Prairie lands have been diminished significantly throughout the world as a result of urbanization and agriculture. The development of built environments has long been dominated by architecture and civil engineering, which lack a holistic approach that seeks to enhance the natural environments and their effect on human well-being. This has produced structured environments focus on aesthetic appeal, that fail to enhance the natural landscape in which the structure was erected, leading to issues of soil erosion, decreased resilience toward natural disasters and increased abundance of invasive species. Throughout the late 20th century many studies were published supporting the fundamental imperative of instituting ecological perspectives in the development of architecture within urban settings, which has sparked growing interest in sustainable design and landscape ecology (McPhearson et al. 2016). However, much of the application of these views have only focused on the function of a single plant species effect on variables like stormwater runoff yet fail to see how the integration of an ecological approach can lead to a far more productive environment.
In the article The ecological imperative for environmental design and planning by Steiner et al. (2013), the authors discuss how crucial it is that ecological perspectives be included in the development of architecture in urban settings in conjunction with city planning, civil engineering, and urban design. Architecture historically has focused on aesthetics, form and object making, viewing the environment as merely a setting for development to take place, not as something that engages with the architecture. This mechanistic view can be effective in designing a bridge or treating water pollution but fail to consider the external impacts and the consequences of such developments. Urban design represents the intersection between planning, landscape architecture, and ecology, however, the focus of urban design has been almost exclusively on policy concerns, resulting in planners maintaining a poor understanding of the physical world and it’s the relation to the regional ecology of an area (Niemelä 1999). The authors advocate for changing how urbanism is conceived, shifting to a focus on landscape and ecology first, rather than traditional urbanism, which emphasizes transportation and built structures. This shift will not only enable architects to understand the role of organisms within the urban environment but also will allow for the transition from the study of design and construction to initiating the development of built systems that optimize ecological function (Pickett et al. 2016). Ecologically developed designs have been shown to produce improved function, marketability, and provide economic benefits by mitigating the negative impacts of natural disasters, improving the health of the environment by regulating water supply, erosion and sediment control, and often provide cultural and recreational benefits as well.
This article has large implications for our study on landscape management as it relates to campus ecology. In this study, we will look at how methods of landscape management have led to the presence of invasive species Polygonum arenastrum, a native European noxious weed along sidewalks throughout the Grinnell College campus. Much of the development that has taken place on campus has been done without ecological implications in mind and has led to increased propagation of invasive species, surface runoff, and degradation of the environment. By studying the abundance of this invasive species, we hope to understand how management practices including snow plowing, mowing, and planting of ornamental species that do not support our regional environment in conjunction with increased surface runoff, as disturbance events lead to the establishment of this invasive species. Through applying concepts of urban ecology, city and regional planners will aim to provide evidence for why architectural and landscape designs that emphasize ecological stability focusing on hydrology, soils, and biodiversity in our environment can lead to a more sustainable future.
In the article The ecological imperative for environmental design and planning by Steiner et al. (2013), the authors discuss how crucial it is that ecological perspectives be included in the development of architecture in urban settings in conjunction with city planning, civil engineering, and urban design. Architecture historically has focused on aesthetics, form and object making, viewing the environment as merely a setting for development to take place, not as something that engages with the architecture. This mechanistic view can be effective in designing a bridge or treating water pollution but fail to consider the external impacts and the consequences of such developments. Urban design represents the intersection between planning, landscape architecture, and ecology, however, the focus of urban design has been almost exclusively on policy concerns, resulting in planners maintaining a poor understanding of the physical world and it’s the relation to the regional ecology of an area (Niemelä 1999). The authors advocate for changing how urbanism is conceived, shifting to a focus on landscape and ecology first, rather than traditional urbanism, which emphasizes transportation and built structures. This shift will not only enable architects to understand the role of organisms within the urban environment but also will allow for the transition from the study of design and construction to initiating the development of built systems that optimize ecological function (Pickett et al. 2016). Ecologically developed designs have been shown to produce improved function, marketability, and provide economic benefits by mitigating the negative impacts of natural disasters, improving the health of the environment by regulating water supply, erosion and sediment control, and often provide cultural and recreational benefits as well.
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| Sampling of target species P. arenastratum along a sidewalk in South Campus of Grinnell College. |
References
Doering,
C. (2014, August 5). Study: Iowa lost 15 million tons of soil to erosion. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2014/08/05/environmental-working-group-says-iowa-lost-million-tons-soil-erosion/13609603/.
McPhearson,
T., Pickett, S. T. A., Grimm, N., Niemelä, J., Alberti, M., Elmqvist, T.,…
Qureshi, S. (2016, February 24). Advancing Urban Ecology toward a Science of
Cities. BioScience, Volume 66, Issue 3, 01 March 2016, Pages
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C. F. (2018, December 21). Iowa's Biodiversity: A Look to the Past and Into the
Future: Guest Essay. Iowa Public Television: Iowa Land and Sky. http://iptv.org/iowalandandsky/story/32704/iowas-biodiversity.
Niemelä, J. (1999, January )Ecology and urban planning. Biodiversity
and Conservation (1999) 8:119. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008817325994
Pickett, S. T. A., M. L. Cadenasso,
D. L. Childers, M. J. McDonnell, and W. Zhou. (2016, July 16). Evolution and
future of urban ecological science: ecology in, of, and for the city. Ecosystem
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Serpell,
O. (2018, November 28). Wrong About Urbanization? How Emerging Factors Could Shift People Away From Cities. Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/policy-digests/wrong-about-urbanization.
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You mention that you hope to better understand how disturbance events have led to the establishment of invasive species, like Polygonum arenastrum, have you hypothesized or planned to study how Grinnell's management practices have affected the abundance of Polygonum arenastrum?
ReplyDeleteI thought this blog was bit long and I struggled a bit to find connections between the articles and the experiment but I really enjoyed the concepts and experiments discussed in the blog. I want to learn more about how one factors in the ecology in urban construction and how this works and an example. Also, what are the implications of these disturbed areas being inhabited by an invasive species? Is there something native that we could plant or some sort of more natural mulch path we should be installing into these areas of high disturbance?
ReplyDelete