Meet the Author:
Harini Nagendra,  Bangalore

Many voices. Greener cities. Better cities.
Harini Nagendra

Harini Nagendra

Harini Nagendra is a Professor of Sustainability at Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India. She uses social and ecological approaches coupled with remote sensing to examine the factors shaping the sustainability of forests and cities in the south Asian context. Her books include "Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future", “Cities and Canopies: Trees of Indian Cities” (with Seema Mundoli), and “The Bangalore Detectives Club” historical mystery series set in 1920s colonial India.

January, 2024

8 January 2024

A woman standing in front of a brightly colored mural of a woman's head
What if Women Designed the City? A Voyage from Brutalism to Biophilia
May East, Edinburgh

Nestled within the lively and restless Leith neighbourhood stands the iconic curved structure of Cables Wynd House, immortalised in Irvine Welsh’s novel “Trainspotting” and referred to by locals as the Banana Flats. Constructed in the 1960s, Cables Wynd is considered one of Britain’s greatest post-war buildings designed in the Brutalist...

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December, 2023

20 December 2023

A muddy work site with a city in the background
Ecosystem Approach Framework Well-Suited for Urban Areas
John Hartig, Windsor

Historically, North American urban environmental and natural resource management was operationalized in a top-down, command-and-control fashion. In general, governments prepared plans and made decisions with some limited input from other stakeholders. Over time, this shifted to a more bottom-up, collaborative approach ― an ecosystem approach. The ecosystem approach is not...

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10 December 2023

An aerial view of an oxbow river with many natural twists and turns
The goal is to mainstream Nature-based Solutions, by widening public acceptance and making it the standard and default practice of urban design. What will it take to get there?
James Bonner, Glasgow Harriet Bulkeley, Durham Tam Dean Burn, Glasgow Stuart Connop, London Bryce Corlett, Norfolk Laura Costadone, Norfolk Olukayode Daramola, Surrey McKenna Davis, Berlin Gillian Dick, Glasgow Loan Diep, New York City Niki Frantzeskaki, Utrecht Zbigniew Grabowski, Hartford Perrine Hamel, Singapore Mariem EL Harrak, Paris Cecilia Herzog, Rio de Janeiro Nadja Kabisch, Hannover Doris Knoblauch, Berlin Frédéric Lemaître, Paris Paola Lepori, Brussels Patrick M. Lydon, Daejeon David Maddox, New York Israa Mahmoud, Milan Timon McPhearson, New York Seema Mundoli, Bangalore Harini Nagendra, Bangalore Caroline Nash, London Neville Owen, Melbourne Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman, College Park Eleanor Ratcliffe, Surrey Kassia Rudd, Freiburg Valentine Seymour, Surrey David Simon, London Takemi Sugiyama, Melbourne Morro Touray, Surrey Ibrahim Wallee, Accra

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6 December 2023

A group of people marching in a street holding signs
The Future Wave: Youth-led Commoning for Care and Climate Justice
Praneeta Mudaliar, Mississauga

Youth voices advocating for climate justice have emerged as a significant force for shedding light on the escalating challenges that climate change will create in their current and future lives. While adults often assume that young people are not interested in politics and/or are perceived to be less politically engaged,...

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3 December 2023

A city with a river running through it
Solving the Global Water Crisis
Chantal van Ham, Brussels

In 2010, the UN General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Equal access to safe and clean water, however, requires a major change in how decisions over use and rights to water are made and needs appropriate legal frameworks to curb over-extraction and unsustainable behavior. Qanats...

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November, 2023

28 November 2023

A group of people standing around plants
Plant-human Relations: How Can Art Foster Positive Perceptions of Weeds in Cities?
Christopher Kennedy, New York

In early September 2019, a plant known as Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) was considered one of the top threats to public safety in New York City. Although fairly common in the region, a Tweet from Adrian Benepe, the former commissioner of NYC Parks & Recreation went viral after he found...

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26 November 2023

Plaidoyer for Transdisciplinarity, Local Agency, and Creative Co-Creation in Horizon Europe and the New European Bauhaus
Mariana Dias Baptista, Sheffield Nathalie Blanc, Paris Carmen Bouyer, Paris Paul Currie, Cape Town Małgorzata Ćwikła, Freiburg Marta Delas, Madrid Marthe Derkzen, Arnhem/Nijmegen Tom Grey, Dublin Gitty Korsuize, Utrecht Patrick M. Lydon, Daejeon David Maddox, New York Geovana Mercado, Malmö Pascal Moret, Paris Peter Morgan-Wells, Devon Steward Pickett, Poughkeepsie Daniela Rizzi, Freiburg Mary Rowe, Toronto Sean Southey, New York Chantal van Ham, Brussels Tom Wild, Sheffield Dimitra Xidous, Dublin

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20 November 2023

An aerial view of a marshy area
A Disappearing Lake in Three Parts
Wendy Wischer, Salt Lake City

Part I: Falling in Love Part II: A Broken Heart Part III: Finding Joy in the Smallest of Things This is a collection of stories about a disappearing lake. The Great Salt Lake. It is told in three parts through poems, prose, and multi-media artwork. These first excerpts are from...

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15 November 2023

A green land with a body of water
Nature-based Solutions Are Gaining Momentum in Brazilian Cities
Cecilia Herzog, Rio de Janeiro

After more than 15 years of teaching, researching, consulting, and advocating for nature-based solutions (NBS) in Brazil, it’s really fulfilling to see NbS becoming nationally recognized and adopted in several Brazilian cities. In this essay, I present my view of the process that led to this moment. It has had...

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7 November 2023

A rocky beach with a building in the background
Steady Friction Between Nature-based and Engineered Solutions for Urban Coastal Flood Adaptation
Zbigniew Grabowski, Hartford Laura Costadone, Norfolk Erich Wolff, Singapore Mariana Hernández, Sacramento Yuliya Dzyuban, Singapore Marthe Derkzen, Arnhem/Nijmegen Loan Diep, New York City

A view from the joint meeting of the San Juan ULTRA and the NATURA Early Career Network 1. Nature-based Solutions in the Context of San Juan, Puerto Rico On a sunny day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, life is good. Along the beaches, crabs scuttle in the riprap next to...

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October, 2023

30 October 2023

A close-up picture of a small metal bucket full of colorful writing utensils on a bright green table
Discovering Stewardship Through Play: Using Applied Theater Techniques for Environmental Education
Ania Upstill, New York

Human impacts on the environment are no joke, and climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. So, Environmental Education (EE) is serious business. Given the context, it is understandable that EE is usually communicated to adults through serious methods of communication such as lectures, information sessions, and...

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23 October 2023

A picture of walkway between two buildings with planters on either side and with large trees shading the walkway
Tel Aviv Was Tartan Before It Was White: An Analysis of Patrick Geddes’s 1925 Town Plan
Joseph Rabie, Montreuil

The White City. Thus, Tel Aviv refers to itself, taking its cue from the many buildings built in the International Style in the 1930s by the avant-garde architects who had studied in Europe or come to Palestine to escape Nazi Germany. Some had studied at the Bauhaus, and the term...

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16 October 2023

A picture of a tiny green frog sitting on a leaf
When You Sing You Want Noise and Bright Lights? Singing Behavior of Urban Frogs
Ana-Cecilia Gutiérrez-Vannucchi, San Jose Luis Sandoval, San José

Obstacles in nature are quite variable. Some are easy to observe: for example, a tree in the middle of an open area, a rock in the middle of a trail, or a lake in the forest. Others are not that easy to spot or identify as an obstacle. For example,...

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9 October 2023

A picture of an older child in a Hi Vis vest smiling and holding a sprout towards the camera
From Awareness to Action: Citizen Empowerment in Invasive Species Management
Ana Pinheira, Guimarães

Invasive species cause one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide. Many species are introduced into environments different from their place of origin and can quickly proliferate, causing significant harm to the ecosystems, economy, and public health. Invasive species have the capacity to establish, reproduce, and spread uncontrollably,...

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September, 2023

25 September 2023

A picture of a dead black butterfly surrounded by yellowed leaves on concrete
Sistine Blue
Andreas Weber, Berlin

[*]I’m on my way home from an errand one early June evening. As I walk, I look down on the granite-slabbed sidewalk. At its margin, a row of slender catsears raise their yellow heads towards the fading sky. They look a bit like skinny dandelions (who they are related to),...

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17 September 2023

A picture of a fenced walkways along a lakeside
The City: Binding an Unbound Space
Arvind Lakshmisha, Bangalore Harini Nagendra, Bangalore

“…they do not belong to our neighbourhood and are located outside the administrative jurisdiction of Bangalore; hence we do not work on those lakes…” This was the comment made by a representative belonging to a prominent lake conservation group in the city, presenting a focused definition of a city as...

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11 September 2023

A picture of a tree-lined street with people and cars
Green Urban Planning ― Along With the Idea of Objective Truth ― Is Losing the PR Fight
Rob McDonald, Basel

A core tenant of the environmental movement is under attack. Planning, and particularly the rational planning model, is seen as something suspect, an enemy of the people. The whole idea of rational, technocratic planning to achieve social goals is being rejected by some, as an elitist pursuit that must be...

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5 September 2023

A picture of a glass and green building
Redefining Urban Nature for a Carbon-Negative City
Sarah Hinners, Salt Lake City

I frequently ask students, colleagues, practitioners, and fellow ecologists to consider how a city can become more like a forest. I started to do this in 2019 when I (perhaps belatedly!) came to understand that just reducing our carbon emissions ― even to neutral ― is not enough to prevent...

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August, 2023

29 August 2023

A digital model of greenspaces amongst buildings and concrete walkways
Designing Urban Green Spaces for Health and Well-being
Marthe Derkzen, Arnhem/Nijmegen Takemi Sugiyama, Melbourne Agnès Patuano, Wageningen John Boon, Amsterdam Andrea Ramírez-Agudelo, Bonn Arthur Feinberg, Rotterdam

How can we design urban green spaces that support health and well-being? What are the roles played by users, practitioners, and researchers? These questions guided our virtual seed session “Designing urban green spaces for health and well-being” during the TNOC Festival 2022. Fifteen participants shared their experience as a user...

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22 August 2023

A picture of a person biking alongside a flowerbed with many trees, bushes, and flowers
The Importance of a Shared Definition to Achieve Biodiversity
Meredith Dobbie, Victoria

Biodiversity is receiving much attention at the moment, not least among landscape architects in Australia. In 2018, David Maddox on this website posed the following provocation: “Landscape architects are the practitioners of biodiversity’s meaning through their acts of shaping nature into ‘spaces’. They have their hands on definitions of biodiversity...

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