The infrastructure of our built world is continuously changing. As people, technology, economies, and society continue to progress, we similarly alter the infrastructure of our built environment to best suit these needs. One of the most crucial components of our infrastructure that often goes overlooked is our interaction and consideration of the landscape. Landscape can play a major role in human health, natural ecosystems, and social health. Unfortunately, landscape development is a lot like science in that it takes trial and error to determine the best solution to the problem. For the US and Canada, the industrial revolution was this trial-and-error phase for our landscape development.

The biggest issue of the industrial revolution was that it relied on destroying and degrading the landscape in order for the economy to prosper. The dumping of chemicals into water, depletion of natural resources, and destruction of entire environments were all aspects of the industrial revolution. Eventually, stricter environmental rules were implemented which caused de-centralized business and taking jobs overseas. This left vast spans of useless land that were either polluted or unusable from the built infrastructure.

After the industrial revolution, several plans were put into place to try and revitalize some of these rundown places. Of these, the most successful ones were the plans that directly responded to the landscape as part of the infrastructure. One solution was to downsize and allow the landscape to naturally heal. Another solution was to develop landscape so that it can be reused and redeveloped to accommodate future progress.

Overall, this article was an important reminder of just how powerful nature is and how crucial it is for the people to actively be a part of the landscape instead of simply ignoring it. We often think that the best sustainable solutions either require us to separate ourselves from nature or to be completely immersed with nature. Instead, this article shows that there can be a balance between humans and the landscape.

Additionally, is it easy to simply say that we need to be more balance and considerate of the landscape and nature. However, actually doing so is a completely different story. Currently we are still in a trial-and-error phase. One of the main issues with landscape development is that it is very situational. Personally, I think one aspect we should focus on is how the landscape can help to improve human health.

How is this related to Eco-medical logic?

How do we plan for the future through landscape development if we don’t know what the future holds?

This article discusses the change In ecology’s paradigm over the past 20 years. Previously, ecology view ecosystems as relatively closed systems that were all independent of one another. Additionally, these systems were considered to be perfectly in balance with local resources specific to its area. However, a new concept has begun to emerge for ecology. This new paradigm states that ecosystems are continuously being influenced by outside factors and disturbances that serve to alter and evolve the natural environment. It also discusses the concept that ecosystems are in fact open systems that are influenced by the input and output of resources and organisms across system boarders.

Overall, there are 3 main principals that this new paradigm uses as a baseline. First, species and the biological ecosystems are usually at equilibrium with their resources. Second, natural disasters and disturbances temporarily dislodge ecosystems from their natural equilibrium. 3rd, natural is spatially heterogenous while local patches are considered homogenous.

The rest of the article goes into some of the underlying theories behind this paradigm shift and continues to explain why this new understanding is more accurate of our ecosystems. One of the key theories is the ecosystem theory. It emphasizes the transfer of energy and matter across boundaries and how it influences multiple regions. This way of thinking begins to explain how ecosystems are both closed and open systems. From a small scale, systems are independent, as they have their own resources, organisms, landscape, and more. However, each individual ecosystem is also apart of a complex web of interconnectedness, where each individual has some influences on others.

From my experience, this paradigm of ecology has already been well adopted into our beliefs and practices. We are taught to think about ecosystems in an open manner and consider both their independent roles and how they influence the larger picture. However, we often do not discuss why we should be thinking this way. Instead, we are simply told that this is the proper way of thinking as it often a part of some larger project and we do not have time to go into the details of it. While this is understandable, I believe that learning why this paradigm is possible is crucial to better understand it and being able to implement one’s knowledge about ecosystems in real world applications.

One example of this is through understanding metapopulation and source-sink theory. These concepts explain how species may often be located in more undesirable location while more desirable locations are left wide open. This largely has to do with population and reproduction as organisms will likely go to ecosystems that are close to their breeding ground. However, these spaces may be undesirable or not able to sustain the organisms. Thus, it is important to understand the ways in which organisms, resources, materials, energy, and much more are shared and distributed across ecosystems in order to fully grasp the best ways of maintaining these systems without causing damage to others or vice versa.

This reading discusses the restoration of fragmented landscapes specifically through the urban environment. Similar to last week’s reading, this article uses much of the same vocabulary but relates it to urban landscapes. The main issue that is brought up in this article is that when humans occupy new landscapes, we convert vast portions of it to agriculture and urban development. This large-scale change fragments the landscape and causes major issues for diverse ecosystems and the organisms living in it. Thus, this fragmentation can lead to a decrease in biodiversity as it limits food supplies, limits redundancies, and heightened disturbance.

On of the key factors to maintaining diverse communities is to understand how human interaction affect the fitness (reproduction and survivorship) and dispersal of individual animals. By understanding these parameters, we can better understand a local populations likelihood of growth or extinction. Additionally, the conditions of one species can also have a significant impact on other organisms within the ecosystem, especially if they are a keystone species.

The article then goes into some specific details of how fragmentation and urbanization negatively effect natural ecosystems. The first example shows that as fragmentation continuous patches experience more disturbances as there is less space to provide a buffer. Additionally, the landscape which we create often destroy many habitats and food supplies for organisms in the area.

The article then goes into solutions for restoration which is what I found to be the most insightful and interesting.

1 Increase the foliage height diversity within fragments

2 Maintain native vegetation and deadwood in the fragment

3 Manage the landscape surrounding the fragment not just the fragment

4 Design buffers that reduce penetration of undesirable agents from the matrix

5 Recognize that human activity is not compatible with interior conditions

6 Make the matrix more like the native habitat fragments

7 Actively manage mammal populations in fragments

8 Discourage open lawns on public and private property

9 Provide statutory recognition of the value of complexes of small wetlands

10 Integrate urban parks into the native habitat reserve system

11 Anticipate urbanization and seek creative ways to increase native habitat and manage it collectively

12 Reduce the growing effects of urbanization on once remote natural areas

13 Realize that fragments may be best suited to conserve only a few species

14 Develop monitoring programs that measure fitness.

15 Develop a new educational paradigm

From an architectural perspective I had two main takeaways from this article. The first is that many architects often overlook the site and its conditions as they are primarily focused on the building. Whether its in the middle of the city or in a suburban community, architects can design sites that incorporate natural ecosystems and provide food or shelters for organisms. As we have learned from the last few readings, these areas do not need to be entire patches or ecosystems. Simply providing corridors, nodes, or temporary shelter for organisms is crucial in urbanized areas with little green space. The second takeaway is that I believe we need to develop a new paradigm that rejects the open lawn. Primarily in suburbs, the open lawn dominates a vast amount of the landscape. The open lawn has become a norm that represents cleanliness, wealth, and status. However, these ecosystems are detrimental as they destroy the biodiversity of that ecosystem. Instead, people should adopt the new paradigm of rich chaotic landscapes.

How do we incorporate these buffer zones and ecological habitats into dense urban cities that are already packed?

How can we get the public opinion to change as they are the driving force behind architectural projects?

In this article “The Ecological Imagination” James Corner discusses the importance of human imagination in shaping how people relate to the natural world and to one another. Here he argues that there are two main categories that are both fundamentally important to enriching and sustaining natural/ecological systems. The first is the belief that science, technology, metrics, and inventions should lead the design of both natural systems and cities. The second is that poetic, aesthetic, subjective, and imaginative dimensions should work equally with its science-based partner to developed natural spaces and cities.

This is to say that both types of understanding and approaches are crucial for natural ecosystems and cities to thrive. Currently, our way of thinking prioritizes a more scientific approach. We attempt to use technology and science to accomplish all of our goals and solve all of our problems. However, we pay little attention to the artistic and aesthetic qualities of our space.

As corner proves through his numerous examples, technology can only get you so far. This is not to say that technology and science are bad, in fact they are considered crucial elements to planning and development. It is instead meant to show that the only way for people to design truly integrated natural systems is by combining both science with artistic and aesthetic expression.

Overall, I believe that this is one of the core issues we are currently facing in today’s development of urban, natural, and rural systems. In our pursuit of technological advancement, we seem to have forgotten what makes us human and what inspires us to continuously progress towards a better world. The inclusion of cultural, artistic, and emotional development in our built environment is what truly makes places great. It improves social health by promoting a more positive living style and allowing people to prosper in their environment. Additionally, it inspires us to think more creatively, which is ultimately the driving force behind new inventions and advancements.

Personally, I think this is the main reason this type of thinking is so important. It is a realistic and feasible way to promote a new ethos among people and encourage people to think in more abstract way to solving world issues we face. In doing so, we can promote a world where people celebrate natural environments and understand their importance, and hopefully encourage new imaginative solutions to our development issues.

In this article, Christina Hills talks about the experience of change for scientists and designers as we enter a new era of thinking and designing. This new era can be characterized by a few fundamental shifts in our way of living in the past few decades. The first is our increasing environment awareness which has sparked worldwide change and through in how humans interact with our world. The second is the massive increase in urbanization over the past few decades which has caused massive growth in urban infrastructure. From this, designers have sought to expand the functional relevance of their role and recharacterize landscape design as a fine art. These new goals were intended to counteract the dominance of civil engineering and celebrate landscape as a cultural and natural environment.

Overall, the main issue discussed in the article is the ability for scientists, designers, and others to be able to predict and adapt to future changes in our world such as sea level rise, global warming, environment shifts, and much more. With environmentalism becoming much more invested in over the past few decades, we have begun to understand some of these trends and how to approach them. However, we are still unable to truly develop, adapt, and preserve systems in ways that protect them from future damage. Two examples of this are flickering, which is when a system switches back and forth between states, and squealing, which is when the spread of extreme values in a system widens.

Finally, Hills discusses the value of aesthetic experience and its importance sustainable design. Personally, I also believe this is one of the most overlooked aspects of sustainable design in our new era of society. Currently, we have the technology to create highly efficient and ecofriendly products, buildings, and services. So, the issue clearly isn’t in our development of new technologies. However, our biggest challenge is changing people’s mains to develop a new ethos of caring for our planet. Until this is done greed, politics, and other goals will continue to dominate the world.

The first solution Halls brings up is the courage to invest. Here it is stated that enormous political and social resolve must be achieved. Thus, it is crucial to develop new urban designs, buildings, public spaces, and ecosystems that inspire people to continue to have courage in investing in the future. Additionally, it is important for people, governments and countries to share their resourcefulness. This can be in a literal sense of resources, or also through knowledge and aiding others in their development. Either way this issue effects everyone and we must all work together if we have any hope to make a significant change for the future.