Resilience in Ecology and Urban Design: Linking Theory and Practice for Sustainable Cities (Future City Book 3)

Communicates sound, up-to-date ecological principles to the urban design community to help improve the ecological function of designed and built landscapes Identifies novel environmental research directions needed to support basic urban ecology as well as sustainable and resilient urban design Articulates new criteria for assessing good ecological urban design while engaging the design imagination Contributions by leading voices in the design and ecological communities The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make today's urban environments more resilient. Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design, as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the world's population now residing in coastal urban zones, many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels, making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental threats must be a policy ambition of the highest priority. The complexity of urban areas results from their spatial heterogeneity, their intertwined material and energy fluxes, and the integration of social and natural processes. All of these features can be altered by intentional planning and design. The complex, integrated suite of urban structures and processes together affect the adaptive resilience of urban systems, but also presupposes that planners can intervene in positive ways. As examples accumulate of linkage between sustainability and building/landscape design, such as the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Toronto's Lower Don River area, this book unites the ideas, data, and insights of ecologists and related scientists with those of urban designers. It aims to integrate a formerly atomized dialog to help both disciplines promote urban resilience Front Matter....Pages i-xxvi Front Matter....Pages 1-5 Ecology of the City as a Bridge to Urban Design....Pages 7-28 Three Tides: The Development and State of the Art of Urban Ecological Science....Pages 29-46 Social Dynamics and Sustainable Urban Design....Pages 47-61 Integral Urbanism: A Context for Urban Design....Pages 63-78 Landscape as Method and Medium for the Ecological Design of Cities....Pages 79-98 Front Matter....Pages 99-105 Ecological Heterogeneity in Urban Ecosystems: Reconceptualized Land Cover Models as a Bridge to Urban Design....Pages 107-129 Urban Patch Dynamics and Resilience: Three London Urban Design Ecologies....Pages 131-161 Eco-engineering for Water: From Soft to Hard and Back....Pages 163-182 Beyond Restoration and into Design: Hydrologic Alterations in Aridland Cities....Pages 183-210 Ecological Resilience as a Foundation for Urban Design and Sustainability....Pages 211-229 Slow, Moderate, Fast: Urban Adaptation and Change....Pages 231-252 Anchoring a Terrain: Landscape Beyond Urbanism....Pages 253-267 Storyline and Design: How Civic Stewardship Shapes Urban Design in New York City....Pages 269-287 Eco-Cities Without Ecology: Constructing Ideologies, Valuing Nature....Pages 289-297 Front Matter....Pages 299-300 Sponge City....Pages 301-306 Civic Space in Regional Frameworks: Resilient Approaches to Urban Design....Pages 307-318 Aesthetic Resilience....Pages 319-329 Anchoring Philadelphia....Pages 331-336 Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park Treatment Wetland: Integrated Strategies in Natural Treatment System Design....Pages 337-345 Just Ground: A Social Infrastructure for Urban Landscape Regeneration....Pages 347-354 Front Matter....Pages 299-300 Ecological and Social Linkages in Urban Design Projects: A Synthesis....Pages 355-360 Front Matter....Pages 361-364 The Design Process as a Framework for Collaboration Between Ecologists and Designers....Pages 365-382 Remixing Messages: A Call for Collaboration Between Artists and Scientists....Pages 383-390 Landscape Urbanism: A North American Perspective....Pages 391-406 Urbanism and Ecological Rationality....Pages 407-426 Bangkok: The Ecology and Design of an Aqua-City....Pages 427-442 Disturbanism in the South Pacific: Disturbance Ecology as a Basis for Urban Resilience in Small Island States....Pages 443-459 Front Matter....Pages 461-461 The Ecology of the Metacity: Shaping the Dynamic, Patchy, Networked, and Adaptive Cities of the Future....Pages 463-489 Back Matter....Pages 491-499 This book unites the ideas, data and insights of ecologists and other scientists with those of urban designers, creating a dialog that helps to promote urban resilience. Offers strategies aimed at making today's urban environments more resilient.