Meet the Author:
Mark Hostetler,  Gainesville

Many voices. Greener cities. Better cities.
Mark Hostetler

Mark Hostetler

With over twenty years of experience in urban wildlife and green development issues, Dr. Mark Hostetler conducts research and outreach on how urban landscapes could be designed and managed, from small to large scales, to conserve biodiversity. He has extensive experience in working with homeowners, developers, and policy makers on ways to manage and design residential developments for biodiversity. Dr. Hostetler co-founded University of Florida’s Program for Resource Efficient Communities and collaborates with an interdisciplinary team of scientists and graduate students. Dr. Hostetler works with policy makers, developers, and homeowners to establish natural resource conservation strategies in communities that are billed as “green” developments. In particular, he conducts a national continuing education course on conserving biodiversity in subdivision development, and he has recently published a book titled, The Green Leap: A Primer for Conserving Biodiversity in Subdivision Development.

February, 2024

7 February 2024

A group of trees with no leaves against a blue sky
Talk in the Park: An inquiry into culture and creativity
David Haley, Walney Island

Rightly, people recently have been valuing Indigenous cultures and writing about them. Not wishing to mimic or appropriate, but as an attempt to learn from such ways of thinking, this essay uses a form of circular storying[1] that becomes nonlinear. I stumbled upon ‘storying’ (the making and telling of stories)...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation
January, 2024

15 January 2024

A Google Earth image of an open pit
Urban Mining: A Sustainable Alternative to the Environmental Impacts and Social Injustices of Extractive Mining
Graciela Arosemena, Panama City

Every human activity generates environmental impacts, such as in the case of urban settlements. Conventionally, the urban environmental impacts that are more worrisome are those that are the result of the city itself, such as urban solid wastes and water contamination. These wastes are the remains of urban metabolism, and...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

1 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation
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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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,...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation
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, San Francisco

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...

1 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

20 November 2023

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

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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation
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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

2 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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,...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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,...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation
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),...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

1 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation

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...

0 Comment(s)
Join our Conversation