New things are coming in 2016, including:<\/p>\n
- \n
- New focus\u00a0on green cities and social justice.<\/li>\n
- The Nature of Graffiti\u00a0gallery of nature-inspired urban graffiti and street art.<\/li>\n
- An new effort to recognize and reward on-the-ground Champions of the Nature of Cities.<\/li>\n
- And of course, over 150\u00a0new essays, reviews and roundtables.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Donate<\/strong><\/p>\n
TNOC is a public charity, a non-profit [501(c)3] organization in the United States. We rely on contributions and grants to support our work, so, if you can, be a part of the movement for more livable, resilient, sustainable and just cities by making a donation. Click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Highlights of 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"TheJustCityEssaysCover\"](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TheJustCityEssaysCover-433x560.jpg\")
All 26 of the Just City Essays<\/strong> were highlights. Check them out.
\nhttp:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/the-just-city-essays\/
\n<\/a>Over the past decade, there have been conversations about the \u201clivable city,\u201d\u00a0the \u201cgreen city,\u201d\u00a0the \u201csustainable city\u201d and, most recently, the \u201cresilient city.\u201d At the same time, today\u2019s headlines\u2014from Ferguson to Baltimore, Paris to Johannesburg\u2014resound with the need for a frank conversation about the structures and processes that affect the quality of life and livelihoods of urban residents. Issues of equity, inclusion, race, participation, access and ownership remain unresolved in many communities\u00a0around the world,\u00a0even as we begin to address the challenges of affordability, climate change adaptation and resilience.\u00a0The persistence of injustice in the world\u2019s cities\u2014dramatic inequality, unequal environmental burdens and risks, and uneven access to opportunity\u2014demands a continued and reinvigorated search for ideas and solutions.<\/p>\nRoundtables<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"NEW](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/0-Flickr_-_Official_U.S._Navy_Imagery_-_Sailors_assist_with_Hurricane_Sandy_recovery_effortsFEATURE-843x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTaking “resilience” out of the realm of metaphor. How do you measure resilience in cities? How would you know if your city or your community was resilient?<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1dhNPK7
\n<\/a>In a time of gathering stresses from climate and ecological change, economic stress, and the persistent challenges of sustainability, justice and livability, resilience is a key area of thought with enormous potential. We must continue to work to bring it down from the 10,000 meters of metaphor to functional concepts on the ground. As we build and improve the cities of world, how can we act on the core ideas and promise of resilience? Of the 21 respondents to this roundtable, some are working on direct or indirect metrics. What makes them relevant and validated? Some are measurement skeptics. If it can’t be measured then how can we construct resilience (in an adaptive management sense)? Some are actively engaged in city building and policy. How is resilience an actionable concept?
\n<\/span>…with contributions from: Keren Bolter, Boca Raton; Cesar Busatto, Porto Alegre; Lorenzo Chelleri, Milan; William Dunbar, Tokyo; Thomas Elmqvist, Stockholm; Antoine Faye, Dakar; Richard Friend & Pakama Thinphanga, Bangkok; Lance Gunderson, Atlanta; Tom Henfry, Bristol; Dan Lewis & Patricia Holly, Barcelona & Nairobi; Shuaib Lwasa, Kampala; Timon McPhearson, New York; Franco Montalto, Philadelphia; Luciana Nery, Sao Paulo; Henk Ovink, The Hague; Elisabeth Peyroux, Paris; Catherine Sutherland, Cape Town; Claire Weisz, New York; Dan Zarrilli, New York<\/em><\/p>\n![\"OLYMPUS](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Egrets-Paul-Cahan-743x560.jpg\")
Is there such a thing as a “bird friendly city”? What does it look like? What does it not look like? Why bother?
\n<\/strong>http:\/\/bit.ly\/1zQWc8U<\/a><\/p>\n\nTwo key issues determine whether a town or city is \u2018bird-friendly\u2019. One is the range and quality of habitats that prevail, together with opportunities for food and nest sites. The second is the culture of the place: whether birds are protected, encouraged, tolerated or shot. So to be truly bird-friendly, a city needs to have citizens who value biodiversity and influence both bottom-up and top-down decisions on how to manage the urban environment.
\n\u2026with contributions from:\u00a0Tim Beatley, Charlottesville;\u00a0Luke Engleback, London;\u00a0Dusty Gedge, London;\u00a0David Goode, London;\u00a0Madhu Katti, Fresno;\u00a0John Marzluff, Seattle;\u00a0Bonghani Mnisi, Cape Town;\u00a0Glenn Phillips, New York;\u00a0Kaveh Samiei, Tehran;\u00a0Ken Smith, New York;\u00a0Yolanda van Heezik, Dunelin;\u00a0Maxime Zucca, Paris<\/em><\/p>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Lobki-Toronto_Skyline-635x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUrban water fronts have typically been sites of heavy development and often are sites of pollution or exclusive access. But they have enormous potential benefits. How can we unlock these benefits for everyone? Are there ecological vs. social vs. economic tradeoffs?<\/strong>http:\/\/bit.ly\/14sr2ai<\/a>
\nCities are necessarily heterogeneous and multiple: they are sites where we encounter difference and where humanity and nature come crashing up against each other. Cities both embrace and abrade nature in the same turn. Urban waterfronts are no different in that they serve as the point of contact between the \u2018wilderness\u2019 of the open sea or river and the city that lines its shore. Waterfront developments have an opportunity to reconnect cities to their marine or riverine ecologies, but also run the risk of being neither ecologically sound nor socially inclusive. They may become segregated\u00a0urban spaces just like so many others that turn their backs to the cities where they are situated, or they may become the centrepiece of the city itself, engaged as a powerful tool to attract citizens and visitors to the aquatic urban edge.
\n\u2026with contributions from\u00a0Mitchell Chester, Miami;\u00a0P.K. Das, Mumbai;\u00a0Ana Faggi, Buenos Aires;\u00a0Andrew Grant, Bath;\u00a0John Hartig, Detroit;\u00a0Roland Lewis, New York;\u00a0Joe Lobko, Toronto;\u00a0Robert Morris-Nunn, Hobart;\u00a0Rob Pirani, New York;\u00a0Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Miami;\u00a0Andr\u00e9a Redondo, Rio de Janeiro;\u00a0Bradley Rink, Cape Town;\u00a0Hita Unnikrishnan, Bangalore;\u00a0Jay Valgora, New York;\u00a0Mike Wells, Bath<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nEssays<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Beijing](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Beijing-Landfill-959x560.jpg\")
Ways Forward from China’s Urban Waste Problem<\/strong>
\nJudy Li, Beijing
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1D7hAWS<\/a>
\nIt is important to consider the human element of China\u2019s urban waste system to understand how it affects the livability of Chinese cities. In addition to poor waste collection infrastructure, investment, and enforcement, the current waste system in China perpetuates social inequalities for rural-to-urban migrants. Landfills and incubators are pushed to the outskirts of the city where poor migrants live. This leaves the wealthier inner city areas relatively clean, but\u00a0their waste is\u00a0exported to small towns and poor communities that are socially, politically, and economically marginalized. Wiser resource utilization can help Chinese cities become more sustainable, and address environmental injustices of the current waste system.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Pact](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Pacto-de-borde-FCB-1277x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDemocratizing Conversations on Sustainability to Create Resilience from the Soul<\/strong>
\nDiana Wiesner, Bogot\u00e1
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1JHGugu<\/a>
\nThere are multiple proposals revolving around the discourse of sustainable cities, in which green infrastructure systems are implemented and natural resources are protected to guarantee ecosystem service supply. This discourse, however, is concentrated among scholars, specialized professionals, and a limited percentage of the population. As a result, city planning and its corresponding sustainability proposals are far removed from the people who are building their spaces in terms of trends, as other groups that have settled in these territories have done before them, without taking into account water, vegetation, or open space. This has to change.
\n<\/span>
\n![\"3.](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/3.-Maher-918x560.jpg\")
Karachi and the Paralysis of Imagination<\/strong>
\nMahim Maher, Karachi
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1mgMqrM<\/a>
\nYou want to read about a vision of a just Karachi? The contract killer ($50 a hit) ripping up the road behind Disco Bakery on his Honda 200CC and the secret service colonel cracking skulls in a Clifton safehouse will both cite one vision: Dubai. This happens to also be the vision of the one-armed Afghan refugee selling Beijing socks off a cart in Saddar bazaar and the unsexed Karachi Port Trust shipping agent waiting for shady clients to cough up cash so he can escape to Phuket. To borrow from an old Urdu election rallying cry: Chalo, chalo, Dubai, chalo. Come, come, let\u2019s go to Dubai.<\/p>\n![\"\u00a92015](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/LondonNationalParkcNationalParkCityb-1075x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLondon: A National Park City<\/strong>
\nby David Goode, London
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1NlYwJH<\/a>
\nOver the past 18 months, a movement has been growing, drawing together Londoners who want to apply National Park principles to the whole of Greater London. The aim is to turn traditional attitudes to the city inside out, ensuring that nature has a place in every aspect of London\u2019s fabric and making it accessible to every Londoner. The idea has gained huge support from many different sectors of society. It\u2019s a people\u2019s movement that is gaining momentum by the day and, last month, a draft charter was launched for public consultation.<\/p>\n![\"Attractive](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Photo-3-747x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMaking the Measure: A Toolkit for Tracking the Outcomes of Community Gardens and Urban Farms<\/strong>
\nPhil Silva, New York
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1Cq05yK
\n<\/a>Community gardeners and urban farmers across North America are using an innovative research toolkit developed in New York City to measure and track the impacts of their work. The toolkit is made up of sixteen different methods for collecting data about things like the number of pounds of food harvested in a community garden or the\u00a0number of children who develop a taste for fresh vegetables after hanging out at a neighborhood farm. Gardens around North America have started using the toolkit and its accompanying online data-tracking site, \u201cThe Barn\u201d. The toolkit is freely available for anyone to download, use, and repurpose. The Barn data-tracking site is also free and open to any community garden or urban farm throughout the world.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Credit:](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_9_Drawing_Discussion-585x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMicro_Urban: The Ecological and Social Potential of Small-Scale Urban Spaces<\/strong>
\nTimon McPhearson and Victoria Marshall, New York and Newark
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/179wVdq
\n<\/a>Small-scale urban spaces can be rich in biodiversity, contribute important ecological benefits for human mental and physical health, and overall help to create more livable cities. Micro_urban spaces are the sandwich spaces between buildings, rooftops, walls, curbs, sidewalk cracks, and other small-scale urban spaces that exist in the fissures between linear infrastructure. What if the micro_urban were the missing piece to solving the connectivity puzzle in our fragmented urban ecologies? How might micro_urban habitats, networked throughout our built and social infrastructure, make a difference in the social and ecological well-being of a city?<\/p>\n![\"Selgas](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Selgas-Cano-Office-2885_Iwan-Baan-e1430280205891-1158x560.jpg\")
Nature in View, Nature in Design: Reconnecting People with Nature through Design<\/strong>
\nWhitney Hopkins, London
\nbit.ly\/1DCcRbM<\/a>
\nPoorly conceived design visibly divided us in urban areas from our wilds and contributed to our recent ability to see nature as something isolated from us. Yet reinvigorating our bond with nature is a challenge architecture and urban design are well placed to address. Architects and designers have control over our built environment; by changing the way we design cities and buildings to connect to rather than disconnect from nature, we can change our proximity to nature and shift our physical relationship to the environment.<\/p>\n![\"05](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/05-Mirror-glass-in-Vancouver-420x560.jpg\")
Why We Need Design Guidelines for Urban Non-Humans<\/strong>
\nPaul Downton, Adelaide
\nbit.ly\/1KUcSPc<\/a>
\nEvery city, every town and human settlement, should have a set of urban design guidelines for non-human species. The development and application of these guidelines would form the core of a new adventure in urbanism that has transformative potential and the capacity to lay the groundwork for a truly ecological civilisation\u2014in which taking care of non-human species will, in turn, enhance the capabilities and conditions of the human animal.<\/p>\n![\"Count](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Count-me-in2.jpeg\")
Count Me In: Urban Greening and the Return of Primates in Kampala<\/strong>
\nShuaib Lwasa, Kampala
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1IDK1uI<\/a>
\nKampala plans to plant 500,000 trees, a greening activity that is part of the effort to build climate resilience in the city. It has been envisaged to have multiple benefits. Green cover would enhance aesthetics, reduce common flash floods through increased infiltration, and sequester greenhouse gases. But one unforeseen possibility of the greening program is the\u00a0return or increase of the primate population in the city as habitat is re-created. To this end, it is important for planners and practitioners of urban space re-creation in Kampala to think about tree species that would attract the return of primates, whose persistence has continuously communicated that they will not be left out of the city. If there is appreciation of urban spaces that create harmony between nature and built forms, how can the greening activity be utilized to improve habitats and return primates to Kampala? What would be the motivations for increased biodiversity in the city?<\/span><\/p>\n![\"LindsayCampbellPlantsATree\"](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/LindsayCampbellPlantsATree-962x560.jpg\")
Encountering the Urban Forest<\/strong>
\nLindsay Campbell, New York
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1wWt1uM<\/a>
\nFor all the critical scholarship that is written about the harnessing of volunteer labor in caring for urban trees, it never squared with my experience of engaging in stewardship. I came to realize that my leisure practices were missing from my research accounts. I was writing myself out of the story. I\u2019ll share three stories of my engagements with street trees and reforestation sites to explore affective experiences between me and the trees. I believe that these vignettes offer windows into why and how we create and maintain relations of care with the urban forest. How can we build bridges between such emotional experiences and our management practices and cultivate attachment and stewardship; that allows attachment to inform management, decision-making, and priority-setting?<\/p>\n![\"Photo:](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Bees-873x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Secret Life of Bees: Using Big Data and Citizen Science to Unravel…What Bees Are Saying about the Environment<\/strong>
\nJennifer Baljko, Barcelona
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1APt5jN
\n<\/a>Bees can act as a biosensor for cities, and give a signal that could be easy to understand. If the bees are all right, we are living in a good environment. If the bees are suffering or the colony is dying, it could be a sign that the environment is having serious problems. Recent studies, for example, suggest that bees are sensitive to pollution, and small fluctuations in ozone levels can affect their behavior. Researchers behind a Barcelona project hope that insights generated from data on beehive temperature, humidity, and weight, might provide clues to creating healthier and sustainable environments for bees, for humans, and for cities.<\/p>\n![\"boardwalk](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/boardwalk-design-Sasaki-RutgersFEATURE-1400x499.jpg\")
Marriage Therapy for Ecologists and Landscape Architects<\/strong>
\nSteven Handel, New Brunswick
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/17JYkSQ
\n<\/a>Ecologists and Landscape Architects can have a rocky and unsteady relationship; improving it is going to take some time. I can\u2019t promise a happy ending, of course, but ask you to remember three things: First, your goals for a sustainable, healthy landscape are parallel, not divergent. Keep that in mind when you seem to have momentary troubles communicating. Second, you are both driven to improve the landscape, not watch it continually degrade; remember you\u2019re soul mates, at least in that way. Third, we live in a rapidly changing world, climate, sea levels, movement of species, and mixing of biotic communities. These are all spinning fast towards a future that is hard to predict. Ecologists and designers are our only real protection against the troubles ahead. We need you to work together. Don\u2019t let us down.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"open](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/open-mumbai-exhibition-FEATURE.jpg\")
Let Streams of Linear Open Spaces Flow Across Urban Landscapes<\/strong>
\nPK Das, Mumbai
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1L99Md0<\/a>
\nCan we re-envision our cities with a stream of linear open spaces, defining a new geography of cities? Can we break away from large, monolithic spaces and geometric structures into fluid open spaces, meandering, modulating and negotiating varying city terrains, as rivers and watercourses do? This way, the new structure of open spaces would relate to and integrate with many more areas and provide access to more people across neighborhoods and the city.<\/p>\n![\"26.](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/26.-Maddox-1122x560.jpg\")
Cities in Imagination<\/strong>
\nDavid Maddox, New York
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1Pvy4yR<\/a>
\nThese are the cities of our dreams: resilient, sustainable, livable, just. Let\u2019s imagine. We can imagine sustainable cities\u2014ones that can persist in energy, food and ecological balance\u2014that are nevertheless brittle, socially or infrastructurally, to shocks and major perturbations. They are not resilient. We can imagine resilient cities\u2014especially cities that are made so through extraordinary and expensive works of grey infrastructure\u2014that are not sustainable from the point of view of energy consumption, food security, economy, or other resources. We can imagine livable cities that are neither resilient nor sustainable. And, it is easy to imagine resilient and sustainable cities that are not livable\u2014and so are not truly sustainable. Easiest of all is to imagine cities of injustice, because they exist all around us. The nature of their injustice may be difficult to solve or even comprehend within our systems of economy and government, but it\u2019s easy to see.<\/p>\n![\"IG](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IG-Coordinator-Cedric-van-Riel-leads-an-IG-student-team-in-Madagascar.-750x560.jpg\")
Biocultural Diversity and the Diverse City: A Model for Linking Nature and Culture<\/strong>
\nWilliam Dunbar, Tokyo
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1KVlP8b<\/a>
\nThe concept of biocultural diversity\u2014 the coming together of biological and cultural diversity\u2014is receiving more attention recently along with an awareness that elements of cultures all around the world are deeply rooted in the nature, or biological diversity, around them, and that greater cultural diversity comes with greater biological diversity. It seems intuitively true that richer biological diversity leads to richer cultural diversity if you think about the wide variety of art, rituals, traditional knowledge, etc. that are related to nature and are integral to indigenous peoples and local communities around the world. Empirically as well, greater cultural diversity has been shown to correlate with biodiversity hotspots.<\/p>\nReviews<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Landscape](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Shen-Zhou-Landscape-arboreal_architecture_stanford_PML1844-1056x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTrees of Life and Fruitful Relationships<\/strong>
\nPatrick Lydon, San Jose & Seoul
\nA review of Arboreal Architecture: A Visual History of Trees, an exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
\n<\/em>http:\/\/bit.ly\/1O6chKU<\/a>
\n<\/em>The show’s curator, George Philip LeBourdais, has shoehorned a global collection of artworks from the Cantor Center’s collection into the room. Spanning about 1,500 years, the collection is impressive not only for the time it covers, but because all of the works concern the trees and our ever changing cultural relationships with them. \u00a0The exhibit offers a deep and powerful display of cultural relationships to trees over such a great cultural timespan that it’s impossible not to be affected by it. The works speak of trees in city and countryside, of trees in in ritual and for utility, and, perhaps most importantly, of trees as part of us and, ultimately, as works of art themselves.<\/p>\n![\"24_Central](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24_Central-Park_BC_2013-843x560.jpg\")
What Makes a “Great” City Park? The Beholder Sees<\/strong>
\nAdrian Benepe, New York
\nA review of “Great City Parks”; Second Edition, by Alan Tate with Marcella Eaton
\n<\/em>http:\/\/bit.ly\/1XHrubm<\/a><\/div>\nPark geeks and urban nemophilists, not to mention the \u201cdesigners, administrators, planners and politicians with current and future responsibilities for city parks\u201d that the author cites as the primary target audience, have reason to celebrate and pore over this lovingly detailed volume, richly illustrated with photographs (most of them by the authors) and simple plans of the parks, and heavily annotated with quotes, citations, and footnotes. But what is a “great” park? Alan Tate offers this: “There is no easy answer. Well, there is. It\u2019s like being in love. You know when you\u2019re in it and that gels with Burke\u2019s definition of beauty as \u2018that quality or those qualities in bodies by which they cause love.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Crosswalk\"](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Crosswalk-861x560.png\")
How Tactical Urbanism \u201cAdds Up”
\n<\/strong>Sarah Bradley, Montreal
\nA review of Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change, by Anthony Garcia and Mike Lydon
\n<\/em>http:\/\/bit.ly\/1CSiCsi<\/a><\/div>\nTactical Urbanism: it\u2019s one of the buzz words in the emerging people-centred planning paradigm. If you do a Google News search of the term, you\u2019ll find articles from all the news sites beloved by urbanists. These many meanings are captured in the new book by American urban planners Anthony Garcia and Mike Lydon, both leaders in civic advocacy and principals of The Street Plans Collaborative. By clearly laying out what tactical urbanism is\u2014the authors define it simply as an approach to neighbourhood building and activation using short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions and policies\u2014the groundwork is laid to build on this theory of change by providing successful examples and providing guidance for making it work in practice.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n![\"Aerial](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/aerial-of-development-746x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nComplex and Useful, Green Is Infrastructure<\/strong>
\nAna Faggi, Buenos Aires
\nA review of Green Infrastructure: A Landscape Approach
\n<\/em>http:\/\/bit.ly\/1DrPVCw<\/a>
\nGreen Infrastructure: A Landscape Approach, in line with the current principles of sustainability, discusses green infrastructure (GI) as the visible expression of natural and human ecosystem processes that work across scales and contexts to provide multiple benefits for people and their environments. It gives the reader a framework for a sustainable urban and regional future, how can it be implemented, and how planners and designers can play leading and responsive roles in addressing these issues. Although this report was intended for planners, landscape architects, architects, civil engineers, scientists, and others interested in the spatial structure, functions, and values (environmental, economic, and social) of natural and built landscapes, its simple and enjoyable writing makes it useful for educators, students, citizen groups and conservationists. While all case studies were drawn from communities within the United States, implementing the mentioned principles through green infrastructure initiatives, the variety of contexts and scales make them applicable worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n![\"Email](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/the-new-wild-798x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Myths of Alien Species: An Alternate Perspective on \u201cWild\u201d<\/strong>
\nby Divya Gopal, Berlin
\nA review of The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature\u2019s Salvation, by Fred Pearce
\n<\/em>http:\/\/bit.ly\/1KaSh8V<\/a>
\nThe New Wild<\/em> is an intriguing book that looks at non-native species and nature in new light, challenging popular notions of \u2018nativism,\u2019 \u2018wild\u2019 and nature\u2019s \u2018fragility.\u2019 Although the author, Fred Pearce, has taken on a controversial topic, his sources show that he is not alone as an increasing number of ecologists and scientists are questioning the \u201cgood natives, bad aliens,\u201d narrative. As an ecologist who works in cultural landscapes, I\u00a0found this book is refreshing. \u2018Wild\u2019 to me\u00a0means spontaneous and not domesticated or cultivated. There is something magical about seeing what nature has to offer. Many of the spontaneously growing plants, often considered weeds elsewhere, add character to the city. Some are natives, some aliens. It doesn\u2019t matter\u2014these spontaneous species are the new wild.<\/p>\nPhoto Essays<\/h3>\n
![\"lake_bhattarahalli_ganesha_PhotoBy_Arati](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/lake_bhattarahalli_ganesha_PhotoBy_Arati-Kumar-Rao-840x560.jpg\")
The banner photo is from the photo essay\u00a0Photo Essay: Untold Stories of Change, Loss and Hope Along the Margins of Bengaluru\u2019s Lakes, <\/strong>by\u00a0<\/strong>Marthe Derkzen, Amsterdam,\u00a0with photos by Anoop Bhaskar and Arati Kumar-Rao
\nhttp:\/\/bit.ly\/1OwJ8wJ
\n<\/a>Before becoming India\u2019s information technology hub, Bengaluru was known for its numerous lakes and green spaces. Rapid urbanization has led to the disappearance of many of these ecosystems. Those that remain face a range of challenges: residential and commercial construction, pollution and waste dumping, privatization, and so on. Today, Bengaluru\u2019s lakes are principally seen as garbage dumps and sewage ponds that can have either of two fates: one, be transformed into recreational oases to suit the needs of wealthy residential neighborhoods, or two, be encroached upon until none of the original shapes and functions can be traced. But how does this affect the lives of the people living at the very margins of Bengaluru\u2019s beloved yet contested lakes?<\/p>\n
![\"Grey](\"http:\/\/www.thenatureofcities.com\/TNOC\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Grey-herons-at-r\u00e5stasj\u00f6nBycopyrightJonathanStenvall-840x560.jpg\")
<\/p>\n