Biodiversity as a Tool for Sustainable Landscape Design

Maria Ignatieva

SLU Sweden

URBIO 2014

Challenging of Integrating Biodiversity in Landscape Architecture Practice

• Directly connected to problems of globalization in design and homogenization of urban environment.

• Character of market economy

itself creates conditions for the use of unified architectural and landscape design styles

Western culture has taught us to look at nature as an "ideal picture“. If a natural landscape looks picturesque or "as pretty as a picture," we often identify it as having high ecological quality. This culture does not accept “messy ecosystems”. (http://wildones.org/download/cuestocare/cuestocare.html

• Landscape architects are using standard design language and “global” plant material from a select number of nurseries

• Creating novel urban biotopes

• The needs of searching the identity of place

• Biodiversity as a tool for returning nature into the city

• Using biodiversity as a new design language

Economy as a driven force

• Despite of economic, political, cultural and social differences in all countries

• economic profit is the major driven force of any big or small design projects.

• Investment into “familiar” and known design schemas

• New innovative sustainable approaches are associated with risks and uncertainty.

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How to integrate biodiversity into urban planning and design standards (on city or local level)?

• Provide specific economic advantages of using biodiverse sustainable design (compare to a conventional practice) and its direct financial benefit.

• We need the numbers showing the wise use of resources and minimising expances by implementing ecological principles for design and especially for everyday maintenance and management.

15 million Swedish SEK of the 40 million SEK annual budget for park management is spending on lawns in Uppsala. High maintenance of lawns is economically costly (data from the Uppsala Municipality, LAWN project, Sweden)

From economy benefit to politics decision- to administrative regulation - to standard for

management and maintenance agencies

• From emotional approach of promoting biodiversity in the cities to economic pragmatism with numbers (comparison of traditional conventional ecosystem services cost to innovative approaches)

• “We will have to design with nature and with low maintenance costs in mind, right from the beginning” (Gessel 2014).

15 mln ? mln

From emotions to empirical data!

Research for Practice

• Using recent scientific discoveries to show how biodiversity can provide new functions to human (benefits to the health, new bioremediation options, erosion control etc.)

How to promote and use biodiversity as an important design language: transdisciplinary approach

• Cooperation between scientists, professionals (landscape architects, architects, horticulturists, nurserymen, engineers, constructors), stakeholders (citizens) and decision makers (administration, politicians)

• Moving from top-down to bottom-up approach involving people in planning, designing and implementing new biodiverse landscape designs

Working with multi scales

• Big scale: Creation of multifunctional green-blue infrastructure with biodiversity among other ecosystem services.

• On the level of urban master’s plans

Intermediate scale and fine scales

• Rethinking of the way of designing living spaces (neighbourhoods and public parks)

• Going away from conventional picturesque-gardenesque resource consuming model.

• Reducing of ratio of lawns by introducing more thoughtful circulation and design, using groundcovers and perennials, meadows and grass-free lawns.

Intermediate scale and fine scales

• Green roofs and green walls by using ecological based composition and structure

• Example: inspiration from biodiverse traditional Scandinavian green roofs based on native species

Integration of research results into landscape architecrure practice

• That can be a starting point in changes towards the attitude of using evidence-based knowledge of biodiversity in practical landscape architecture. Results from observational studies in Tuna

backar (LAWN project, Sweden) June 2014. The pie chart indicates the percentage of people who used lawns for different purposes during the observational studies. Most people pass by lawn using pathway and roads and only a small % is really use lawn (play, standing or sitting)

“Cues to care” • Research in the US and

Europé shows that the most effective approach for using biodiversity as a major design language is “Cues to care”

• Term is introduced by Joan Nassauer in late 1990’s based on her US research

• The presence of human intention –the essential for our attempt to introduce biodiversinesque approach (Ignatieva 2013)

“Cues to care”

• According to our recent research of lawns in Sweden (LAWN project www.slu.se/lawn)

• The alternatives shows “cues to care” was the most accepted by public

• Mown strips, pathways, benches, signs etc.

"Cues that indicate human intention are cultural symbols that can be used to frame more novel ecosystems in inhabited landscapes. Using "cues to care" in design is not a means of maintaining traditional landscape forms but rather a means of adapting cultural expectations to recognize new landscape forms that include greater biodiversity. "Cues to care" make the novel familiar, and associate ecosystems, which may look messy, with unmistakable indications that the landscape is part of a larger intended pattern.“ (J Nassauer)

New Ecological Subdivision (East Village) next to Olympic Park

“Cues to care” • LAWN project in Sweden • Confirm ”cues to care” attractivness to people • Combining traditional lawns with meadows and

other alternatives is very acceptable (34 out of 50 in one of Uppsala sites)

• “Combination of traditional lawns surrounded by high meadows is beautiful and practical” (from one of the surveys)

Biodiversity as an art

• Make new projects as a piece of art and use biodiversity is the main design tools (alternative meadows with sculpture, benches, leading pathways.

• Artistic works should inspire instead of scare people

Developing of ecological aesthetic as an opposition to the global gomogenised modernistic view

• Design with biodiversity should be complex,

• Have colours • Should look beyond

tidiness and smootheness of landscapes

• Identifying new ethic of landscape maintenance

Recognise dynamic character of design with biodiversity in mind

Adaptive design and experiments

Working with people

• Social surveys of citizens, professionals and politicians

• People education through demonstration gardens, media (newspaper, TV, flowershows)

Education • Deliver the results to

administrations, politicians and professionals

• Education in LA profession (University curricula: ecological design, urban ecology) can be seen as a very powerful tool where our research results in urban biodiversity can be included in appropriate subjects and curricula.

Participatory of population in the urban ecology research

• Example from France “Wildflowers in my street” Sabine Bouche-Pillon

We have a hope !

• There will be new models of economic activities with options of localized production or variation from the current free-market Western paradigm (Selman 2012)

• Concept of genius loci will rise with emphasis on physical and symbolic values of local place, including biodiversity

• Bottom-up approach will be growing.