to build new land in the river’s vast but eroding deltaic plain?

A good place to start would be transparency and honesty about the difficult decisions and tradeoffs coastal cities and towns must reckon with.
Currently, the delta loses a football field of land every 30 minutes, with flood control levees, oil and gas extraction, and subsidence being the main drivers of this catastrophic land loss (See figure 1). While many cities wrestle with balancing the needs of nature and people, New Orleans and the deltaic landscape surrounding it are perhaps more fundamentally intertwined than others, for better and for worse. This complicated and often fraught relationship is one bound together through large scale water infrastructure.

Figure 1. Louisiana Land Loss, 1932 projected through 2050 without major diversion of the Mississippi River.
Figure 1. Louisiana Land Loss, 1932 projected through 2050 without major diversion of the Mississippi River.

But for New Orleans, the most critical components of this infrastructural system, both in the past and in the future, are located outside the city limits, in the surrounding coastal swamps and marshes. This essay will bring you to two critical locations in this watery saga, where similar techniques (the diversion of Mississippi river water into coastal basins) are applied to confront the two chief flooding threats facing New Orleans: 1) spillways to mitigate seasonal flooding on the Mississippi River and 2) river diversions to mitigate storm surge flooding from a rising and overheated Gulf of Mexico.

Spillways: infrastructure with multiple effects

On January 10, 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a major spillway just upstream from New Orleans in an effort to siphon off an unseasonably early (and likely El Nino-related) flood crest moving toward the city. Floodwater leaves the river and passes through a spillway several kilometers long before emptying into Lake Pontchartrain, a vast, brackish lagoon connected to the Gulf of Mexico.

Figure 2
Figure 2. The open Bonnet Carré spillway.

Since its construction in the early 1930s, the Bonnet Carré spillway has been opened only 11 times to prevent the Mississippi from flooding New Orleans. The 37 square km spillway is part of a comprehensive river management system implemented by the Army Corps following the great flood of 1927, which devastated many cities and towns along the river’s lower reaches. The opening of the spillway itself has become something of a civic spectacle, as was the case this time, when hundreds of people congregated on a cold morning to watch (see video of the spillway opening above). The spillway is comprised of a 2km-long concrete weir, with water controlled by an amazingly simple method: hundreds of wooden timbers, or “pins,” which can be pulled out by the engineers, allowing river water to enter the spillway. As more pins are removed, the flood crest near New Orleans begins dropping, relieving pressure on the hundreds of miles of earthen levees that line the riverbanks. The rise and fall of the floodwaters in the lower Mississippi occurs without many urbanites even noticing. The spillway, part of a wider network of similar floodwater outlets managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has effectively kept New Orleans dry from riverine floodwaters for its entire 80 year history.

But spillways like Bonnet Carré have multiple effects beyond lowering river levels, and these effects can generate political controversies that seem to have little to do with urban flood protection. Indeed, the construction of the spillway itself involved the expropriation of private lands, and even today, disputes continue over the existence and memorialization of two slavery-era African-American cemeteries in the spillway footprint.

Figure 3
Figure 3. Three sediment plumes exiting the Mississippi River System: the Atchafalaya River to the west, the main Mississippi Delta in the east, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, and the Bonnet Carré spillway, emptying into Lake Pontchartrain just upstream from New Orleans. Base imagery NASA Modis Terra. January 20th, 2016.

The coastal lagoons and estuaries surrounding New Orleans also see changes when the spillway opens. Lake Pontchartrain, which receives the spillway’s freshwater and sediment load, is normally full of shrimp, speckled trout, and other saltwater species. When the spillway opens, however, the entire volume of the sprawling lake is replaced by fresh river water in only about two weeks, displacing marine species with freshwater ones like catfish, alligator and invasive Asian Carp. These changes can impose limitations for fishing communities, which normally catch shrimp and fin fish in the lake. Due to the range of effects of the spillway, the politics of urban flood protection become the politics of what is “natural” in a delta ecosystem, and where certain species should and should not be in the fluid landscape.

River diversions: wicked problems of urban resilience

River diversions are intended to slow coastal erosion and build new land in the coastal periphery of New Orleans. There are a few existing river diversions, though they are tiny compared to the designs currently being developed as part of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan. For instance, the Davis Pond Diversion near New Orleans (see video below) is capable of conveying around 10,000 cubic feet per second of river water into coastal wetlands. The diversions currently being planned are much larger, rivaling the Bonnet Carré’s capacity of 250,000 cubic feet per second.

Gradually, through several projects, engineers and state officials are attempting to replicate the Mississippi’s dynamic cycles of flooding—cycles critical for preventing coastal erosion and securing the region’s future as sea levels continue rising. This will have profound effects on the ecology of the region. By 2050, it is possible that water managers, through river diversions and other strategies like dredging, will develop the capacity to strategically guide the development of the deltaic plain, creating landforms that better protect New Orleans from hurricane storm surges.

The stakes for New Orleans couldn’t be higher. As Katrina laid bare a decade a go, the city’s largely low-lying topography is vulnerable to long term inundation from storm surges. Major retrofits and upgrades in the city’s flooding defenses since 2005 are certainly positive steps in this process, but massive flood walls and pumps need to be complemented by large-scale river diversions for the city to truly develop meaningful resilience to storm surges.

Figure 4 top

Figure 4 bottom
Figure 4. The top image shows the Lake Borgne Storm Surge Barrier, looking east across the “funnel” formed by the interaction of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway and the now-closed Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. The bottom image shows the perspective towards New Orleans skyline in the distance. Photos: USACE

However critical river diversions might be for the resilience of New Orleans and the region, they are controversial with certain segments of the fishing industry, as well as with some coastal communities. Louisiana is home to the second largest commercial fishery in the United States, producing a third of the country’s overall harvest (Lowe et al. 2011). The implementation of an entire system of river diversions would no doubt have major implications for the region’s ecosystems, and those effects would, in some instances, impinge upon fishing practices and community life in the urban periphery. Lucrative saltwater fisheries, oyster beds and shrimping grounds will likely be displaced farther towards the open ocean as freshwater ecosystems, flush with river water and sediment, again take hold. Fishing communities, already facing strong headwinds from recent hurricanes and the 2011 BP oil disaster, can now add the wholesale transformation of the state’s southeastern coastline to the long list of challenges facing their way of life.

As such, the infrastructures necessary to secure New Orleans from riverine flooding (flood outlets) and coastal land loss /storm surges (river and sediment diversions) involve the re-working of the city’s hinterlands into a landscape better capable of absorbing both fresh and marine flooding, while placing a minimal burden on coastal communities. This is a delicate balance to be sure, and the State of Louisiana is investing a great deal of funding and expertise into the evolution and implementation of its master plan to make sure this is the outcome. That process, its successes, tensions, and failures will no doubt be instructive for scientists, planners and civil society in other coastal urban areas, where water management touches all aspects of economy, ecology and culture.

Figure 5
Figure 5. Billboard at a marina in coastal Louisiana opposing the construction of new river diversions. Come fishing communities have mobilized against the diversion of the Mississippi into its eroding coastal marshes.

The Mississippi River Delta will be subject to major re-engineering over the next several decades, or its core population centers will be living on borrowed time. The central question here is: at what scale should the region’s resilience be assessed and enacted? As large-scale environmental planning projects become increasingly framed as ventures in “urban reslience,” the spillways and river diversions of coastal Louisiana remind us that planning for resilience at the urban scale can transform peripheral spaces into de-facto sacrifice zones (Colten, 2012), where the hazards of such projects are offloaded and communities and livelihoods can be unraveled. When dabbling in the dynamics of such massive and complex systems as river deltas, planners and scientists need to be aware that despite all good intentions, ecological transformations often generate goods and bads, which accrue differently across space and social difference. Being honest about the possibility of ecological change and community displacement up front is key—the re-ordering of landscapes is just that: it may enhance the resilience of some locales while undermining that of others. Climate change assures that this sort of dilemma is likely to become a lot more common over the next few decades, and no new buzzword or policy trend can truly cut the Gordian knot that is the politics of large-scale environmental planning. Transparency and honesty about the difficult decisions coastal cities and towns are being forced to reckon with, and the inherent and sometimes unavoidable tradeoffs involved, is a good place to start.

Beyond the Delta: coastal cities and water management

Similar opportunities and risks are carried by coastal and deltaic cities globally, where urbanization has, in so many cases, been rendered through the infrastructural control of water, and where the economic, ecological and humanitarian stakes of those infrastructures functioning as intended in the face of rising seas is high indeed.

As Karen Seto explains, by 2050 global population will grow by 2.7 billion people, mostly in small and medium sized cities in Africa and Asia, with coastal and deltaic cities being a “preferred migration destination over other locations” (Seto, 2011). Worldwide, 60 percent of human population is clustered around coasts and estuaries, mostly in urban areas (Bridges et al., 2013; Lindeboom, 2002). Nearly half a billion people already live on or near river deltas (Syvitski et al., 2009). Estuaries and coastal zones are sites of intensive capital investment and economic production. It is estimated that 50 percent of U.S. population occurs, and 50 percent of U.S. GDP originates, in coastal environments (Kildow et al., 2009). In short, we have to get these water management choices right.

Projections suggest that unprotected coastal terrain less than a meter above sea level will be inundated by 2100 (Nicholls et al., 2014; Pachauri et al., 2014). While many human settlements along coastlines will be forced to retrofit, modernize or adapt flood protection systems, this is especially true in river deltas, where subsidence, rapid land loss and reduced river sediment loads place already low-lying terrain close to, or even below, sea level.

Human habitation of deltas has always entailed the displacement of human and ecological communities as riverine and oceanic forces interact and land masses shift, but trends suggest that a population explosion in delta cities is occurring even while many deltas are losing ground. Large-scale water technology, such as the Bonnet Carré spillway, is increasingly common along major river systems in places such as Vietnam and China, simultaneously shaping both landscapes of risk and hydro-ecology in and around riverine cities. In many instances, flood control successes today might create resilience dilemmas tomorrow. As such, anticipating and adapting to new understandings of water management is a critical task.

Josh Lewis
New Orleans

On The Nature of Cities

 References:

Bridges, T., Henn, R., Komlos, S., Scerno, D., Wamsley, T., White, K.,

2013, Coastal Risk Reduction and Resilience: Using the Full Array of Measures, US Army Corps of Engineers: Directorate of Civil Works.

Kildow, J. T., Colgan, C. S., Scorse, J. D., 2009, State of the US ocean and coastal economies 2009, National Ocean Economics Program.

Lindeboom, H., 2002, The coastal zone: an ecosystem under pressure, in:Oceans, pp. 49-84.

Nicholls, R. J., Hanson, S. E., Lowe, J. A., Warrick, R. A., Lu, X., Long, A.J., 2014, Sea‐level scenarios for evaluating coastal impacts, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 5(1):129-150.

Pachauri, R. K., Allen, M., Barros, V., Broome, J., Cramer, W., Christ, R., Church, J., Clarke, L., Dahe, Q., Dasgupta, P., 2014, Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Seto, K. C., 2011, Exploring the dynamics of migration to mega-delta cities in Asia and Africa: Contemporary drivers and future scenarios, Global Environmental Change 21:S94-S107.

Syvitski, J. P., Kettner, A. J., Overeem, I., Hutton, E. W., Hannon, M. T., Brakenridge, G. R., Day, J., Vörösmarty, C., Saito, Y., Giosan, L., 2009, Sinking deltas due to human activities, Nature Geoscience 2(10):681-686.

The Elephant in the Room: Amazonian Cities Deserve More Attention in Climate Change and Sustainability Discussions

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Justifiably, the Amazon region has been at the center of climate change discussions and negotiations since the late 1980s. It is not difficult to explain ‘justifiably’ when one is referring to a region of continental proportions, with unparalleled biological and cultural diversity, and whose biogeochemical cycles and atmospheric circulation processes influence the entire hemisphere and beyond. Few regions have changed so much and so fast as the Amazon, particularly the Brazilian Amazon. Urgency about the Amazonian cause is not an exaggeration! I often use Will Steffen’s concept of the ‘great acceleration’ to illustrate the rate and impact of these changes [see figure 1].

The nature of Amazonian cities is one where pollution and resource provisioning intermingle. But, the nature of Amazonian cities is also one of solidarity and hope.

Misguided and destructive development programs, an ingrained view of forests and forest peoples as “unproductive,” and a short-term, extractive mentality intended to feed commodity markets (all with plenty of government incentives) have fragmented and threatened the world’s largest tropical forest. Indigenous and local populations continue to be impacted and transformed, but they have also responded and become major players in territorial governance of the region. Indigenous and sustainable use conservation reserves represent over 40 percent of the Brazilian Amazon today. Yet, depending where one looks, the transformation of the region is just starting. Some estimates indicate plans to build over 330 new dams in the larger basin during the next 25 years. Prospects for expanding mining concessions are equally aggressive, while perspectives to address the region’s most pressing social needs and changing social reality are limited at best.

The Great Amazonian Acceleration
Figure 1. The great Amazonian acceleration

On a positive note, the region received strong attention during recent COP21 negotiations in Paris. There is wide recognition among the international community that the region’s ecosystems and peoples have a central role to play in global efforts to mitigate climate change. There were significant discussions and promises to slow and even halt deforestation, as well as promises and agreements to secure funds for carbon-based mitigation programs, including support for indigenous and local populations, conservation reserves and local municipalities. Kudos to these advances!

But, there is one important aspect of the region that has fallen between the cracks of public opinion, climate change conversations and—more broadly—discussions about regional sustainable development and futures. Why are ‘urban’ issues and the predicaments of ‘urban’ populations virtually absent from discussions regarding climate change, sustainable development and the future of the Amazon? As put by Brazilian geographer, Bertha Becker, as of the 1980s, the Amazon was already an “urban forest.” Today, anywhere from 76 to 80 percent of the regional population lives in cities, including an estimated 25 percent of the region’s indigenous peoples. The metropolitan regions of the state capitals of Manaus and Belem have each around 2.5 million habitants. The majority of the population in medium and large cities lives in areas considered “sub-normal” in census terms. The nature of Amazonian cities is not alluring!

From “green hell” to “the lungs of the planet” to “God’s paradise,” the historical popular imaginary of the region is obviously not an urban imaginary. When deployed, images of Amazonian cities often invoke the extravagant wealth and architectural features of the capital cities of Belem and Manaus during the rubber boom period (circa 1850 to 1910). The urban continues to be absent during this new phase of regional imaginary, defined by maps of carbon emissions and sinks.

The ways we see the Amazon continue to change. We have come a long way in recognizing the role of indigenous and local communities in shouldering the biggest share of responsibility to halt deforestation and to protect standing forests and water sources. The sophistication of deforestation monitoring and carbon-budget estimates, visible during COP21 and elsewhere online, shows important steps and advances coalescing around the protection of forests and carbon stocks in Amazon. Conversely and surprisingly, many, if not most, maps, charts, atlases and tools portraying the regional environment lack or pay minimum attention to the urban face of the region. In some cases, cities—from 760 to 792 of them (depending on where one puts the boundaries of the region)—are completely absent from maps portraying the anthropogenic transformation of the region.

Without undermining the relevance and importance of these analyzes, considering the demography and distribution of social conditions in the region, it is puzzling to observe this disconnection. One cannot help but be reminded of the 1970s military government development motto for the region—“a land without people, for people without land”—but in an ironic way: “a land [still presented] without people, for people without carbon.” While the “without people” of the 1970s ignored the thousands of indigenous groups and communities throughout the region, today it ignores 3/4 of the regional population, which is mostly very poor, living in even poorer urban conditions, surrounded by political disregard and hijacked by violence.

pop_size_legalAmazon
Figure 2: City centers and population distribution in the Brazilian Amazon. Image: IBGE census data2000- 2010; BF-Deltas Project. Map prepared by Andressa V. Mansur, CASEL, Indiana University.

In many ways, this disconnection between the regional urban reality, development needs and environmental discussions, including climate change programs and financing, is not surprising. This is also the case for the urban realities of other parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Urban problems, infrastructure deficiencies and social vulnerability in tropical areas, and in developing countries in general, have received scant attention from climate change policies and finances, at least when compared to concerns regarding carbon emissions and sequestration from ‘rural’ activities. The ‘urban’ remains the ‘elephant in the room,’ too messy to be addressed, yet, paradoxically, too easy to be ignored.

From “green hell” to “gray hell”: the threatening nature of Amazonian cities

The majority of Amazonian cities (81 percent) are small (fewer than 20,000 habitants), but 3/4 of the regional population lives in median and large cities [see figure 2]. Most municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon, and thus their ‘cities,’ are ‘young’ (between 30 and 50 years old). Older municipalities tend to be related to river ways, while younger ones have been created along roadways. Irrespective of how one interprets what counts as ‘urban’ or as a ‘city’ in the region, vis-à-vis other regions, and irrespective of age and size, these areas face an ‘urban’ reality common to many other parts of the world: exponential growth and growing population density, mainly very poor constituents with minimum service provision [see figure 3] and mostly informal employment, high levels of prostitution (particularly in larger cities), and even higher levels of violence related to drug trafficking.

sanitation_allcities_LegalAmazon
Figure 3: Proportion of households in Amazonian municipalities and state capitals connected to sewage collection. Image: DATASUS 2013; BF-Deltas Project. Map prepared by Andressa V. Mansur, CASEL, Indiana University.

The face of Amazonian urbanization can look unmanageable, and perhaps because of that, it is ignored. Unable to cope with hyper-accelerated urban growth, the sanitation conditions of urban areas have hardly changed, in many cases, worsened during the past two decades. Infrastructural projects in large metropolitan areas such as in Belem and Manaus and others are often not concluded or maintained, increasing problems with flooding and health hazards. Fortunately, provisioning of water and energy has become much better. An analysis developed as part of the BF-Deltas project, focusing on 50 municipalities of the Amazon estuary and delta region, shows that, like the rest of the region [see figure 3], the vast majority of the urban and rural populations are not served by any sewage collection or treatment [see figure 4]. Spatial analysis of delta cities indicates that some form of sewage and garbage collection may be present only in older and historical parts of the region’s larger and older cities [see figures 5 and 6 for examples in Belem and Macapa]. Even though census data may show otherwise, garbage is largely disposed in open-air depositories, street corners, or in drainage channels and river ways. When combined with socioeconomic conditions, housing conditions and location, the majority of urban populations face high (and increasing) levels of vulnerability to flooding and storm surges [see figure 7]. This is the ignored face of climate change vulnerability in the Amazon, one that affects millions of people concentrated in “sub-normal,” lamentable urban conditions.

delta_sanitation_mun_5km_buff2
Figure 4: Sewage disposal in the Amazon Delta region. Image: DATASUS 2013; BF-Deltas Project. Map prepared by Andressa V. Mansur, CASEL, Indiana University.

esgoto_belém_2000_2010

esgoto_macapá_2000_2010
Figure 5: Change in sewage collection in census sectors of two state capitals of the Amazon delta: Belem (Para) [top] and Macapa (Amapa) [bottom]. Images: IBGE census data2000- 2010; BF-Deltas Project. Maps prepared by Andressa V. Mansur, CASEL, Indiana University.
More challenging yet, the nature of Amazonian cities is violent. Urban areas in the Amazon region have shown the highest increase in urban violence in Brazil, including by far the most significant increase in homicides since 2002. Estimates suggest that close to 37 percent of the urban population in Amazonian cities larger than 50,000 inhabitants live in areas controlled by drug traffickers. A recent report by a Mexican-based NGO [El Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal] places the Amazonian capitals of Manaus (23rd), Belem (26th), and Macapa (48th) among the 50 most violent cities in the world (41 of which are in Latin America). While figures are hard to come by, larger cities in the region have some of the highest rates of youth prostitution in Brazil.

Marambaia 23 Set(64)

Marambaia 23 Set(50)

Comunidade_cabanagem_periferia_belem (4)
Figure 6. Examples of sewage in Belem and Macapa. Photos: Andressa V. Mansur

The rural and urban intermingle

When observed from the perspective of families, the Amazon region is indeed a ‘rural-urban continuum.’ Family networks shape the urban and rural landscapes of the region, supporting intense patterns of circulation and exchanges across short and long distances. These networks allow people to maintain some level of access to urban services as well as access to rural resources and livelihood opportunities. More than half of the population in a substantial number of municipalities depends on government conditional cash transfer programs, which must be collected in urban centers. This arrangement has further attracted people to the surroundings of urban areas during the past decade, strengthening connections between ‘rural’ areas and cities.

While this reality is widespread, it is still evolving. Over 27 years ago, when I started to do fieldwork in the region (Amazon estuary-delta, the Transamazon, and other parts), transportation posed concrete limitations to mobility and circulation choices. Today, in many parts of the region, transportation is conditioned by seasonal changes (rainfall and flooding still rule), but it has greatly improved. The same is true for communication and access to energy, the Internet and a broad array of national and global media. Differences between urban and rural lifestyles are becoming less significant, but the city increasingly lures the rural youth, including indigenous youth.

It is not only access to services, education and economic opportunities that have attracted people to urban areas. No matter where or how poor or how violent a city locale, for many residents, a house in the city provides security—or at least a sense of security—from the uncertainties of rural life. The vast shantytowns (a term often avoided in the region in favor of more euphemistic ones) of Amazonian capitals or the mushrooming peripheries of medium and small towns are populated by families—who either lacked land rights or were ‘abandoned’ without infrastructure or social services in agrarian colonization settlements and indigenous areas—or people who otherwise completely lack opportunities to make a living and feed a family. Depending on the season, Amazonian forests and rivers can be plentiful or scarce. Having a place in the city represents having ownership of a roof, as well as access to schools, informal work opportunities, economic niches and social activities that give a sense of access to modernity, whatever people imagine modernity to be.

The fast urban growth of Amazonian cities is also a result of the changing expectations of Amazonians, particularly the youth, and increasingly the indigenous youth. As in other parts of the world, the region is experiencing its own ‘de-agrarianization’ process, changing forms of livelihood and social identities away from the peasantry (but not necessarily from indigenous identity). Much like in other parts of the world, moving to a city opens up opportunities for those previously trapped in sharecropping and indentured servitude, demeaned social identities, kinship obligations, and/or perverse gender relations. As bad as living over open sewage, surrounded by violence can be, cities are still places of opportunity, and offer no shortage of festivities.

The nature of Amazonian cities is one where pollution and resource provisioning intermingle, whether one fishes at the confluence of a sewage stream or wades polluted channels to access a palm tree bearing fruits. Pollution and garbage, even extreme amounts of it, are largely ignored, both by residents and decision-makers. The illusion that the mighty Amazon and its tributaries can absorb and dissolve almost all of the sewage and industrial pollution generated in the region offers a convenient excuse for not dealing with the problem.

The Amazon is often referred to as the land of NGOs and social movements. But very little attention is given to the predicaments of cities. While there is increasing mobilization related to housing rights, few organizations and social movements are concerned with environmental conditions in urban areas. The few heroes trying to advance the cause of urban ‘environmental violence’ face risks and threats. The sense that sewage and garbage pollution are secondary or ignored issues is mind boggling considering their implications for well-being and health of the largest portion of the Amazonian population.

2006

2011

2013
Figure 7: Belem residents document flooding and spill of sewage drainage channels in 2006 (top), 2011 (middle) and 2013 (bottom). Photos: José Alexandre de Jesus Costa and members of the “Frente dos Moradores Prejudicados da Bacia do Una” Belem, PA, Brazil

It is important to remember that behind this reality are deeper structural issues. Most municipalities are insolvent and depend on transfers from the federal government. They are in perpetual deficiency when it comes to providing services for urban growth so accelerated that it can change the face of a city from year to year, or even from month to month. Many Amazonian municipalities struggling with deteriorating urban conditions witness strong, billion-dollar resource economies from agriculture, mining, forest products and fishing, and yet are not able to harness even the tiniest share of rent and taxes. Corruption is another problem, but it is too complex to fit in this essay. The take home point here is that municipal economies, and thus the economies of cities, are largely disconnected from resource economies of the region (including an increasing carbon economy), and are entangled in a historical, structural trap.

But, the nature of Amazonian cities is also one of solidarity and hope. I hardly remember listening about complains from the many migrants and urban residents I have worked with over the years. Regrets about lack of services, disregard and violence often give way to remarks about opportunities, popular culture and the privilege of owning a house. Family and kinship networks extend support to vast areas. There is never a closed door to a kin member in Amazonian houses. Fishes, fruits, shrimp, manioc flour and occasional bushmeat circulate widely. It is a society of reciprocity and reciprocity obligations. This explains, in part, the high density of urban areas, where multiple families share space layered with compartments and hammocks.

There are many faces of the nature of Amazonian cities that are bright and lifting, and I intend to focus on these aspects for my next essay. Here, my intention is not to perpetuate a sense of pessimism, but to recognize the urban as the ‘elephant in the room’ in sustainability and climate change discussions about the region. The face of urban conditions in the Amazon is the face of sustainability challenges and climate change vulnerability that we have not addressed, at least enough. This puts the question of climate change mitigation financing in a different perspective. While most attention seems to go to who would be paying for ‘it,’ less attention is focused on where and to what purpose these funds should be used. This is the underlying challenge of aligning climate change mitigation and the newly agreed Sustainable Development Goals.

I recently argued (at the Global Landscape Forum happening in parallel to COP21) that the sustainability of the Amazon as a region is and will be shaped by its evolving urban networks and forms of urban growth—in other words, by the nature, the networks of its cities. Amazonian cities are shaping the flows of people and resources and the conditions of local and regional ecosystems, and will continue to shape the region’s landscape in the next 20 years and beyond.

As is the case for most of Latin America, the most pressing and difficult sustainability challenge for the Amazon is to mobilize resources, visions, technology and political support to transform the nature of its cities.

Eduardo Brondizio
Bloomington

On The Nature of Cities

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Andressa V. Mansur for preparing the maps presented above and to José Alexandre de Jesus Costa, resident of Belem, and members of the “Frente dos Moradores Prejudicados da Bacia do Una” [an organization of harmed residents in the Una River watershed] for providing photographs.

Resources

Belmont Forum Deltas project: Catalyzing action towards sustainability of deltaic systems with an integrated modeling framework for risk assessment (BF-DELTAS). Support from the Belmont Forum funding agency to 24 collaborating international institutions. The US National Science foundation has funded research conducted by the author and colleagues at Indiana University (NSF # 1342898).

Brondizio, E. S., N. Vogt, and A. Siqueira 2013. Forest Resources, City Services: Globalization, Household Networks, and Urbanization in the Amazon estuary. In K. Morrison, S. Hetch, and C. Padoch (eds). The Social Life of Forests. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Pp. 348-361.

Brondizio, E. S. 2013. A microcosm of the Anthropocene: Socioecological complexity and social theory in the Amazon. Perspectives: Journal de la Reseaux Francaise d’Institut d’études avancées (RFIEA). N. 10: 10-13 [Autumn 2013]

Brondizio, E. S. 2011. Forest Resources, Family Networks and the Municipal Disconnect: Examining Recurrent Underdevelopment in the Amazon Estuary. In M. Pinedo-Vasquez, M., M. Ruffino, C. Padoch,. E. S. Brondizio (eds.) The Amazon Várzea: the decade past and the decade ahead. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Publishers. Pg. 207-232.

Costa, S. M. and E. S. Brondizio. 2009 Inter-Urban Dependency among Amazonian Cities: Urban Growth, Infrastructure Deficiencies, and Socio-Demographic Networks. REDES (Brazil) 14(3): 211– 234.

El Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Pública y la Justicia Penal A.C. 2016. Metodología del ranking (2015) de las 50 ciudades más violentas del mundo. http://www.seguridadjusticiaypaz.org.mx

Eloy, L., E. S. Brondizio, and R. Pateo. 2014. New perspectives on mobility, urbanisation, and resource management in Amazônia. Bolletim of Latin American Research (BLAR). 2014: 1-16 DOI:10.1111/blar.12267.

Jornal ‘O Estado de Sao Paulo’ (2015). Favela Amazonia: Um Novo Retrato da Floresta (Amazonia Slums: A new portrait of the forest). http://infograficos.estadao.com.br/especiais/favela-amazonia/index.php

Waiselfisz, J. J. 2015. Mapa da Violencia 2015. http://www.mapadaviolencia.org.br/pdf2015/mapaViolencia2015.pdf.

Mansur, A. V., E. S. Brondízio, S. Roy, S. Hetrick, N. Vogh, A. Newton. Submitted. An Assessment of Urban Vulnerability in the Amazon Delta and Estuary: A multi-Criterion Index of Flood Exposure, Socio-Economic Conditions and Infrastructure. Sustainability Sciences

Steffen, W., Broadgate, W., Deutsch, L., Gaffney, O. and Ludwig, C. (2015a) The trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration. The Anthropocene Review DOI: 10.1177/2053019614564785

Winemiller, K. O. et al. 2016. Balancing hydropower and biodiversity in the Amazon, Congo, and Mekong. Science  08 Jan 2016: Vol. 351, Issue 6269, pp. 128-129 DOI: 10.1126/science.aac7082

Ecodesign is for Citizens and Nature, not for Consumers

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

A review of Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs, by Jonathan Barnett and Larry Beasley. 2015. ISBN: 9781610913393. Island Press, Washington. 280 pages. Buy the book.

This book has an unashamedly strong emphasis on the city of Vancouver as a model—a city that has taken a leadership role. “Hundreds of thousands” of people involved in designing the overall plan, as well as area plans for its inner city, with the city government facilitating “a widely supported vision.” Whilst understandably proud of Vancouver’s achievements, the authors are not blind to its problems and acknowledge that the city “still has big sustainability and livability issues.” This awareness is a strength of the perspective offered in this book.

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It is a blind spot in the planning system: it views land as a commodity, rather than as a living system. It’s only made worse by viewing citizens as consumers.

Barnett and Beasley provide a considered and well-articulated description of the problems of modernist zoning that have done so much to destroy the best qualities of urbanism, allied with articulate descriptions of solutions to urban development that are now a well-nigh universal litany (though still observed more in the breach than in substance, thanks to the massive momentum of the motorised modernist miasma).

Six axioms

The book’s six chapters build on four themes:

  1. Adapting to climate change
  2. Balancing transportation modes
  3. Replacing outmoded regulations and incentives
  4. Reshaping the public domain

Although this is not primarily a theoretical tome, the authors begin by considering the basic axioms, philosophy and ethics of ecodesign before concentrating on describing practical measures, where particular regulatory arrangements or design solutions have been shown to be effective.

The six axioms they set out are:

  1. Embrace and manage complexity.
  2. Make population and economic growth sustainable.
  3. Adopt interdisciplinary practice.
  4. Always require public involvement.
  5. Respect natural and built environments.
  6. Draw upon many design methods.

It’s hard to argue with these as intelligent, progressive and realistic propositions, except one: the idea that population and economic growth can be sustainable. It’s the language of the day, but conceptually flawed. On a finite planet, growth cannot be ‘sustained’ without its corollary of degradation and decline. I found this Axiom (#2) curiously at odds with the authors’ own trenchant observations about the sustainability of cities around the world; they state that “no city can be said to be even moderately sustainable,” a statement I find refreshing when the rhetoric of various international city rankings seems to claim otherwise.

Barnett and Beasley say that the suburbs are where the great innovations of the 21st century will have to be made and, in a sense, it’s hard to disagree. But as a universal guide to the ecodesign of cities and suburbs, the book suffers from being focussed on the North American experience in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Although many would argue that the rise of fossil-fueled sprawl is the quintessential urban (horror) story of our time and deserves to be positioned at the centre of any discussion on designing cities and suburbs, it is still not the primary lived experience for most of the world’s urban populations. A Tokyo ‘suburb’ bears little relationship to the suburbs of Phoenix, and neither of them have a lot in common with the favelas of Brazil.

The authors, and perhaps especially Beasley, who was co-chief planner for the City of Vancouver, are men with considerable experience in the art of convincing civic leaders and planners to make changes in the way they do things so that greater things may be achieved. The tremendous success of the reshaping of Vancouver under Beasley’s influence is testament to that. The writing in this book is consistently clear and to the point. In describing the gradual roll-back of automobile infrastructure in Portland, Oregon, for instance, there are deft turns of phrase as we learn that talk about demolition of more highway viaducts is not “an attack on the car culture,” but is simply removing “excess dedications of land for auto movement.” This is a kind of hypnosis—this is how the planner, the mayor and the highway engineer learn to embrace change and understand that efficiency of movement in an urban environment might be improved by not attacking cars, but by getting rid of roads!

Planners are faced with the challenge of making the transition from the mechanistic framework of 20th century modernism to the profound concern with living systems that our damaged planet and struggling cities demand. The concern is real but, as it is with most of the rest of us, the minds charged with making the changes now needed were trained in the old ways: they lived with the chimera of progress defined by technological advancement, rather than with ecological health.

The book sets out to be something of an omnibus, or at least a kind of primer for the emerging and vitally important practice of ecodesign, and it is comprehensive in its scope. However, it would have benefited from a set of references or a select bibliography that would have enabled readers to follow up on aspects of ecodesign that captured their interests.

The examples are generally well chosen. We learn that Seoul’s Cheonggyechon is “a good example of what we are calling good design, uniting principles of good urban design with restoration of the natural landscape…” Not surprisingly, New York’s High Line Park is included whilst the Promenade Plantée in Paris is granted its due as the “world prototype for adaptive reuse of…nineteenth century rail infrastructure.”

 

Viaduc des arts street 30cm 72dpi
Promenade Plantée – Viaduc des Arts, Paris, from the street. Photo: Paul Downton

Nearly every page of this book has a one-liner or quotable passage that sums up critical ideas or information pertinent to making cities work through better design:

“We need to recognise that housing for everyone is a benefit for everyone.” (p.125)

“The bottom line for shaping cities is that neighbourhoods matter” (p.128)

“Walking is fundamental to our overall experience of a desirable city.” (p.181)

The challenge in implementing ecodesign is to transform ‘isolated successes into general practice.’ (p.209)

“Correcting obsolescence in the current regulatory regime is essential to the achievement of ecodesign.” (p.229)

“Regulations should not just avoid the worst consequences; they should strongly engender the best results.” (p.229)

Climate change and blind spots

The chapter on Adapting to Climate Change and Limiting Global Warming is strong on concern for sea level rise which, given the extent of the world’s cities that are under immediate threat, is understandable. The experience of cities dealing with rising sea levels and storm surges is instructive. Various examples of responses to climate change are noted in this book, from raising the building datum of the Marco Polo Terraces in Hamburg, Germany, to over 8 metres above sea level, to the barrages in London and Singapore and the efforts being made to create sea defences for New York City. Apart from sea level rise, climate change affects food production and ecosystem stability. Ideally, cities should burn no fossil fuels whilst providing excellent accommodation for their citizens. The examples of solar housing in Freiburg, the sustainable new district in Stockholm; Masdar, in the UAE; and Vancouver’s False Creek, all illustrate practical solutions to this kind of aspiration.

Masdar 30cm 72dpi
Plans for Masdar, a city in the UAE. Photo: Paul Downton

Many Australians, including myself, are concerned about climate change and sea level rise and, increasingly, the frequency and severity of bushfires. There has recently been a particularly severe and unexpected fire in West Australia, just outside Perth, in which almost the entire small town of Yarloop was destroyed by fire. Remarkably, only two residents died. The first reaction of residents afterwards was that the town should be rebuilt in the same place or close by. An excellent point made by Barnett and Beasley is that “Over time, adapting to increasing forest fire danger is comparable to adapting to sea level rise, but at some point the cost of maintaining houses in some locations will become untenable. Some areas will need to be rezoned as too dangerous for permanent habitation.” Denial runs deep in human culture—or is that resilience?

The authors identify three blind spots in the North American planning system:

  1. Land treated as a commodity rather than a living, complex, integrated ecosystem.
  2. Uses and densities separated—“We now know clearly that urban success is about mixing uses and densities in an almost endless variety of ways.”
  3. Zoning systems based on arbitrary categories rather than functional elements, “perpetuating social distinctions from the 1920s.”

Sprawl is hard-wired once built, but it is embedded in regulatory ‘software’ first. Getting rid of regulation that hampers desirable development (in the terms of this book) is not ‘free-market’ deregulation, but sensible pruning of redundant excrescence resulting from planning systems that were born in the early throes of modernism and were too brittle to evolve.

China has its own variants of the kind of prescriptive regulations that have done so much to promote sprawl and damage livability in North America and the anglo-centric ‘New Worlds.’ It would behoove Chinese planners to absorb the lessons of this book—one notes that Beasley has been an advisor to Tianjin in China. There are now many planners and urbanists in China who understand that the business-as-usual of industrial-consumer-capitalism is far from providing best practice outcomes for business, citizens or the environment.

Consumers, or citizens?

Part of the problem of tailoring one’s language to fit the dominant paradigm is that it then reinforces that paradigm. The authors presumably use the word ‘consumer’ because it fits the dominant paradigm of modern discourse, which seems to uncritically define everyone as a ‘consumer,’ but this paradigm is, in many ways, what this book is setting out to challenge.

‘Citizen’ comes from the very root of ‘city’ and denizen, marking someone as living in a place. A consumer is just an end-user, a purchaser of goods. Consumers are inherently powerless, whereas citizens have rights and obligations and roles in the society of which they are part, and which do not depend on whether they buy anything. The homeless and dispossessed are as much citizens as any property owner and, in what’s left of modern liberal democracy, they have a right to vote and engage in the political process that is not defined by how much they own or spend. I take issue when the authors argue that following ecodesign principles requires substantial and sustained involvement of people in the design and management of regulations and so forth, but then proceed to argue that the political process is for citizens, whereas the design process is for consumers. Why the separation? Using ‘consumers’ as a general term for people who live in cities is the same kind of newspeak that calls a corporation a person.

It is dangerous to diminish the concept of citizenship in any way, and particularly dangerous to define people as consumers. If there is a blind spot in the planning system because it views land as a commodity, rather than as a living system, then that can only be confounded by viewing citizens as consumers. The distinctions here are critical. Consumers are defined in relation to commodities, in a variant of the capitalist system that is recent in human history and has reduced the richness of life to little more than a kind of marketplace.

The authors’ agenda is fundamentally radical, but they are writing for the mainstream. Writing about the challenges of mixed-use development, for example, they note that “Looking out at a balcony filled with bicycles, barbeque equipment and storage boxes can upset office workers because they say it diminishes the business feel that they prefer.” Solutions to this aesthetic conundrum, apparently, include things like opaque railings. I’d like to have seen an argument for some cultural change, especially as Vancouver does provide an excellent example of a city that has made an enormous and successful change to both its planning culture and regulatory environment to favour mixed-use, density, social diversity and family-friendly environments in the city’s downtown. Importantly, it also stresses the role of landscaping and the use of trees, vegetation and convivial outdoor spaces to make the city work the way cities should.

The observations in this book are all cogent and to the point. For example, regulations for Compact Mixed-Use Urban Centres “should allow a richly compatible combination of activities, directed toward the totality of the place that is being created rather than just the integrity of any one use.” But whereas there is attention to detail for the ‘hard’ infrastructure associated with such things as the management of stormwater—down to the level of illustrating a rain barrel—there is no equivalent attention paid to any detailed means by which natural systems might be nurtured and integrated with human demands. Clearly, nature is to be respected and accommodated in the ecodesign ‘vision,’ but I was left with the sense of it being tolerated rather than embraced. There are no examples of wildflower meadows or wildlife corridors in the book, for instance, that might have provided solid examples of natural systems solutions.

The book is, overall, supportive of the basic tenets of New Urbanism and the authors acknowledge that New Urbanism projects in North America are important exemplars. But they point out that New Urbanism developments have all been ‘one-off,’ special case, up-market, single developer creations that are hermetically sealed from the regulatory framework (and often the transit system) of the cities that have allowed their development.

Design with nature?

In the index of this quite comprehensive volume, you won’t find the word ‘resilience.’ Most TNOC readers would probably consider ‘urban ecology’ and ‘wildlife’ to be important considerations in any discussion of ecological futures for cities, but none of these features in the index. Neither will you find ‘citizens,’ ‘natural systems’ or ‘ecosystem.’ It’s not that these topics aren’t covered (e.g., Anne Whiston Spirn and natural systems are mentioned, and their importance recognised), but they are key words that I expect to find when interrogating a book about ecodesign, and I was surprised that they weren’t there. ‘Animals’ don’t feature in the index either. The role of animals in the city, whether wild or companion, is neglected, or, at least, not dealt with specifically.

One shouldn’t expect any single book to be encyclopedic, but when the topic is inherently about systemic thinking, design and the integration of cities with nature, it raises certain expectations. Whereas there is strong material and many concrete examples throughout the book, the role of ecology is not presented with the same degree of specificity. This book is very much about the human part of the urban system. To provide the missing balance, I’d recommend reading it in conjunction with Michael Hough’s classic Cities and Natural Process (he’s not in the index either).

A thoroughly sound discussion of the public realm is a real strength of this book—sufficient to grant its entry into the library of any urbanist—but its value as a key text for ecodesign would have been enhanced by an equivalent emphasis on the realm of all the non-human species on which, ultimately, the public realm depends for its existence. The authors acknowledge these, noting that the public realm has been “exploited without reference to natural systems, and their potential to facilitate a connected web of ecosystems has been ignored.”

As the authors put it, “Ian McHarg’s well-known injunction to design with, not against, nature will have to become a basic principle of development regulation. It is certainly a fundamental tenet of ecodesign.” When McHarg made the case that architects, planners and engineers should work with natural systems and not try to construct against them in his 1969 book, Design With Nature, he was developing ideas going back through the lineage of Mumford, and Geddes, and the Tao. But the point is well made by Barnett and Beasley that McHarg’s experience of the evolution of natural systems was “so slow that for practical purposes nature could be considered to have a stable structure.” Now, under the influence of global warming, nature is changing rapidly and, as a consequence, “the issues he identified (are) even more urgent.”

Nearly half a century after Ian McHarg put forward the basic concept of what we now know as GIS, using tracing paper overlays and hand drafting, we have computer systems that enable sophisticated mapping of this kind to be done swiftly and accurately, and to be readily distributed in a way far beyond the reach of pre-computer copying techniques. This makes Barnett and Beasley’s call for the use of GIS maps as the legal basis of development decision-making, so that ecosystems can be properly integrated into planning, an entirely reasonable proposition.

It is because the authors clearly speak from experience that one can read and believe a statement like, “The agenda of a discretionary regulatory system and transactional development management process can embrace anything relevant in the modern city; nothing is too complex to be incorporated.” But nature doesn’t engage in negotiation, it provides the fundamental environment within which human transactions take place, so it’s difficult to accept that this process “…can broker neighbourhood conflicts and reconcile settlement and ecology in fine variations that represent the reality of the natural environment and human expectations.” (p.228)

Viaduc des arts garden 30cm 72dpi
Promenade Plantée – Viaduc des Arts, Paris: the garden. Photo: Paul Downton

Dancing with nature

The prospective readership for this book would obviously include students of the subject, but it should find a wider readership. Many will be familiar with the basics of ‘ecodesign,’ but may not have access to such a succinct description of what has been achieved in practical terms to introduce ecocdesign initiatives to cities. As such, the book is a valuable reference for policy planners and elected representatives. Active citizens stand to be informed and empowered by this book; I would imagine that almost all TNOC readers would find it of interest.

Yes, I did want this book to make more of a song and dance about nature, but it is a very good book, packed with information and quotable material, and it left me pondering, yet again, the question of how we can transfer from the careful world of not saying the wrong things to a world in which we can be forthright about the absolute needs of nature as part of how we make cities.

Paul Downton
Adelaide

On The Nature of Cities


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The Value of Urban Trails

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Mindy Fulllilove, Columbia University psychiatrist and author, likens pedestrian pathways and urban trails to arteries in the circulatory system of a city: essential conditions for creating a healthy city. There is much to be said for neighborhoods that are physically connected, and where it is possible to move across a city easily (and joyfully). A coherent sense of one’s entire city is one benefit, as well as an ability to experience the different ecological zones and habitats there. A well-developed urban trail system delivers substantial health benefits, helps to entice and tempt residents outside, and is recognized as a key positive attribute of quality of life. And it can provide important ecological connections and movement corridors for the many other species with which we share urban spaces.

Many of the cities in our Biophilic Cities Network offer some inspirational examples of the importance and power of investing in networks of urban pathways and trails. For instance, Singapore continues to expand its Park Connectors system, tying together major parks and nature areas, and making it remarkably easy for residents and visitors to experience nature and to spend time walking outside. Some stretches of this network offer especially dramatic perspectives on both nature and the buildings and other built elements that sit within this “city in a garden.” My favorite stretch is the Southern Ridges, where much of the trail is elevated, taking one directly through the tree canopy. The trail in several points floats above and across major roads below, and bypasses ground level car traffic through bridges including the visually striking (and quite biophilic) Henderson Waves. This bridge serves as new vertical public space, as visitors and residents stop to rest or picnic at the top. One walking on this stretch of the Park Connectors is likely to experience a lot of nature, from birds and abundant butterflies to more unexpected nature, such as the Monitor Lizard that I encountered one day on this trail.

Biophilic cities allow us explore, to discover, to experience moments of exhilaration and awe.

In New York City, Mindy Fullilove has been instrumental in creating the so-called Giraffe Path—a 6-mile long pathway connecting seven different parks in northern Manhattan. Hike the Heights is a yearly event that Fullilove and others have helped create, which “invites New Yorkers to explore and celebrate the area’s natural treasures by combining physical activity, art and fun!” One aspect of this event is the “Parade of Giraffes,” where kids create giraffes of all shapes and sizes, which are then displayed in the parks along the walking route.

What are some of the desirable qualities of an urban trail system? It ought to provide opportunities for short meanders, as well as longer treks and, ideally, ought to connect important sites and destinations. Urban trails offer the chance for brief respites, to see and experience nature close to where we live and work, and to provide unique and different ways to see and experience the city. And a trail system ought to accommodate a variety of different ways of moving through these spaces (e.g., hiking, biking, cross-country skiing—popular in northern latitude cities). As an example of the diversity possible in urban trail systems, consider Anchorage, where there are more than 120 miles of paved, multi-use trails, but also 130 miles of “plowed winter walkways,” extensive ski trails and even 36 miles of dog mushing trails!

Once an urban trail network exists, there is still work to be done in stimulating its use, and in getting people outside and walking through the city. Events and celebrations are important, as the Hike the Heights event suggests. Urban trail maps are also helpful (and there is a Hike the Heights Map). Increasingly, iPhone apps can direct, guide and inform urbanites about green spaces, parks and sites to visit (e.g.,TrailLink, developed by the Rails to Trails Conservancy), but they can also be tools for generating spontaneous group walks and hikes, bringing urban residents together for the purpose of walking and hiking (there are a number of apps, such as Gociety and Snowflake, aimed at helping to coordinate social activities and events, such as skiing and hiking).

Urban trails ideally provide access to spaces and places in and around cities that may be largely invisible or difficult to see or access otherwise. The more than five miles of trails allowing access to Mt. Sutro, a prominent green landmark in San Francisco, is an example. The Mt. Sutro Stewards, a volunteer organization, has taken on building and maintaining these trails, and gradually restoring native California plants, in partnership with UC San Francisco. Craig Dawson, co-founder of Mt. Sutro Stewards, has noted the “mystery and attraction” of the mountain, which he grew up exploring. There are typically many such hidden ecological and historical gems that are opened up through such trail building as this. This trail will eventually connect to the longer Bay Area Ridge Trail, a 350-mile trail that circles the San Francisco Bay. One neighborhood space of exploration and mystery can then lead to larger (and longer) urban nature trekking.

Signage and wayfinding are other important elements, and maintenance and safety are critical as well. Anchorage has one of the most extensive systems of urban trails anywhere, and an army of citizen-volunteers—through a program called Trail Watch—patrol and monitor the trails, equipped with their cell phones and identifiable by their visible arm bands. Biophilic Cities Network partner city Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital of the Basque Country in Spain, has an extensive network of trails, with the ability to reach fairly distant municipally-owned forests, and has installed unique trail signs that graphically depict the distance to each destination, allowing hikers to decide where they want to walk and explore given the time and effort they have to expend.

Getting urbanites out and hiking the city and its environs remains a challenge, and some cities are using some clever strategies. Wellington, New Zealand, another of our partner cities in the Biophilic Cities Project, has been running a campaign to encourage residents to hike its extensive network of trails. Throughout its summer 2016, residents are being encouraged to hike to the top of one of twelve peaks in the city and to post a creative photo with the hashtag #PeakBragging. As the City’s parks page suggests, it’s a friendly chance to give your friends some “gloativation to get outside and be active.” The photos posted are exuberant and funny, and do provide a glimpse of the magical views awaiting residents. The city awards prizes for the best photos and makes it easy to participate by providing a series of interactive maps of the spaces and trails around these peaks. One of these interactive maps, for Mount Kaukau park, is provided below.

mount kaukau
Biophilic Cities Project partner city, Wellington, NZ, uses #PeakBragging.

Thinking about the many potential ways that humans move across a city further helps us to think about the needs of the many other species we share city spaces with, and how they must move around as well—we need to be equally concerned with their movement and safety. A notion of the city as habitat understands that there are many biological routes and pathways and trails followed by non-humans (from fish and bird migration routes to micro-movements of insects, amphibians and small mammals crossing streets and city spaces). Singapore has been a leader in this regard. They have an initiative called “Nature Ways,” aimed at creating biological connections and corridors between biodiversity-rich sites in the city. Singapore NParks is responsible for planting new trees and vegetation to ensure these connections, and there are now some 60 kilometers of Nature Ways there.

Henderson Wave Bridge Singapore
Henderson Wave Bridge, Singapore.

Other cities, from Brisbane to Edmonton, have invested in wildlife bridges and passageways to ensure biological connectivity for humans’ co-inhabitants in the city. Edmonton has adopted an engineering manual that enshrines wildlife passages (of various sizes and types) as a regular design consideration in future infrastructure projects. The city has built 27 wildlife passages to date.

Trails have the ability to physically connect different and important elements of nature in a city, to provide biological connections and linkages and to create important spaces for bringing people together. One of the most ambitious urban trail projects is the Trilha TransCarioca, a trails network under development in Rio de Janeiro. As the maps below indicate, it would traverse that city, allowing a resident to travel from shore to mountaintop, linking major parks and ecosystems, including the city’s iconic Tijuca National Park. I spoke recently with Pedro Menezes, who came up with the idea for the trail some twenty years ago and is finally seeing it come to fruition. The vision is audacious indeed—eventually, it would extend 250 kilometers in length’ already, some 120 kilometers have been built and are open to the public. Providing movement corridors for species, such as toucans, is one of Trilha TransCarioca’s primary goals. “We also want the trail to put the Rio population closer to its nature,” Menezes tells me, “so they can cherish more, appreciate more the value of it, both in terms of recreation, but also in terms of ecosystem services…” So far, volunteers have largely driven the effort, with more than 2,000 volunteers actively involved. “The enthusiasm is great,” Menezes says, telling me about a recent volunteer training event where they expected 250 to sign up, but instead had more than 1,000 people. Such an urban trail is clearly a matter of pride for many, and will certainly become a highly valued aspect of the Rio urban experience.

park map
A map of the planned Trilha TransCarioca in Rio de Janeiro.

 

park from above
The intended route for the Trilha TransCarioca in Rio de Janeiro.

Like the Rio trail, many of our best urban trail networks occur along water, offering impressive vistas of nature and responding to our innate tendency to find places of “prospect and refuge.” Coastal cities from Oslo to San Francisco to Sydney offer examples of how walking, jogging and hiking can place one in close proximity to the marine world. The Boston HarborWalk and the new San Francisco Blue Greenway are positive examples of this trend.

Few coastal trails are as impressive in length and diversity of experience as the Waterfront Trail, which now extends some 1,600 kilometers along the edges of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and beyond (and is managed by the nonprofit Waterfront Regeneration Trust). Running through downtown Toronto, the trail connects some 80 communities and many parks, including the Rouge National Urban Park, Canada’s first urban national park. The trail has the special value of connecting urbanites to the larger Great Lakes landscape, serving as an important boon for tourism and economic development (a yearly multi-day bike ride, called the Great Waterfront Trail Adventure, has become a signature event).

Years ago, we lived for a time in Sydney, Australia, and were especially impressed by the availability of walking and hiking along the steep edges of that coastline, connecting beaches and providing dramatic views of the ocean and shoreline. Relatively simple wooden structures hugged the coastal cliffs, with ocean pools and other stopping spots along the way. From our home in Coogee Beach, we often traveled along the Coastal Walk south, sometimes north. It was a remarkable aspect of daily life, at once recreational and therapeutic, a multi-sensory adventure that brought us in daily contact with the immensity and wildness of the South Pacific Ocean.

These kinds of urban trails and pathways, which bring us in close proximity to water, represent an important element of blue urbanism. But many cities are going even further, now commonly thinking about the potential of blue trails that exist on or in the water—along riverways and waterways that could be traversed by canoe, kayak or water taxi. In our partner city of Milwaukee, there is an Urban Water Trail and there is an elaborate network of water trails in New York City, connecting all five boroughs there. Wellington has even established a snorkel trail, a part of the Taputeranga Marine Reserve. Increasingly, our notion of an urban trail must include and extend into the marine and aquatic realms (not just beside them).

Sydney the Bond 145
In Sydney.

How cities might equip citizens to make the most of these water trails is an interesting question, and I am intrigued by recent experiments with some form of canoe-share or kayak-share, similar to (or in combination with) bike-share systems now common in cities around the world. Purchasing a canoe or a kayak is a significant monetary obstacle, and creatively making such bluescape vehicles easily usable, for short periods of time, would be helpful indeed.

To return to Fullilove’s metaphor, biophilic cities require a healthy circulatory system of trails and pathways to provide social and biological connections. But they also allow us explore, to discover, to experience (close to where we live and work) moments of exhilaration and awe, and to provide vantage points and perspectives that allow us to see the whole of a place, and to understand where we sit within this urban ecological tableau.

Tim Beatley
Charlottesville

On The Nature of Cities

The Revalorization of Urban Nature, for Good and Ill

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

An image of expanding cities is associated, in most people’s minds, with the shrinking and gradual disappearance of urban nature.

The revalorization of urban nature is both an incipient opportunity for change and a potential recipe for disaster.
Yet, as life in cities becomes increasingly stressful and challenging, a gradual revalorization of urban nature is taking place across the cities of the world.

The importance of urban nature is begin redefined with new values: of recreation, relaxation and, ultimately, of possession—private ownership and possession, that is—finding expression in diverse forms.

2. A 'pristine' luxury lake-front home next to polluted Bellandur lakeAdvertisements for real estate developments are a hotspot for the revalorization of urban nature. A quick look at the urban visual landscape of Bangalore—at the eye level of what used to be the treeline, dominated by majestic avenue trees—shows a vast expanse of real estate advertising, much of which is targeted at the wealthy, advertising the sale of apartments and homes that range anywhere from $US 200,000 to over a million dollars.

To differentiate themselves, many projects identify themselves as “green” by using terms such as “pristine,” “lake,” “green” and “woods” prominently, and somewhat indiscriminately. For instance, just next to Bangalore’s extremely polluted Bellandur lake, an advertisement for an apartment complex “iWoods” stands out, somewhat bizarrely juxtaposed with a view of toxic foam overflowing from the lake. Another developer advertises “luxury lake-front green homes” that are “pristine” located near the same polluted lake. The irony of the situation should be obvious, yet these homes sell fast and appreciate in price.

1. An advertisement for a 'woodsy' apartment near Bellandur lake, frothing with foam
An advertisement for a ‘woodsy’ apartment near Bellandur lake, frothing with toxic foam. Photo: Harini Nagendra.
3. Children painting on leaves at the Kaikondrahalli lake festival in Bangalore in January 2015
Children painting on leaves at the Kaikondrahalli lake festival in Bangalore in January, 2015. Photo: Harini Nagendra
4. Outdoor exercise equipment for senior citizens at Sankey Lake
Outdoor exercise equipment for senior citizens at Sankey Lake. Photo: Harini Nagendra
6. A protest at Kaikondrahalli lake about construction in the sensitive lake zone valley floodplains
A protest at Kaikondrahalli lake about construction in the sensitive lake zone valley floodplains. Photo: Harini Nagendra

5. A protest by the Sankey Park Walkers Association against a real estate project at an adjacent forest reserveLiving near a well-maintained lake is a luxury for any urban resident. The Kaikondrahalli lake, an oft-cited example of a community-restored and managed lake in Bangalore, organizes an annual lake festival attended by thousands, with children using leaves, flowers and stone art to decorate the area. They enjoy the now unusual experience of observing and listening to the calls of a lake brimming over with coots, moorhens and ducks.

Other lakes, such as the Sankey Lake, promote outdoor exercise with special equipment for senior citizens. Yet the biodiversity and ecological quality of these lakes, which are actively maintained by groups of local residents, are being threatened today by construction in adjacent, ecologically sensitive floodplains and forest reserves. This presents a truly ironic situation: the same construction industry that packages and advertises the presence of urban nature as a resource to be enjoyed by their future residents contributes heavily to the dwindling and disappearance of these resources.

7. A housing complex with its own butterfly park
A housing complex with its own butterfly park. Photo: Harini Nagendra
8. One of a slew of real estate projects coming up near Bangalore's peri-urban peri-urban Turahalli forest reserve
One of a slew of real estate projects coming up near Bangalore’s peri-urban Turahalli forest reserve. Photo: Harini Nagendra
9. Can a tree be 'happy' if its roots don't touch the ground
Can a tree be ‘happy’ if its roots don’t touch the ground? Photo: Harini Nagendra

A further step along the evolution of this new urban aesthetic is the complete repackaging of urban nature as a private resource. Thus, new residential communities advertise private butterfly gardens, private streams and even private lakes. Others advertise the exclusivity of locations adjacent to forest reserves. Some claims are frankly bizarre, such as an advertisement that describes an idyllic environment where trees are so happy, “their roots don’t touch the ground.” Readers of these advertisements, meanwhile, are left wondering if the people who create these advertisements have had much practical experience with planting and maintaining trees.

10. A very different city aesthetic
A very different city aesthetic. Photo: Harini Nagendra

Some would argue that the revalorization of urban nature is a good thing, and perhaps it is, in part. Certainly, if compared to the city aesthetic that the above advertisement portrays, of a baby seeking to live close to shopping malls, I think one can safely assume that we need a renewed public conversation about the importance of nature in cities. I cannot think of an actual baby who would be happier if taken shopping rather than on a lakeside stroll. I would also hope that it is obvious why access to lakes is more important for the well-being of cities and city residents, compared to shopping malls. But the devil is in the details. Who owns this nature? Whose needs does it serve? And will the advertisers who benefit from the real estate value of access to urban nature actually join forces to protect and restore urban ecosystems as public goods?

One path forward, proposed by some planners in Bangalore, is to add a “green tax” to high income residences located around lakes, forest reserves and other public urban ecosystems, ensuring that real estate development contributes to a fund for ecosystem protection. We need a sustained conversation to discuss the feasibility of such measures, looking at the experiences of other cities.

The revalorization of urban nature presents both an incipient opportunity for change and a potential recipe for disaster. We need a renewed, public discussion about these values, even as our developing urban aesthetic needs a ‘reset and reboot’.

Harini Nagendra
Bangalore

On The Nature of Cities

The Heart, Brain and Soul of City Parks

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

A review of Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities, by Alexander Garvin. 2010. ISBN: 0393732797. New York, USA: W. W. Norton & Company. 224 pages.
And City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts, by Catie Marron. 2013. ISBN: 0062231790. New York, USA. Harper. 304 pages. 
Buy the books.

coversThe last part of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st represent a new “Golden Age” for city parks. Certainly, looking at the American and international urban landscape, beautiful and expansive new public parks have popped up all over, while many historic parks first created in the 19th century, have been restored through novel public-private partnerships. Why is the creation of big new parks happening in so many cities, and what does this portend for global social trends? In my view, this “peacetime arms race” for bigger and better parks reflects several goals—parks are important parts of making cities more environmentally sustainable and people healthier, but they are also magnets that attract both investment and newly mobile tech workers, who can work anywhere but are choosing cities for quality of life. Parks—and the lifestyles they enable—are part of the attraction, and in the global competition for the young and the talented, parks are part of the winning formula for cities.

Parks are essential to human interchange and to the growth of the human soul.

As parks have become touchstones, defining and enabling the resurgence of cities, several authors have tried to document that phenomenon. Two books published in the last five years provide a fresh perspective on parks around the world and across centuries. One book focuses on the common factors that make great city parks, addressing many of the practical “mechanics” that lead to good design and management of parks; the other likewise builds the case for parks as an attribute of livable cities, but mostly from the point of view of untrained, but highly perceptive, park users. Both attempt to get “inside” parks, but one comes in more through the brain, the other through the heart and soul.

Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, 2009
Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, 2009. Photo: Alexander Garvin

“Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities”

Alexander Garvin, who describes himself as a “strategist of the public realm,” is the CEO of AGA Public Realm Strategists. The Yale-trained architect and city planner has worked extensively in both the public and private realms and has also taught at Yale for more than 45 years as an adjunct professor. Among his many professional accomplishments was the development of an innovative plan to try to lure the 2012 Olympics to New York City (which ultimately went to London), and many master plans for communities across the country, including a plan for the Atlanta Beltline.

Millenniuim Park, Chicago, 2008
Millennium Park, Chicago, 2008. Photo: Alexander Garvin

It is clear from this book, and from his many projects, that Garvin adores parks and sees them as essential keystones to livable cities. Garvin, whose professional focus has been on larger-scale cities and communities, rather than on individual parks, sees landscape architects as planners and, perhaps, planners as landscape architects. In fact, he dedicates his book to Frederick Law Olmsted, stating that Olmsted “conceived of parks as an essential component of metropolitan living.” “That is a metropolitan planner’s conception,” Garvin adds, “taking the same comprehensive approach to urban and suburban planning to which I, as a planner, am committed.”

Derby Arboretum, Derby, 2007
Derby Arboretum, Derby, 2007. Photo: Alexander Garvin

Garvin provides a great resource to professionals in the park and city planning, design and management realms, as well as to citizen activists and civic officials, beginning with a concise but illuminating history of the emergence of public parks in Europe and the U.S. In that initial chapter, he tries to answer the question about what is the world’s first public park. While he argues that the first purpose-built public parks are either the Derby Arboretum or Birkenhead, both in England, he also makes the case for much earlier royal parks and pleasure grounds that were at least partially open to the public prior to being fully opened or owned by the public. He follows this historical introduction with thematic chapters that manage to encompass his notions about the common elements that make great parks, while also providing a “user’s manual” for how to develop, design and manage parks, from “Site Selection” to “Finance and Governance”—two of 12 chapters that are replete with examples and beautiful color photos taken (mostly) by Garvin himself.

Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, 2007
Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, 2007. Photo: Alexander Garvin

While the chapter headings thematically group parks, the chapters act as ample vessels for taking the reader around the world in 80 parks (or so), allowing Garvin to explicate, from a city planner’s perspective, how parks both define and are defined by the cities in which they are created, and how different circumstances—such as abandoned rail lines and industrial sites—can be reborn as magnificent new parks (as in the now well-known High Line in New York City, as well as less-well-known but equally compelling urban trail parks, such as the Cedar Lake Trail in Minneapolis, and Boston’s Southwest Corridor Park, built over an underground subway line that replaced an old elevated rail line).

Cedar Lake Park Trail, Minneapolis, 2007
Cedar Lake Park Trail, Minneapolis, 2007. Photo: Alexander Garvin

While Garvin’s global gallivanting to provide examples is enjoyable, those who work in the park management realm may find his four concluding chapters, which address Stewardship, Finance and Governance, the Role of the Public, and Sustainability, to be most illuminating. In those chapters, Garvin neatly summarizes the many strategies developed in recent decades to create, restore, fund and manage parks—no small trick when many pressing needs absorb the bulk of the urban treasury. With some focus on examples in New York City—where the park conservancy model was born and perfected—and also with a diverse set of examples from cities across the U.S., Garvin explains the many different funding and management models, from more traditional public funding, to business improvement districts and conservancies that belie the notion that cities can’t afford to have great parks. Though Garvin provides excellent examples of the mechanics of designing great city parks and restoring and managing them, it is clear in his summations that these mechanics, and indeed the parks themselves, are in the service of a larger goal—livable cities. The book’s concluding paragraph enumerates “the roles that every great park must play: enhancing well-being and improving public health, incubating a civil society, sustaining a livable environment, and providing a framework for urbanization.”

“City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts”

Catie Marron, philanthropist, former chair of the New York Public Library, and current chair of the Friends of the High Line, also takes readers on a tour of parks around the world, but she does so not through the mind of a professional planner, nor exclusively through her own mind. Instead, she visits parks near and far through the experiences of others, mostly highly regarded authors of fiction and non-fiction, but also a movie star, a world-renowned architect, and the 42nd President of the United States.

Whereas Garvin takes a thoroughly professional, mostly distant perspective on the parks and related themes he writes about, Marron’s approach is highly personal. She is joined in the endeavor by photographer Oberto Gili, who took pictures of the 18 cities (and 22 parks in those cities), and more importantly, by the 18 authors of the essays about the parks.

Park Guell, Barcelona
Park Guell, Barcelona. Photo: Oberto Gili Caption
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.(WEB)
Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. Photo: Oberto Gili

The result is a highly entertaining set of personal excursions into space, but also into time and emotion. They are wide-ranging: President Bill Clinton’s essay is a functional combination of personal experience and history in Dumbarton Oaks, the spectacular but intimate private garden designed by Beatrix Farrand, America’s first great woman landscape architect, which is now open to the public (though it is not technically a public park). President Clinton mixes unveiling personal memories of visiting Dumbarton Oaks as a college student at Georgetown and, later, with his wife, Hillary, but also tells the story of how the mansion that the garden surrounds was the site of the WW II-era Dumbarton Oaks Conference, held by allies to plan what was to become the United Nations. President Clinton, in his short essay, takes great pains to point out that the garden was the product of the efforts of the two “strong women who created it,” Farrand and then-owner, Mildred Bliss—and one can’t help but notice a bit of “product placement” for “strong women.”

The High Line, New York City-min
The High Line, New York City. Photo: Oberto Gili

Most of the other essays are by professional writers of both fiction and non-fiction, and though the approaches vary, the quality is mostly high. I most enjoyed Andre Aciman’s essay on the High Line. Aciman, a New Yorker and prior documenter of the role of parks in the lives of the locals, uses a “then and now” narrative to call out not only the history of the area, but also the contrast of the functional, muscular steel framework of the former freight rail viaduct to the contemporary “high-tech, new-age, eco-friendly, cutting-edge green park” that was inserted into it. In gazing at the old warehouses and factory buildings that still surround the High Line, Aciman conjures some images of the paintings of Edward Hopper, but mostly of fellow NYC painter John Sloan: “This is Sloan country. If while staring north on the High Line, I can no longer dispel John Sloan, and if John Sloan intrudes on my vision, then his paintings become the visual equivalent of a soundtrack.”

Grant Park 1968
Protestors in Grant Park, Chicago 1968.
Grant Park, Chicago-min
Grant Park today. Photo: Oberto Gili

Some of the others are even more personal. Historian Jonathan Alter recalls his childhood in Lincoln and Grant Parks in Chicago, including the checkered history of Chicago parks that involved a race riot in 1921, the police beatings of protestors in 1968, and the culminating historic moment on Election Night, 2008, when President-elect Barack Obama gave a victory speech outdoors, “quoting Lincoln in Grant Park.”

Griffith Park, Los Angeles small
Griffith Park, Los Angeles . Photo: Oberto Gili
Villa Borghese, Rome 2-min
Villa Borghese, Rome. Photo: Oberto Gili

When people think about or write about their personal experiences with parks, loved ones often intrude, as in Candice Bergen’s hilarious memory of her grandmother, Lillie Mae, who took her on visits to LA’s Griffith Park. Bergen’s grandmother protected her “incredibly pale skin” with a hat made from the grocery store paper bag she had used for bread crumbs to feed the ducks, fashioning a “humiliator” that mortified the young Ms. Bergen. And invariably, the “romantic landscapes” of many parks both spark romance and bring back memories of love—familial, unrequited, lost, found, or re-found. Zadie Smith summons up a trip with her elderly father to Florence, and an ultimately unsatisfying trip to the Boboli Gardens that occurred shortly before her father’s death; she also documents finding relief in mourning her father’s passing in the wild beauty of Rome’s Villa Borghese park.

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris-min
Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris.

Both Andrew Sean Greer and Amanda Harlech summon up very personal, deeply felt memories of romantic encounters in the Presidio—not yet then the refined National Park it has become in San Francisco—and in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris, respectively. Recalling the specific walk in a park and an unrequited love that failed to blossom on the other end, Harlech writes:

I have never forgotten that morning in May in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Often when I’m staying in Paris I will retrace that walk and stand, lost in the passing moment of the past, in the beat of the present—in the rain, in the magnification of snow, in early spring when the orange trees and palms are brought out and unwrapped from their winter cladding, or in the blinding blue of July—and sense the haunting of first love in Paris.

For that is the intangible power of parks. In her introduction, Marron notes that “each park has its own soul, one that has profoundly influenced the culture of its surroundings and the multitudes who enjoy it. Yet the parks’ similarities speak to the fundamental needs of urban dwellers workdwide. Parks are essential to city life, and they have been since the mid-eighteenth century, when cities became crowded and people needed an escape from the tussle and bustle of chaotic, noisy, dirty street life.” As the writers of these essays universally imply, each in a different way, parks are essential to human interchange and to the growth of the human soul.

Adrian Benepe
New York City

On The Nature of Cities

You can support TNOC (and the book’s authors) by buying the book via this link.


Values that Underlie the Landscape of Cities—Those that DO and those that SHOULD

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Para leer la versión en español, haga clic aquí.

Coexistence between nature and urban is not a matter of experts but a matter directly related to the “civic values.” —De las Rivas

What is the shape and formal composition given by designers or people in general to nature in our cities? Is it beneficial for the landscape’s character or the identity of our urban environments? The many benefits of living nature for the welfare of citizens are well known. Benefits such as cleaning the air, mitigating extreme climate conditions, and providing shade, shelter and habitat for avifauna and microfauna are rightly highlighted at the outset of any conversation about the nature of cities.

It is time now to direct our eyes and efforts not just toward introducing, but also toward rediscovering nature in the city.

Without ignoring those fundamental aspects that support human life, we must also reflect on the intermingling of the appearance of and values embedded in the conformation or production of the urban landscape’s character: that is, the intangible benefits related to the messages citizens receive from the formal expressions of the whole environment and, particularly, of its natural components.

Landscape has been recognized, on one side, as a sort of palimpsest, built layer-by-layer through time. The question is whether those layers actually interweave or simply overlap and hide the previous ones, while, in the process, changing the local urban landscape’s character until there are no remnants of the original. Perhaps the increasing speed that, at present, characterizes the rise of each landscape attribute that can be considered a “layer” in this continuous evolving spiral is one of the causes that refuses proper and definitive fusion.

Original identity fades, changing faster than in typical ecological succession.

For example, as can be seen in the image below. The urban development of Bogotá has erased the original natural character of the plateau on which the city was established. Spread over an area of 1.587 square kilometers, the city is the 25th largest in the world. At 2,600 meters above sea level, the settlement began at the foot of the hills and devoured the immense wetland that existed there up to the sixteen century, when it became known to and was interfered with by the western world. Very little of the lentic water richness has been left intact. In this way, nature has been denied. The aqueous character and the thin and vertical shape of the vegetation that usually accompanies swamps, together with their related avifauna, have disappeared almost completely. Hence, the image could be of any city, anywhere. The settlement lost its native landscape identity, the root of its character.

Figure 1. Bogotá
No nature. Bogotá, Colombia, seen from the southwest. The city was developed on an ancient wetland, whose traces have almost completely disappeared. Photo: Gloria Aponte

On a different time scale, but as a tangible example, I can testify that more than twenty years ago, some decision makers, while traveling through the United States, fell in love with a particular tree species. “I will fashion that tree. You will remember me,” said one of them.

And actually, he got what he wanted: among many other roads, nearly seven kilometers of the Avenida 80 were planted with that species. This whim has influenced the experience, although unconsciously, of millions of people by making them think that autumn “seasonal” colors and sharp, palmate-shaped leaves are proper features for a place quite close to the equator. This new plant created a novel ecosystem that continues to deny opportunities and space for other autochthonous plant material more suited by shape, color, texture and habit to the original ecosystem and climatic zone. The vegetal associations of the mountains that gave a background to the town area forever changed.

Although trees or vegetation in general are the most obvious examples of nature in urban environments, nature is much more than that. The main structural natural feature that grants landscape character to a place is its topography. Topography is a broad determinant of space that, as the basic configurator or frame, defines the main view sheds and visual landscape impressions

Most Colombian cities are located on the Andes chain of mountains, where the structural natural relief is huge, even overwhelming. It cannot be avoided, although its flattening could be highly desired by planners and real estate developers to facilitate new occupations for the land or to make the land easier to use…or so proceeds the argument to convince potential clients. Planners and architects still do not manage to deal with the topographical conditions in an efficient manner, nor do they effectively deal with how to work with other professionals that could understand existing volumes and use their forms alongside the proposed ones.

Figure 2. Medellín
Very little nature within the urban perimeter. Medellín, Colombia, seen from the northwest. The city climbs un the hill, leaving only the difficult relief unoccupied. Photo: Gloria Aponte

Respect the city`s underlying, transverse and surrounding nature

The City is a manmade product, and should produce a meaningful framework related to our living feelings, as part of the good quality of life that it is supposed to grant for its inhabitants. One of the deepest layers of our local culture is the belief of belonging to nature—our ancestors would never have said “the nature around us,” as it is commonly heard nowadays. They and the small groups of indigenous people still alive in the national territory refer to “the nature of which we are part.” They recognize that humanness is not just our connection to nature, but the conviction that we are part of nature, humans are nature, although many of our compatriots are determined to feel separated. The recent tools for planning cities reflect how, every day, our society has moved further from that traditional belief.

During the civic-academic revision of the recent Territory Ordering Plan for Medellín, I dared to propose that the first philosophical principle should be respect for the city’s underlying, transverse and surrounding nature. As simple as that. But this contribution, among other proposals in the same direction, was considered anecdotal and was left aside, even though its implications were not directly against development, competitiveness or innovation, which are the focus of the municipal or metropolitan development proposals for the near future.

In recent years, there has been a great concern for the so-called “urban-rural border,” particularly in this city. That strip of land is meant to stop urban growth beyond it, and markedly locates nature “out” (far from the city), and urban development “in,” though the city may be dotted with some manipulated vegetation that calms consciences and occasionally fulfills utilitarian needs.

Water flows across boundaries

One of the natural components that suffers in crossing the urban-rural border is running water. When natural water streams approach the urban area, they are usually intervened with and channelized; in this way, the water flow is forced up to unusual running speed, causing flooding, which is as harmful as the loss of dynamic. It means that, at first, streams lose their natural appearance to be dressed with rigid urban geometry, and later are completely buried in such a way that the urban environment loses the water’s natural manifestation, which would bring harmonious sounds, visual joy, dynamic and rhythm lessons. Citizens use the resource, but it comes separately from the symbiotic natural appearance, from the sensible, significant and symbolic message that water brings to human beings, who are deeply attached to it.

The puzzle of confronting urban and rural is not so simple. The answer is not a boundary between the two. From the landscape point of view, the border has to be conciliatory, joining and inclusive, without sharp edges. Articulation instead of limit, ecotone instead of frontier, are proposed from this perspective. Clearly, streams can be the threads used in such a sewing together.

Meanwhile, the “outside” part, currently called “rural,” is being colonized by different land uses—clearly of urban style, if not of urban political definition—such as condominiums, where the attitude of manipulating nature is fully embraced. In this way, like urban land, the land classified as rural also suffers from the replacement of “natural” nature by manipulated nature. The land is nominally “rural,” but its spirit is urban.

Figure 3. Rionegro
Geometricized nature to fulfill property demarcation purposes, on suburban land, near the Rionegro Airport. Photo: Gloria Aponte

Manipulated nature transmits a static feeling that has nothing to do with living nature.

The composition of its disposition, its characteristics, and its formal qualities have to be developed in such a way as to establish a dialogue with people, to give a message of welcoming, identification with places and orientation through them, all within the scale of city functionality.

Attending to the human scale is one of the keys to reestablishing the silenced dialogue between people and the other components of nature.

Figure 4. En Medellín
Exuberant vegetation, conditioning spaces to welcome to citizens. Outside Explora Park in Medellín. Photo: Gloria Aponte

Manipulation implies power, and human beings enjoy power. The joy of achieving our desires and seeing them materialized may be stronger than the feeling of belonging to nature and the attachment to local habitat. Manipulation just for the sake of self-satisfaction, fashion or to obtain cheaper materials is an irresponsible manner of civic or professional participation in city development. The image below shows how, unfortunately, this kind of manipulation is rapidly invading and proliferating in the residential areas of Medellín.

Figure 5. En laureles
Manipulated nature. Loss of ecosystemic functions and emotional local significance. Laureles neighborhood. Photo: Gloria Aponte

Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city, is at present quite well recognized internationally for many reasons. It has earned several acknowledgments, mainly based on its social resilience, demonstrated through the process of rebuilding social coexistence, improving security, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, and many good quality urban projects developed under the flag of “social urbanism.” In a recent visit, Boaventura de Soussa Santos, during the VII CLACSO Conference, applauded the great transformations of this city but recommended that we leave aside the sense of triumph, and remember that it is not just with technology that problems can be solved. He drove his discourse towards social matters, but his comments can also be applied to nature.

While recognizing the efforts of the municipality towards so-called “urban silviculture,” a term that implies more forestry techniques than concepts and principles related to nature coexisting with city elements and intangible benefits in the urbanized scope, it is time now to direct our eyes and efforts not just toward introducing, but also toward rediscovering nature in the city. There is a need to work on an approach that starts from the significant value that nature holds and communicates this value to citizens through a message that leverages their emotions of identity and rootedness.

Figure 6. Medellín
Nature to be rediscovered through the densely developed city. Photo: Gloria Aponte

As Paul Downton says in one of his inspiring TNOC contributions: The premises on which we build our cities and construct civilization, and the extent and means by which we include nature in our cities depends on what values we choose to adopt.

To recover vanishing values and respect for nature, especially vegetation, is not just a landscape architect’s whim or “style,” but a responsible contribution for surviving and urban life quality.

In this way, the proposal is to materialize values such as:

Feel part of nature. To understand that we are from the forest, from the earth, from the air itself, as the indigenous group Jaguares del Yuruparí (from the Vaupés Colombia) reminds us. Their knowledge of and consequent behavior in taking care of health are closely related to nature equilibrium and were recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011.

Respect nature. To recognize and understand the manifestations of the pre-existent nature, and interact with them instead of indiscriminately dominating them, has to be a mandatory guideline to start any new urban development on any scale in a particular allotment.

Be inspired by nature. Observation of nature has inspired many human inventions; those lessons are still there and for free in each local environment. Nature gives us lessons in resilience, rhythm, harmonious diversity and sound composition. We do not pretend to want to recover a state of purity or wildness, as it was centuries ago, but nonetheless landscapes to resemble the natural image that accompanied them in the past; to let that part of those layers permeate the strong new ones, and be incorporated into today’s urban life.

Be autochthonous. Use native vegetal material as much as possible. It is sound in the present climatic crisis, helping to moderate living conditions as well as to remember the original shape, image and formal composition required to preserve the character of our traditional landscape.

Concepts such as biophilia (the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms, as elucidated by E.O. Wilson), biomimicry (approaches to innovation that seek sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. Biomimicry Institute 2015), and topophilia (the love of or emotional connections with place or physical environment,) can be inspirational, helping us to avoid falling into another kind of formalism. But we must understand the close relationship between function and natural form, enacting the message implied in the very presence of our own locally-rooted shapes, features and traces. We are as gods and have to get it right, says Stewart Brand in his call for responsibility in using the power of participation in co-building places where to live.

The urban will understand the natural, recomposing its reading of landscape. —De las Rivas.

Gloria Aponte
Medellín

On The Nature of Cities

 

Valores que subyacen al paisaje de las ciudades – los que SON y los que DEBERÍAN ser 

La coexistencia ente la naturaleza y lo urbano, no es un asunto de expertos sino ununa cuestión directamente relacionada con “valores civiles” —De las Rivas.

Cuál es la apariencia y composición formal que los diseñadores y la gente en general le da a la naturaleza en nuestras ciudades? Conviene esta al carácter e identidad de nuestros ambientes urbanos?

Los beneficios de la naturaleza viva para el bienestar de los ciudadanos son bien conocidos. Beneficios tales como aire limpio; mitigación de condiciones climáticas extremas; provisión de sombra, abrigo y hábitat para avifauna y microfauna son resaltadas con toda la razón, para iniciar cualquier conversación acerca de la naturaleza en las ciudades.

Ahora es el momento de dirigir nuestros ojos y los esfuerzos no sólo hacia la introducción, sino también hacia el redescubrimiento de la naturaleza en la ciudad.
Sin pretender ignorar estos aspectos fundamentales que soportan la vida humana, es necesario reflexionar también sobre la entremezcla de la apariencia física de conjunto y los valores inmersos en la conformación o producción del carácter del paisaje urbano. Es decir, reflexionar sobre los beneficios intangibles que puede haber en los mensajes que los ciudadanos reciben de la expresión formal del ambiente total y, particularmente, de la de sus componentes naturales.

El paisaje ha sido reconocido como un palimpsesto, construido capa por capa a través del tiempo. La pregunta es si esas capas realmente se entretejen o simplemente se superponen y esconden a las anteriores, cambiando en el proceso el paisaje urbano local, hasta desaparecer totalmente los remanentes del carácter original. Quizá la creciente velocidad que actualmente caracteriza la aparición de cada nuevo atributo del paisaje, que puede ser considerado “capa” en esta continúa espiral evolutiva, es una de las causas que impide una fusión apropiada y definitiva.

La identidad original se desvanece, frente a cambios mucho más veloces que los de una sucesión ecológica natural.

Por ejemplo, como se observa en la Figura 1, el desarrollo urbano de Bogotá, ha borrado el carácter natural originario del altiplano en el que la ciudad se estableció y continúa creciente. Extendida sobre un área de 1.587 kilómetros cuadrados, la ciudad ocupa el lugar No. 25 entre las más grandes del mundo. A una altura de 2.600 msnm el asentamiento empezó al pié de la montaña y devoró el inmenso humedal que existía allí hasta el siglo XVI, cuando se conoció e inició la creciente intervención por parte de la civilización occidental. Muy poco de la riqueza del sistema léntico ha quedado intacto. Así, la naturaleza ha sido negada en el lugar. El carácter acuoso y las siluetas verticales y finas de la vegetación que usualmente acompaña a los pantanos, junto con su avifauna relacionada, han desaparecido casi completamente. Así, la imagen de la ciudad de hoy podría ser la de cualquier ciudad, en cualquier parte del mundo. El asentamiento perdió la identidad de su paisaje nativo, la raíz de su carácter.

Figure 1. Bogotá
Figura 1. Bogotá. No naturaleza. Bogotá, Colombia, visto desde el suroeste. La ciudad se desarrolló sobre un antiguo humedal, cuyas huellas han desaparecido casi por completo. Foto: Gloria Aponte

En una escala de tiempo diferente, pero como un ejemplo tangible, puedo testificar que más de 20 años atrás, algunos tomadores de decisiones, en un viaje por los Estados Unidos, se enamoraron de una especie arbórea particular: pondré de moda ese árbol, se acordarán de mí, dijo uno de ellos. Y realmente, logró lo que quería: entre muchas otras vías urbanas de la ciudad, cerca de 7 kmts de la Avenida 80 fueron plantados con ese árbol. Un capricho que ha influenciado la experiencia, así sea inconsciente, de millones de personas, haciéndoles creer que los colores del otoño y las hojas agudamente palmeadas, son rasgos propios de un lugar tan cercano al Ecuador como Bogotá. Esta nueva planta fomenta un nuevo ecosistema que continúa negando oportunidades y espacio a material vegetal autóctono, más apropiado en color, forma, textura y hábitat al ecosistema original, a la zona climática local. Las asociaciones vegetales de montaña que ofrecían un telón de fondo al área urbana cambiaron para siempre.

Aunque los árboles y la vegetación en general son los ejemplos más obvios de la naturaleza en ambientes urbanos, el medio natural es mucho más que eso. El principal rasgo natural estructural que garantiza el carácter del paisaje de un lugar es su relieve. Este es un fuerte determinante del espacio que, como configurador o marco básico, define las principales cuencas visuales y vistas paisajísticas.

La mayoría de las ciudades colombianas están localizadas en la cadena montañosa de los Andes, donde el relieve natural es imponente y a veces sobre cogedor. No puede ser evitado, así “aplanarlo” sea el mayor deseo de planificadores o promotores inmobiliarios, para facilitar la ocupación del suelo, hacerlo accesible y usar estos argumentos para convencer potenciales clientes. Planificadores y arquitectos aún no logran arreglárselas con las condiciones topográficas de manera eficiente, o trabajar con otros profesionales que puedan establecer un diálogo equilibrado de los volúmenes nuevos con los existentes.

Figure 2. Medellín
Figura 2. Muy poco la naturaleza dentro del perímetro urbano. Medellín, Colombia, visto desde el noroeste. La ciudad sube por la colina de la ONU, dejando sólo el alivio difícil desocupada. Foto: Gloria Aponte

Respetar la naturaleza subyacente, envolvente y transversal a la ciudad

La ciudad es producción humana, sin embargo tiene que producir un marco significativo para la vida, y como parte de la calidad de la misma, atender la percepción e interpretación del hábitat por parte de los habitantes. En una de las profundas capas de nuestra cultura local, está el convencimiento de pertenecer a la naturaleza. Nuestros ancestros nunca habrán dicho: ” la naturaleza a nuestro alrededor”, tal como se oye decir con frecuencia actualmente; ellos y los reducidos grupos de indígenas sobrevivientes en el territorio nacional, se refieren a : ” la naturaleza de la cual hacemos parte”. Ellos reconocen que ser humano, no significa sólo tener un vínculo con la naturaleza, sino la convicción de ser parte de ella, los humanos SON naturaleza así muchos de nuestros compatriotas se empeñen en sentirse aparte.Las herramientas recientes para la planificación de las ciudades reflejan cómo nuestra sociedad está cada vez más lejos de aquella creencia.

Durante la revisión cívico-académica del reciente Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial para Medellín, me atreví a proponer que el primer principio filosófico en el documento debería ser: respeto por la naturaleza subyacente transversal y envolvente a la ciudad. Tan simple como eso. Pero esta contribución junto con otras en la misma dirección, fue considerada anecdótica y dejada de lado, aunque sus consecuencias no irían en detrimento del urbanismo, la competitividad o la innovación, focos de los propósitos del desarrollo municipal o metropolitano para el futuro cercano.

En años recientes ha habido gran interés hacia el “borde urbano-rural” particularmente en Medellín. Se supone que esa franja de tierra detendrá la ocupación urbana, y claramente deja la naturaleza por fuera (lejos de la ciudad), y el desarrollo urbano adentro, aunque salpicado con algo de vegetación manipulada para calmar conciencias y cumplir con necesidades utilitarias inmediatas.

El agua fluye a través de las fronteras 

Uno de los componentes naturales que se ve más afectado al crux¡zar la frontera del borde urbano-rural, son las corrientes de agua. Cuando las quebradas se acercan l área urbana, generalmente son canalizadas, de esta manera el agua corriente es forzada a velocidades inusuales causando inundaciones al final, lo cual es tan peligroso como la pérdida total de la dinámica natural. Significa que las quebradas pierden su apariencia natural, vestidas al comienzo con una geometría urbana rígida, para luego ser completamente escondidas al enterrarlas de tal manera que el ambiente urbano pierde las manifestaciones que le son propias al agua natural y que podrían aportar sonidos armoniosos, disfrute visual, y lecciones de dinámica y ritmo. Los ciudadanos usan el recurso, pero este llega separadamente de la simbiótica apariencia natural, de lo sensible, y de los mensajes simbólicos y significantes que el agua trae a los seres humanos, quienes estamos profundamente atados a ella.

El rompecabezas de confrontar, o mejor articular lo urbano con lo rural, no es tan simple.

La respuesta no es una frontera entre los dos. Desde el punto de vista del paisaje, el borde tiene que ser conciliador, de unión, inclusivo, sin límites rígicdos. Articulación en lugar de límite, ecotono en lugar de frontera, es lo que se propone desde esta perspectiva Claramente las quebradas pueden ser los hilos que logren esa costura. http://www.intechopen.com/books/landscape-planning/landscape-planning-in-borders

En simultánea, la parte de afuera, comúnmente llamada “rural” está siendo colonizada por diferentes usos de la tierra, de estilo claramente urbano, aunque no necesariamente por decisión política, tales como condominios, donde la actitud de manipular la naturaleza es totalmente acogida. De esta manera, así como la tierra urbana, la tierra rural sufre del reemplazo de la naturaleza “natural” por una naturaleza manipulada. Esta tierra es nominalmente rural pero su espíritu es urbano.

Figure 3. Rionegro
Figura 3. Rionegro. Naturaleza geometrizadas para cumplir con los propósitos de delimitación de propiedad, en un terreno suburbano, cerca del aeropuerto de Rionegro. Foto: Gloria Aponte

La naturaleza manipulada trasmite un sentimiento de estatismo que nada tiene que ver con la naturaleza viva.

La composición o disposición, sus características y sus calidades formales, deben ser desarrolladas de tal manera que establezcan un diálogo significativo con la gente, dar un mensaje de bienvenida, de acogida, de identificación de los lugares y orientación a través de ellos, todo dentro de la escala de funcionalidad de la ciudad.

Atender a la escala humana es una de las claves para el restablecimiento del diálogo ahora silenciado entre la gente y los demás componentes de la naturaleza.

Figure 4. En Medellín
Figura 4. Exuberante vegetación, espacios de acondicionamiento para dar la bienvenida a los ciudadanos. Fuera Parque Explora en Medellín. Foto: Gloria Aponte

La manipulación implica poder, y los seres humanos disfrutamos el poder. El disfrute de lograr nuestros deseos y verlos materializados puede ser mas fuerte que el sentimiento de pertenencia a la naturaleza y el apego al hábitat local. La manipulación solo por el placer de la propia satisfacción, por moda o por usar materiales más baratos es una manera irresponsable de participación cívica o profesional en el desarrollo de la ciudad. La imagen en la figura 5 muestra cómo desafortunadamente este fenómeno rápidamente prolifera e invade las áreas residenciales de Medellín.

Figure 5. En laureles
Figura 5. Naturaleza manipulada. La pérdida de las funciones ecosistémicas y significado local emocional. Barrio Laureles. Foto: Gloria Aponte

Medellín, la segunda ciudad colombiana, es en la actualidad internacionalmente reconocida por diversas razones. Ha recibido varios premios, principalmente por su resiliencia social, demostrada a través del proceso de reconstrucción de la coexistencia social, el mejoramiento de los niveles de seguridad, la promoción de la innovación y el emprenderismo, y muchos proyectos urbanos de destacada calidad, adelantados bajo la bandera del “urbanismo social”. En una visita reciente, durante la Conferencia VII CLACSO, Boaventura de Soussa Santos aplaudía las grandes transformaciones de la ciudad pero recomendaba moderar el sentimiento de triunfalismo y recordar que no es solo con base en tecnología que se solucionan los problemas. Orientaba su discurso a asuntos sociales, pero éste bien puede ser aplicado hacia la naturaleza también.

A la vez que se reconocen los esfuerzos municipales a través de la denominada “silvicultura urbana”, término que implica más técnicas forestales que conceptos y principios relacionados a la coexistencia de la naturaleza con los elementos de la ciudad y beneficios intangibles en el espectro urbano, es tiempo ahora de dirigir la mirada y los esfuerzos no solo hacia introducir vegetación en la ciudad sino también hacia el redescubrimiento de la naturaleza en la ciudad. Se requiere trabajar en una aproximación que empieza desde el valor significativo que la naturaleza conlleva y comunicar estos valores a los ciudadanos a través de un mensaje que promueve sus emociones de identidad y arraigo.

Figure 6. Medellín
Figura 6. Naturaleza que se redescubrió a través de la ciudad densamente desarrollado. Foto: Gloria Aponte

Como afirma Paul Downton en una de sus inspiradoras contribuciones en TNOC: Las premisas sobre las cuales edificamos nuestras ciudades y construimos civilización, y la medida y y maneras como incluimos naturaleza en nuestras ciudades depende de cuáles valores escogemos adoptar.

Recobrar los valores en proceso de desaparición, con respecto a la naturaleza y particularmente la vegetación, no es simplemente un capricho de arquitecto paisajista ó un estilo, sino una contribución responsable para la supervivencia y la calidad de vida urbana. En este sentido la propuesta consiste en materializar valores tales como:

Sentirse parte de la naturaleza. Entender que: somos parte del bosque, de la tierra, del aire mismo, tal como nos lo recuerdan los Jaguares de Yuruparí (del Vaupés colombiano). Su conocimiento y consecuente comportamiento al cuidar la salud , en estrecha relación con el equilibrio de la naturaleza ha sido reconocido como Patrimonio Cultural Intangible de la Humanidad por UNESCO en 2011.

Respetar la naturaleza. Reconocer y entender las manifestaciones de la naturaleza pre-existente e interactuar con ella en lugar de dominarla indiscriminadamente, tiene que ser un lineamiento mandatorio para empezar cualquier nuevo desarrollo urbano en cualquier escala en un determinado predio.

Inspirarse en la naturaleza. La observación de la naturaleza ha inspirado numerosas invenciones humanas, esas lecciones están aún ahí, gratuitamente, en cada ambiente local. La naturaleza proporciona lecciones de resiliencia, ritmo, diversidad armónica y acertada composición. No se pretende volver a un estado prístino como fue hace mucho tiempo, pero sí asemejar la imagen que acompañó a la naturaleza de entonces. Permitir que aquellas capas permeen las nuevas y trasciendan a la vida urbana de hoy.

Ser autóctono. Usar material vegetal nativo tanto como sea posible. Es lo que corresponde hacer, en las condiciones actuales de crisis climática para ayudar a moderar las condiciones de vida así como recordar las formas, la imagen y la composición formal originales, para preservar el carácter de nuestro paisaje original

Conceptos como biofilia (la filiación emocional innata de los seres humanos con otros organismos vivos, tal como lo presenta E.O. Wilson), la biomímesis (aproximaciones a la innovación en busca de soluciones sustentables a retos actuales, emulando comprobadas estrategias y patrones de la naturaleza. Según el Biomimicry Institute 2015) y topofilia (el amor por, o conexiones emocionales con el lugar o el ambiente físico), son definitivamente inspiradores y nos ayudan a evitar la caída en el formalismo. Por supuesto habrá que entender la estrecha relación entre función y forma natural, promulgando el mensaje implícito en la presencia de formas, características y rasgos de raíz local. Somos como dioses, así que tenemos que hacerlo bien, dice Stewart Brand en su llamado al uso responsable del poder cuando participamos en la construcción de los lugares para vivir.

Lo urbano entenderá lo natural, recomponiendo su lectura del paisaje. —De las Rivas 

Gloria Aponte
Medellín

De The Nature of Cities

Creative Place-Making—This is The Nature of Graffiti

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Nature is all around us. Plants, animals, soil, air and water inhabit and animate our daily lives, whether you live in the country or in the city. We are invigorated by nature. We are inspired by its creatures, their beauty, and their existential meaning. We depend on nature’s services and what they provide. We long for connection to nature, whether we are aware of this or not. Nature can represent metaphors for a “good life,” or for health, but also danger, “the wild,” and the un-domesticated. Animals have personality and images of them can convey ideas and emotions beyond their own existence. There are social ideas and controversies around the environment that inspire heated debate in conservation, climate change, and justice.

This is the nature of graffiti. It facilitates speech. It speaks to us. It stakes claims and makes statements. It tells stories.
We are part of nature, so it’s no surprise that nature is ubiquitous in art, from formal “indoor art” to outdoor murals and graffiti. These last two forms are the subject of a new collection of images and discussion curated by The Nature of Cities: “Up Against the Wall: A Gallery of Nature-Themed Graffiti and Street Art.” You can see the growing collection here.

And you can contribute to it, too: we’re just getting started, but we intend this gallery to be an evolving, crowd-sourced collection—a source of ideas, agitation and inspiration for creative place-making that is beyond the formal and sanctioned. We also hope this site will be a place where both artists and communities might merge to talk about the people-nature connection in outdoor art, a convening space where we can explore the meaning of graffiti and the nature of public space and creative place-making.

Graffiti has a multifaceted and sometimes controversial place in the urban landscape. Some say:

Graffiti reflects underlying decay and lawlessness, and is a menace to social order.

Others say:

Graffiti fulfills many important social functions, including making social commentary, claiming on space, and creating interesting public places.

Or maybe both. It is one of the few truly spontaneous elements in many urban landscapes.

Graffiti, revered and loathed by turn, provides insights into societal attitudes and perceptions. Whether for protest, art, comment or signaling, as a sometimes (but not always) illegal activity, graffiti can confront hegemony, saying what those in power don’t want to hear, or what isn’t part of the “mainstream” dialogue. However, sometimes it can support hegemony, such as politicians in 1980s Brazil and Argentina paying locals to paint covert political slogans. World War II histories contain many examples of Nazi graffiti. Paul Downton was inspired by a corporate advertisement masquerading as stenciled graffiti to write a TNOC essay about how public space can be covertly coopted.

These are the facts of graffiti and street art, and represent some of their many dualities: decay vs. renewal; illegal vs legal; ugly vs. beautiful; innovative vs. crass; overt vs. covert; inside vs. outside.

So what is graffiti and street art saying? What can it say? Some people view it as ‘out of place,’ deviant, symbolizing disorder and moral panic. On the other hand, as art that is created and experienced out in public spaces, graffiti and street art can be used to assert a claim to a particular place, in a sense create it—a territorial marker for the artist and all those they aim to represent. Graffiti also blurs the boundaries between private space (the buildings it is often painted on) and public (the visibility of graffiti from public places). At its best, graffiti can challenge dominant discourses and politics and communicate alternative, disruptive meaning. Street art, graffiti’s somewhat more formal cousin, can serve similar roles in creative place-making, especially when such art is inspired and commissioned by and for local communities.

Graffiti and street art styles are as diverse as their subject matter—tags, throw-ups, stencils, stickers, wildstyle, piece, blockbuster, murals, and more. In our gallery, we are interested in examples of all styles of graffiti and street art (broadly defined) that include themes from nature (also very broadly defined), or that have some element of ‘nature’ in their content, for whatever purpose. Nature-themed graffiti may relate to many issues in society, such as: (1) how we define and understand nature (e.g., a rural or agrarian ideal, wilderness); (2) political statements of all kinds, including but not limited to those addressing conservation or the environment; (3) comments on what is missing or needed in the city; (4) simple depictions of beauty; and (5) use of nature elements as tags or as messages that don’t involve the environment.

Pippin Anderson sowed the seed for this collection in her essay for TNOC on nature-themed graffiti in Cape Town. It turns out that there is a lot of graffiti and street art around the world that includes elements of nature. Examples illustrate stories and purposes that are rich, diverse, illuminating and provocative. We mention a few here, but there are more than 100 at the gallery, with more being added every week.

Already in the gallery, you can find pictures of nature’s place in our urban world, messages about environmental protection and images of cities as counter to a rural idyll. See, for example, the large mural in Barrio 13 in Medellín, Colombia—near the famous escalators that help people navigate the steep hillside community—depicting a scene of rural idyll. Perhaps these are offered in contrast to a difficult urban existence. There are scenes of mystery and beauty on dismal walls needing the remediation that natural images can provide. Contemplate the large (over 25 meters) image of Pumas stalking across a wall, also in Medellín. There is evocative graffiti of a vine growing out of a woman’s head in Cape Town, perhaps titled “Nature on my mind.” In Portland, Mike Houck commissioned the largest community mural in North America: over 55,000 square feet depicting an array of local birds.

A large community mural in Barrio 13, Medellín, Colombia. Photo: David Maddox
A large community mural in Barrio 13, Medellín, Colombia. Photo: David Maddox
Pumas stalk across a walk in Medellín, Colombia. Photo: David Maddox
Pumas stalk across a wall in Medellín, Colombia. Photo: David Maddox
Nature on my mind, in the Woodstock Neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Jaques de Satage
Nature on my mind, in the Woodstock Neighborhood of Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Jaques de Satage
North America's largest mural at 55,000 square feet,overlooking Oaks Bottom Preserve in Portland, Oregon. Commissioned and photographed by Mike Houck.
Portland Mausoleum Mural. North America’s largest mural at 55,000 square feet,overlooking Oaks Bottom Preserve in Portland, Oregon. Commissioned and photographed by Mike Houck.
Monsanto Mata—Monsanto Kills, in a fancy Buenos Aires park. Photo: David Maddox
Monsanto Mata—Monsanto Kills, in a fancy Buenos Aires park. Photo: David Maddox

There are calls to action, including for conservation causes and environmental controversies, but also scenes memorializing victims of violence.

There are statements of concern about the corporate role in environmental degradation and food security (for example, “Monsanto Mata,” or “Monsanto kills,” in a fancy downtown Buenos Aires park), or complaints about the obscure politics of environmentally and socially destructive infrastructure.

One such image is refers to a large and controversial dam—the Belo Monte dam—on a tributary of the Amazon River that has destroyed forest, displaced indigenous people and only produced a modest, less-than-promised amount of hydropower (“Belo Monte de Mentiras,” or “Belo Monte lies,” in Altamira, Brazil).

In Australia, a helpful stencil reports that “your children’s future is a fantasy, but thanks for the rock and roll.”

Belo Monte de Mentiras—Belo Monte Lies. Protests against a dam project in Altamira, Brazil. Photo: David Maddox
Belo Monte de Mentiras—Belo Monte Lies. Protests against a dam project in Altamira, Brazil. Photo: David Maddox
In Adelaide, Australia "Your children's future is a fantasy," Photo: Paul Downton.
In Adelaide, Australia “Your children’s future is a fantasy,” Photo: Paul Downton.

Conservation images and wildlife abound in Cape Town, such as a graffiti image of how few Rothschild Giraffes remain in the wild.

A young boy has the world in his hands in Barcelona, but that same world is a ticking time bomb in Cape Town.

There is a giant fanciful flying fish dinosaur skeleton—if that’s what it is—in Montreal.

And someone is fishing for birds in a parking lot in Panama City, Panama.

The conservation status of Rothschild Giraffe, in Cape Town. Photo: Jaques de Satage
The conservation status of Rothschild Giraffe, in Cape Town. Photo: Jaques de Satage
He's got the whole world in his hands, Barcelona, Spain. Photo: Jennifer Balkjo
He’s got the whole world in his hands, Barcelona, Spain. Photo: Jennifer Balkjo

 

Ticking time bomb
The Earth is a ticking time bomb, in Cape Town. Photo: Pippin Anderson
Crazy flying skeleton giraffe, or something. Montreal, Canada. Photo: David Maddox
Crazy flying skeleton giraffe, or something. Montreal, Canada. Photo: David Maddox
Fishing for birds in a Panama City, Panama parking lot. Photo: David Maddox
Fishing for birds in a Panama City, Panama parking lot. Photo: David Maddox
Tripido (aka Diego Felipe Becerra) was murdered by the police in 2015—a policeman is serving time. Tripido's tag was a Felix the Cat. Photo: Germán Gomez
Tripido (aka Diego Felipe Becerra) was murdered by the police in 2015—a policeman is serving time. Tripido’s tag was a Felix the Cat. Photo: Germán Gomez

Often, nature images are used to make points unrelated to the environment. Or maybe they are just part of the artist’s tag image. Or both.

For example, a well-known and influential graffiti artist, Tripido, was murdered by the police in Bogotá in 2015. A policeman is now serving jail time, with others under investigation. Tripido’s tag was a Felix the Cat. You can see many memorials to him—Felix the Cats—around Bogotá.

In the 12th Century, someone, perhaps a Templar knight, scratched a pelican in a castle wall to symbolize his devotion to Christianity—at that time Pelicans were symbols of the nurturing quality of the faith.

Maybe the Angel Cat along the famous High Line park in New York City is simply a memorial to a lost pet.

Who knows what the penguin in the life preserver is doing? Perhaps she is preparing to be cast out to sea after her ice flow melts into an ocean inexorably warming around her.

12th Century scratching in a Templar castle, representing a devotion of Christianity. Photo: David Maddox
12th Century scratching in a Templar castle, representing a devotion of Christianity. Photo: David Maddox
Angel Cat along the famous High Line in New York City. Photo: David Maddox
Angel Cat along the famous High Line in New York City. Photo: David Maddox
Penguin in a life preserver, in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Peg Malloy
Penguin in a life preserver, in the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Peg Malloy

This is The Nature of Graffiti. It facilitates speech. It speaks to us. It stakes claims and makes statements. It tells stories.

We ought to listen to people about their perceptions and views on nature in cities, in order that we better promote the idea and value of nature in cities. In that rich vein, what does this graffiti tell us? It tells us there are voices of dissent out there, personal views not always captured by popular media or acted on by city managers or private developers. It tells us that that there are non-standard urban forms, and a desire for more nature, both in cities and beyond cities. It tells us that in even the most overwhelmingly urban environments, human beings are determined to find a way to express our connection with the rest of the living world. There’s a desire to tell personal stories as a form of creative and alternative place-making. Among all the individual stories embedded in these examples of graffiti and street start, there are larger, synthetic stories about society.

We hope that many will collaborate with us in creating this collection. Check it out. And when you see nature-themed graffiti or murals out on the street, take a picture, share it by uploading it, and leave a story about it location, context, and meaning to you. Artists too are invited to put their own work up. By gathering examples of such graffiti in cities globally, we aim to facilitate exploration of some interesting questions: What are examples of urban nature-themed graffiti around the world? What does it tell us about the nature of and in cities? What might stories we find in graffiti art tell us about urban (and rural) stories? How are people using nature to claim public spaces?

Join us.

David Maddox, Pippin Anderson, Paul Downton, Emilio Fantin, Germán Eliecer Gomez, Julie Goodness, Mike Houck, Todd Lester, Patrick Lydon, Patrice Milillo, Laura Shillington

New York, Cape Town, Adelaide, Bologna, Bogotá, Stockholm, Portland, Säo Paulo, Seoul/San Jose, Los Angeles, Managua/Montreal

On The Nature of Cities

Pippin Anderson

about the writer
Pippin Anderson

Pippin Anderson, a lecturer at the University of Cape Town, is an African urban ecologist who enjoys the untidiness of cities where society and nature must thrive together. FULL BIO

Paul Downton

about the writer
Paul Downton

Writer, architect, urban evolutionary, founding convener of Urban Ecology Australia and a recognised ‘ecocity pioneer’. Paul has championed ecological cities for years but has become disenchanted with how such a beautiful concept can be perverted and misinterpreted – ‘Neom' anyone? Paul is nevertheless working on an artistic/publishing project with the working title ‘The Wild Cities’ coming soon to a crowd-funding site near you!

Emilio Fantin

about the writer
Emilio Fantin

Emilio Fantin is an artist working in Italy on multidisciplinary research. He teaches at the Politecnico, Architecture, University of Milan, and acts as coordinator of the “Osservatorio Public Art”.

Germán Gomez

about the writer
Germán Gomez

Germán Eliecer Gomez is a sociologist working for the Ministry of Culture of Bogota, with expertise in communication and expert on issues related to urban cultural practices, especially young people, in expressions such as graffiti, football bars. Sociólogo con maestría en Comunicación. Expertos en temas relacionados con practicas culturales urbanas, principalmente de jovenes, en expresiones tales como el grafiti, las barras de fútbol.

Julie Goodness

about the writer
Julie Goodness

Julie Goodness has a PhD in Sustainability Science from the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University; her research is focused on urban social-ecological systems, functional traits and ecosystem services, environmental education, design-thinking and design-based learning, social action and community development.

Mike Houck

about the writer
Mike Houck

Mike Houck is a founding member of The Nature of Cities and is currently a TNOC board member. He is The Urban Naturalist for the Urban Greenspaces Institute (www.urbangreenspaces.org), on the board of The Intertwine Alliance and is a member of the City of Portland’s Planning and Sustainability Commission.

Todd Lester

about the writer
Todd Lester

Todd Lester is an artist and cultural producer. He has worked in leadership, advocacy and strategic planning roles at Global Arts Corps, Reporters sans frontiers, and Astraea Lesbian Justice Foundation. He founded freeDimensional and Lanchonete.org—a new project focused on daily life in the center of São Paulo.

Patrick M. Lydon

about the writer
Patrick M. Lydon

Patrick M. Lydon is an American ecological writer and artist based in Korea whose seeks to re-connect cities and their inhabitants with nature. He writes The Possible City series, is co-founder of City as Nature (Daejeon). He is an Arts Editor here at The Nature of Cities.

Patrice Milillo

about the writer
Patrice Milillo

At Art is Power, Patrice focuses his energies full-time on working with and documenting visionary Arts initiatives from around the globe. Previously, he worked as a public school teacher in San Jose, California.

Laura Shillington

about the writer
Laura Shillington

Laura Shillington is faculty in the Department of Geoscience and the Social Science Methods Programme at John Abbott College (Montréal). She is also a Research Associate at the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre, Concordia University (Montréal).

Can cities save bees? How can urban habitats be made to serve pollinator conservation? How can that story be better told?

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined
Regularly, we feature a Global Roundtable in which a group of people respond to a specific question in The Nature of Cities.
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David Maddox

about the writer
David Maddox

David loves urban spaces and nature. He loves creativity and collaboration. He loves theatre and music. In his life and work he has practiced in all of these as, in various moments, a scientist, a climate change researcher, a land steward, an ecological practitioner, composer, a playwright, a musician, an actor, and a theatre director. David's dad told him once that he needed a back up plan, something to "fall back on". So he bought a tuba.

Introduction

Bees and pollinators have always been a part of the city landscape. Parks, private and community gardens, and green roofs all contribute to habitat for a diverse pollinator fauna in cities. Indeed, there is some evidence that cities might be refugia for some bee species.

But with increasing interest in urban-based conservation, agriculture and gardens, their presence has become more noticeable—and more important. Furthermore, bee and pollinator conservation is a key concern outside of cities, with habitat loss, indiscriminant insecticide use and other issues threatening bee species and pollinators generally.

What role can cities play in bee and conservation, perhaps through policy encouraging green space with appropriate plantings and a reduction in the use of pesticides?

How can this role be supported, by both public and private actors?

And how can story of urban pollinators be better told to propel the conversation about urban pollinator conservation and their critical services?

Katherine Baldock

about the writer
Katherine Baldock

Katherine Baldock is a researcher based at the University of Bristol, with an interest in pollinator communities, ecological networks and urban conservation.

Katherine Baldock

Land use change from natural habitats to human-managed landscapes is generally perceived as having a negative impact on wildlife. Yet recent research indicates that towns and cities can provide suitable habitat for at least some groups of insect pollinators, particularly bees.

Compared to agricultural landscapes, urban areas are smaller in size (e.g. approximately 70 percent of U.K. land is managed for agriculture, whereas 7 percent is classified as ‘urban’); therefore, conserving pollinators requires action by both rural and urban land managers. Yet urban areas are home to over half of the global human population and, with urbanisation predicted to increase to accommodate an increasing global population, cities are likely to be increasingly important locations for wildlife conservation.

Despite the knowledge gaps we need to address, there are steps we can take to ensure that urban habitats provide for pollinators and thus aid in their conservation.

Several recent studies have shown that towns and cities can contain high pollinator diversity, and that bee diversity can be as high as, or even greater than, in nearby rural areas. This suggests that urban areas can provide suitable food and nesting resources for at least some native bee species. Gardens comprise approximately 25 percent of the urban landscape in the U.K. and gardening is a popular activity, so gardens are likely to provide important floral resources throughout the year in towns and cities. It is important to remember, though, that bee species vary in their habitat requirements and urban living may not suit them all. There are more than 270 bee species in the U.K. and approximately 20,000 species worldwide. Bees vary in their nesting habits, floral preferences and the time of year at which they are active, all of which are likely to affect their survival in urban habitats. Generalist species, including many of the bumble bees, can forage on a wide range of plant species and may be more suited to urban areas. Indeed, research has shown that bumblebee colony growth rate and nest density in suburban gardens can exceed that found in the countryside. In contrast, several studies have found floral specialists to be rare in cities.

What about the other pollinators? In temperate northern Europe, other pollinator groups include beetles, wasps, butterflies, moths and flies. These insects vary in their efficacy as pollinators, though recent research shows that non-bee insects are globally important crop pollinators. To support a population of a particular species, all of the species’ resources (e.g. larval food plant, nesting substrate, overwintering sites) must be available.

So can cities save pollinators? Research has shown that at least some species are able to use urban habitats. The bottom line, though, is that there is still much we don’t know about the habitat requirements for many pollinator groups and we need a lot more research to find out which pollinators use urban habitats worldwide.

Despite the knowledge gaps we need to address, there are steps we can take to ensure that urban habitats provide for pollinators and thus aid in their conservation. All pollinators feed on flowers, so increasing the numbers of flowers that provide good sources of nectar and pollen is essential. We need to plant a variety of flowers (different pollinators feed on different plants), to make sure nectar and pollen are available throughout the year and also to consider location. Creating corridors of favourable habitat will enable movement and dispersal of pollinators both within urban landscapes and between urban and adjacent rural habitats, thus increasing habitat connectivity and helping to maintain healthy pollinator populations at regional and national levels. Projects such as the Buglife-led B-Lines are seeking to create large-scale habitat corridors to achieve just this. It’s not just about the flowers, though: efforts to maintain and create pollinator habitat must consider other resource needs, including nesting sites.

How do we make this happen? The number of people and organisations involved in managing urban habitats is both a challenge and an opportunity. Local authorities must be on board to ensure that public land is favourably managed, but essentially anyone with access to land can do their bit, as well as encouraging neighbours, employers, local businesses and schools to take action. Recognition by and support from governments in the form of national pollinator strategies or action plans, as is the case in England, Ireland and the U.S., among others, is important in uniting stakeholders in both rural and urban areas to achieve shared goals.

Cities, and the people in them, can play an important role in helping pollinators. Managing our urban areas better for wildlife as a whole is part of the solution, but we must also ensure that we conserve natural habitats wherever possible.

Alison Benjamin

about the writer
Alison Benjamin

Alison Benjamin is co-founder of Urban Bees, which works with communities, companies and charities to help bees in cities by raising awareness about their role, improving forage and habitat for wild bees, and teaching responsible urban beekeeping.

Alison Benjamin

Since becoming a beekeeper a decade ago, I have been on a journey that has opened my eyes to what cities can offer bees in terms of forage and habitat, and how that could be vastly improved by transforming flower beds in our parks and gardens with nectar and pollen-rich varieties (instead of colourful but sterile annual displays), planting up roof tops with trees and shrubs that supply year-round bee forage, and leaving areas undisturbed where wild bees can safely nest.

I now see cities in a completely different light. A tree-lined street has become an aisle in a bee supermarket, fully stocked for a short time during the year, and completely empty at others; a park is like a larder full of bee-friendly free ingredients; and the grey expanse of roofs that cover our cities are deserts where no food grows.

What we need to ask is not what cities can do for bees, but what bees can do for cities to make them better, more resilient places for all of us?

In London alone, we are currently paving or decking over gardens and losing the equivalent of two and a half Hyde Parks every year which, in addition to wiping out potential bee forage, exacerbates problems such as flooding, air pollution and rising temperatures caused by the heat island effect. If we ditch the decking and turn our cities into a vast bed and breakfast for bees, we not only feed and house bees, we also make cities more resilient for us to live in, too. Trees, as well as often providing the most abundant source of food for bees in cities and habitat for myriad species, soak up rainwater, store carbon, remove pollution and provide cooling canopy cover for us.

This week, I’m helping to plant new trees in a local inner London square. The trees have been chosen by myself in conjunction with the local council’s arboricultural officer to extend the foraging season for bees: a white cherry for early nectar and a Japanese pagoda for forage in late summer.

But the event will do much more than feed bees. It will bring the community together, making us all feel good for helping bees, making the square so much more attractive at different times of the year—from the blossom in spring to the leaves’ autumnal colour—and allow us urbanites to reconnect with nature and one another; in summary, it will increase our sense of wellbeing.

For this reason, it’s become clear to me that what we need to ask is not what cities can do for bees, but what bees can do for cities to make them better, more resilient places for all of us?

By pollinating plants, from the fruit trees in our backyards to the vegetables on our allotments, bees are increasing the yield of fresh, locally produced food we can eat in towns and cities. And their pollination services are providing much-needed fruits and berries for the wildlife we share our cities with, from songbirds to small mammals, as well as allowing flowers and plants to propagate in even the most barren looking wastelands.

In addition to the hugely important role bees play in promoting biodiversity in our urban eco-system, they also play a much undervalued role in reconnecting city dwellers with nature and, in so doing, improve our mental state. Most of us live in cities and, by 2050, 75 percent of the human population will live in urban centers. Nature deficit disorder—a term coined to describe the negative impact of a disconnect with the natural environment—can exacerbate behavioural problems in children and add to stress levels in adults. Research shows that nature has restorative and therapeutic powers. But if we sit in offices all day, oblivious to the changing seasons and natural world around us, how do we benefit from this eco-healing?

Bees, that’s how. By having a hive and learning about how honeybees work, or planting bee-friendly flowers in a window box, or making a DIY bee hotel where cavity-nesting solitary bees can check in to lay their eggs, people—from school children to alienated young people and even busy adults—in cities are learning about the nature on their doorstep. What’s more, they are getting to know work colleagues or neighbours in the process and breaking down the social isolation that blights urban existence.

So by making cities more bee-friendly, we are actually making them much more human-friendly places for us to live and work.

Tina Harrison

about the writer
Tina Harrison

Tina Harrison is a Ph.D. student in Dr. Rachael Winfree’s lab at Rutgers University. She investigates biotic homogenization of bee communities in disturbed landscapes.

Tina Harrison

Cities often support high local diversities of pollinators, particularly bees. At the same time, cities support a subset of the pollinator species in a surrounding region. Do these urban pollinator communities contribute to the total diversity of pollinators in a region? Is it possible—or practical—to increase a city’s contribution to regional pollinator diversity by restoring species that are currently missing from the urban pollinator community? The answers depend on characteristics of the species themselves.

In my own collections, I have found some native bee species almost exclusively in towns and small cities, and rarely in nearby agriculture and forest habitat.

Pollinators that are successful in cities are often very common in other habitats in the surrounding region. These species may provide great value within the city by pollinating urban crops, for example. It is possible that supporting regional abundance of common species has unappreciated long-term importance for regional biodiversity. However, when weighed against the immediate needs of uncommon, vulnerable species, conserving habitats that support mostly common species does not help regional pollinator diversity.

On the other hand, cities can support regionally rare pollinators. Some pollinators may be dependent on urban habitat because habitats outside cities are degraded, destroyed or otherwise unavailable. In my own collections, I have found some native bee species almost exclusively in towns and small cities, and rarely in nearby agriculture and forest habitat. Why? Habitats outside the towns are certainly altered from a “natural” state, but still support florishing communities of other native bees. Without knowing their specific habitat needs, all I can say is that urban habitats appear to be important in keeping these native bees abundant in the regional species pool.

Of the pollinator species that are missing from an urban area, I imagine two groups that are practical to restore. The first group includes species that are able to thrive in cities, but are generally uncommon and unlikely to be detected at sites with low numbers of individuals. These species can be restored by adding commonly limiting resources like flowers, which raise overall abundance of pollinators at a site. The second group may also thrive in cities, but commonly lacks one or two key resources. An example may be a habitat generalist/flower specialist like Peponapis pruinosa, which appears on squash and cucumber blossoms in community gardens in New York City. We can encourage these species to colonize urban habitats simply by adding the specific missing resource. Restoring either uncommon or specialist species in urban habitat is likely helpful for conserving regional diversity.

Many other pollinators are sensitive to a complex of environmental changes associated with urbanization that cannot be redressed by adding flowers. These include many habitat specialist pollinators that are consistently missing from urban pollinator surveys, such as spring Andrena bees associated with mature forest. Habitat specialists are priority species for conserving regional diversity, and mostly benefit from conservation efforts outside of the city. Nevertheless, we can support some of these species by protecting fragments of natural habitat within cities. And in some cases, it may be practical to widely integrate natural habitat into urban land use without loss of value to humans. For example, in the southwestern U.S., xeric backyard gardens that replicate native desert habitat appear to support much of the native desert bee community. If habitats outside of cities are extremely degraded, for example by intensive agriculture, then conserving regional pollinator diversity will require using these strategies to maximize the proportion of regional species that can survive within urban boundaries.

I suspect that natural and agricultural habitats still support the lion’s share of regional pollinator diversity. With respect to this important conservation goal, the benefits of urban pollinator conservation are probably outweighed by opportunity costs to conservation efforts outside the city. But since pollinator conservation within cities serves other goals, making it count towards regional diversity conservation should be pursued as a positive bonus.

Sarah Bergmann

about the writer
Sarah Bergmann

Sarah Bergmann is a design thinker working across ecology, design, planning and culture. She is the founder of the Pollinator Pathway, a living essay in landscape that responds to humanity’s influence as an ecosystem.

Sarah Bergmann

Eight years ago, I began developing a project called the Pollinator Pathway. The project is both a vision for an international system of design to connect cities, farms and wilderness, and a living essay on nature in the age of humanity. The project has ignited global conversation and is considered a massive cultural success, attracting scientists, curators, planners, architects and designers alike. Through this project, I’m investing what will ultimately be ten years into exploring history, botany, urbanism, social systems, environmental thought and systems of real estate—all with the question of how we might best build new systems and paradigms in the coming hundreds of years.

I think we should eliminate the entire concept of saving species. Therefore, I have a counter question: how can cities be better participants in a global ecology?

We are in the midst of a global transformation of landscape, from wild and biologically diverse to agrarian and urban dotted by fragmented green spaces, and with it, an increasingly globalizing ecology. We are essentially designing landscapes of cosmopolitan species—those species and ecosystems that can thrive globally, often in the systems we create (and the honeybee is one such species).

I think to answer any of these questions about cities, we need to think a great deal more about relationships between systems, and a great deal less about certain species or even several species. In fact, I think we should eliminate the entire concept of saving species. Therefore, I have a counter question: how can cities be better participants in a global ecology?

I think some of the most logical ways that cities can contribute to the ecology of the planet—to become active participants in the biosphere, so to speak—is through (at minimum) only using underused space in ecology projects, very definitely not adding more honeybees to our landscapes, connecting landscapes—and, above everything, developing policy and funding mechanisms that pair the development within cities with support for the connectivity of landscape outside cities.

Then—however rudimentary a level it may be—we’re beginning to make a real system of exchange, and thinking more like an ecosystem.

Caragh Threlfall

about the writer
Caragh Threlfall

Dr Caragh Threlfall's research is focussed on understanding the impact of urban form on biodiversity, measuring the services biodiversity provides across urban landscapes, and assessing the effectiveness of urban greening for biodiversity conservation.

Caragh Threlfall

Can cities save bees and assist in pollinator conservation more broadly? This is an interesting question, where it’s likely the answer will be country- and city-specific. Bees in urban areas have been most extensively studied in the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom. In Australia, we know much less about how many species of bees occur in our cities and what types of habitats are important to their conservation. We know that bees need food, nesting sites and water, and that these three key things often occur in urban areas. However, exactly how important Australian cities are for bee conservation is yet to be determined.

The jury is still out on exactly what role cities will play in the conservation of Australia’s unique bee fauna.

Australia is one of the world’s most urbanised countries, and it is predicted that 90 percent of Australians will live in a city by 2050. This high density of Australia’s population in cities poses an obvious threat to biodiversity, including our native bees. But, it could also present enormous opportunities for targeted research, citizen science, evidence-based conservation policy and genuine science-practice partnerships. Cities could form an excellent platform to set out to achieve these things. However, there are currently some challenges to this goal.

There are over 1,500 species of bees in Australia, with records of over 150 species in some of our capital cities. Despite this diversity, there is only one published paper examining habitat for bees in an Australian city. We do not yet know how many types of bees occur in our cities, what habitat they need or how to manage that habitat to serve pollinator conservation. My colleagues and I at The University of Melbourne and The University of Sydney have been collecting data to remedy this situation, and we have a good inkling that our cities harbour a large proportion of the countries bee biodiversity, but until more work is done, we just don’t know for sure.

Our second major stumbling block is that most of our 1,500 species are small and solitary. Australian bees, albeit charismatic, are not as well recognised as bumblebees are in other countries, and are commonly mistaken for flies by the general public. However, many municipal authorities are working very hard on fantastic community engagement programs to remedy this apparent underappreciation for urban invertebrates, including The City of Melbourne’s Urban BioBlitz—where hundreds of participants gathered in the city’s parks and gardens to survey the urban pollinator community, providing data for their upcoming urban biodiversity policy—Or the Ku-ring-gai Council’s native bee hive program, which is so popular they have residents on waiting lists eager to take home their very own native bee hive. However, these types of programs are by no means common practice, and many more programs like this are needed before the urban public can empathise with the plight of our urban bees.

Our last stumbling block to realising the potential of cities as avenues for pollinator conservation is the lack of urban biodiversity policy that currently mentions bees (or any invertebrate, for that matter). Current policy often focusses on the threatened or rare, and much of the habitat that our native bees would happily utilise—such as gardens, vacant lots and brownfields—are not traditionally viewed as valuable for biodiversity, and subsequently do not feature in urban biodiversity policy.

So how can cities save bees and assist in pollinator conservation? I think cities require new approaches to conservation, including genuine, long-term collaborative partnerships between scientists, practitioners and policy makers. These partnerships need to operate at multiple scales, from local municipalities through to national scales. And these partnerships need to act in concert so that research informs policy and policy needs inform research, with a focus on providing opportunities and stories to engage citizens along the way. We are well on our way to forging these paths in Australia; however, the jury is still out on exactly what role cities will play in the conservation of our unique bee fauna into the future.

Matt Shardlow

about the writer
Matt Shardlow

Matt is Chief Executive of Buglife – The Invertebrate Conservation Trust, the only organisation in Europe committed to saving all animals without backbones.

Matt Shardlow

Bees and pollinators have always been a part of the city landscape, but outside cities modern agriculture has caused, and continues to cause, the destruction of bee habitat and the resulting declines in bumblebees, solitary bees, hoverflies, moths and butterflies. Cities have provided a relative sanctuary from the chemical and physical destruction of flower-rich meadows and indiscriminate insecticide use. Now there is increasing interest in urban-based conservation and wildlife gardening, so the presence of city bees amongst us has become more noticeable as well as more important.

Urban habitats can provide a fantastic range of varied pollinator resources. Existing wildflower sites, sometimes grasslands or railway banks and very often brownfield sites such as quarries or old mining spoil, can be protected and managed for their wildlife habitats. Roadside verges, playing fields, gardens, flat roofs, parks, even hanging baskets and green walls can be adapted to become flower rich bee havens.

France is leading the way, Paris has been pesticide free for over a decade and there are over 900 villes sans pesticides.
The choice of pollen and nectar sources is important, tailoring planting to key local pollinator species and assemblages will increase the functionality of the habitats. While many pollinators are generalists, others visit only certain types of flower or are dependent on the flowers of just one plant. For instance ivy, speedwells, yellow loosestrife, white bryony, ragwort and scabious flowers all have specialist bees in Britain. Fostering flowers that support specialist bee species has the potential to ensure that cities not only maintain boosted populations of the widespread and generalist pollinators, but are also a refuge to a wide variety of bee species.

More pollen and nectar is the primary objective for bee habitat improvements, but nesting sites are also limiting factor for several species. Bumblebees will benefit from areas with long vegetation and banks where mice and voles can create the burrows that the bees so often occupy. Solitary bees have very varied nesting requirements. Solitary bee nest boxes are effective for a number of groups of solitary bees, and the retention of deadwood provides a more natural source of holes and cavities in which the bees can nest. We can also create banks and bare ground in which burrowing solitary bees can nest. For instance, Buglife’s ‘Get Glasgow Buzzing’ project installed large patches of sand in municipal parks so that sand nesting solitary bees could construct nests.

One of my favourite stories of urban bee conservation relates to the Long-fringed mini-miner bee (Andrena nivealis). It is a rare bee found in very few localities in southern Britain where it specialises on brassica, cabbage family, flowers. In Bees of Surrey (2008) David Baldock relates that the bee was found in abundance on a small holding in Ewell, feeding on purple sprouting broccoli. A woman living in an adjacent house had noticed the bees and spent hours observing them foraging and nesting in bare ground. When the small holding stopped growing brassicas the woman used her garden to grow a variety of flowering brassicas so that the little bees would have a chance of survival.

Engaging local people is key to delivering successful bee habitats. Passing on knowledge will enable them to manage flower rich bee friendly areas into the future, and they will learn for themselves that bee habitats have much wider benefits; delivering ecotherapy and the health and wellbeing benefits that come with nature engagement. Bee habitats, foraging and nesting, provides benefits to other pollinators and wildlife, giving the potential for people to access and to experience a wide range of invertebrate, plant, bird and mammal life close to where they live.

There is much still to learn about conserving bees in cities. The Buglife project ‘Get Plymouth Buzzing’ worked with Plymouth Council to develop wildflower meadows on municipal grassland. A subsequent study found that the wildflower meadows had more than twice as many bees as areas that were still standard municipal grassland. Buglife’s current ‘Urban Buzz’ project will be turning eight cities across the UK into bee wonderlands. But the project will also attempt to get a better understanding of how we can provide the greatest benefit to our bee fauna, by, for instance, experimenting and researching innovative aerial homes for solitary bees.

Working with Local Authorities brings the potential to develop a strategic network of pollinator sites. Existing wildflower areas can be expanded and linked together and the targeting of action can improve the landscape connectivity for bees—promoting corridors of bee friendly open spaces, roofs, gardens and walls—as is being planned with the London B-Line.

Pesticides are a big issue for bees and other pollinators. Neonicotinoids attack the nervous system of wild bees, preventing them from foraging successfully, finding their nests and producing queens or the next generation, other insecticides such as pyrethroids are also toxic to bees, and herbicides impact bee health as well, either directly or through the destruction of flowering plants. The non-agricultural use of pesticides is usually cosmetic and unnecessary.

France is leading the way, Paris has been pesticide free for over a decade and there are over 900 villes sans pesticides. In 2014 Minister of Ecology and Energy, Ségolène Royal, called on mayors to stop using pesticides ”Pesticides are a health risk and today there are products that enable us to stop using pesticides and win back biodiversity, namely species such as butterflies that have at times completely vanished from certain communes.” Seattle, Copenhagen and Tokyo are among other cities that have kicked the pesticide habit.

Cites alone will not save all the bees. If we want to have a healthy and sustainable agricultural system with adequate pollination services then we will have to restore pollinators across the countryside, defining wide corridors and sprinkling them with fields of flowers, as set out in the B-Lines scheme, is probably the most cost effective way of achieving this. There are also many bees that have fussy habitat requirements, conditions only found on heathlands, sand dunes or chalk grassland for instance. These bees will not be adequately catered for by the amount of habitat in urban areas, and therefore need targeted conservation management.

While cities may not be the panacea for bee conservation, they can make a hugely important contribution to conserving many species of bee, and urban bee conservation work also enables people to learn about and love bees: knowledge and passion that will provide the ground swell of support for the conservation of all bee species.

Mark Goddard

about the writer
Mark Goddard

Mark is a research ecologist interested in the ecological and social drivers of biodiversity in urban green spaces, in particular private gardens.

Mark Goddard

While urban habitats will never be a panacea for pollinator conservation, there are two important reasons why insect pollinator ecologists are increasingly turning their attention to towns and cities. First, urban habitats could be acting as refugia from some of the threats facing wild pollinators in agricultural landscapes. The rather limited data we have on pollinators (which is based on haphazardly collected records rather than systematic monitoring programmes), suggests that most pollinator species are in decline. The causes for bee declines appear to be multi-faceted and include parasites, pesticides and a lack of flowers. Although urbanisation is an important cause of habitat loss globally, the majority of these threats to pollinators appear to be primarily occurring in non-urban land. Second, and especially in the developed global north, the majority of people live in cities. Pollinators, especially bees and butterflies, are charismatic and apparent emblems of biodiversity that people enjoy sharing their parks and gardens with. If we lose pollinators from cities, we don’t just lose a pollination service, we also lose the psychological benefits that we gain from urban biodiversity.

The majority of the public remains ignorant to the true diversity of wild pollinators.

Although research on urban pollinators has been increasing, most of the studies to date have been relatively small in scale, often focusing on a few urban habitats in a single city. However, a notable exception was a recent nationwide study that asked ‘Where is the U.K.’s pollinator biodiversity?’ By systematically surveying pollinators in 12 urban areas and comparing these urban pollinator communities with those of nearby farmland and nature reserves, Katherine Baldock and colleagues on the Urban Pollinators Project were able to show that towns and cities were just about as good for pollinators as farms and nature reserves. Moreover, when just looking at the bee species, urban areas were significantly more species-rich than farmland.

So, taken as a whole, it appears that cities can compare favourably to other habitats. But urban environments are notoriously heterogeneous, ranging from car parks and industrial estates to gardens and nature reserves. The second part of the Urban Pollinators Project sought to discover the urban pollinator ‘hot spots’ by comparing pollinator communities in nine different urban habitats across four U.K. cities. This work was followed up by a U.K.-wide experiment to investigate how best to enhance urban green spaces for pollinators. In partnership with local councils, schools and seed companies, members of the Project created 60 flower meadows across the U.K., including perennial meadows with only native species, and annual meadows containing mostly non-native species.

As the results emerge from the Urban Pollinators Project, we will certainly learn more about the value of towns and cities for pollinating insects and what we can do to make them better. But there is still a great deal more research required. By surveying insects visiting flowers, the Urban Pollinators Project was able to produce plant-pollinator networks for urban areas, but food (nectar and pollen) is not all that pollinators need to survive. Pollinators could also be nest-site limited in cities, and the popularity of ‘insect hotels’ (at least for cavity-nesting solitary bees) suggests that, for some wild pollinators, this is a real possibility. We also don’t know much about pesticide use in urban areas and its impact on pollinators, while other urban hazards such as pollution (e.g. diesel fumes) and vehicle collisions may well be having detrimental effects on urban pollinators. If cities are really to make a meaningful contribution to pollinator conservation, then an interesting question is whether they might act as a source habitat from which pollinators ‘spill over’ into surrounding non-urban land. There is some limited evidence that urban-rural spill-over can happen, but not enough to draw any firm conclusions.

Well publicised pollinator declines have stimulated policymakers in the British Isles, with national pollinator plans emerging in the last few years for Wales, then England and, most recently, Ireland. All of these strategies highlight the contribution required by urban land managers, and a recent policy note summarises the best available evidence for how to manage urban areas for insect pollinators. For instance, gardeners in the U.K. are being urged to plant both native and exotic plants to attract pollinators, whilst the creation of wildflower areas and relaxed mowing regimes can lead to increased pollinator abundance in amenity grassland. Urban landscaping to support pollinators is gradually becoming mainstream in the U.K., from the meadows of the London Olympic Park through to the River of Flowers in the road sides of Rotherham. At larger scales, initiatives are underway that seek to improve connectivity and facilitate dispersal between these pollinator-friendly habitat patches, e.g. the B-Line for London and Oslo’s Pollinator Passage.

At the heart of these various projects is the fact that people, at least on one level, ‘get’ urban pollinator conservation. Scientists have been broadly successful in communicating the message that pollinators are declining and people can readily understand the benefit of planting flowers in their own backyard or local park to do their bit to help the bees. But it’s not quite that simple. The majority of the public remains ignorant to the true diversity of wild pollinators. Many are only aware of bees and many of those think that bees are only one species—the domesticated honeybee. But of the thousands of insects sampled during the Urban Pollinators Project, bees comprised up to a third of records and honeybees just 7 percent. Most urban pollinators are flies, and most of the bees are bumblebees and solitary bees. Maybe it doesn’t matter that 93 percent of urban pollinators remain mysterious to many of us, but ask the schoolchild who’s just seen a live colony of bumblebees for the first time or the mother of the inner city child overwhelmed by an urban flower meadow and they will tell you a story of pollinator conservation that truly brings the city alive.

Damon Hall

about the writer
Damon Hall

Damon Hall, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Sustainability Science at the Center for Sustainability at Saint Louis University.

Damon Hall

The city as a haven for bees

Research on insect pollinators is changing how we view the biological value and ecological importance of cities.

Hall_Mowing a Lawn
Photo: Damon Hall

We know that insect pollinators are in decline globally due to a combination of human-caused and natural factors (habitat loss, intensification of agriculture, pesticides, disease, etc.) [1]. This problem has been characterized as a “pollinator health crisis” where health refers to pollinator species diversity and abundance [2, 3].

In an urbanizing world, the “pollinator health crisis” is one problem that an individual urban dweller can truly do something about.

In the midst of this problem, what has been surprising is that researchers are finding diverse species of bees in cities all over the world, such as Berlin, Germany [4]; Cardiff and London in the U.K. [5–7]; Melbourne, Australia [8]; Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica [9]; Vancouver, Canada [10]; Chicago, IL [11]; New York City, NY [12,13]; Phoenix, AZ [14]; and San Francisco, CA in the U.S. [15]. In several cases, bee species diversity and abundance in cities is greater than in surrounding rural areas [6, 7, 12, 14].

A diversity of people in the world’s cities plant a diversity of flowering plants. Cultural norms, municipal codes, and aesthetic preferences shape the diversity of cultivated plants that provide forage for insect pollinators. Managed (and unmanaged) urban public and private greenspaces offer places to nest. Although the restoration and conservation of natural landscapes are important for insect pollinators, urban landscapes do play a role in species conservation.

Global Farms NORTH (19Hall_)
Photo: Damon Hall

Studies of insect pollinator health consistently show the primary driver of pollinator health is the presence and availability of flowers [7]. The message is simple: planting more flowers in cities can have a positive impact on improving bee diversity and abundance. Further, when urban bee populations are healthy, a spill-over effect can occur where bees re-inhabit rural lands [16]. This could be meaningful while governing organizations (e.g., in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency) investigate agricultural and horticultural chemicals. Until these fundamental questions about land-management practices are satisfactorily addressed in rural areas, cities could serve as a haven for insect pollinators.

Residential lawns, community greenspaces, and commercial properties can provide valuable habitat for urban bees. The small size and range of bees enables individuals who manage these lands to serve essential roles. For example, for smaller bee species that forage and nest within 500 meters, a few neighboring homeowners planting high-nectar flowers can contribute significantly to the quality of these bees’ habitat. Individuals with relatively small spaces can design these spaces to support the functional needs of bees.

It is true that urban development and sprawl is responsible for habitat loss and the extinction of many species [17]. However, urban ecology research on bee species diversity and abundance reveals that humans can inhabit urban landscapes in a manner that does not always degrade habitat and can actually support the conservation of insect pollinators. Considering the amount of bee-pollinated foods in the human diet, this is of vital importance. In an urbanizing world riddled by seemingly insurmountable human and environmental problems, the “pollinator health crisis” is one problem that an individual urban dweller can truly do something about.

This post stems from a collaboration with Dr. Gerardo Camilo (Biology) supported by Saint Louis University’s Presidents’ Research Fellowship and Beaumont Development Awards.

References

  1. Potts SG, Biesmeijer JC, Kremen C, Neumann P, Schweiger O, Junin WE. 2010. Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 25(6):345–353.
  2. White House, Office of the Press Secretary. 2014. Presidential memorandum-creating a Federal Strategy to promote the health of honey bees and other pollinators [Press release]. Available from: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/presidential-memorandum-creating-federal-strategy-promote-health-honey-b
  3. Goulson D, Nicholls E, Botias C, Rotheray EL. 2015. Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers. Science 347(6229). doi: 10.1126/science.1255957.
  4. Saure C, Burger F, Dathe HH. 1998. Die bienenarten von Brandenburg und Berlin (Hym. Apidae). Entomologische Nachrichten und Berichte 42(3):155–166.
  5. Goulson D, Lye GC, Darvill B. 2008. Decline and conservation of bumble bees. Annual Review of Entomology 53:191–208.
  6. Baldock KCR, Goddard MA, Hicks DM, Kunin WE, Mitschunas N, Osgathorpe LM, et al. 2015. Where is the UK’s pollinator biodiversity? The importance of urban areas for flower-visiting insects. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 282(1803). doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2849.
  7. Sirohi M, Jackson JI, Edwards M, Ollerton J. 2015. Diversity and abundance of solitary and primitively eusocial bee in an urban centre: a case study from Northampton, U.K. Journal of Insect Conservation 19:487–500.
  8. Threlfall CG, Walker K, Williams NSG, Hahs AK, Mata I, Stork N, et al. 2015. The conservation value of urban green space habitats for Australian native bee communities. Biological Conservation 187:240–248.
  9. Frankie GW, Vinson SB, Rizzardi MA, Griswold TL, Coville RE, Grayum MH, et al. 2013. Relationships of bees to host ornamental and weedy flowers in urban 226 northwestern Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. Journal of Kansas Entomological Society 84(4): 325–351.
  10. Tommasi D, Miro A, Higo HA, Winston ML. 2004. Bee diversity and abundance in an urban setting. The Canadian Entomologist 136(06):851–869.
  11. Tonietto R, Fant J, Ascher J, Ellis K, Larkin D. 2011. A comparison of bee communities of Chicago green roofs, parks and prairies. Landscape and Urban Planning 103(1):102–108.
  12. Matteson KC, Ascher JS, Langellotto GA. 2008. Bee richness and abundance in New York city urban gardens. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 101(1):140–150.
Scott MacIvor

about the writer
Scott MacIvor

Scott is a postdoc at the University of Toronto, where he uses ecophylogenetics and biodiversity in urban design to support plant-pollinator networks.

Scott MacIvor

Socioeconomic factors and mainstreaming urban bee conservation

Cities can help bees, but like many things—it depends. For instance, studies have shown which flowers to plant and where, how big gardens need to be and that proximity to larger ‘green space’ matters for bee conservation. Even novel—and really cool—artificial habitat, such as bee hotels, appear to encourage bees and simultaneously to send a message to citizens that there are ‘more than just honey bees’ that need our help. Since the majority of people live in cities, most of our experiences with wildlife occur in an urban context, so promoting these practices will help urban bees directly, and encourage care and concern for bees beyond our cities.

Linking cultural diversity and socioeconomic factors to bee conservation and pollination services could provide new ways to mainstream action on urban bee conservation.

In terms of how urban habitats can be made to serve pollinator conservation, I’m interested in considering how city and neighbourhood age, development history, and diverse cultural perspectives might add new ways to propel local (and global) action. Cities and neighbourhoods can be further defined by a myriad of socioeconomic factors not commonly considered in analyses of urban bee diversity, including educational levels, lifestyle and social status, and other economic differences. Socioeconomic factors and their influence on patterns in urban bees have been entirely neglected in the literature, but could partially explain some of the emerging contrasting patterns seen in global urban bee diversity.

Bloor Acorn Community Garden RIP
A spontaneous community garden replaces an abandoned gas station in a 1960s Toronto suburban neighbourhood. Legacy effects and neighbourhood cultural identity might dictate which plants are tended, how intensely, how many and where. These decisions will have ramifications for local pollinators searching for foraging and nesting resources. Photo: J. Scott MacIvor

Cities expand in multiple ways and even neighbourhoods in the same city might expand differently and in different directions. Human population density similarly expands in non-linear ways. Growing cities bring together people of diverse cultures and socioecological values. Acknowledging these assets could add synergy to the who, what, when, where, why and how of urban bee conservation. In Toronto, a ‘city of neighbourhoods,’ with one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world, my colleagues and I recently completed a checklist of the bees of the city and the surrounding region and recorded 364 species! Linking cultural diversity and socioeconomic factors to bee conservation and pollination services could provide new ways to mainstream action on urban bee conservation by conveying their needs to the public through connection to everyday life factors not normally considered in promotion and management.

In my own study, from 2011 to 2013, I surveyed 200 community and home gardens, urban parks, and green roofs in Toronto using bee hotels and a large citizen science collective. Among many interesting findings, bee species richness increased with household income, and bee abundance increased with certain landscape factors, including the amount of open (e.g. non-forested) urban green space. Other studies have recorded an increase in plant diversity with household income, and coined this as the ‘luxury effect.’ Human preference for certain landscape conditions can remove resources for some species but increase them for others. Where finances permit, people can increase or decrease plant diversity through specific gardening techniques that would support bees, but these effects are generally unlikely to be conscious. The link between income and homeowner participation in activities to enhance native bees is not well researched, and participation is likely driven more by lifestyle choices, social status, and other forms of identity. More studies are needed to elucidate how standard (and freely available) socioeconomic and demographic data might impact patterns in pollinator diversity and the important services they provide.

Denise Mouga

about the writer
Denise Mouga

Dr. Denise Mouga is a researcher with 20 years of experience working on bees and pollinators' interactions with natural resources. She works in Brazil.

Denise Mouga

The potential consequences of pollinator decline on the preservation of biodiversity and stability of food crop yields should guide the policies of pollinator conservation.

Even though urbanisation has a negative effect on insect fauna, wild bees are found in urban environments. Urban bees are those that lived in an area prior to urbanization and were able to adapt to anthropogenic alterations to the environment besides the exotic species that have become naturalized in there.

The goal of offering more floral resources for bees in urban areas can be achieved by encouraging the growing of ornamental bee plants.

Natural areas are shrinking worldwide due to human interventions in the environment and it has been observed that urban areas have been progressively occupied by populations of non-domesticated species, thus turning into havens for wildlife. So, we find native bees living spontaneously in natural areas but also in urban areas where they exploit existing open spaces (gardens, orchards, squares, parks, sports fields, clubs, vacant lots, etc …) with flowering plants including ruderal plants, ornamental, fruit trees, vegetables, weeds and other species of varying sizes and habits.

Torenia fournieri (Linderniaceae ) Photo by Enderlei Dec
Torenia fournieri (Linderniaceae). Photo: Enderlei Dec

Urban plants are usually intensively managed: watering, pruning and replanting produces floral resources that are more consistently available to pollinators, even in times of drought. In urban environments, the temperature is a little higher than outside the city and pesticides are of restricted use. Botanical species with different flowering periods are usually used in gardening in cities, which favors the ornamentation factor and, consequently, the supply of resources for pollinators is maintained throughout the seasons.

Thus, it becomes relevant, in urban areas, to have bee plants for maintaining the diversity of bees. The goal of offering more floral resources for bees in urban areas can be achieved by encouraging the growing of ornamental bee plants, in line with a gardening, landscaping and sustainability sensibility.

Plants defined as ornamental by the attractive shapes and colors of their leaves or flowers are part of numerous groups of cultivated and wild plants, including representatives of various plant families, and are often cosmopolitan, originating from different countries. They are aesthetically pleasing, suitable for gardening and landscaping, and can be used, in urban areas, as a draw and food resource for wild bees. We think such ornamental plants make it possible for ecologists, farmers, plant enthusiasts and gardeners to enhance the urban environment as a biological corridor, using them to connect nearby forest fragments. Ornamental bee plants can also be used as bee pasture species in urban beekeeping.

Ornamental plants are not often thought of as bee plants because they do not always offer conspicuous pollen or nectar resources. Moreover, frequent attributes of ornamental plants, such as double petals and a lack of stamens, nectar guides, and strong scents, among others characteristics, drive off bees. However, many of them are suitable for bees that visit them.

Greening Cities with an Urban Forest across Both Public and Private Domains

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

At a time when the importance of trees in cities is gaining attention, the canopy cover of Australian suburbs is decreasing. Local councils’ response is to plant more trees in the public domain, but what of the private domain? A quick glance around many Australian suburbs suggests that residents do not share their councils’ appreciation of trees. Even on the classic quarter-acre block—the long-held dream of most Australians, and now considered a large area—trees are rarely planted. Large shade trees, planted in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, are disappearing. How can we engage the local community to value trees, to ensure their continuing presence in our cities?

Map of greater Melbourne
Map of greater Melbourne, extending from Werribee in the west, to Sunbury in the north, Lilydale in the east and Frankston in the south. Image: Wikipedia

Urban trees provide important shade to ease the urban heat island effect. They contribute to biodiversity, participate in stormwater management, and make green spaces attractive and appealing and, thereby, active. Nevertheless, the national average urban tree canopy cover in Australian cities is only 39 percent. It varies from 59 percent in Hobart to 13% percent in Melbourne. This compares with canopy cover in American cities of 21 percent in New York, 36 percent in Washington, DC and 42 percent in Pittsburgh. Within a city, tree canopy cover will vary, partially as a consequence of the ecology of each place. For example, in Melbourne, the lowest ratio of tree canopy to grass-covered surfaces—3 percent—is in a suburb sitting on the western volcanic plains. These basalt plains naturally support tussock grassland with only scattered river red gum trees, perhaps 50 meters apart. However, cities are human artefacts and are rarely completely constrained by nature. Urban forests are possible in the least hospitable settings. Even suburbs on the outer western edge of Melbourne, on these volcanic plains, can have a denser tree canopy.

We must encourage and facilitate the greening of private gardens to extend the greening of Melbourne from the public domain to the private.

In the City of Melbourne, the tree canopy cover was assessed at 13 percent in 2014 in a project associated with 202020 Vision. The vision is to increase tree canopy cover in Australian cities by 20 percent by 2020, relative to 13 percent. Of this 13 percent, 69 percent was within public space and 31 percent within private space. The City of Melbourne itself estimates that there is tree canopy over 22 percent of the city’s public streets and parks area. In contrast, only 3 percent of the private realm is covered These percentages are expected to decrease as the existing trees succumb to old age and to the pressures of drought and water restrictions. In the next 20 years, 39 percent of the city’s tree population will die.

Aerial photo of Melbourne on Port Phillip Bay
Aerial view of the central business district of Melbourne. The city sits on the Yarra River, which courses through it and flows to Port Phillip Bay. Photo: Michael Blamey for Melbourne Today

Yet, cities need trees and their canopies. As a partner to 202020 Vision, the City of Melbourne is aiming to increase its tree canopy cover to 40 percent by 2040. It has established a strategy with guiding principles and targets. The guiding principles focus on mitigation and adaptation to climate change; reducing the urban heat island effect; becoming a water sensitive city; designing for health, well-being, liveability and cultural integrity; creating healthier ecosystems; and becoming the leader in urban forestry. Six strategies and their targets have been developed:

  1. Increase canopy cover to 40 percent by 2040;
  2. Increase urban forest diversity, so that there is no more than 5 percent of any one species, 10 percent of any one genus and 20 percent of any one family;
  3. Improve vegetation health, so that 90 percent of the city’s tree population will be healthy by 2040;
  4. Improve soil moisture and water quality, to support healthy tree growth;
  5. Improve urban ecology, to protect and enhance biodiversity; and
  6. Inform and consult with the community, so that the community understands the importance of the city’s urban forest, feels connected to it and is engaged with its development.

The Urban Forest Strategy relates to and is informed by other policy documents, including Future Melbourne Community Plan, the Council Plan 2009-2013 and the Open Space Strategy. In turn, it is associated with and informs various documents and policies, including the Boulevard Master Plan, Growing Green Guide for Melbourne and the Urban Ecology and Biodiversity Strategy. Together, these policies and strategies should see Melbourne become a greener, more beautiful, and better place to live over the next 25 years.

The City of Melbourne is the central business district of greater Melbourne. First laid out by surveyor Robert Hoddle in 1837 on a grid, the city is a mosaic of high-rise and low-rise buildings, boulevards, streets and lanes, and parkland. Increasingly, it is becoming residential, with precincts in the Docklands and Fisherman’s Bend. Its high-density development limits the amount of private open space that can be included in the urban forest. Most of the urban tree canopy cover is limited to the public domain. Not so in the sprawling suburbs that spread out from the city centre.

I live in one of those suburbs, on the eastern fringe of greater Melbourne. I have noticed the loss of tree canopy in the neighbourhood, most recently on my own street. In response to some residents’ concern about damage to private property by some street trees, specimens of certain species are being removed entirely from selected streets by the council. Mine is one. A few weeks ago, every second specimen of Eucalyptus maculata was removed. The remaining spotted gums are to go in a couple of years. These trees are to be replaced with a species chosen by residents. Nevertheless, in the meantime, mature trees are lost, and with them their myriad benefits. In a couple of decades, I have no doubt that my street will look great, perhaps better than it did, with a mix of different street trees, some planted by the local council and others planted by residents. It’s a shame that the replacement program could not be implemented more incrementally and the new trees immediately planted.

Most local councils in Australian cities do not have urban forest strategies and are responding to decreasing tree canopy cover in a less structured and formal way than the City of Melbourne. My local council does not have the resources of the City of Melbourne. It doesn’t have an urban forest strategy, but it does have thousands of street trees—67,000 as of 2003. The council values those trees as significant environmental assets, which it aspires to protect. It publicly celebrates its healthy local environment and its biodiversity but, despite this, 11,000 trees have been lost in the past decade.

Melbourne and its suburbs
Aerial view of Melbourne, showing its sprawling suburbs, which extend to the west, north, east and south. The street-tree planting is visible, as is the lack of tree canopy cover in private open space. Photo: www.barryplant.com.au

In Victoria, the local councils’ management of open space and the environment more generally is shaped by the State Planning Policy Framework, which establishes planning objectives at a state level. There are several objectives that could relate to the urban forest. For example, the health of ecological systems and their associated biodiversity should be protected, as should areas and sites with significant historic, architectural, aesthetic, scientific and cultural values. In addition, environmental quality and sustainable development should be supported by “the conservation and wise use of natural resources including energy, water, land, flora, fauna and minerals.” Many of the objectives, though, relate to planning decisions for development or management of land within the public realm. What of the urban forest that lies within the private realm? How can local councils influence planning decisions related to private property?

The State Planning Policy Framework places less emphasis on planning decisions related to vegetation within the private realm, although “protection of high quality agricultural land, important open landscapes and native vegetation” is important. Also, “high-quality urban design…that reflects the particular characteristics, aspirations and cultural identity of the community; enhances liveability, diversity, amenity and safety of the public realm; and promotes attractiveness of towns and cities within broader strategic contexts” is an objective at the state level. How this is achieved and any controls in the private domain are not considered.

In response to the Victorian Planning Policy Framework, each council develops a Municipal Strategic Statement, which identifies how the planning policy framework is interpreted and implemented in that municipality. The Municipal Strategic Statement then informs other policies and strategies. Management of street trees within the municipality in which I live is guided by a Green Streets Policy, which explicitly refers to the land use vision in the Municipal Strategic Statement: “to develop and support the community….by maintaining, enhancing and protecting the key natural, cultural and lifestyle features of the City, both economically and environmentally.” This is a great initiative. My hope is that more than the streets are green within the suburbs. We must encourage and facilitate the greening of private gardens to extend the greening of Melbourne from the public domain to the private. The urban forest must encompass both the public and private domains so that the communities within the city can enjoy its full benefits. This is a real challenge.

Perhaps the Urban Design Framework developed by my local council offers some guidance to greening of the private domain in its suburbs. The Urban Design Framework presents the urban design vision, framework and policy for the municipality to guide its future development. The key structuring elements of the landscape and the urban form of the municipality provide the basis of the vision. These include the Landscape Setting, Creek Corridors, Activity Centres and Working Environments, Transport Corridors and, importantly for our purposes, Residential Environments. Also relevant to the urban forest are the Liveable Streets Plan and the Neighbourhood Character Study, amongst others.

Common to all these documents is a focus on the public domain. This is not surprising, as it is here that the council has control, albeit in cooperation with other authorities, such as the road, electricity and water authorities. The Neighbourhood Character Study, though, offers some suggestions on planting within the private domain. In addition, residential design guidelines are being developed for precincts within the municipality, and these recommend planting treatments for private open space. For different housing densities, the guidelines state preferred landscaping characteristics, with illustrations to support the text. Wherever possible, the council prefers the inclusion of large canopy trees in the private space of these developments. Where space is limited, vertical walls and rooftop gardens are suggested.

The streetscape of the street on which I live
The street on which I live, in an outer eastern suburb of Melbourne. The specimens of Eucalyptus maculata, two of which can be seen here, are being removed, to be replaced with a smaller tree. Photo: Meredith Dobbie

Other municipalities in greater Melbourne are likely to have similar requirements for development in their suburbs, which must be met for approval. In implementing the development, the landscape must be planted in accordance with the approved plans. Once sold, though, the purchaser can change the garden. Certainly, permits are required to remove trees of a certain size, but I wonder how closely this requirement is policed. Existing trees are being removed and they don’t appear to be replaced by equivalent specimens. The trend in suburban Melbourne is to have highly manicured gardens with small trees. Generally, indigenous trees, including eucalypts, are not favoured. Large exotic trees, such as oaks and elms, are not included in new gardens, even those big enough to accommodate them. Thus, those benefits of trees—most critically, the provision of shade in an Australian summer—cannot be enjoyed.

So, what can be done? Is it that the community is not plant-literate? Does it not understand the benefits of maintaining, and ideally increasing, the tree canopy cover in the city and suburbs? Is lack of information the problem? Certainly, knowledge and familiarity can enhance preference for wetlands and raingardens. Might a simple communication strategy sway thinking in favour of more trees in the private realm?

Melbourne City Council recognises the importance of engaging with the community in its Urban Forest Strategy. It suggests establishing tree-related advocacy groups and trusts, and groups and individuals that will lobby for more trees in their suburbs, either through direct action or changes in planning, legislation and land acquisition. The strategy also highlights the importance of getting people to start talking about the trees and their relationship with the city’s cultural identity and sense of place. Tree ‘champions’ can play a critical role in this, promoting the importance of trees in both the public and private domains, and the multiple benefits, both tangible and intangible, that an urban forest delivers to a city.

Melbourne is not alone in Australia in seeking to establish an urban forest. Other capital cities also have urban forest strategies or programs (e.g. Sydney and Adelaide). Common to each is an awareness of the importance of community engagement, and each offers suggestions for achieving community participation. My hope is that these engagement programs are implemented successfully, for an urban forest can only be established and sustained by everyone working together, across both public and private domains.

Meredith Dobbie
Victoria

On The Nature of Cities

Where Walking and Just Cities Meet

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

“We live in a fast-paced society. Walking slows us down.” — Robert Sweetgall, walking guru and president of Creative Walking Inc.

JB bkk-bcn first post lotus flowerWalking. It’s a natural, human thing to do. Whether we wander through wide open green spaces or ramble around in cities, the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other makes everything around us feel more intimate. Walking puts the unreachable within reach.

Starting in mid-January 2016, Lluís, my partner for 10 years, and I will add a new dimension to our walking habit. We’ll fly to Bangkok, Thailand and walk our way home to Barcelona, Catalonia. Our planned route will take us through about 20 countries and hundreds of cities, towns, villages and unheard of corners of the world. It won’t be a straight line, and there will be detours and places that are politically shut off to us or geographically too complicated to cross. But we intend to try and cover as much ground as possible on foot.

BABA Map Route 2592x1944What are we looking for? We are seeking goodness in the world. It’s our anti-fear approach to living life well. The ubiquitous headlines screaming about all the wrong being done everywhere have created a world that seemingly wants to surround itself with fear—fear of uncertainty, fear of “those people,” fear of our neighbors. We don’t buy into that. Our live-our-best-lives intuition and longtime backpacking experience tell us that there is more good in the world than bad. And we believe that if we start with the humble (or perhaps lofty) ideas that the whole world belongs to each and every one of us (not just a chosen few in wealthy, developed countries), that we all belong to each other, and that everyone deserves respect, kindness and compassion, then something that looks like goodness naturally flows.

JB hugging a treeGoodness comes in an endless number of varieties. It’s that moment when a complete stranger invites you into their home and offers you tea, or walks with you to the place for which you’ve asked directions. It’s the helping hand, or the smile of understanding that breaks language barriers. It’s also birds singing in a tree-filled park where people stroll hand in hand and children play. It’s listening to waves roll in while strolling along a beachside pedestrian promenade, and watching and helping people plants seeds and harvest vegetables in community gardens. Goodness is appreciating the clean, potable water from your sink, and having a safe place to sleep every night.

Goodness, also, is the balance struck between accessibility, aesthetics, resourcefulness, sustainability and usefulness. This is where our Bangkok-to-Barcelona walk intersects with The Nature of Cities’ mission to encourage the development of just, resilient cities and to promote citizen equality, participation and stewardship.

Lumphini Park
Lumphini Park
Fountains, Montjuic, Barcelona
Fountains, Montjuic, Barcelona

As the borders between urban, rural and natural areas blend and fade, citizens the world over are hard pressed to find and invent new ways of living together while maintaining the core elements that keep us connected to the Earth. Urban planners, community activists and development organizations struggle to create sustainable footprints that accommodate the increasing needs of city dwellers while also protecting water supplies, natural resources, biodiversity and delicate ecosystems.

Globally, the expansion of urban boundaries brings with it dozens of questions. Who has access to green spaces in growing urban areas? How can livable spaces and industrial areas co-exist without harming residents? How is nature integrated into megacity and mid-size city plans? How are urban areas in emerging countries and developed nations making themselves resilient? What are cities and citizens throughout Asia and Europe doing to improve equity and inclusion among their residents? How are cities creating opportunities for their citizens and incorporating social justice while also balancing environmental needs and natural resources capacity?

As we travel across continents, we’ll explore the idea of Just Cities and share our perspectives, photos and podcasts of what we find in different corners of the world here on The Nature of Cities. We’ll submit stories and slideshows about parks and open spaces that would make great parks, and share insights about what we think urban graffiti says about a place. We’ll look at how urban life spills into rural areas, and what’s happening as more people move from farms to cities. We’ll walk with open eyes, ears and hearts and witness ways human connect to each other and the world around them.

We hope you’ll follow our footsteps and join the conversation. Maybe we’ll even meet some of you along the way.

Jenn Baljko

See more about the trip here.

To Harness Ecosystems, Conserve Them

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

A review of Conservation for Cities How to Plan and Build Natural Infrastructure, by Robert I. McDonald. Island Press, Washington. 2015. ISBN: 9781610915236. 268 pages. Buy the book.

coverIn Conservation for Cities, Robert I. McDonald seeks to “guide urban planners, landscape architects, and conservation practitioners trying to figure out how to use nature to make the lives of those living in cities better.” The book succeeds as an introduction to how a broad range of municipal services can be provided by ecological systems—both natural and man-made. It is a slim compendium, based on the Manual for Cities published by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB 2011) program, and extends this manual by providing planning strategies, implementation guidelines and monitoring protocols.

Following an overview of the ecosystem service concept and a planning framework for Conservation for Cities, ten chapters each focus on one ecosystem service. Each ecosystem service chapter begins with a short and compelling narrative case study that highlights an environmental problem and how ecosystem services have contributed to a solution. Quito, the second largest city of Ecuador, illustrates drinking water protection through source watershed protection by restoring the paramo—high altitude grasslands. France, the country that suffered the most fatalities in the 2003 European heatwave, demonstrates benefits of tree-shade for heat mitigation. Paris, France, experienced 142 percent higher mortality rates in August 2003, with different neighbourhood microclimates acting as a predictor of death rates—more shaded suburbs had lower death rates. Los Angeles children that participated in a Southern California health study highlight the positive effect access to parks can have on the health and wellbeing of children. The common thread that these stories illustrate is the power of working with nature instead of against it. Consistent organisation of these chapters provides ready access to the topics: how to map important services; common threats and common solutions; valuation of the natural infrastructure; implementation; and monitoring.

Many will find in this book inspirational examples of the benefits a range of ecosystem services can provide for city living. Details on how to reproduce these examples might remain elusive.

The ecosystem services selected for this book are arguably the most vital for enhancing the livability of cities. They range from stormwater protection and flood damage mitigation to the utilisation of tree-shade for heat mitigation and green spaces for physical and mental welfare. Dr. McDonald draws on his experience to include introductory technical information regarding how to measure and assess ecosystem services. Especially useful are his synopses of available tools for mapping, evaluating and analysing extant natural infrastructure. Tables on various software programs provide an at-a-glance summary of models used to value air and drinking water quality, coastal protection status, floodwater risk and stormwater services. Key data inputs and outputs identify how usable or appropriate a software program might be given available data, and highlights limitations of existing models or data sets. Some of the other chapters—particularly on drinking water protection, shade and air purification—illuminate well how natural systems can achieve these goals using measures and analyses comfortable for city engineers and planners. By contrast, it is in the most qualitative and complex areas—mental health and biodiversity—that this book is weakest; little justice is done to the complexity of the latter, in particular. Further still, the ecosystem services of food production and fibre provisioning are omitted entirely, although these are distinctly challenging topics for peri-urban areas.

While Conservation for Cities dwells on how to value (in quantitative terms) and use nature, it is disturbingly silent on a second stated concern—“how conservation actions can maintain or create natural infrastructure, ensuring and perhaps enhancing ecosystem service provision.” At the heart of asset planning—be those assets buildings, pipes, roads, or money—is creation, maintenance and renewal. With a few exceptions (for example, trees), the natural asset protection or management component of natural infrastructure is largely absent or underdone—which is notable if only because these elements are at the core of the term conservation. Regrettably, this introductory book misses the opportunity to emphasise and explicate the multiple benefits (or co-benefits) a particular element of natural infrastructure can provide.

In his overview, Dr. McDonald points out that “many conservation actions provide multiple ecosystem service benefits” and proceeds to ask “if it is the sum total of all co-benefits that should be considered, why is this book structured with each chapter considering a separate ecosystem service?” His answer is “for the simple reason” that most planning processes or pieces of legislation focus on one service. All the more reason a book like this could challenge traditional thinking, drawing out the potential value of these multiple opportunities in a discrete chapter, case study or diagrams. Mention is made here and there about co-benefits, but we fear they are easily lost in the welter of words focusing on the topic at hand.

In his closing chapter, Parting Thoughts, Dr. McDonald notes that although he has used utilitarian language to discuss ecosystem services because “these are often the terms on which important planning decisions are made,” there is another way “to frame conservation in cities to preserve or enhance ecosystem services: as actions to promote the common good,” concluding that “the new science and tools of ecosystem services merely allow us a clearer, more precise vision of what steps must be taken to preserve the common good.”

This is admirable stuff, but we offer a cautionary note. Utilitarian language may be appropriate in this context, but the dangers of discussing the use of ecosystems without a conversation about their protection or enhancement may be a focus on ‘using’ nature, with too little attention paid to the potential negative environmental impacts of this use or the consequences of unsustainable use. If we turn the focus solely to the component parts of ecosystem services, like clean air or drinking water, the ecosystem itself—a vibrant, dynamic interconnected system unique to a geographic place with living entities at its heart—simply drops out of the picture. That is not likely with the readers of TNOC. Yet it is something to keep in mind for readers with no background in natural resource management.

This book has an ambitious goal: to guide urban planners, landscape architects, and conservation practitioners in utilising natural infrastructure. This goal is one which more experienced practitioners may feel is under-delivered. Achieving brevity and breadth with such complex subject matter requires sacrificing depth, and we missed the provision of comprehensive references to topical material in a number of places. Guidelines for implementation and monitoring are generally advisory, considerably brief, and very high level.

To conclude, students, local government authorities and urban planning organisations as well as interested members of the general public will find this book helpful as an overview of the benefits a range of ecosystem services can provide for city living. Many of the chapter case studies are inspiring, showing how elegantly simple solutions, many of them involving protecting natural assets, can have a powerful impact in mitigating environmental problems and improving city livability.

The sting in the tail is that exactly how we might reproduce such examples, or incisively examine them, remains elusive. Such detail is not the province of this book, but it will have served its purpose if it takes readers further down an exploratory path.

Anna Backstrom and Laura Mumaw
Melbourne

On The Nature of Cities

You can support TNOC (and the book’s authors) by buying the book via this link.

Laura Mumaw

about the writer
Laura Mumaw

Laura’s work, based in Melbourne, is in engaging communities with nature.

 

Lessons from Tinseltown: Nature’s Role in Alleviating Homelessness

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

We all know that nature in the urban environment can make our lives as city dwellers infinitely better, but can it create quality of life even for the displaced among us? Winter is here in the city of Detroit, Michigan. It’s cold, and people all over this northern city are scurrying to find a warm place to spend the season. It seems that no matter what our circumstances, the nesting instinct survives in all of us.

With all of Detroit’s vacant space, why couldn’t a nomadic, tent-based lifestyle also be an option?
Of course, for some city dwellers, the question of where we will spend the cold winter months is more pressing, and more poignant, than it is for others. Each year at this time, those without homes in our city struggle to find a place to stay that is safe and warm and that affords them the shelter they need without sacrificing the freedom they desire. Last year, a community of homeless citizens established itself in the shelter of the forest on the western edge of The Greening of Detroit Park in honor of Elizabeth Gordon Sachs (“EGS Park”), a park that The Greening of Detroit has developed and maintained for nearly 20 years.

Park
The Greening of Detroit Park in honor of Elizabeth Gordon Sachs.

Displaced, or “homeless,” people regularly spend time in EGS Park, a verdant three-acre parcel on the edge of Detroit’s downtown, but most often they remain transient, enjoying the greenspace for a few long summer days before moving along. Last December, a real encampment built up over a few weeks, with a communal fire pit and an accumulation of tents, milk crates and shopping carts that created an air of permanence. Tent cities are a common component of the urban environment, and they are nothing new, even in a cold northern city like Detroit. But this one was particularly visible, located as it was in a well kept park nestled between two major thoroughfares right on the edge of downtown. It grew quickly and attracted lots of attention from supporters and detractors alike.

The Greening of Detroit is a non-profit devoted to sustainable growth of a healthy urban community through trees, green spaces, food, education, training and job opportunities. For 25 years the organization has worked to make Detroit a safe, healthy, clean and, most importantly, green place where all of its citizens can flourish. As the organization charged with maintaining EGS Park, The Greening quickly found itself in the midst of a controversy. The appearance of a tent city in a park where The Greening is responsible for long term development and maintenance, and where it has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 20 years, caused the organization to reconsider its work through the eyes of the park’s new residents. Did The Greening’s maintenance responsibility extend into the tent city? How should that responsibility be construed? Most interesting was the question of whether it was the organization’s long term investment in this greenspace that made the camp so inviting.

All human beings have a desire to find community in the shelter of the natural environment. The tent city that grew up in the forest of a Detroit park, which became known as “Tinseltown,” was a testament to the strength of this desire. Whether their choice of location was conscious or not, it is no coincidence that this community gathered and then bonded together in an area where The Greening of Detroit has planted over 200 trees and seeded a wildflower meadow. Trees and green space make us feel better. Research shows that we are healthier where trees are present, that those same trees provide a calming effect, and neighborhoods where trees provide a canopy are safer for the people who live there (see Green Cities: Good Health, Kathy Wolf). No doubt, the forest that The Greening of Detroit planted in EGS Park provided these benefits for the residents of Tinseltown in the same way that the 95,811 trees that it has planted across the city benefit all Detroiters.

Photo Credit Import Export Architecture
Novel forms of shelter. Photo: Import Export Architecture

Still, trees cannot provide for all of the basic needs of a community. There are no sanitary facilities in the park and the only source of heat for this community was open flame, a genuine safety concern in a community where shelter is provided by tents. There are good reasons for Detroit’s ordinances prohibiting tents and open flames in city parks. The park is a public place, meant for use and enjoyment by the public at large—an objective that is impaired by permanent residents as well as by the odds and ends that accumulate as a part of the existence of a community without formal support or storage. Before long, Detroit’s Mayor decided that Tinseltown’s time should come to an end. Its residents would be offered long-term housing, their accumulated belongings stored, and the space that the tent city occupied would be returned to parkland. In its role as caretaker of the park, The Greening aided the City in repairing the landscape where the tent city once stood. More importantly, in its role as caretaker of a healthy urban community, The Greening also supported Tinseltown’s residents with workforce training and gardening supplies.

Detroit has many dedicated agencies providing support and care for our homeless citizens. But those services only help the people who elect to take advantage of them. The residents of Tinseltown said that they preferred the shelter that their tents provided; they were looking for something other than the services that they can find at our shelters, soup kitchens and warming centers. Their needs were more closely met by the green embrace of a young forest than they were by the confines of those other options.

Vacancy
Vacant land in Detroit.

There are assets in Detroit that could be used to create alternatives for displaced citizens. In a city with abundant vacant space (an estimated 100,000 vacant lots comprising 20-30 square miles of empty space) and plans to plant more young forests, perhaps there is room for innovation in serving the needs of Detroit’s displaced people. Detroit has plenty of vacant spaces that are not currently designated as public parks and which, as a result, are not encumbered by the ordinances that govern parks. If there are more citizens like the residents of Tinseltown who are determined to keep their community intact and in tents, it seems that we should be able to find a sliver of unloved land that they could adopt. In fact, redevelopment of neighborhoods with abundant vacant land is a high priority in Detroit and creative use of green space is a central component of the plans for redevelopment. Detroit has recently announced plans to undertake a massive expansion of its planting efforts in neighborhoods where vacant space dominates the landscape, with the express purpose of improving the quality of life for residents.

Consider this: Detroit could be a city where residents are able to choose a classic, walkable urban lifestyle, a spacious suburban lifestyle, or a bucolic rural lifestyle, all with an appropriate complement of natural assets and all within the 138 square mile confines of the city limits. With all of this vacant space, why couldn’t a nomadic, tent-based lifestyle also be an option?

All over the world, people are opting to create high quality lifestyles by incorporating more of the outdoors into their living arrangements. In progressive cities across the United States, villages of tiny homes are popping up with houses so small that residents naturally take advantage of outside space to add to their living area. Sometimes tiny homes are simply an interesting housing option for those living off the grid. However, these tiny villages have also turned out to be a practical solution to the problem of homelessness. Inexpensive to construct, maintain and operate, tiny houses are manageable for people on a severely restricted income (note, not all who are homeless are also jobless) and with some subsidy can prove to be a good option for “housing-first” agencies, as well. Given that Detroit has so much former residential vacant space with the infrastructure to support habitation, this could be a viable alternative for housing displaced citizens in this city.

The eco-district concept is another idea that’s taking off. An eco-district is a defined geographic area (often a single neighborhood) wherein stakeholders have agreed to advance sustainability district-wide through green building principles by installing blue and green infrastructure and by modifying individual behavior. While these districts require substantial planning and resources, they also attract residents who want to live lightly upon the ground. This lifestyle allows residents of eco-districts to take advantage of the same benefits that attracted the residents of Tinseltown to their spot beneath the trees of EGS Park. Urban camping is apparently a (still relatively minor) trend as well, and represents another innovative way that city citizens are incorporating the great outdoors into their urban lifestyles.

Rooftop camping sleepover at One New Change on 6th August
Rooftop camping sleepover at One New Change in August. Photo: 365 dot travel

Of course, Detroit has another, more traditional, asset that should not be overlooked when considering solutions for homelessness. In a city that housed over two million residents at its population peak and currently houses less than seven hundred thousand, Detroit has lots of houses with no people in them and, at the same time, plenty of people with no houses to live in. In fact, there are thousands of vacant residential structures in Detroit right now. Accordingly, the opportunity to reduce homelessness using empty houses should not be dismissed out of hand, particularly as the City of Detroit is spending millions of dollars to knock down thousands of houses each year. Many of the houses on the demolition list are lone survivors in neighborhoods now dominated by newly created wildlands. It seems likely that a more permanent housing solution in one of these neighborhoods would be a welcome option to the folks who formed Tinseltown.

From Tinseltown’s makeshift community to the eco-village residents who have worked so hard to plan and implement their neighborhood goals, there is a thread of commonality. All of these people have recognized that their lives in the city are better when they include nature in their midst. We have much to learn from the denizens of tent cities, tiny villages, eco-districts and urban campsites throughout the world. May each of these folks find a community that provides the support they need along with the clean, green environment that the members of the Tinseltown community found in The Greening of Detroit Park in honor of Elizabeth Gordon Sachs. We at The Greening of Detroit will keep working to create that kind of clean, green environment, so that all of us might experience the feelings of peace and safety that come with an urban landscape that is filled with trees.

Rebecca Salminen Witt
Detroit

On The Nature of Cities

Should Bangalore Aim to Become a Smart City?

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

There is growing recognition that cities, which already house more than half the world’s population, require increased policy and development attention. India’s policy response to the need for sustainable, resilient and low-carbon cities is the Smart City mission. According to the Indian Ministry of Urban Development, the mission promotes “cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to their citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.”

In this conception of a Smart City as the driver of local economic growth, technology and “smart solutions” find repeated mention, while better planning and greenfield development, beyond current city boundaries, are expected to absorb a growing urban population.

The Smart City mission has a very narrow focus, which does not address the risks faced by a city with the size and development trajectory of Bangalore.

The Ministry of Urban Development’s, or MoUD’s, illustrative list of what constitutes Smart Cities has a mixed bag of infrastructure and governance elements (MoUD, 2015). These core elements span adequate basic services, efficient urban mobility, affordable housing, robust IT connectivity, health and education. Sustainable environment, good governance, safety and security of women and children, and citizen participation are thrown in for good measure. The strategy document admits that there are many interpretations for smart cities the world over and, even in India, their implementation and adoption will vary across states and local bodies. Smart solutions that sometimes overlap with these elements include e-governance for a score of basic services, waste management, water management, energy management and others (such as tele-medicine, tele-education, trade facilitation and skills development).

With an initial budget of INR 7000 crore ($US 1.05 billion) in 2014, 100 satellite towns of larger cities are meant to be developed as Smart Cities. Additionally, existing, mid-sized cities are to be developed under the programme. The initial allocation has been hiked by more than two and half times and several incentives have been provided to encourage foreign investment into the programme. The institutional mechanism for implementation is a special purpose vehicle, which would be run like a private company for the duration of implementation, and will have representation from all levels of government.

The one challenge that is featured on the MoUD website, which smart cities apparently face and should address, is how to involve smart people in the planning phase and how to garner city leadership to ensure programme success.

So what’s missing?

A gaping hole in the conception and components of a Smart City is exactly how a special purpose vehicle would enable these wide-ranging elements and solutions with the participation and support of affected communities. Would citizens be engaged when designing smart city solutions? Would participatory governance go beyond issuing death and birth certificates in response to e-requests? Would lakes and urban forestry be revived to provide critical ecosystem services as new infrastructure is instated? Would access to public spaces improve for the underprivileged in our society? Would the new smartness integrate with the history and heritage of many of India’s smaller cities?

Ostensibly not. The ministry has adopted an area-based approach, which means that strategies such as retrofitting, redevelopment, greenfield applications and pan-city endeavours will be applied to pre-determined geographical areas specified by urban local bodies. This spatial conception of cities lacks an understanding of cities as deeply connected social and ecological systems, which may not be conveniently divided into geographical areas. There is limited understanding of how city systems of food, water, energy and waste interact and overlap through resource flows and people movement. Cities’ resource and sink needs extend far into their surrounding regions, which is why a region-based approach is recommended when seeking sustainable solutions. In each document and every articulation of the mission, whether it is smart strategies or smart solutions, there is little evidence of which environmental or economic problems Indian cities need to address and what kind of future such strategies will take us towards. Issues of social cohesiveness, community engagement and cultural identity find no mention.

Pedestrians and commuters negotiate their ways to work on a wintry December morning in North Bangalore
Pedestrians and commuters negotiate their different ways to work on a wintry December morning in North Bangalore. The road will only be paved after stormwater drains are laid by the city water board. Such road conditions are high risk for all categories of users, and this particular road has been inaccessible, to different degrees, for over a year and a half. Photo: Sumetee Pahwa

India Prime Minister Modi’s Smart City vision is an attempt to answer the national call for economic growth, employment creation, world-class cities, better living standards and municipal reform. However, it fails to take cognizance of the global challenges of climate change, poverty, inequality and unsustainable development. These challenges are no longer the purview of national departments, as they manifest in multiple forms within the cities of both the developed and developing world. And furthermore, should cities such as Bangalore, on a very fast growth trajectory, adopt a much broader and deeper vision than the one captured in a smart agenda?

An alternative framework for city development

The United Nations’ seventeen new global goals, called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defined by 169 targets, have been formulated after a widely participatory consultation process hosted by the UN. SDGs, post the 2015 development agenda, call for commitment to universal goals and targets. As has been discussed at length on TNOC, for the first time, there is now an urban development goal: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Let us consider how the urban SDG Goal 11 frames the developmental challenges faced by cities all over the world, and the propositions it puts forth in the form of dedicated urban targets. Goal 11 emphasizes equitable access to affordable housing, basic services, transport and public spaces for all urban citizens. Integrated planning and management in cities such that cultural and natural heritage are protected, links with national and regional development planning are strengthened, and buildings are designed for resilience, are all goals that find dedicated targets within the urban SDG. Several sustainability concerns are incorporated, including reduction of the ecological footprint of cities, inclusion and resource efficiency. Integrated policies that address climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as disaster risk management at all levels, are encouraged. Special focus is recommended for the needs of those in vulnerable situations: women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.

In this conception of the urban agenda, and the subsequent articulation of a global goal into measurable targets, the need for building capacity in urban officials and enhancing their agency in city matters has been left out. Especially in the Indian context, we find that numerous governance challenges exist whereby cities and urban local bodies lack the skills, the resources and the authority to achieve many of the targets specified in Goal 11.

Challenges and risks faced by Bangalore across social, economic and environmental parameters

Bangalore is the fifth largest and one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in India. The population of the city has grown by more than 40 percent between 2001 and 2011. This has obvious implications for the ability of the ecosystem to provide the range of resources required to support the exponential growth in city population, which is not always accompanied by expansion in city services and infrastructure. Bangalore faces an array of interlinked challenges such as air pollution, water scarcity, urban flooding, food insecurity, waste mismanagement and the loss of urban natural capital. As the principal city in Karnataka, attracting international and regional migrants, Bangalore has followed a development pathway marked by disappearing and dying lakes, numerous gated communities, and high levels of social and economic inequity.

The city faces numerous risks to its future development as its population and geographical expanse increase. Encroachment of lakes, natural flood plains and drainage channels due to uncontrolled urbanization has resulted in urban floods during extreme precipitation events (Poonacha et al., 2015). Public infrastructure, housing and transport networks in flood prone areas are exposed to numerous risks, as are marginalized households located in low-lying areas. Bangalore’s drainage system was designed for a smaller and less dense city, while at the same time, rainwater infiltration into the ground has decreased due to a rise in built up and paved areas.

Ironically, the city also faces reduced availability and regular access to quality of water supply. The city relies on Cauvery River, 100 kilometers away, for half of its water needs, and on extraction of ground water for the remaining half. The Karnataka State Climate Change Plan estimates that total rainfall could reduce by as much as 10-20 percent by 2050 in the region, deepening the water stress experienced by the city.

Fishing boats straddle Rachenahalli Lake, across from new residential developments in North Bangalore
Fishing boats straddle Rachenahalli Lake, across from new residential developments. For years, lakes in Bangalore have performed livelihood support (fishing, agriculture) and ecological (species habitat, micro-climate control) and bio-remediation functions as part of Bangalore’s social ecological system. Lakes also functioned as water reservoirs for local residents until the Cauvery River became the primary source of drinking water for the city. Photo: Sumetee Pahwa

In a city of stark socio-infrastructural dichotomies, high rise air conditioned glass office complexes, private residential enclaves and ‘gated communities’ contrast with poorly, or under served, dense informal settlements and slums. A large number of migrants are drawn to the city in search of improved livelihood options. For first generation migrants, informal settlements or slums often provide an entry to the city. However, such settlements are often located in unauthorized areas, and therefore have limited access to safe water supply or sanitation networks (IIHS, 2014). In the absence of basic service provision, households rely on poor quality ground water and resort to open defecation, thereby increasing their exposure to health risks. Rising prices of essential commodities such as fuel, electricity and food also affect poor households’ ability to recover from health and economic impacts. Climate change is expected to contribute to these impacts through extreme rain events and heat island effect in the city, and a drying trend in northern parts of the state, which will reduce food productivity and induce further migration.

New migrants to most urban areas in India are dependent upon the marginal work available within the informal economy, characterized by very low wages and high job insecurity. First generation migrants often work as casual labourers in the construction industry, one of the lowest paying and least secure sectors (Krishna et al., 2015). The number of people employed in informal sectors is far greater than those in the formal sector (Mahadevia, 2008). Bangalore also has a high proportion of people who are illiterate, or are literate but have not completed primary school. This translates into a challenging situation whereby a large cohort of 20 to 29 year-olds are entering the workforce with very low levels of education and literacy (IIHS, 2014).

Smart or smarter?

In pursuing “smartness,” will Bangalore be able to address the challenges it has accumulated over thirty years of unsustainable urban growth? Would it, instead, be pursuing smartness if it were to adopt an integrated social ecological frame? If yes, what does it require to become a sustainable, smart, socially and ecologically integrated city?

Large and complex challenges of providing bulk infrastructure to service a rapidly expanding urban population and managing a morphing urban geography in the context of climate change will require a more nuanced approach, and much longer engagement with practitioners, city leaders and city residents. City development strategies need to be informed by a comprehension of cities as systems where citizens draw resources from their urban ecology via a network of transport, energy and communication infrastructure, and are exposed to locational, disaster and climate risks. At the same time, cities have been transforming over the years. Natural systems such as the lakes of Bangalore and the drainage channels that connected them and enabled their functionality as reservoir, habitat and cleanser, have been replaced by ill-designed drainage infrastructure that proves inadequate during extreme events.

The Smart City mission has a very narrow focus, which does not address the risks that a city of the size and on the development trajectory of Bangalore faces. The pursuit of smartness as defined by the Smart City Mission may help achieve better traffic management and extend IT services to underserved sections of society. However, if a large proportion of the society is not literate, or lacks basic services in their settlements, or faces employment insecurity, smarter solutions will be required to take citizens towards sustainable well-being.

A lone crow sits atop a well-mixed garbage and mud pile along Dasrahalli Road in Bangalore
A lone crow sits atop a well-mixed garbage and mud pile along Dasrahalli Road, where bulk infrastructure work is underway. Photo: Sumetee Pahwa

What is required is an understanding of how the city as a system is more than its parts—lakes are not islands to be isolated from a water network and expected to function as mere places of recreation; housing has to be more than affordable and enhance a community’s well-being through productive common spaces; widened roads don’t just hyper-connect the city center to an international airport, but also end up fragmenting markets and habitations on either side of them; a metro track may fast-track the daily commute of a few workers, but often at the cost of urban forestry which took more than a century to establish. The smart agenda attempts to separate water supply from waste and sanitation, health care from lake restoration, and energy supply from air pollution in order to roll out private contracts and somehow arrive at a smart city.

Bangalore is better off channeling the intelligence of its citizens towards community-led, locally embedded initiatives, in response to particular societal and environmental challenges. But for that to happen, a lot will need to change—both in the way that city governance institutions are designed, and in the way that city residents conceive their roles to be in current and future management of the city’s social and natural resources.

Sumetee Gajjar
Bangalore

On The Nature of Cities

References

Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) (2014). Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) – Future Proofing Indian Cities, Final Urban Diagnostics for Bangalore.

Krishna, A., Sriram, M. S., & Prakash, P. (2014). Slum Types and Adaptation Strategies: Identifying Policy-Relevant Differences in Bangalore. Environment and Urbanization. 26, 568 – 585.

Mahadevia, D. (2008). Metropolitan Employment in India. Inside the Transforming Urban Asia: Policies, Processes and Public Actions, New Delhi: Concept, 56-93.

MoUD, 2015 “What is Smart City” Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. URL: http://smartcities.gov.in/writereaddata/What%20is%20Smart%20City.pdf accessed on 21 November 2015

Poonacha P., Solomon D., Bendapudi R., Rahman A., Basu R., Badiger S (2015) The Regional to Sub-national Context. In: Revi, A., Amir Bazaz, Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Ramkumar Bendapudi, Marcella D’ Souza, Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar (eds.). Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in semi-arid areas in India (pages 49-90).  Working Paper, ASSAR PMU, South Africa.

Social-Ecological Urbanism and the Life of Baltic Cities

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Jane Jacobs critiqued modernist city planning in the now classic book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961). This book is now inspiring an urban renaissance. Jacobs proposed that a city must be understood as a system of organized complexity—in other words, as an ecosystem—and that any intervention in the urban fabric with a lack of such understanding is bound to result in unexpected surprises. Trained in zoology, Jacobs viewed the city much like a coral reef, where co-evolutionary dynamics between the coral organisms (the people) and the coral reef (the built environment) result in the emergence of a socio-spatial logic that can support various kind of functions and opportunities for people.

First line of urban scholarship based on ecological thought

Blueprint planning based on ideals such as Le Corbusier’s “The Shining City,” or Sir Ebenezer Howard’s “The Garden City,” Jacobs argued, is likely to fail since it lacks the critical understanding of the city as a complex socio-spatial system. Spatial morphology thinking (Hillier and Hanson, 1984) provided a precision and an analytical depth to the insights of Jane Jacobs. Density, accessibility and diversity are outlined as the main features of spatial capital for people in cities (Marcus, 2010), which are akin to insights in ecosystem ecology, where species diversity, species abundance and ecological connectivity are critical features.

Social-ecological urbanism is a scientific upgrading of landscape urbanism concepts.
I call this ecosystem-based understanding of the city the “first line of thinking,” since it has quite a historical lineage. It comes originally from the Chicago School of urban scholars that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s (Wirth, 1938), which was inspired by the thinking in systems ecology at that time (Clements, 1916). This first line of thinking coincided with major innovations in transportation technology. Chicago had just become an important hub in the U.S. railroad network in the 1850s, enabling transportation of natural resources for urban consumption over great distances. Harvey (1990) has shown how industrial-era technological innovation catered to the first wave of space–time compression, which refers to those socioeconomic processes that accelerate the pace of time and reduce the significance of distance. Those socioeconomic processes included technological innovations (telephones, telegraph), cheap and efficient travel (steam rail and boats), and the global economy’s opening of new markets, thereby speeding up production cycles and reducing the turnover time of capital (Harvey 1990).

During that historically transformative era, the first line of ecological urban thinking emerged; it focused on human-technology relations in the search for an understanding of the city as an organism, or as a ‘living artifice,’ that would enable humanity to take off into a bright, humanistic future. Jane Jacobs based her thinking on this first line of thought, but enhanced it considerably by incorporating a much more advanced understanding of complexity. She also departed from an inductive understanding of a spatial scale in cites, choosing a scale that instead makes sense based on how people perceive their daily lives.

2016 is the 100th anniversary of Jane Jacob’s birth, yet her work continues to hold promise for finding solutions to many current sustainability challenges. For instance, it provides cognitive tools for analyzing the spatial logic that lies behind the production of socioeconomic inequalities in cities (Legeby, 2013), as well as design solutions to reduce the number of car trips, to increase walkability and to enhance energy efficiency in cities.

Jacobs’ work does not, however, adequately address complex social-ecological systems relations of urban sustainability. Many global environmental challenges have emerged since Jane Jacobs wrote her classic book. It is safe to argue that most urban populations, at least in the Global North, are more cognitively distant from their life support systems—such as agriculture—than they were in 1961. Urbanization is now in a second wave of space–time compression driven by the Internet, jet travel, and the global economy (Harvey, 1990). The accelerating pace at which urban life proceeds and the decreasing importance of geographic barriers and distances are qualitatively different in terms of their intensity and scope compared to the 1960s (Sassen, 1991). Space–time compression is an outcome of a surplus of fossil fuel energy of diminishing returns (Tainter, 2011), which enables cities to sequester natural resources and ecosystem services from the farthest reaches of the planet (Deutsch et al., 2013; Seto et al., 2012).

Urban thought’s second line

A second line of thought that is also based on systems ecology emerged in the 1990s, with the concepts of ecological footprints (Rees 1992), extended versions of urban metabolism (Newman, 1999) and urban ecosystem services (Bolund and Hunhammar 1998). This line offers an important alternative perspective, since it assumes that humans are part of an intricate and complex web of life that goes far beyond the borders of any city. In just a few decades, this social-ecological lens has been used to argue that cities must offer better stewardship of ecosystems inside and outside their borders (Krasny and Tidball 2012; Enqvist et al., 2014) and must improve the capacity to cognitively reconnect city inhabitants with the biosphere (Andersson et al., 2014). Scholars of this kind of thinking also came to argue for the missing role that urban ecosystems, such as urban agricultures or wetlands, hold as technologies for building urban resilience towards extreme external disturbances (McPhearson et al., 2015; Barthel et al., 2015; Lewis 2015). The world’s ecosystems are gradually being eroded, with a subsequent loss of both ecosystem services and social-ecological resilience (Berkes et al. 2003), not only due to rapid urbanization per se, but also due to other global drivers such as climate change, population growth and tele-connected consumption behaviors (Seto et al., 2012), which ultimately will be shaped by environmental attitudes among city people (Grimm et al., 2008).

In 1961, the plethora of benefits that ecosystems in cities provided for human well-being in cities were simply not known (McPhearson et al., 2015; Haase et al., 2014). While Jacobs’ thinking is based on ecosystem logic, it does not see the benefits humans obtain by sensory interaction with other species and with diverse ecosystems. She viewed urban life to be an essentialist reality separated from such social-ecological relations, and from their role in shaping learning, meaning-making and cognitive dimensions in humans (Bendt et al., 2013; Colding and Barthel, 2013). For instance, Jacobs saw urban form as a cognitive artifact, where physical space also interacts with the way we think and feel, but she did not adequately address the role that nature environments in cities play in the development of attitudes, health and cognitive performance (Hartig et al., 2014; Bratman et al., 2015). For instance, Giusti et al. (2014) showed that pre-school children that experience nature environments in their daily routines develop significantly stronger environmental attitudes than those that do not. Nevertheless the socio-spatial dimensions of the work of Jane Jacobs cannot be underestimated in urban scholarship.

Social-ecological urbanism: aligning the two lines of thought

There is a need to align these two lines of thinking, because even if both build on our understanding of complex ecosystems, they are actually producing different urban systemic pictures, and they solve different kinds of challenges in urban sustainability.

Few, if any, attempts have been made to link urban social-ecological systems thinking with Jane Jacobs’ understanding of the city as an ecosystem. But in 2009, these two lines of thought met during the creation of a vision for a new campus area in Stockholm. This campus is called Albano.

The Albano site is situated just north of the inner city of Stockholm on formerly industrial land and has long been the subject of conflict and controversy. In 2009, the old industrial area was used primarily for temporary parking and as a storage area. However, this strategic location right at the edge of the dense inner city fabric, in between two of the major urban development areas and at the intersection of the three major universities in Stockholm, made it interesting from an urban morphology perspective. The Albano site is also located within the limits of the world’s first national urban park, Stockholm National City Park, protected by law since 1995. This double strategic perspective makes the site not only the subject of extraordinary development potential, but also a strategic link in Stockholm’s landscape ecology. This urban park is protected as a national interest with high levels of biodiversity and cultural value. The park is huge; the area is 27 square kilometers, including vast and diverse areas of meadows, forests, lakes and streams. It is also associated with a motivated network of civic associations that played a pivotal role in obtaining the protective laws for the park (Barthel et al., 2005; Ernstson et al. 2008).

The design work of this campus area came about in collaboration between researchers at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Royal School of Architecture in Stockholm, and with practicing architects (Barthel et al., 2013). Civil society organizations and other stakeholders took part in the participatory design processes as well. In 2010, colleagues and I presented an alternative vision for the site to the city planning office, to local politicians, and to the university leadership. The vision won support from all those actors. It was carried all the way into a detailed plan, which was co-designed with the city architect in Stockholm. Further investigations, reports and alterations were undertaken until 2012, when the City Council of Stockholm approved this detailed plan. The construction work of Albano started in November 2015.

It includes 100,000 square meters of buildings, including apartments for students and researchers. It attempts to support ecological connectivity in the wider landscape, as well as social and spatial accessibility to the street network of the urban fabric. Our designs accommodated local conditions for energy production and approached the greening of buildings with vegetation selected in relation to the surrounding landscape. We designed new habitats to support such landscape ecological processes of species migration, pollination and seed-dispersal. The design also involved development of institutional designs related to urban green commons (Colding and Barthel 2013), by which local civil society organizations, students and scholars can become managers and stewards of habitats and green spaces in the area (from wetland ponds to allotment gardens).

The project is expected to make a positive contribution towards a low-carbon economy. Designs focus on social-ecological resilience (such as adaptations to climate change) and mitigation measures to reduce carbon consumption for Stockholm’s Albano Campus. For instance, the integrated campus development plans will include better mobility solutions between the city and the campus and within campus (walking, bicycling and public transport), and also includes novel energy solutions that will be continuously updated parallel to technological innovations. The climate adaptation designs include carbon absorbing design elements (nature-based solutions) that simultaneously support the generation of local ecosystem services.

image1
Vision picture for Albano Campus.

In the design process, one unexpected effect was a theoretical merging of social-ecological urban systems thinking with urban morphology thinking inspired by Jane Jacobs, which gave birth to what we now call Social-Ecological Urbanism (Barthel et al. 2013; Marcus and Colding 2014).

The combination of these two thought lines provides a cognitive step towards the city’s aim to generate an ecosystem-based urban transformation, where cities are seen as embedded in the biosphere, and where social-ecological relations on the micro-scale are considered alongside spatial features for combating social segregation and for creating walkability and safety. From a discourse point of view, Social-Ecological Urbanism can be seen as a second generation following the dominance of the smart growth paradigm, since it deals not only with designs for mitigation of carbon emissions, but also with adaptation measures to enhance adaptive capacities in relation to emerging surprises. It does so by searching for synergies between ecological and sociospatial systems, where resilience is used as the systems’ capacity to absorb shocks, utilize them, reorganize and continue to develop without losing fundamental functions. In this sense, social-ecological urbanism can be viewed as a scientific upgrading of landscape urbanism concepts.

Insights about the design process behind this work include the importance of: (1) respectful interdisciplinary working conditions, including exchanging knowledge and terminology in productive ways; (2) translation of scientific knowledge into physical, institutional and discursive artifacts that both ‘protect’ and communicate the ideas; and (3) respect for how to navigate within the power landscape in which urban planning and design is embedded.

This design process will be used as an example of ‘best practices’ in the building of a science-practice network in the Baltic region that can lay a foundation platform for learning, innovation and friendship. Albano acts as a foundation for the EU-project called LIVE BALTIC CAMPUS – Campus Areas as Labs for Participative Urban Design.

Live_Baltic_Campus_map
Cities and Universities around the Baltic Sea in the project LIVE BALTIC CAMPUS – Campus Areas as Labs for Participative Urban Design.

Other collaborations that have emerged directly from this project include several collaborations with non-academic actors within the Stockholm region, as well as a partnership with Urban Mistra Futures at Chalmers in Gothenburg. We hope that aligning these two different lines of thought under the framework of Social-Ecological Urbanism brings novel innovations with interesting repercussions for the international debate on sustainable urban development. We also hope the Albano Campus, as a persistent artifact example, may inspire architects to join the broader quest of sustaining the web of life of which we are all a part.

Stephan Barthel
Stockholm

On The Nature of Cities

Literature

Andersson, E., Barthel, S., Borgström, S., et al. (2014). Reconnecting Cities to the Biosphere: Stewardship of Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecosystem Services. AMBIO. 43: 445-453.

Barthel, S. Parker, J. Ernstson, H. (2015). Food and Green Space in Cities: A Resilience Lens on Gardens and Urban Environmental Movements. Urban Studies. 52(7), 1321-1338.

Barthel, S. and Isendahl, C. (2013). Urban Gardens, Agricultures and Waters: Sources of Resilience for Long-Term Food Security in Cities. Ecological Economics. 86, 224-234.

Barthel, S., Colding, J., Ernstson, H., Erixon, H., Grahn, S., Kärsten, C., Marcus, L., Torsvall, J. (2013). Principles of Social-Ecological Urbanism – Case Study: Albano Campus, Stockholm. TRITA-ARK Forskningspublikationer 2013:3, Stockholm. ISBN 978-91-7501-878-2.

Barthel S., Colding J., Elmqvist T., Folke C. (2005). History and Local Management of a Biodiversity-rich, Urban, Cultural Landscape. Ecology and Society. 105(2), 10.

Bendt, P. Barthel, S. and Colding, J. (2013). Civic greening and environmental learning in public-access community gardens in Berlin. Landscape and Urban Planning. 109: 18– 30.

Berkes, F., J. Colding, and C. Folke. 2003. Navigating social-ecological systems: Building resilience for complexity and change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Bolund, P., and S. Hunhammar. (1999). Ecosystem services in urban areas. Ecological Economics. 29:293–302.

Bratman, G. N., et al. (2015). The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Landscape and Urban Planning. 138: 41–50

Clements, F.E. (1916). Plant succession: an analysis of the development of vegetation. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 242. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC.

Colding, J. and Barthel, S. (2013). The potential of ‘Urban Green Commons’ in the resilience building of cities. Ecological Economics. 86: 156–166.

Deutsch, L., Dyball, R., Steffen, W. (2013). Feeding cities: food security and ecosystem support in an urbanizing world, in: Elmqvist, T., et al. (Eds.), Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment. Springer, Dordrecht.

Enqvist, J., Tengö, M., Bodin, Ö. (2014). Citizen networks in the Garden City: Protecting urban ecosystems in rapid urbanization. Landscape and Urban Planning. 130, 24-35.

Ernstson, H., S. Sörlin, and T. Elmqvist. (2008). Social movements and ecosystem services—The role of social network structure in protecting and managing urban green areas in Stockholm. Ecology and Society. 13: 39.

Giusti, M., Barthel, S., Marcus, L. (2014). Nature Routines and Affinity with the Biosphere: A Case Study of Preschool Children in Stockholm. Children, Youth and Environments. 24(3): 16-42.

Grimm, N. B., Faeth, S. H., Golubiewski, N. E., et al. (2008). Global change and the ecology of cities. Science. 319, 756–760.

Haase, D., Frantzekaki, N., Elmqvist, T. (2014). Ecosystem Services in urban landscapes: practical applications and governance implications. AMBIO. 43, 407-412.

Hartig, T., et al. (2014). Nature and Health. Annu. Rev. Public Health. 35: 207–28.

Harvey, D. (1990). The Condition of Postmodernity. Blackwell, Malden.

Hillier, B., and J. Hanson. (1984). The Social Logic of Space, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage Books, London.

Krasny, M. E. & K. G. Tidball. (2012). Civic ecology: a pathway for earth stewardship in cities. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 10(5): 267-273.

Legeby, A. (2013). Urban Segregation And Urban Form: From residential segregation to segregation in public space. Ph.D. thesis. KTH, Stockholm.

Lewis, J. (2015). Deltaic Dilemmas-Ecologies of Infrastructure in New Orleans. PhD-thesis Stockholm University, Stockholm Resilience Centre. ISBN 978-91-7649-239-0. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-119390.

McPhearson, T., Andersson, E., Elmqvist, T., Franzeskaki, N. (2015). Resilience of and through urban ecosystem services. Ecosystem Services. 12, 152-156.

Marcus, L. (2010). Spatial Capital: a proposal for an extension of space syntax into a more general urban morphology. Journal of Space Syntax. 1 (1).

Marcus, L. & Colding, J. (2014). Towards an integrated theory of spatial morphology and resilient urban systems. Ecology and Society. 19: 55.

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Rees, E., W. (1992). Ecological Footprints and appropriated Carrying Capacity: What Urban Economies Leaves out. Environment and Urbanization. 4(2), 121-140

Sassen, S. (1991). The Global City. Princeton University Press, New York.

Seto, K. C., Reenberg, A., Boone, C. G., et al. (2012). Urban land teleconnections and sustainability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109, 7687-7692.

Tainter, J. (2011). Energy, complexity, and sustainability: a historical perspective. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 1, 89–95.

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Leveraging Urban Form to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in China

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

A review of Towards Low Carbon Cities in China: Urban form and greenhouse gas emissions, edited by Sun Sheng Han, Ray Green and Mark Y. Wang. 2015. ISBN: 9780415743310. Routledge, New York. 216 pages. Buy the book.

coverUrban morphology has a great impact on greenhouse gas emissions, a viewpoint supported by research findings. Generally speaking, an urban form featuring disordered sprawl produces more CO2. Scattered urban land use increases travel distance, vehicle-miles driven, and per capita living space, which leads to more energy consumption. Low density urban development needs more infrastructure and public services for support, which increases carbon emissions, and the conversion of large amounts of relatively lower carbon emitting agricultural land into urban areas enhances carbon emission intensity.

Over the past three decades, China’s rapid urbanization has boosted economic development and brought about fundamental social achievements. However, this process has also been characterized by disorderly urban land use which has negatively affected the natural environment and drastically increased the carbon footprint of the country.

Over the past three decades, China’s rapid urbanization has boosted economic development, but has also been characterized by an extensive, disorderly urban land use which has drastically increased the carbon footprint of the country

Towards Low Carbon Cities in China: Urban Form and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” comes at a time when climate change is starting to be recognized as an important global issue, and the Chinese government is committed to exploring and implementing a low carbon urbanization pathway. The book explores the relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas emissions in China, and examines how factors such as urban households’ access to services and jobs, land use mixes and provision of public transport impact greenhouse gas emissions. The book draws on the results from a four-year multidisciplinary Australia-China collaborative research project, and is drafted by faculty members and students of renowned universities from both countries.

It is structured in three parts and ten chapters. The first part gives an overview of the book (chapter one) and introduces the policies and practices of low carbon cities in China (chapters two and three). The second part is the major component of the book. It examines the relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas emissions at a macro level (chapter four), presents results of analyses and empirical evidence related to the relationship between urban form and CO2 emissions in the four case study cities (chapters five, six, seven and eight), and reports results from household surveys from two of the case study cities with regard to the residents’ personal opinions on how to build low carbon cities (chapter nine). The third part summarizes the findings and discusses the implications of the outcomes of the research (chapter ten).

The book adds value to the existing literature in the field by filling in the research gap between greenhouse gas emissions and urban form. In China, research on low carbon cities is focused on the three major areas of carbon emissions: industry, transport and building. Though it is equally, if not more, important, the influence of urban form on greenhouse gas emissions usually receives less attention because it is much more difficult to quantify and evaluate greenhouse gas emissions associated with urban form. This research adds to the methodology in the field and offers a different angle to address the problem. It uses household survey results and transforms the information into quantifiable data, so that the relationship between urban form and household carbon emissions can be roughly evaluated. Empirical study and household survey make the research more realistic.

There are few empirical studies on the relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas emissions in China. By surveying 4,677 sample households from four major Chinese cities—Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Xi’an—the authors are able to analyze real life data and to draw practical conclusions. In addition, by conducting door-to-door household surveys in Xi’an and Wuhan, the authors are able to understand what the citizens really need and to have the local people’s suggestions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This bottom-up approach is supplementary to the top-down mechanism dominating the decision-making process of low carbon cities programs in China. This research also shed light on the relationship between household characteristics and household daily travel carbon emissions. Factors such as household income, the level of education, type of employment and the family members’ travel behaviors are found to influence the household’s decisions about private car ownership and daily travel mode which, in turn, impact household carbon emissions. This research finding suggests that, in making urban policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as proper physical planning and design, policy makers and urban planners should also take these socio-economic factors into consideration.

As it is introduced in the preface, the target audience of this book is scholars, urban policy makers and planners. In my opinion, the book is obviously focused on research, and it might be more suitable for scholars and urban planners working in this field. It is strong in analyzing data and presenting research findings, but relatively weak in giving specific recommendations. For example, what kind of policy tools can Chinese local governments use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with urban form? What is the specific roadmap to achieve this goal? How should the Chinese local executors act to make it happen? Further, the content and style of this book is research oriented. If we aim to influence policy makers, it is important to make it easier for them to read. City officials usually have little time to read a book that is theoretically rich; rather, they would be interested in a work that advises them on how to act. They love straightforward recommendations, hands-on experience and practical cases with vivid presentation styles (illustrations and tables).

I recommend this book mainly to urban scholars and planners. It is a timely product by contributors from multidisciplinary backgrounds (urban planning and design, urban geography, regional economics, public policy, etc.), and it succeeds in conveying its key message to its intended audience: urban form does influence greenhouse gas emissions, and cities with different spatial layouts vary in their average daily travel carbon emissions. But to bring this critical observation to the actual planning of Chinese cities, we will need an additional volume that elaborates on explicit recommendations and action roadmaps for local governments and implementers.

Pengfei Xie
Beijing

On The Nature of Cities

You can support TNOC (and the book’s authors) by buying the book via this link.

Highlights from The Nature of Cities in 2015

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Today’s post is offered as a celebration of some of the content from 2015—a taste…a combination of TNOC writing from around the world that is a combination of diverse, widely read, a novel point of view, or somehow disruptive in an useful way. Certainly all 350+ TNOC essays and roundtables are great reads. What follows is a sample of some of the highlights.

2015 has been a transformational year at The Nature of Cities. The number of contributors has grown to over 350, and we published 100+ long-form essays, reviews and global roundtables. This year began a new format—collections of essays as an eBook. The first was The Just City Essays, a collaboration with the Max Bond Center for the Design of the Just City and NextCity. We will continue to do two of these collections a year on topics important to TNOC’s mission. Most important, we’ve attracted more and more readers: in 2015 we had 200,000+ readers from 3000+ cities in 145 countries. Thank you.

New things are coming in 2016, including:

  • New focus on green cities and social justice.
  • The Nature of Graffiti gallery of nature-inspired urban graffiti and street art.
  • An new effort to recognize and reward on-the-ground Champions of the Nature of Cities.
  • And of course, over 150 new essays, reviews and roundtables.

Donate

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Highlights of 2015

TheJustCityEssaysCoverAll 26 of the Just City Essays were highlights. Check them out.
http://www.thenatureofcities.com/the-just-city-essays/
Over the past decade, there have been conversations about the “livable city,” the “green city,” the “sustainable city” and, most recently, the “resilient city.” At the same time, today’s headlines—from Ferguson to Baltimore, Paris to Johannesburg—resound with the need for a frank conversation about the structures and processes that affect the quality of life and livelihoods of urban residents. Issues of equity, inclusion, race, participation, access and ownership remain unresolved in many communities around the world, even as we begin to address the challenges of affordability, climate change adaptation and resilience. The persistence of injustice in the world’s cities—dramatic inequality, unequal environmental burdens and risks, and uneven access to opportunity—demands a continued and reinvigorated search for ideas and solutions.

Roundtables

NEW YORK (Nov. 4, 2012) Damage Control Fireman Louis Durante waits along Rockaway Beach in Queens, N.Y., for a dewatering team from the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD 17). Durante, from New York, was on leave when Hurricane Sandy struck and met the dewatering team to help dewater apartment complexes in Rockaway Beach. The U.S. Navy has positioned forces in the area to assist U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) in support of FEMA and local civil authorities following the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Terah L. Mollise/Released) 121104-N-GZ984-062 Join the conversation http://www.facebook.com/USNavy http://www.twitter.com/USNavy http://navylive.dodlive.mil

Taking “resilience” out of the realm of metaphor. How do you measure resilience in cities? How would you know if your city or your community was resilient?
http://bit.ly/1dhNPK7
In a time of gathering stresses from climate and ecological change, economic stress, and the persistent challenges of sustainability, justice and livability, resilience is a key area of thought with enormous potential. We must continue to work to bring it down from the 10,000 meters of metaphor to functional concepts on the ground. As we build and improve the cities of world, how can we act on the core ideas and promise of resilience? Of the 21 respondents to this roundtable, some are working on direct or indirect metrics. What makes them relevant and validated? Some are measurement skeptics. If it can’t be measured then how can we construct resilience (in an adaptive management sense)? Some are actively engaged in city building and policy. How is resilience an actionable concept?
…with contributions from: Keren Bolter, Boca Raton; Cesar Busatto, Porto Alegre; Lorenzo Chelleri, Milan; William Dunbar, Tokyo; Thomas Elmqvist, Stockholm; Antoine Faye, Dakar; Richard Friend & Pakama Thinphanga, Bangkok; Lance Gunderson, Atlanta; Tom Henfry, Bristol; Dan Lewis & Patricia Holly, Barcelona & Nairobi; Shuaib Lwasa, Kampala; Timon McPhearson, New York; Franco Montalto, Philadelphia; Luciana Nery, Sao Paulo; Henk Ovink, The Hague; Elisabeth Peyroux, Paris; Catherine Sutherland, Cape Town; Claire Weisz, New York; Dan Zarrilli, New York

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIs there such a thing as a “bird friendly city”? What does it look like? What does it not look like? Why bother?
http://bit.ly/1zQWc8U

Two key issues determine whether a town or city is ‘bird-friendly’. One is the range and quality of habitats that prevail, together with opportunities for food and nest sites. The second is the culture of the place: whether birds are protected, encouraged, tolerated or shot. So to be truly bird-friendly, a city needs to have citizens who value biodiversity and influence both bottom-up and top-down decisions on how to manage the urban environment.
…with contributions from: Tim Beatley, Charlottesville; Luke Engleback, London; Dusty Gedge, London; David Goode, London; Madhu Katti, Fresno; John Marzluff, Seattle; Bonghani Mnisi, Cape Town; Glenn Phillips, New York; Kaveh Samiei, Tehran; Ken Smith, New York; Yolanda van Heezik, Dunelin; Maxime Zucca, Paris

The Toronto skyline. Photo: Joe Lobko

Urban water fronts have typically been sites of heavy development and often are sites of pollution or exclusive access. But they have enormous potential benefits. How can we unlock these benefits for everyone? Are there ecological vs. social vs. economic tradeoffs?http://bit.ly/14sr2ai
Cities are necessarily heterogeneous and multiple: they are sites where we encounter difference and where humanity and nature come crashing up against each other. Cities both embrace and abrade nature in the same turn. Urban waterfronts are no different in that they serve as the point of contact between the ‘wilderness’ of the open sea or river and the city that lines its shore. Waterfront developments have an opportunity to reconnect cities to their marine or riverine ecologies, but also run the risk of being neither ecologically sound nor socially inclusive. They may become segregated urban spaces just like so many others that turn their backs to the cities where they are situated, or they may become the centrepiece of the city itself, engaged as a powerful tool to attract citizens and visitors to the aquatic urban edge.
…with contributions from Mitchell Chester, Miami; P.K. Das, Mumbai; Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires; Andrew Grant, Bath; John Hartig, Detroit; Roland Lewis, New York; Joe Lobko, Toronto; Robert Morris-Nunn, Hobart; Rob Pirani, New York; Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Miami; Andréa Redondo, Rio de Janeiro; Bradley Rink, Cape Town; Hita Unnikrishnan, Bangalore; Jay Valgora, New York; Mike Wells, Bath

Essays

Beijing LandfillWays Forward from China’s Urban Waste Problem
Judy Li, Beijing
http://bit.ly/1D7hAWS
It is important to consider the human element of China’s urban waste system to understand how it affects the livability of Chinese cities. In addition to poor waste collection infrastructure, investment, and enforcement, the current waste system in China perpetuates social inequalities for rural-to-urban migrants. Landfills and incubators are pushed to the outskirts of the city where poor migrants live. This leaves the wealthier inner city areas relatively clean, but their waste is exported to small towns and poor communities that are socially, politically, and economically marginalized. Wiser resource utilization can help Chinese cities become more sustainable, and address environmental injustices of the current waste system.

Pact for the Mountains photomontage, Fundación Cerros de Bogotá (Mountains of Bogota Foundation) www.cerrosdebogota.org. Photo: FCB Pact. Fotomontaje Pacto por los Cerros, Fundación Cerros de Bogotá www.cerrosdebogota.org

Democratizing Conversations on Sustainability to Create Resilience from the Soul
Diana Wiesner, Bogotá
http://bit.ly/1JHGugu
There are multiple proposals revolving around the discourse of sustainable cities, in which green infrastructure systems are implemented and natural resources are protected to guarantee ecosystem service supply. This discourse, however, is concentrated among scholars, specialized professionals, and a limited percentage of the population. As a result, city planning and its corresponding sustainability proposals are far removed from the people who are building their spaces in terms of trends, as other groups that have settled in these territories have done before them, without taking into account water, vegetation, or open space. This has to change.

3. MaherKarachi and the Paralysis of Imagination
Mahim Maher, Karachi
http://bit.ly/1mgMqrM
You want to read about a vision of a just Karachi? The contract killer ($50 a hit) ripping up the road behind Disco Bakery on his Honda 200CC and the secret service colonel cracking skulls in a Clifton safehouse will both cite one vision: Dubai. This happens to also be the vision of the one-armed Afghan refugee selling Beijing socks off a cart in Saddar bazaar and the unsexed Karachi Port Trust shipping agent waiting for shady clients to cough up cash so he can escape to Phuket. To borrow from an old Urdu election rallying cry: Chalo, chalo, Dubai, chalo. Come, come, let’s go to Dubai.

©2015 National Park City, London.

London: A National Park City
by David Goode, London
http://bit.ly/1NlYwJH
Over the past 18 months, a movement has been growing, drawing together Londoners who want to apply National Park principles to the whole of Greater London. The aim is to turn traditional attitudes to the city inside out, ensuring that nature has a place in every aspect of London’s fabric and making it accessible to every Londoner. The idea has gained huge support from many different sectors of society. It’s a people’s movement that is gaining momentum by the day and, last month, a draft charter was launched for public consultation.

Attractive “Task Cards” invite volunteer gardeners to track the time they donate for different activities—making it easy for a coordinator to tally up all of the volunteer time that goes into a garden each year. Photo: Philip Silva

Making the Measure: A Toolkit for Tracking the Outcomes of Community Gardens and Urban Farms
Phil Silva, New York
http://bit.ly/1Cq05yK
Community gardeners and urban farmers across North America are using an innovative research toolkit developed in New York City to measure and track the impacts of their work. The toolkit is made up of sixteen different methods for collecting data about things like the number of pounds of food harvested in a community garden or the number of children who develop a taste for fresh vegetables after hanging out at a neighborhood farm. Gardens around North America have started using the toolkit and its accompanying online data-tracking site, “The Barn”. The toolkit is freely available for anyone to download, use, and repurpose. The Barn data-tracking site is also free and open to any community garden or urban farm throughout the world.

Credit: CaLL Finished drawings. Ideas included nurse logs, beekeeping, growing food for restaurants, ‘weeds’ to feed birds, kite flying contests, and extensive mini-ledge gardens.

Micro_Urban: The Ecological and Social Potential of Small-Scale Urban Spaces
Timon McPhearson and Victoria Marshall, New York and Newark
http://bit.ly/179wVdq
Small-scale urban spaces can be rich in biodiversity, contribute important ecological benefits for human mental and physical health, and overall help to create more livable cities. Micro_urban spaces are the sandwich spaces between buildings, rooftops, walls, curbs, sidewalk cracks, and other small-scale urban spaces that exist in the fissures between linear infrastructure. What if the micro_urban were the missing piece to solving the connectivity puzzle in our fragmented urban ecologies? How might micro_urban habitats, networked throughout our built and social infrastructure, make a difference in the social and ecological well-being of a city?

Selgas Cano Office 2885_Iwan BaanNature in View, Nature in Design: Reconnecting People with Nature through Design
Whitney Hopkins, London
bit.ly/1DCcRbM
Poorly conceived design visibly divided us in urban areas from our wilds and contributed to our recent ability to see nature as something isolated from us. Yet reinvigorating our bond with nature is a challenge architecture and urban design are well placed to address. Architects and designers have control over our built environment; by changing the way we design cities and buildings to connect to rather than disconnect from nature, we can change our proximity to nature and shift our physical relationship to the environment.

05 Mirror glass in VancouverWhy We Need Design Guidelines for Urban Non-Humans
Paul Downton, Adelaide
bit.ly/1KUcSPc
Every city, every town and human settlement, should have a set of urban design guidelines for non-human species. The development and application of these guidelines would form the core of a new adventure in urbanism that has transformative potential and the capacity to lay the groundwork for a truly ecological civilisation—in which taking care of non-human species will, in turn, enhance the capabilities and conditions of the human animal.

Count me inCount Me In: Urban Greening and the Return of Primates in Kampala
Shuaib Lwasa, Kampala
http://bit.ly/1IDK1uI
Kampala plans to plant 500,000 trees, a greening activity that is part of the effort to build climate resilience in the city. It has been envisaged to have multiple benefits. Green cover would enhance aesthetics, reduce common flash floods through increased infiltration, and sequester greenhouse gases. But one unforeseen possibility of the greening program is the return or increase of the primate population in the city as habitat is re-created. To this end, it is important for planners and practitioners of urban space re-creation in Kampala to think about tree species that would attract the return of primates, whose persistence has continuously communicated that they will not be left out of the city. If there is appreciation of urban spaces that create harmony between nature and built forms, how can the greening activity be utilized to improve habitats and return primates to Kampala? What would be the motivations for increased biodiversity in the city?

LindsayCampbellPlantsATreeEncountering the Urban Forest
Lindsay Campbell, New York
http://bit.ly/1wWt1uM
For all the critical scholarship that is written about the harnessing of volunteer labor in caring for urban trees, it never squared with my experience of engaging in stewardship. I came to realize that my leisure practices were missing from my research accounts. I was writing myself out of the story. I’ll share three stories of my engagements with street trees and reforestation sites to explore affective experiences between me and the trees. I believe that these vignettes offer windows into why and how we create and maintain relations of care with the urban forest. How can we build bridges between such emotional experiences and our management practices and cultivate attachment and stewardship; that allows attachment to inform management, decision-making, and priority-setting?

Photo: Mar Morey

The Secret Life of Bees: Using Big Data and Citizen Science to Unravel…What Bees Are Saying about the Environment
Jennifer Baljko, Barcelona
http://bit.ly/1APt5jN
Bees can act as a biosensor for cities, and give a signal that could be easy to understand. If the bees are all right, we are living in a good environment. If the bees are suffering or the colony is dying, it could be a sign that the environment is having serious problems. Recent studies, for example, suggest that bees are sensitive to pollution, and small fluctuations in ozone levels can affect their behavior. Researchers behind a Barcelona project hope that insights generated from data on beehive temperature, humidity, and weight, might provide clues to creating healthier and sustainable environments for bees, for humans, and for cities.

boardwalk design Sasaki-RutgersFEATUREMarriage Therapy for Ecologists and Landscape Architects
Steven Handel, New Brunswick
http://bit.ly/17JYkSQ
Ecologists and Landscape Architects can have a rocky and unsteady relationship; improving it is going to take some time. I can’t promise a happy ending, of course, but ask you to remember three things: First, your goals for a sustainable, healthy landscape are parallel, not divergent. Keep that in mind when you seem to have momentary troubles communicating. Second, you are both driven to improve the landscape, not watch it continually degrade; remember you’re soul mates, at least in that way. Third, we live in a rapidly changing world, climate, sea levels, movement of species, and mixing of biotic communities. These are all spinning fast towards a future that is hard to predict. Ecologists and designers are our only real protection against the troubles ahead. We need you to work together. Don’t let us down.

open mumbai exhibition FEATURELet Streams of Linear Open Spaces Flow Across Urban Landscapes
PK Das, Mumbai
http://bit.ly/1L99Md0
Can we re-envision our cities with a stream of linear open spaces, defining a new geography of cities? Can we break away from large, monolithic spaces and geometric structures into fluid open spaces, meandering, modulating and negotiating varying city terrains, as rivers and watercourses do? This way, the new structure of open spaces would relate to and integrate with many more areas and provide access to more people across neighborhoods and the city.

26. MaddoxCities in Imagination
David Maddox, New York
http://bit.ly/1Pvy4yR
These are the cities of our dreams: resilient, sustainable, livable, just. Let’s imagine. We can imagine sustainable cities—ones that can persist in energy, food and ecological balance—that are nevertheless brittle, socially or infrastructurally, to shocks and major perturbations. They are not resilient. We can imagine resilient cities—especially cities that are made so through extraordinary and expensive works of grey infrastructure—that are not sustainable from the point of view of energy consumption, food security, economy, or other resources. We can imagine livable cities that are neither resilient nor sustainable. And, it is easy to imagine resilient and sustainable cities that are not livable—and so are not truly sustainable. Easiest of all is to imagine cities of injustice, because they exist all around us. The nature of their injustice may be difficult to solve or even comprehend within our systems of economy and government, but it’s easy to see.

IG Coordinator Cedric van Riel leads an IG student team in Madagascar.Biocultural Diversity and the Diverse City: A Model for Linking Nature and Culture
William Dunbar, Tokyo
http://bit.ly/1KVlP8b
The concept of biocultural diversity— the coming together of biological and cultural diversity—is receiving more attention recently along with an awareness that elements of cultures all around the world are deeply rooted in the nature, or biological diversity, around them, and that greater cultural diversity comes with greater biological diversity. It seems intuitively true that richer biological diversity leads to richer cultural diversity if you think about the wide variety of art, rituals, traditional knowledge, etc. that are related to nature and are integral to indigenous peoples and local communities around the world. Empirically as well, greater cultural diversity has been shown to correlate with biodiversity hotspots.

Reviews

Landscape by Shen Zhou, c.1500, Ink and color on paper

Trees of Life and Fruitful Relationships
Patrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul
A review of Arboreal Architecture: A Visual History of Trees, an exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
http://bit.ly/1O6chKU
The show’s curator, George Philip LeBourdais, has shoehorned a global collection of artworks from the Cantor Center’s collection into the room. Spanning about 1,500 years, the collection is impressive not only for the time it covers, but because all of the works concern the trees and our ever changing cultural relationships with them.  The exhibit offers a deep and powerful display of cultural relationships to trees over such a great cultural timespan that it’s impossible not to be affected by it. The works speak of trees in city and countryside, of trees in in ritual and for utility, and, perhaps most importantly, of trees as part of us and, ultimately, as works of art themselves.

24_Central Park_BC_2013What Makes a “Great” City Park? The Beholder Sees
Adrian Benepe, New York
A review of “Great City Parks”; Second Edition, by Alan Tate with Marcella Eaton
http://bit.ly/1XHrubm
Park geeks and urban nemophilists, not to mention the “designers, administrators, planners and politicians with current and future responsibilities for city parks” that the author cites as the primary target audience, have reason to celebrate and pore over this lovingly detailed volume, richly illustrated with photographs (most of them by the authors) and simple plans of the parks, and heavily annotated with quotes, citations, and footnotes. But what is a “great” park? Alan Tate offers this: “There is no easy answer. Well, there is. It’s like being in love. You know when you’re in it and that gels with Burke’s definition of beauty as ‘that quality or those qualities in bodies by which they cause love.”
CrosswalkHow Tactical Urbanism “Adds Up”
Sarah Bradley, Montreal
A review of Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change, by Anthony Garcia and Mike Lydon
http://bit.ly/1CSiCsi
Tactical Urbanism: it’s one of the buzz words in the emerging people-centred planning paradigm. If you do a Google News search of the term, you’ll find articles from all the news sites beloved by urbanists. These many meanings are captured in the new book by American urban planners Anthony Garcia and Mike Lydon, both leaders in civic advocacy and principals of The Street Plans Collaborative. By clearly laying out what tactical urbanism is—the authors define it simply as an approach to neighbourhood building and activation using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions and policies—the groundwork is laid to build on this theory of change by providing successful examples and providing guidance for making it work in practice.

Aerial photo of development in the foothills of Colorado. Nearby development can have significant impacts on the biological integrity of natural areas. Photo: Sarah Reed

Complex and Useful, Green Is Infrastructure
Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires
A review of Green Infrastructure: A Landscape Approach
http://bit.ly/1DrPVCw
Green Infrastructure: A Landscape Approach, in line with the current principles of sustainability, discusses green infrastructure (GI) as the visible expression of natural and human ecosystem processes that work across scales and contexts to provide multiple benefits for people and their environments. It gives the reader a framework for a sustainable urban and regional future, how can it be implemented, and how planners and designers can play leading and responsive roles in addressing these issues. Although this report was intended for planners, landscape architects, architects, civil engineers, scientists, and others interested in the spatial structure, functions, and values (environmental, economic, and social) of natural and built landscapes, its simple and enjoyable writing makes it useful for educators, students, citizen groups and conservationists. While all case studies were drawn from communities within the United States, implementing the mentioned principles through green infrastructure initiatives, the variety of contexts and scales make them applicable worldwide.

Email sent from: "Dundas, Deborah" ddundas@thestar.ca Subject: FW: Science, Arrivals, April 19 new wild cover Date: 13 April, 2015 10:36:03 AM EDT the new wildEmail sent from: Sarah Murdoch [mailto:smurdoch49@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, April 10, 2015 1:27 PM To: Dundas, Deborah Cc: Sarah Murdoch Subject: Science, Arrivals, April 19 new wild cover

The Myths of Alien Species: An Alternate Perspective on “Wild”
by Divya Gopal, Berlin
A review of The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation, by Fred Pearce
http://bit.ly/1KaSh8V
The New Wild is an intriguing book that looks at non-native species and nature in new light, challenging popular notions of ‘nativism,’ ‘wild’ and nature’s ‘fragility.’ Although the author, Fred Pearce, has taken on a controversial topic, his sources show that he is not alone as an increasing number of ecologists and scientists are questioning the “good natives, bad aliens,” narrative. As an ecologist who works in cultural landscapes, I found this book is refreshing. ‘Wild’ to me means spontaneous and not domesticated or cultivated. There is something magical about seeing what nature has to offer. Many of the spontaneously growing plants, often considered weeds elsewhere, add character to the city. Some are natives, some aliens. It doesn’t matter—these spontaneous species are the new wild.

Photo Essays

lake_bhattarahalli_ganesha_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-RaoThe banner photo is from the photo essay Photo Essay: Untold Stories of Change, Loss and Hope Along the Margins of Bengaluru’s Lakes, by Marthe Derkzen, Amsterdam, with photos by Anoop Bhaskar and Arati Kumar-Rao
http://bit.ly/1OwJ8wJ
Before becoming India’s information technology hub, Bengaluru was known for its numerous lakes and green spaces. Rapid urbanization has led to the disappearance of many of these ecosystems. Those that remain face a range of challenges: residential and commercial construction, pollution and waste dumping, privatization, and so on. Today, Bengaluru’s lakes are principally seen as garbage dumps and sewage ponds that can have either of two fates: one, be transformed into recreational oases to suit the needs of wealthy residential neighborhoods, or two, be encroached upon until none of the original shapes and functions can be traced. But how does this affect the lives of the people living at the very margins of Bengaluru’s beloved yet contested lakes?

Grey herons at råstasjön. By (copyright)JonathanStenvall

Imaging the Urban Wild: Fourteen Photographers and Artists Show and Talk About their Work
http://bit.ly/1cVEsQ0
Photography, and art in general, can help us see. See in new ways. Indeed, it helps us be better at looking. One of the main themes of The Nature of Cities is the idea of “nature nearby”—that cities are not barren of nature, but rather teem with life, both human and non-human. Yet many people in cities don’t see that nature around them, though they may sense it as part of the nature, or character of their city. Can we learn to look more thoughtfully, and therefore see more fully the natural vibrancy that is all around us in cities? And also along the way see what vibrancy our cities may be lacking? It is a vibrancy that weaves—or should weave—together nature and people and built form in ways that make cities rich—rich in biodiversity, human society, sustainability, resilience, and livability. So in the spirit of looking more deeply, more finely in ways that can help us see, this is the first of what I hope will be many roundtables on artistic and creative expression on the nature of cities. As is TNOC’s way, the 14 represented here take diverse routes to seeing and sensing the city. What details do they find to make the city more vivid?
…with contributions from: Joshua Burch, London; Emilio Fantin, Bologna; Mike Feller, New York; Andrés Flajszer, Barcelona; Mike Houck, Portland; Chris Jordan, Seattle; Robin Lasser, Oakland; Monika Lawrence, Bemidji & Erfurt; Patrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul; David Maddox, New York; Christopher Payne, New York; Eric Sanderson, New York; Jonathan Stenvall, Stockholm; Benjamin Swett, New York

Biocultural Diversity for Healthy Cities

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

At the heart of the concept of biocultural diversity is the idea that much of culture is based in the natural world, so a diversity of cultures and cultural phenomena arises from a natural environment with great natural or biological diversity. Human culture and productive land uses can actually promote higher biodiversity by producing many different habitats—a more diverse landscape—through human intervention (the Satoyama Initiative, my research project’s focus, is one example of this type of thinking). Therefore, biodiversity and cultural diversity go hand in hand. This is demonstrated by the higher linguistic diversity that has been found in places with higher biodiversity.

While, in the urban case, greater cultural diversity probably does not lead directly to higher biodiversity in the same way it does in many peri-urban and rural areas, if you consider that many cultural elements have their roots in biodiversity, as I recently wrote on TNOC, much of urban diversity can be viewed as a form of biocultural diversity. It makes sense that, along with cultural diversity in the form of linguistic diversity and various cultural phenomena, diverse knowledge systems would arise in people coming from different ecosystems and ways of life. This also applies to knowledge generation in urban settings, where cultural traditions—historical and modern, from all over the world—are forced to rub shoulders and find ways to coexist.

What does it take for a city to be in harmony with nature? The answer depends on your perspective.

For instance, consider this statement: Earth is our mother, and just as when a child gets a cold and passes it on to its mother, we make our Mother Earth sick if we live in a way that is sick—in other words, in a way that is not in harmony with nature. This was one of the messages delivered by Otsi.tsa.ken:RA (Charles Patton), an Elder of the Mohawk Nation, in his opening address to the ninth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (WG8J-9), held from 4–7 November, 2015 in Montreal.

Photo 1
Elder Otsi.tsa.ken:RA (Charles Patton) gives an opening address to the WG8J-9 meeting. Photo: IISD

The WG8J meeting is one of the regular processes under the CBD, and has grown out of the recognition of the importance of Article 8(j) of the Convention, which states that each nation that is a party to the Convention shall, “…subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity…” Many of the discussions surrounding this article have to do with traditional knowledge, its conservation and its application.

The WG8J-9 meeting was held back-to-back with, and partly overlapping, the CBD’s nineteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-19), held from 2–5 November. In general, these meetings are concerned with the science side of CBD processes; this year, biodiversity and health was one of the subjects for discussion on the agenda. The overlap of the two meetings held in the middle of a large and diverse city gave participants the chance to think about the overlap between urban health, biodiversity, traditional knowledge and cultural diversity.

At one side event arranged by my organization, the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), alongside the Secretariat of the CBD and Future Earth, and titled “Biodiversity, Health and Sustainable Development,” one of the contributors presented a new report from the Lancet’s Commission on Planetary Health called “Safeguarding Human Health in the Anthropocene Epoch.” The report brings together much of the growing body of knowledge on the links between environmental and human health. Anyone reading this essay (including recent readers of this blog) probably already knows this, but we can no longer ignore the importance of environment for human health, both at micro and macro levels.

Now I ask you to recall the message from Elder Otsi.tsa.ken:RA paraphrased earlier in this essay, followed by this passage from American fiction writer and essayist, Wendell Berry, quoted in the Lancet report on biodiversity and health mentioned above:

“We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it.” (from Berry’s The Long-Legged House, 1969)

And now consider a statement you might find in the academic idiom, something like: “unsustainable natural-resource extraction and use practices can hinder ecosystem functions and thus reduce the provision of ecosystem services.” Are these three different statements, and if so, what makes them different? Essentially, they are saying the same thing—that we should be good to the environment because it is also good for us (my paraphrase here represents yet another idiom, of course)—but the statements represent three different approaches to thinking about the issue, coming from three different knowledge systems, and each applies its own set of assumptions and concepts. This way in which different traditions can share the same conceptual space—and the same physical space, in the case of a city—is the essence of biocultural diversity as laid out above. This example of shared conceptual space illustrates well why respecting different knowledge traditions can be so powerful for dealing with many different issues, from creating healthy cities to a wide range of others.

Biocultural diversity is often thought of in either of two different ways. One is based on the idea of there being a diversity of different cultures in a given region, all of which rely on the biological diversity in the ecosystem for their unique cultural elements. The other is based on a diversity of cultural elements within one cultural tradition—or perhaps a limited number of cultures—in the region, which add up to a culture that is rich and varied within itself. Either way, this is thought to result in a more vibrant and resilient situation in the region. My point with the example of the three statements above is to show how this applies not only to physical, biological and cultural phenomena, but to knowledge traditions as well. This is important because it forms the basis for processes, including the CBD and its WG8J and SBSTTA described above, that bring disparate peoples together to try to solve a difficult problem, whether it is a global threat such as climate change or just figuring out how we can all live together in a city.

While biocultural diversity is more commonly associated with rural life, particularly its biodiversity aspect, it is also of vital importance for the planet’s sake that cities do not place an undue burden on the environment—i.e. they are in harmony with nature, or, in the Elder’s formulation, that cities are healthy. But what does it take for a city to be healthy in this way? The answer depends on your perspective.

First, from a relatively small, human-scale perspective, the city and the surrounding landscape appear to be unrelated, if not in a kind of opposition. People, places and things are either “urban” or “rural,” and the health of the city has little to do with the things that make rural landscapes naturally healthy—clean air, abundant resources, etc. At this scale, what is needed for a city to be healthy is that the individual people in the city have good health, or at least the ability to have good health. This is generally addressed through public health infrastructure in the form of hospitals, etc., and also, as readers of The Nature Of Cities will know, through ample nature and green spaces in the city.

Photo 2
Combining park areas with fitness equipment is one way cities promote public health for residents, like this example from Haikou People’s Park, Haikou City, Hainan Province, China. Photo: Anna Frodesiak, public domain

At a much larger scale, a city can be seen to fit into the larger surrounding landscape—not as a separate entity, but as an interconnected part of a landscape comprised of urban, peri-urban and rural areas. At this scale, the city itself must not create such a burden that the landscape as a whole is thrown out of balance and becomes unsustainable. This scale is the province of large-scale policymakers dealing with land-use planning, and often involves issues such as overall green cover, carbon emissions, public transportation and others.

In between these is an intermediate scale, the scale of the city itself. At this scale, a healthy city should have a bustling economy, natural biodiversity in the form of green spaces, and vibrant culture, all of which make the city an attractive and fulfilling place for people to live. This idea of being somewhere people want to live is relevant to the recent attention paid to the concept of resilience, because if the city is somewhere people want to live, it is more likely to be able to absorb shocks and still remain a city. The collapse of some urban centers such as Detroit illustrates the consequences when a city’s people lose their reasons for wanting to be in the city, from employment opportunities existing elsewhere or anything else—not to dismiss the positive potential many see in Detroit. The case of Harlem, New York was also recently covered on TNOC in this regard.

Photo 3
Some neighborhoods of Detroit are returning to nature, showing what can happen when people no longer want to live in a city. Photo: Notorious4life, public domain

All of these scales—and probably others—are important, and none is necessarily the single right approach to measuring a city’s health. So, for a city to be healthy and resilient, it must allow its people to have good health, it must not cause an undue burden on the environment, and it must be somewhere people will want to live. All of these factors benefit from both biodiversity in the form of nature inside and outside the city, and cultural diversity in the form of the myriad cultural elements in a city, many of which rely on nature for inspiration. In other words, a healthy city benefits from biocultural diversity.

A city with high biocultural diversity is one that has abundant nature, both within the city and in surrounding peri-urban areas, and also vibrant culture that makes it somewhere people want to live and to be. It also has strong ties to rural and other urban areas as a result of the disparate origins of its diverse population, integrating it fully into the surrounding landscape. This helps a city to maintain a lively and robust economy while, importantly, maintaining a high level of human health and overall resilience. All of this adds up to what can truly be called a healthy city—as the Elder puts it, one that will not make Mother Earth sick.

William Dunbar
Tokyo

On The Nature of Cities

Photo Essay: Untold Stories of Change, Loss and Hope Along the Margins of Bengaluru’s Lakes

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

Before becoming India’s information technology hub, Bengaluru was known for its numerous lakes and green spaces. Rapid urbanization has led to the disappearance of many of these ecosystems. Those that remain face a range of challenges: residential and commercial construction, pollution and waste dumping, privatization, and so on. Today, Bengaluru’s lakes are principally seen as garbage dumps and sewage ponds that can have either of two fates: one, be transformed into recreational oases to suit the needs of wealthy residential neighborhoods, or two, be encroached upon until none of the original shapes and functions can be traced. But how does this affect the lives of the people living at the very margins of Bengaluru’s beloved yet contested lakes?

lake_madivala_clutter2_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Waterfront – Madivala Lake. Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

As a result of rapid urbanization and environmental change, people’s reliance on local natural resources has substantially decreased in Bengaluru. This decrease is due to contamination of the surroundings, restrictions to access and, for some, the constant threat of eviction. Bengaluru is witnessing a transition from livelihoods dependent on use of these open spaces for activities such as fishing, cattle grazing and domestic purposes, to a cultural use of recreation and visual beauty. People are tending to move away from communal organization—such as taking turns to work on each other’s rice fields, maintaining the village grove, or sharing irrigation and lake management duties—and to move towards private organization when tending to one’s home garden or carrying out religious rituals. While people at the margins of lakes are often blamed for the degradation of lake ecosystems, they are actually preserving and often increasing native biodiversity and open space—acts that are quite uncommon now in a metropolis such as Bengaluru.

These trends are taking shape in line with a shift in lake accessibility. It is becoming harder to gain access to these ecosystems, either because of regulations (only government tendered fishing is allowed), physical barriers (lake fencing), or distance to adequate natural resources. Societal pressures also influence trends (cooking with firewood is old-fashioned). This means that livelihoods have become less location-bound for the ones that can afford it, while the ones who cannot need to find ways to cope with a degraded environment that is increasingly inaccessible. As happens elsewhere, urban open spaces, or urban commons, are being taken over by the elite and middle classes. As a young resident put it: “I do not wish for a park to be constructed, because that means that our houses will be demolished.”

The stories of Bengaluru’s residents represent the casualties of rapid urban growth witnessed by the city, but their voices often remain unheard. To bring back these voices into the debate, we organized a photo exhibition titled “Living at the margins of Bengaluru’s lakes: Untold stories of change, loss and hope” on Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 2015 in Rangoli Metro Art Center in Bengaluru, India. A diverse audience of 900 to 1000 visitors came to the art gallery. People were in awe of the photographs and accompanying stories. “This really is an eye opener for people like us who live in the urban area. I was unaware of how lakes in the city were used by the city’s marginalized, and how severely they are impacted by the pollution of these lakes,” said Priya Dileep, an IT professional in the city. A significant feature of the exhibition was the presence of residents from the lakes, individuals who were themselves the subjects of the photographs displayed. They were astonished to see their portrait on the gallery wall, and proud.

The photographers who worked on the project are Anoop Bhaskar and Arati Kumar-Rao. Anoop, born in Bengaluru, worked in a corporate environment before he decided to become a fulltime photographer. Anoop has been involved from the moment the fieldwork started. He visited all the case study lakes and assisted with the household interviews that were held in Kannada, Tamil or Hindi. During the four months the fieldwork lasted, Anoop took photographs of the people we spoke to and places we visited, because we hoped to organize an exhibition at its end. A link to Anoop’s work is here. Arati Kumar-Rao is an independent environmental photographer & journalist documenting effects of landuse change on lives, livelihoods, species, and landscapes. Her most recent work is here.

We will show the photo exhibition in a few other locations across Bengaluru in the early months of 2016, starting in January at the INSEE conference and the Kaikondrahalli lake festival.

* * * * *

LIVELIHOODS

Saraswathamma—Bhattarahalli Lake

lake_bhattarahalli_saraswathamma_color_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

Saraswathamma is “over 30 years old” and was born at Bhattarahalli Lake. Back in the day, she and her neighbors enjoyed eating fish from the lake, but today the lake is so polluted she does not dare to touch its fish. She receives Rs.24 for each litre of milk her three cows produce. Her cooking takes place on a kerosene stove, until she runs out of fuel that she receives in her supply of monthly ration, which usually happens after 15 days. She copes by collecting firewood from cut road side trees, or by foraging from her surroundings. Soon she will need to rethink her livelihood strategies, as a demolition order demands her to leave her home ground for rehabilitation elsewhere.

lake_madivala_rajamma_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

Rajamma—Madivala Lake

Rajamma has been living at Madivala Lake for over 20 years. Herding cattle runs in his family, and a year and a half ago, they decided to get four cows and four calves, which provide them with an income from the sale of milk and curd.

Their house is located right at an open drain with an immensely pungent stench. The land bridge that used to connect the settlement to the lake bund has been destroyed after a murder incident.

Today, Rajamma crosses the drain via a makeshift bamboo bridge to take her cattle out for grazing. Restricted access to the lake also complicates the collection of wild soppu (leafy greens) to cook green curry, which the family used to do two to three times a week in the rainy season. Buying soppu costs Rs.15.

Living on the edge—Madivala Lake

lake_madivala_livingbythedrain_PhotoBy_Anoop Bhaskar
Photo: Anoop Bhaskar

A large open drain, several meters wide, flows parallel to the eastern shore of Madivala Lake. From afar, the drain appears to be a nice little creek, but that illusion is ripped apart as soon as one moves closer: the stench is unbearable. Dozens of people live right above this open sewer and, on top of the obvious health risks, have to deal with the daily fear that their children may slip and drown in the muck.

LAUNDRY

Dhobi Ghat—Madivala Lake

lake_madivala_dhobighat2_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

For decades, Madivala has a working Dhobi Ghat. Dhobis (launderers) washed their loads in a canal next to the lake until about 20 years ago, when the water became too polluted and they resorted to bore well water. The canal turned into a bubbling and reeking sewage drain, which is an eyesore for the entire Dhobi Ghat. Concurrently, the disappearance of open lands and grazing fields has led their donkeys to the garbage dump in search of food. After so many years, their deteriorating environment has made the dhobis lose sight of a bright future.

Patchwork—Madivala Lake

Photo: Anoop Bhaskar
Photo: Anoop Bhaskar

The Dhobi Ghat cannot accommodate everyone, so some launderers enter the lake to wash their clothes. After washing, the laundry is left to dry on the lake bund that turns into an elaborate patchwork of jeans, shirts and towels. People, bikes and cycles move in between the little islands of clothing as if it is the most natural thing in the world.

With no other place to go, this daily sight will probably continue to exist. Yet, they are always in danger of being moved due to increased accessibility restrictions.

Stepping stones—Madivala Lake

lake_madivala_kids5_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

A man carries his load over the outflow of Madivala Lake. The stone slabs he uses to cross the water serve another purpose in the morning, when a group of launderers gathers here. In the evening, these shallow waters are used by children to bathe, play and catch small fish.

FISHING

Watchman—Madivala Lake 

madivala_watchman_PhotoBy_Marthe Derkzen
Photo: Marthe Derkzen.

The watchman of the fishermen’s hut at Madivala Lake makes broomsticks from the veins of coconut leaves he collects nearby. He lost his leg after a bus accident. Every day, contract fishermen head out in their coracle boats to fish in the lake and sell their catch in Madivala Park. If the early morning yield is not sufficient, they head back out until lunch. This year’s pelican presence is a sign of fish abundance in Madivala Lake.

lake_madivala_fisherman_portrait_PhotoBy_Anoop Bhaskar
Photo: Anoop Bhaskar

Narayanaswamy—Madivala Lake

When he was younger, Narayanaswamy and his father would fish in Madivala Lake.

Now that all fishing has become contracted, Narayanaswamy can only fish outside of official lake borders, which has led to a tradition of fishing in the canal northeast of the lake.

This fishing technique can be observed only a few times a year, when the canal at the lake outflow fills with water.

Fishermen—Madivala Lake

lake_madivala_fishermen_PhotoBy_Anoop Bhaskar
Photo by: Anoop Bhaskar

The only remaining non-contracted fishing at Madivala Lake is a collaborative effort by a group of men who build a structure of nets, mud and dams made of coconut trunks to create ponds that ensure that the fish cannot escape and grow big. After some weeks or months, men organize themselves and start emptying the ponds with buckets, removing weeds, locating the fish hiding in the mud and catching them by hand—sometimes slinging a water snake over their shoulders. The catch is divided among them, while the exciting event entertains dozens of neighbors and passersby.

MIGRANT COMMUNITIES

Raichur Colony—Vibhutipura Lake

Settlement_1_Vibhuthipura_3_PhotoBy_Anoop Bhaskar
Photo: Anoop Bhaskar

These children live in a settlement of blue tarpaulin shacks northeast of Vibhutipura Lake. Together with their families, they migrated from rural Karnataka to Bengaluru city, fleeing the drought. Here, their fathers work as construction laborers in apartments, while their mothers work as domestic help. Their houses do not have electricity or toilets. On days when they have no water supply, they wash their clothes and vessels in the lake outflow, which is not fenced off like the rest of the lake. They cook on firewood but cannot grow their own vegetables because the land they live on is not their land. And they do not know where they will be living at the start of next school year.

Tarpaulin shacks at Rachenahalli Lake

lake_rachenahalli_PhotoBy_Marthe Derkzen
Photo: Marthe Derkzen

Jalalbe—Puttenahalli Lake

lake_putenahalli_jalalbi_color_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

Jalalbe, age 14, was born near Puttenahalli Lake after her parents moved from Gulbarga to Bengaluru. The family of six lives in a single room that lacks basic amenities; she lights a lamp every evening and cooks rice on a wood fueled stove in front of the house. Water is fetched from construction sites. Twice a year, they replace the coconut leaves on their roof to prevent it from leaking. Coconut leaves are more water resistant than tarpaulin. On the way back from school, Jalalbe walks along the lake and enjoys the view, birds and fish. She is, however, afraid of the police and security that guard the road, carrying long sticks. At night, she never goes anywhere near the lake. In her ideal world, there would be more nature to compensate for the noise, buildings and roads that surround her at present.

FROM WILD FOOD AND FRUIT GROVES TO RECREATION AND GARDENS

Vibhutipura Lake

Settlement_1_Vibhuthipura_7_PhotoBy_Anoop Bhaskar
Photo: Anoop Bhaskar

Vibhutipura Lake used to be larger, and would flood after heavy rains. Long-time residents remember how brick factory laborers would drink lake water during their lunch breaks, and how they themselves crossed finger millet fields on their way to school. But the most rewarding trips were eastbound to the guava groves behind the paddy fields at the lake’s outflow. Today, the lake’s floodplains are encroached on by settlements, and cows are the only ones to enrich their diets at the lake. After the lake was fenced and cleaned up, it has also seen a new set of visitors: joggers and walkers from surrounding apartments and offices.

Settlement_1_Vibhuthipura_8_PhotoBy_Anoop Bhaskar
Photo: Anoop Bhaskar

Margaret Mary—Vibhutipura Lake

Margaret Mary, age 59, was born near Vibhutipura Lake and still sells spices in the neighbourhood.

In her memory, the area was like a village, where nobody would be out on the streets after 6 p.m. Long gone are the times that she used the lake for domestic purposes.

Nowadays, the aesthetic and recreational benefits are the most important features of the lake for her.

Nevertheless, she feels spiritually connected to the lake, and relates the lake to her everyday happiness.

lake_putenahalli_nooroda_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

Pushpamma—Puttenahalli Lake

Pushpamma lives with her children at Puttenahalli Lake, where she buried her husband at its eastern side.

For her work as a street sweeper, she collects long grass and reeds to make broomsticks. She did not collect the huge pile of firewood next to her house: she says it is hard to find firewood now that the groves around the lake have disappeared, and she has aged.

Her ability to collect healthy wild soppu (leafy greens) has diminished since the lake became fenced. Instead, she has planted a home garden with banana trees, sweet potato, tulsi, pumpkin, chili and more.

THE FUTURE

Urban representations—Bhattarahalli Lake

lake_bhattarahalli_ganesha_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

Bengaluru’s lakes are small-scale representations of the city and its main challenges: a mix of the urban poor, middle-class, and elite, of urban expansion, encroachment, privatization, pollution, ecological degradation, traditional and modern uses, land disputes, and so on. This reflection on Bhattarahalli Lake’s surface shows the rise of a 38-storey lake view apartment next to a soon-to-disappear slum settlement with its coconut, fruit and drumstick trees. In the foreground are the remainders of an immersed Ganesha idol amidst the nutrient-hungry water weeds that are choking so many of this city’s lakes.

Ashwathamma—Puttenahalli Lake

lake_putenhalli_ashwathamma_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

Ashwathamma is a very active citizen of the low income community living adjacent to Puttenahalli Lake. Her knowledge of ecological and geographical changes in the landscape around the lake is formidable. She has been a key member in organizing the community to fight for stay orders against eviction. She poses the question: why are there different laws for the ministers living in wealthy neighborhoods than for us?

Three girls—Bhattarahalli Lake

lake_bhattarahalli_shainaaz_PhotoBy_Arati Kumar-Rao
Photo: Arati Kumar-Rao

These three girls spend evenings playing with their friends in the lanes of Bhattarahalli Lake’s settlement. They grow up living at its waterfront. What are the chances that they will continue to see their lake once it is cleaned up and turned into a neat looking park?

* * * * *

The underlying research for this project was carried out between May and October 2015 by Marthe Derkzen from VU University Amsterdam in collaboration with Harini Nagendra and Seema Mundoli from the Sustainability initiative at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru. The project received financial support from an USAID PEER grant to ATREE (Ashoka trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment).

Marthe Derkzen
Amsterdam

On The Nature of Cities

Sowing the Seeds of Green Urbanism: ‘Spring is Here and the Time is Right for Planting in the Streets’

Art, Science, Action: Green Cities Re-imagined

A review of The Revolutionary Urbanism of Street Farm: Eco-Anarchism, Architecture and Alternative Technology in the 1970s, by Stephen E. Hunt. 2014. ISBN 978-1-906477-44-8. Tangent Books, Bristol. 246 pages, including 16 pages of illustrations.

Street Farm cover
Front cover image adapted by Joe Burt from poster by Paul Downton originally in Rotring ink pen drawn for Street Farm’s visit to Cardiff in 1973 and inspired by their collage work.

Visions of cities draped in vegetation are now de rigueur for any architect, planner or urbanist who wants to lay claim to any kind of green mantle. But in the early 1970s—when environmentalism had no eye to the city except to see it as an abomination—and demands for insulation and double glazing in buildings was challenging the conceptual comfort zone of the average architect, the Street Farm vision was almost obscenely green. They wanted to plough the streets! To transform banal highrise office towers into fantastical forms consumed by vegetation gone wild! As an architecture student at the time, I loved it! And, I confess, I still do, so news of this book and the opportunity to make a small contribution to it rekindled all that old excitement. Reading the book caused the flames to rise again.

Author Stephen Hunt is from a humanities background and isn’t trained in architecture or planning—or ecology. His specialism is radical history, and this book records just that: a radical history of some of the most influential pioneers in the field of what the protagonists themselves called ‘revolutionary urbanism.’ Noting that ‘Radical history learns from the past to inform the present and inspire the struggle for the future,’ Hunt saw his project as ‘an unparalleled opportunity to look at the ideas of a unique grassroots activist group and to help understand the intersection between alternative architecture, the counterculture and the ecology movement in the 1970s.’

Street Farm paved the way for an approach to urbanism that is simultaneously playful and trenchantly critical.

Hunt is an advocate of oral-history interviews ‘as a method for revealing the overlooked experiences of unofficialdom,’ and was keen to capture directly remembered experiences of a part of a remarkable period in western cultural history. It was the time of the first Club of Rome report on Limits to Growth. The Internet had barely been invented, photocopiers had barely begun to have an impact and mechanical typewriters were the norm. It was a time of foment and the atmosphere in the student world was febrile and charged with the idea that radical, creative political change was not only necessary, but possible. It can be difficult, now, to appreciate the disenchantment felt by young people about the state of the world at that time. Paris had undergone near-revolutionary uprisings in 1968. The shadow of the atom bomb stretched across the entire political landscape. Environmental concerns were making headlines and affecting public discourse for the first time. ‘The Limits to Growth’ was published in 1972, the same year Street Farmhouse was built (and both predated the 1973 ‘Oil Crisis’).

There are now twice as many people on the planet, energy costs have continued to rise and the planet’s tree cover has halved, but almost every new architectural project claims to be ‘sustainable.’ The term has usurped ‘ecological,’ but I would argue that the latter contains more meaning, as it embraces the language of living systems. Hunt tells us that a flag with a clenched green fist flew from the top of the polyhedral greenhouse which was part of Graham Caine’s Street Farmhouse, built after securing temporary planning permission on the playing fields of Thames Polytechnic in Eltham, London, by Caine and friends between September and December 1972. The project ‘hit national and international headlines as the first structure intentionally constructed as an ecological house.’ It was the first time the term ‘Ecological House’ had been applied to a dwelling. It has had enduring influence on people such as eco-architecture pioneers Brenda and Robert Vale—and myself.

Caine was supported in his endeavours by Alvin Boyarsky in his role as chair of the Architectural Association, a school of architecture known for both the high quality of its programs and for possessing a long and illustrious tradition of supporting radical and challenging ideas in architecture and design. Begun when he was age 26, Caine and his partner lived in the house for the two years while Caine still a student. He later abandoned pursuit of an architectural qualification in favour of ‘pursuing the betterment of the planet’—one reason, perhaps, that he is not in the notable alumni list in the Architectural Association’s Wikipedia entry.

The eco-house was featured in the U.K. magazine ‘Undercurrents’ and in ‘Mother Earth News’ and in various other publications at the time, including the influential counter-cultural book ‘Radical Technology’ (eds. Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper 1976). Street Farm’s contemporaries included The New Alchemists, ‘fellow anarchists with similar underlying principles,’ who built the Cape Cod Ark Bioshelter in 1976. In conversation with the book’s author, Graham Caine stated that, to him, ‘an ecological house was about a biological system, so it had an ecology going on within it… it was about experiencing yourself as part of nature.’

Street Farm formed as a small group of radical, like-minded architecture students—Graham Caine, Peter Crump and Bruce Haggart—who, like Pink Floyd back in the heady days of the late 60s and early 70s, were dissatisfied with the status quo and set out to change it. The ‘Floyd focused on music, the ‘Farm took aim at the largest, most complex creations in the human universe—cities. Placing themselves at the most radical end of the counter-cultural spectrum, Street Farm linked the personal with the political and the philosophical. The spirit of Street Farm was that of the Situationists, one of whose favourite slogans was ‘Be realistic. Demand the impossible!’ In the 1950s, the Situationist International developed ‘Unitary Urbanism,’ a critique of status quo urbanism that informed much of future Situationist thinking and which rejected a functionalist approach to urban architectural design and the compartmentalisation of art away from its surroundings. In Paris in 1968, through slogans and graffiti, these ideas gained a kind of popular currency with widely repeated phrases such as ‘Sous les pavés la plage’ (‘Under the paving, the beach’—which was also a reference to the fact that the cobblestones torn up to be used as weapons against the police in street riots were laid on sand). Such imagery simultaneously reflects the idea of the city as a blanket stifling the natural world, and as a potential place of imagination and liberation. Such powerful themes can be seen in Street Farm’s playful, sometimes deliberately amateurish ‘anti-graphics,’ in which sheep overrun city streets, tractors plough the roads between terraced houses and the ‘urban alchemy’ of creative vandalism leads to streets being transformed into new age villages.

Street Farm rebelled against the system but, because the system is all-embracing and brooks no real escape, they worked within its constraints with sufficient alacrity to deliver genuinely fresh ideas and to produce the first eco-house alongside some of the earliest attempts to reimagine the city as a place of fecund biological activity rather than sterile, technological imagery. Street Farm were the antidote to Archigram, nascent technocrats brewing at the same time in the same school of architecture, who purveyed images of cities as slick, mechanical devices, even walking machines. In an attempt to break down the traditional walls of alienation associated with architecture, Street Farm used multi-media in their presentations at a time when that meant slide projectors and tape recorders. Adopting the roles of entertainers and jesters, they created ragged montage-rich movies and their magazines made extensive use of collage—all to convey the message that architecture and cities could be reclaimed by people through revolutionary direct action, that alienation could be overcome. They drew upon Murray Bookchin and on the Situationist critique of consumerism, the ‘society of the spectacle’ and the potential to remake the urban environment through popular, creative, subversive play.

Many strands of environmental concern can be traced back to movements and ideas that arose in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but ‘green urbanism’ is rarely mentioned. The ideas of Street Farm were radical but are now almost routine—every week sees more images of urban buildings splattered and trailing with vegetation in a way that almost mimics the cartooned proposals of Street Farm to simultaneously undermine and remake the city by planting seeds to encourage rampant vegetation. Their vision included planting seeds to change the way living and managing cities took place, as part of a whole remaking of the economic and social order in favour of workers’ control, self-determination and autonomy from the state. At a time when most of the publications of the counter-culture seemed to be all about back-to-the-land romanticism, Street Farmer One proclaimed itself ‘an intermittent continuing manual of alternative urbanism,’ calling out that ‘Spring is here and the time is right for planting in the streets.’ In the ‘road not travelled’ that the counter-culture promised, one can find countless examples of failure, but also examples where it provided the fuel and impetus for changes that have made their way into the DNA of the mainstream. This is one of those examples and it still resonates over four decades later.

SF1 p19
Street Farmer One, page 19. Image: http://streetfarm.org.uk

Hunt’s interest in the group seems to have been very personal. He was inspired by the need to document the people and ideas that made the counter-cultural 1960s and early 1970s so fecund and fascinating, to show how so much of what we now take for granted in the realm of mainstream ideas can be traced back to initiatives and inventiveness that characterised the best of those years, and to capture something of the spirit and intentions of the times before they melt away into the ether and are lost with the passing of the characters who made it all happen. In this, he has done an excellent job. By concentrating on the activities of a small, almost forgotten group who were extremely active in their day, he provides a snapshot of their concept of ‘revolutionary urbanism’ that delivered ‘a toolbox for practical change’ which could be used in pursuit of the ‘desire for liberation in the nature and quality of our daily lives…and…a transformation of the visual appearance, sound and smell, the texture and ambience of the urban environment’.

Hunt puts it in a nutshell: ‘Taking inspiration from Situationism and social ecology, Street Farm offered a powerful vision of green cities in the control of ordinary people.’ (Think Paris 1968 and anarchist philosopher, later ‘municipal libertarian,’ Murray Bookchin). Their concept of urbanism was about social liberation, but integral to it was ‘a reconsideration of the human relationship with other species and their habitats.’

Street Farm’s narrative consistently advocated an urbanism based on community and, as Hunt observes, were exponents of ‘community architecture’ long before the term was coined. Cities are fundamentally about community and require co-operation and shared endeavour before anything can be built. In many ways, cities are the antithesis of the kind of Ayn Rand individualism that is sometimes mistaken for anarchism. Anarchism is arguably the most misunderstood and maligned of any political philosophy. It conjures up images of chaos, lawlessness and disorder. Although anarchism does mean ‘absence of government,’ it does not mean absence of order, anymore than chaos in nature means there is no order in the patterns assumed by natural processes.

Cities are complex, highly organised structures made up of countless unpredictable individuals, each with a personal agenda made up of needs and wants, informed by circumstance and whatever knowledge each possesses, yet collectively, people are predictable. Can anarchists make cities? Surely, cities require leadership? Street Farm provided a kind of leadership, demonstrating the ethos that leaders should offer concrete solutions to real problems and proffer working models of what can be achieved, but should not lay claim to membership of any kind of pantheon. In this model of leadership, skills, ideas and organisation are made available for as long as they are needed without dynastic tendencies or attempts to cement the leaders themselves into a permanent power structure.

Mikhail Bakunin, founder of ‘social anarchism,’ is famous for claiming that ‘the urge to destroy is a creative urge.’ That can be understood as another way of saying we’ve got to get rid of dead wood. A number of people would argue that on a planet where the very survival of our species is threatened by anthropogenic climate change, the urge to destroy the hegemony of coal and oil companies is an entirely creative urge. Even then, that process of destruction demands that people work collectively to achieve it; they cannot be in constant opposition to one another. Street Farm’s creative urge offered images of destroyed cities, but these were existing cities transmogrified—a favourite Street Farm term—from lifeless piles of concrete into places reinvigorated by nature, covered with vegetation and, crucially, under the direct control of their citizens.

Advocates of green cities and ecological urbanism might wonder where their ideas come from or not care at all. But I hope they will understand that if they are to succeed in shifting the culture, a memory helps. Henry Ford may have claimed that ‘History is bunk,’ but for a culture to lose its sense of history is like a person losing his or her memory. The person might still function at a basic level, but loses nuances, sense of meaning, purpose…and, most of all, can’t learn from past mistakes or successes. When Street Farm advocated alternative (renewable) energy, they drew from Bookchin and made the crucial distinction that they were proposing the use of liberatory technology… ‘a technology that will change the existing situation,’ whereas ‘alternative technology is one that will make the existing situation more tolerable.’

In many ways, it is possible to discern Street Farmer sensitivities in much of the best of modern practice and theory in regard to urban systems. Hunt argues that their revolutionary view of the nature of cities was an expression of ‘an ecological sensitivity that aspires to human interaction with the natural environment and other species and looks to confront and abolish the urban/rural divide.’

Street Farm paved the way for an approach to urbanism that is simultaneously playful and trenchantly critical, whilst putting forward ideas about what cities should be like that encompass social justice and revolutionary change, and ceding a central place to the fecundity of nature and the energy of community. That’s no small vision, especially considering that they were active at a time when environmentalism was pessimistic to the point of being ‘doomful’—which was a reasonable response to the increasingly informed analysis, exemplified by Limits to Growth, which warned of ecological and thence social collapse without major shifts in the patterns of industrial civilisation. That those warnings were not heeded is an historical fact, that the general gist of the warnings was correct is disputed with the same fervour that some apply to denying that the Nazis designed and manufactured the Holocaust. Hunt rightly points out that Street Farm were not ‘doomful.’ Their critiques and analysis of the dominant paradigms of capitalism and its consequences in the creation of modern cities wasn’t cheerful—how could it be?—but their solutions were marvelously creative, positive and joyful to anyone who could see past conventional prejudices.

SF1 p16
Pre-internet. Prescient. Street Farmer One, page 16. Image: http://streetfarm.org.uk/

Hunt concludes with a chapter that includes the offer of ‘an index of possibilities’ for how a revolutionary urbanism might be realised. This is an entirely legitimate exercise but it interrupts the flow of his otherwise immensely readable narrative by being in the form of a slightly clunky, annotated list of nineteen items like ‘Ecological awareness’ and ‘Thoughts to street furniture’ that could have been presented better in an appendix. The rest of his concluding chapter would have read well without this in its middle, and perhaps could have avoided the question of whether a list that included the ‘Rational organisation of space’ had quite the Situationist timbre that the topic deserves and that, otherwise, the book conveys well.

This book will be of particular interest to anyone with an interest in the lineage of ideas that have informed the movements towards ecological design, eco-architecture and green cities. Those with an interest in radical politics will find it a comprehensive and very digestible study of one of the ‘lost treasures’ of the counter-culture. This thoughtfully illustrated book may favourably dispose the reader towards the concept of transmogrification and it should be read by anyone interested in efforts to refresh, remake or reimagine the nature of our cities.

Paul Downton
Adelaide

On The Nature of Cities