In the fall of 2015 The Expanded Environment partnered with Gensler’s Houston office to conduct research into the state of urban ecologies (definition to come). We called it Natural Urbanism.
The grant was written to address urban ecosystems globally but was intended to view Houston’s first as a case study. The following series of posts will outline the work accomplished by this partnership and suggest future paths forward.
The 2015 Natural Urbanism Team:
- Ned Dodington: Gensler and The Expanded Environment
- Rives Taylor: Gensler
- Scott Magnusson: Gensler
- Brandon Hendricks: Gensler
- Lester King: Shell Center for Sustainability
- Kelvin Peh: Biologist, University of Southampton
- Erin Kinney: Houston Advanced Research Center
- Haldre Rogers: Biologist, Rice University
- Jamie Crawford: Director of Sustainability for Boxer Properties
Our research began with the question:
How can we gather, visualize and develope urban data to
better understand the impact of ecosystem
services on our urban centers?
But firstly…
Ecosystem services can generally be broken into 4 larger categories:
1. Provisioning services
include all the material products obtained from ecosystems, including genetic resources, food and fiber, and fresh water.
2. Regulating services
include all the benefits obtained from the regulation by ecosystem processes, including the regulation of climate, water, and some human diseases.
3. Cultural services
are the non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience as well as their role in supporting knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values.
4. Supporting or Habitat services
are those that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services. Examples include biomass production, nutrient cycling, water cycling, provisioning of habitat for species, and maintenance of genetic pools and evolutionary processes.
Source: Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities A Global Assessment
A Part of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook Project 204
Ecosystem services, generally operating in the background, provide many benefits to humans. These are just a few that highlight their importance to the urban context.
1: They’re Indicators
“Capturing the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban landscapes represents an important part of understanding whether a metropolitan area is developing along a sustainable trajectory or not.”
Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities A Global Assessment
A Part of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook Project; Ryo Kohsaka et al. pg. 699.
2: They lay a foundation for health
“There is growing international recognition of the vital links between human health and nature,” says Stockholm Resilience Centre Professor Thomas Elmqvist.
“Biodiversity can be considered the foundation of human health.”(http://www.stockholmresilience.org/21/research/research-news/6-12-2012-green-cities-keep-the-doctor-away.html)
3. A robust Ecosystem will enhance the resiliency of the area
The diversity of genes, species, and ecological processes makes a vital contribution to ecosystem services. For example, biodiversity provides important pollinators, seed dispersers, and pest control agents on which agriculture and forestry depend (Daily 1999).
More generally, by providing multiple species that fulfill similar functions but have different responses to human landscape modification, biodiversity enhances the resilience of ecosystems (Walker 1995). (Elmqvist et al. 2003).
4. They are critical to maintaining a thriving global biodiversity
With rapid global urbanization sustainable urban development including the management and design of urban biodiversity is of crucial importance to the future of global biodiversity.
Chapter 3: Patterns and trends in urban biodiversity and design Norbert Müller, Maria Ignatieva, Charles Nilon, and Peter Werner
We’re in Uncharted Water:
Despite the fact that more than half of the world’s population today lives in cities, the attention given to urban ecosystems in the ecosystem services literature has yet been relatively modest.
Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities A Global Assessment
A Part of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook Project; Erik Gómez-Baggethun et al. pg. 178.
And… Architecture needs to get with the Picture:
While there have been significant studies on the science of urbanism and ecology there has yet to be a critical-mass adoption of such concerns in architectural practices…
“Why Ecosystem Services Will be the Next Frontier in Livable Cities”, in Arch Daily, 12 September, 2015
by Vladimir Gintoff)
Outcomes, lessons learned, and adventures in the urban wilderness to come in the following weeks….
