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ESSAY
CROSSTALK
July 23, 2017
Look More Closely, Think More Deeply: Experiences from the 2017 US Forest Service International Urban Forestry Seminar
One adage I want to share after finishing the US Forest Service Inaugural International Urban Forestry Seminar is: look more closely, think more deeply. This was something that one of the presenters said to us on our first day in Chicago and it stuck with me throughout our journey. Over the course of two weeks (4-17 June 2017), our delegation of...
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ESSAY
CROSSTALK
July 19, 2017
Plants Do Not Care How Rich You Are: Anthropogenic Florstic Changes in Tehran’s Public and Private Green Areas
The city landscape, because of the holistic nature of city-forming factors and urban community, is like a book in which the various characteristics of the city and its citizens are visible: values and norms, economic conditions, tastes and aesthetic criteria, commitment to the living environment, and so on. Throughout history, the city, as a dynamic system, is a result of the...
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GLOBAL
ROUNDTABLE
June 30, 2017
Are cities ecosystems—analogous to natural ones—of nature, infrastructure and people? Does thinking about cities in this way help us think about urban design?
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REVIEWS
PODCAST
July 10, 2017
Designing Urban Nature: The Domain of Ecologically Informed Planners or Landscape Architects?
A review of: Nature and Cities: The Ecological Imperative in Urban Design and Planning by Frederick R. Steiner, George F. Thompson, Armando Carbonell (eds.). 2016. ISBN 9781558443471. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 465 pages. Buy the book. As I opened this handsomely large book, I was pleased to see a quote from Ian McHarg near the front, even before...
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RECENT ESSAYS...
July 16, 2017
“Immigrants Don’t Like Trees” and Other Myths of Urban Nature Management in Multicultural Cities
In many cities, urban nature is managed in a multicultural landscape. The ethnic and cultural diversity seen in many western cities today, mostly driven by recent immigration, is unprecedented. For example, Toronto boasts a foreign-born population of about 50%. In Australia, 25% of the population is foreign-born. In many European cites, this is about 15-20%, or higher. One of the...
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July 9, 2017
Crossing the Design-Science Divide
Designers and scientists are different. We think, communicate, and interact with the world in vastly different ways. For instance, designers often develop evocative renderings of our creations, varying in style, but of a similar nature to the image below: a collage perspective showing a scene explaining a design concept. For a designer, this form provides three-dimensional shape to the design,...
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July 5, 2017
Building a Local and Integrated Renewable Energy Future: Brownfields to BrightGreenFields
Post-industrial cities in the United States and elsewhere are implementing brownfields to brightfields programs that help develop local economies, generate clean energy and manage pollution. Brownfields are former industrial sites or landfills with contaminated soil. These sites pose both environmental and social challenges, as contamination must be remediated prior to redevelopment. Slow redevelopment processes can lead to or reinforce cycles...
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July 2, 2017
The Smart (Cyborg) City Needs Smarter Ecological Resilience Thinking
Recently, Colding and Barthel (2017) critiqued how the Smart City-model is taken more or less as a given good for creating sustainable cities. This view is deeply rooted in seductive visions of the future, where the digital revolution stands as the primary force for change (for a critical perspective, see for instance Luque Ayala and Marvin, 2015: March, 2016; Hollands,...
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RECENT ROUNDTABLES...
May,2017
To whom does a city’s nature belong? Is it a common pool resource, or a public good? And who decides?
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Mar,2017
What are we trying to accomplish with biophilic cities? What are ambitious goals and targets, and measures of success?
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MORE ESSAYS IN...
SCIENCE &
TOOLS
December 7, 2014
If We Plant the Plants Will the Insects Follow?
Remnants of indigenous vegetation in urban and rural areas often are the only remaining examples of ecosystems that were once more extensive before human settlement. They are therefore vital for preserving and promoting biodiversity. Remnant vegetation...
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PEOPLE &
COMMUNITITES
October 14, 2012
Embracing Environmental Justice to Green Our Cities
The future of the environmental movement lies in the world’s cities. In 2008, for the first time in human history, more of us lived in urban environments than in any other setting. This trend is only going to accelerate as human population approaches the 10 billion (!) mark by the end of the 21st Century. Indeed, almost two decades ago,...
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PLACE &
DESIGN
January 27, 2013
Historic Gardens – Where Nature Meets Culture – Can be Urban Biodiversity Hotspots
I was lucky to be born in St. Petersburg, Russia, the city of museums and parks. My first scientific passion was exactly historical imperial gardens. Traditionally gardens have been seen as very special places, as paradises where people can enjoy sounds of water and birds, can rest their eyes on green grass and bright flowers and delight in the fragrance...
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ART &
AWARENESS
January 2, 2017
Resolving to Act After the 2016 U.S. Election and the United Nations Climate Conference
We attended the 22nd session of the United Nations Climate Conference (also called COP22) as “Observers” in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. 2016 presidential election. Since 1995, the COP has served as the annual UN climate conference, providing an opportunity to assess progress, negotiate agreements, and disseminate information regarding global climate change action. This year’s COP was simultaneously exhilarating...
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