LATEST...
ESSAY
CROSSTALK
23 August 2017
The Deal of the Century
Donald J. Trump’s administration has been very obliging in providing content for environmentalist outrage, never in short supply. In a bit more than six months, Mr. Trump put an anti-EPA litigator in charge of the United States Environmental Projection Agency, sanctioned hunting of bears and wolves in Alaskan wildlife refuges, approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil and gas...
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ESSAY
CROSSTALK
20 August 2017
Ostrom in the City: Design Principles for the Urban Commons
Elinor Ostrom’s groundbreaking research established that it is possible to collaboratively manage common pool resources, or commons, for economic and environmental sustainability. She identified the conditions or principles which increase the likelihood of long-term, collective governance of shared resources. Although these principles have been widely studied and applied to a range of common pool resources, including natural and digital commons,...
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GLOBAL
ROUNDTABLE
16 August 2017
Imagine an “ecological certification” for urban design. What are such a certification’s key elements?
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REVIEWS
PODCAST
21 August 2017
Green as a Color, a Philosophy, and a Marketing Strategy
A review of: Paradoxes of Green, by Gareth Doherty. 2016. 216 pages. ISBN: 9780520285026. University of California Press. Buy the book. Greening cities has become an internationalized norm in urban sustainability initiatives. Increasing open spaces and urban vegetation are widely seen as positive improvements for the quality of life of city residents, and contributing to the improvement of urban environmental performance. Doherty’s explorations...
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RECENT ESSAYS...
16 August 2017
Turning Rio Upside Down! The Baixo Rio Neighborhood Project
Leia uma versão em português aqui. About fifteen years ago I fell in love with watersheds. Then, my passion extended to the forests and ecosystems that sustain them. Then, I discovered the urban waters and biodiversity, and consequently urban ecology, when I started researching on urban blue-green infrastructure and how people related to their environment. From then on, the complex...
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13 August 2017
For the Sake of the Common Good? “Gentrifying Conservationism” and “Green Evictions”
The “common good”—what an ambitious expression! As far as environmental protection is concerned, governments want us to believe that it is always performed precisely for the sake of the “common good”, or “public interest”. However, things are not that simple. From a socially critical viewpoint, environmental protection remains a dangerously vague expression, as long as the questions regarding which environment...
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9 August 2017
Black Cockatoo Rising: The Struggle to Save the Bushland in the City
Protecting remnant swathes of nature is not easy, and may often require concerted, vigorous community efforts. There are many threats: the most common of which seem to be highways and development, which are often backed by considerable financial resources and lots of momentum. So one takes notice when something unusual happens and a community effectively and doggedly organizes itself to...
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6 August 2017
Shutting Down Poletti—An Urban Environmental Victory
In 2013, the New York Power Authority razed the Charles Poletti Power Plant in Astoria, NY. In doing so, Power Authority removed what local elected official Michael Gianaris had characterized as a “symbol[] of pollution that haunted [the] neighborhood”. The characterization was an apt one. The Poletti Plant had for years been the single-biggest polluter in New York City. In...
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RECENT ROUNDTABLES...
Jun,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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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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MORE ESSAYS IN...
SCIENCE &
TOOLS
7 January 2015
Small Civic-Led Indigenous Planting Schemes: Simply Feel Good Stuff or a Real Ecological Contribution?
“Because then it becomes a beautiful self-driven machine. Nature driving people driving nature. Where the word is spread and the pride is shared and spread and it spills over (in the community). Everyone wants to feel...
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PEOPLE &
COMMUNITITES
25 February 2016
Photo Essay: Life and Water at Rachenahalli Lake
Rachenahalli is one of the few living lakes of Bangalore, in the north of the city. It is connected to water bodies upstream and downstream, particularly Jakkur Lake in the northeast. Both of these lakes have been rejuvenated, at substantial cost, by the Bangalore Development Authority over the last decade. A sewage treatment plant with a capacity to treat 10 million...
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PLACE &
DESIGN
21 January 2015
Designing with Nature: Insights for Drought Resilience and Carbon in Elqui Valley, Chile
Measures taken in cities to improve their adaptation to drought and for carbon sequestration are usually based on general standards to reduce water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and/or to reach an efficient use of water and energy. Normally, these proposals are introduced using ‘globalized’ technologies, which are applied everywhere regardless of context. But nature and rural areas near cities...
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ART &
AWARENESS
5 June 2013
Naming and Claiming in Cities of Nature—Why We Should Worry About Our Inability to Recognize Common Species
What we choose to name and the names we choose to remember, for the places, people and things around us, says a great deal about what is important to us. It is commonly said, and accurately so I believe, that we will not care about what we do not recognize. That we increasingly lack the ability to recognize and name...
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