The

Ecological Design and Planning Reader

Edited by Forster O. Ndubisi

The Ecological Design and Planning Reader

The Ecological Design and Planning Reader

Edited by Forster O. Ndubisi

washington | covelo | london

Copyright © 2014 Forster O. Ndubisi

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 2000 M Street NW, Suite 650, Washington DC 20036

Island Press is a trademark of The Center for Resource Economics.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The ecological design and planning reader / edited by Forster O. Ndubisi. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-61091-490-1 (hardback) — isbn 1-61091-490-2 (cloth) — isbn 978-1-61091-489-5 (paper) 1. Urbanization—Environmental aspects. 2. City planning—Environmental aspects. 3. Land use— Environmental aspects. 4. Land use—Planning. 5. Nature—Effect of human beings on. 6. Human ecology. I. Ndubisi, Forster, 1955– editor of compilation. HT241.E368 2014 304.2’091732—dc23 2014013858

Printed on recycled, acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Keywords: Adaptation, biodiversity, bioregionalism, ecological design, ecological urbanism, ecosystem approach, environmental conservation, land ethic, land suitability, landscape, landscape ecology, nature, regionalism, resilience, Smart Growth, urban sustainability

For my parents, the late Dr. Bennett E. Ndubisi and Lady Mary NdubisiMy in-laws, the late Mr. William and Mrs. Mary Martinand My wife June and daughter Danielle.

Contents

Preface xviiAcknowledgments xxi

Introduction 1

Part One: Historical Precedents

Introduction to Part One 13

Henry David Thoreau, “Higher Laws,” Walden (1854 ) 20

George Perkins Marsh, “Introduction” (excerpts), Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action (1864) 25

David Lowenthal, “New Introduction” (2003), Man and Nature (1864) by George Perkins Marsh 33

Ebenezer Howard, “The Town-Country Magnet,” Garden Cities of To-morrow (1898) 51

Patrick Geddes, “The Study of Cities,” Cities in Evolution: An Introduction to the Town Planning Movement and to the Study of Civics (1915) 58

Benton MacKaye, “Regional Planning and Ecology,” Ecological Monographs (1940) 66

Frederick Steiner, Gerald Young, and Ervin Zube, “Ecological Planning: Retrospect and Prospect,” Landscape Journal (1988) 72

x Contents

Part Two: Ethical Foundations

Introduction to Part Two 93

Ian McHarg, “Man and the Environment,” The Urban Condition (1963) 97

Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (1949) 108

Rachel Carson, “The Obligation to Endure,” Silent Spring (1962) 122

Timothy Beatley, “Ethical Duties to the Environment,” Ethical Land Use: Principles of Policy and Planning (1994) 131

J. Baird Callicott, “Whither Conservation Ethics?” Beyond the Land Ethic: More Essays in Environmental Philosophy (1999) 149

Part Three: Substantive Theory

Introduction to Part Three 163

Catherine Howett, “Systems, Signs, Sensibilities: Sources for a New Landscape Aesthetic,” Landscape Journal (1987) 169

Ian L. McHarg, “Open Space from Natural Processes,” To Heal the Earth: Selected Writings of Ian L. McHarg (1998), edited by Frederick R. Steiner 181

Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, “An Introduction to Ecological Design,” Ecological Design (1996) 191

Eugene P. Odum, “The Strategy of Ecosystem Development,” Science (1969) 203

Richard T. T. Forman, “Foundations,” Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (1995) 217

Part Four: Procedural Theory

Introduction to Part Four 237

Forster Ndubisi, “The First Landscape-Suitability Approach,” Ecological Planning: A Historical and Comparative Synthesis (2002) 243

John Tillman Lyle, “Introduction,” Design for Human Ecosystems: Landscape, Land Use, and Natural Resources (1985) 266

Contents xi

V. H. Dale, S. Brown, R. A. Haeuber, N. T. Hobbs, N. Huntly, R. J. Naiman, W. E. Riebsame, M. G. Turner, and T. J. Valone, “Ecological Principles and Guidelines for Managing the Use of Land,” Ecological Applications (2000) 279

Richard T. T. Forman, “Basic Principles for Molding Land Mosaics,” Urban Regions: Ecology and Planning Beyond the City (2008) 299

Jack Ahern, Elizabeth Leduc, and Mary Lee York, “Introduction,” Biodiversity Planning and Design: Sustainable Practices (2007) 320

Part Five: Methods and Processes

Introduction to Part Five 335

Ian L. McHarg, “An Ecological Method for Landscape Architecture,” Landscape Architecture (1967) 341

Lewis D. Hopkins, “Methods for Generating Land Suitability Maps: A Comparative Evaluation,” Journal of the American Planning Association (1977) 348

Kevin Lynch and Gary Hack, “The Art of Site Planning,” Site Planning (1984) 368

Danilo Palazzo and Frederick Steiner, “Processes,” Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places (2011) 379

Carl Steinitz, “On Teaching Ecological Principles to Designers,” Ecology and Design: Frameworks for Learning (2002) 390

William M. Marsh, “Framing the Land Use Plan: A Systems Approach,” Landscape Planning: Environmental Applications (2010) 396

Forster Ndubisi, “A Synthesis of Approaches to Ecological Planning,” Ecological Planning: A Historical and Comparative Synthesis (2002) 404

Part Six: Dimensions of Practice

Introduction to Part Six 429

Arthur H. Johnson, Jonathan Berger, and Ian L. McHarg, “A Case Study in Ecological Planning: The Woodlands, Texas,” Planning the Uses and Management of Land (1979) 436

xii Contents

Design Workshop, “Project Discussion: Aguas Claras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil,” Toward Legacy: Design Workshop’s Pursuit of Ideals in Landscape Architecture, Planning, and Urban Design (2007) 451

Chris Mulder, “Foreword,” Thesen Islands (2008) 456

Carl Steinitz, Hector Arias, Scott Bassett, Michael Flaxman, Thomas Goode, Thomas Maddock III, David Mouat, Richard Peiser, and Allan Shearer, “The Upper San Pedro River Basin,” Alternative Futures for Changing Landscapes: The Upper San Pedro River Basin in Arizona and Sonora (2003) 461

Kongjian Yu, “Reinvent the Good Earth: National Ecological Security Pattern Plan, China,” Designed Ecologies: The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu (2012), edited by William Saunders 466

Jie Hu, “From Regional Planning to Site Design—The Application of ‘Shan-shui City’ Concept in Multi-scale Landscape Planning of New Cities in China,” International Federation of Landscape Architects World Congress (2011) 470

David E. Miller, “Site: Building through Ecological Planning,” Toward a New Regionalism: Environmental Architecture in the Pacific Northwest (2005) 483

Part Seven: Emerging Frameworks

Introduction to Part Seven 493

Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, “Ecological Footprints for Beginners,” Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth (1996) 501

Peter Calthorpe, “The Region,” The New Urbanism: Toward Architecture of Community (1994) 506

Anthony Downs, “Smart Growth: Why We Discuss It More than We Do It,” Journal of the American Planning Association (2005) 515

Frederick Steiner, “Landscape Ecological Urbanism: Origins and Trajectories,” Landscape and Urban Planning (2011) 533

Jianguo Wu and Tong Wu, “Ecological Resilience as a Foundation for Urban Design and Sustainability,” Resiliency in Ecology and Urban Design: Linking Theory and Practice for Sustainable Cities (2013) 541

Contents xiii

Anne Whiston Spirn, “Ecological Urbanism: A Framework for the Design of Resilient Cities” (2014) 557

Conclusion: Maintaining Adaptive and Regenerative Places 572

Copyright Information 597

Note from the Publisher

This volume is a collection of previously published writings on ecological de-sign and planning chosen by Forster Ndubisi and his advisors with input from professors in the field. Professor Ndubisi has written a new introduction to frame the collection, new introductions to each section that explain the impor-tance of the writings, as well as a conclusion that lays a foundation for future thinking and practices. We have chosen to set the papers, which range from journal articles to book chapters, in a consistent format and typeface but have otherwise retained the style and idiosyncrasies of the originals. The figures have been reproduced for quality purposes and renumbered for ease of use. The author has chosen to excerpt some of the selections rather than reprint them in their entirety, and the footnotes and endnotes have been removed to allow more space for the essays. Publishing information for each paper can be found in the Copyright Information section in the back matter.

Preface

In one volume, The Ecological Design and Planning Reader assembles and syn-thesizes selected seminal published scholarly works in ecological design and planning from the past 150 years. Existing information on the growing field of ecological design and planning is unfocused, fragmented, and scattered across numerous articles, books, and other publications. This collection of readings provides students, scholars, researchers, and practitioners with a condensed his-tory, key theoretical and methodological innovations, and exemplary practices in ecological design and planning during this period, as well as a critical synthe-sis on its continuing evolution.

This book has two complementary objectives: educational and scholarly. The educational objective is to provide a teaching resource for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students in design, planning, and allied disci-plines such as architecture, environmental sciences, geography, and forestry. The volume offers insights into key themes that shape the theory and practice of ecological design and planning—the evolution, theory, methods, and exem-plary past and contemporary practice. By offering a critical analysis and syn-thesis of the continued advancement of these theories, methods, and practices, the volume examines future issues to be addressed by scholars and researchers.

Public awareness of the undesirable effects of human actions on the land-scape has grown rapidly since the mid-twentieth century. There has been in-creased legislation worldwide in the areas of environmental protection and resource management, as well as accelerated advances in scientific knowledge and technology for balancing human use with ecological concerns. The roots of ecological problems have been widely debated and solutions have been offered. Yet ecological problems continue to intensify at all spatial scales—global, na-tional, regional, local, and site. We are constantly reminded of climate change and urban sprawl as we see the effects in the fragmentation of landscapes, soil erosion, disruption of hydrologic processes, degradation of water quality,

xviii Preface

destruction of unique animal and plant habitats, the reduction of biological di-versity, and the loss of prime agricultural lands.

Ecological planning is one promising direction for balancing human use with environmental concerns. It is the application of the knowledge of ecologi-cal relationships in decision making about the sustained use of the landscape, while also accommodating human needs. A related term, ecological design, relies on this knowledge to create objects and spaces with skill and artistry across the landscape mosaic. The two concepts are closely intertwined. Ecologi-cal planning is not a new idea, but the level of ecological awareness required in balancing human actions with ecological concerns has increased over the past five decades, at least in North America and Europe, and arguably in many parts of the world, including Asia and South America. The prominent landscape ar-chitect and planner Ian McHarg provided an inspiring synthesis of ecological planning in his seminal book, Design With Nature (1969). Yet ecological plan-ning still remains an unfinished, evolving field and an uncharted territory for rigorous scholarly work. Over the past twenty-four years, I have taught courses in ecological design and planning at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I have engaged my stu-dents on its various facets. There is considerable information on different di-mensions of this topic, but it is scattered across numerous journals and reports. The key books on ecological planning focus on a specific aspect—for example, theories of applied human ecology or landscape ecology, or on methods, or on specific themes, such as the resiliency of ecological systems in urban design and landscape planning. The breadth of the subject matter in ecological planning is very diverse. This book provides a road map to guide the reader through the diverse terrain, illuminating important contributions in the field of ecological design and planning. The readings focus on published scholarly articles from peer-reviewed journals, books, book chapters, and monographs, as well as published professional reports. As a result, the substantive information in a significant majority of the readings has already been validated by peers and leaders in the field of ecological design and planning. The time span of selected readings begins in the mid-1800s, especially those dealing with the historical context. Some important writings by visionary thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Perkins Marsh, and Frederick Law Olmsted occurred during this pe-riod. The 1930s through the early 1960s laid the foundation for contemporary developments in ecological design and planning. Parallel developments in eco-logical science occurred during the same period, notably in 1935 when English botanist Sir Arthur Tansley coined the term “ecosystem” to describe the bio-logical and physical features of the environment considered in its entirety.

Preface xix

The specific articles in each part of the book were chosen largely through a survey of thirty prominent leaders in the field of ecological planning and de-sign. Each was asked to nominate key readings/articles on the history, theory, method, and practice of ecological design. I ultimately selected those included here with guidance from the book’s advisory committee of leaders in the field. To the best of my knowledge, no other book exists that compiles classic, author-itative, and contemporary writings in one volume on the history, evolution, theory, methods, and exemplary practice of ecological design and planning. The information presented in this book will be useful for students, teach-ers, planners, designers, researchers, and the general public who are interested in balancing ecological concerns with human use of the landscape. Students and teachers in landscape architecture, and by extension, allied disciplines such as urban and regional planning, geography, rangeland science, forestry, and soil science, will find it an important text in landscape and environmental land use assessment, design, and planning courses. Practitioners in the private and pub-lic sectors will use this book as a reference tool for understanding the theory, methods, and exemplary practice in analyzing landscapes, as well as for making informed decisions on how and when to use them. Land developers, interested citizens, and conservation groups will find the book a useful source of information for understanding how landscape archi-tects and planners prescribe options for the design, planning, and management of landscape change. Because ecological design and planning is still an unfin-ished, evolving field, researchers will have the opportunity to address the issues raised in the book, and as a result, contribute in advancing the much needed theory and methods of ecological design and planning.

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to many people who made significant contributions to the de-velopment of this book. I thank my former and current research assistants for their invaluable efforts, especially Kent Milson and Jaekyung Lee. Travis Witt assisted in editorial reviews of the entire document. Yuan Ren partici-pated in redrawing most of the illustrations. My former student worker Sheri-dan Brooks deserves credit for translating the original essays into Word files. Tsung-Pei (Eric) Cheng, my former doctoral student, deserves special mention for his impeccable support during the earlier phases of the development of the manuscript.

I benefited extensively from the insightful reviews and criticisms of Fred-erick R. Steiner, Dean, College of Architecture, University of Texas; Laura Musacchio at the University of Minnesota; and my colleagues in the Depart-ment of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M (TAMU): Ming Han Li, June Martin, Walt Peacock, and Shannon Van Zandt. My former colleague Dr. Michael Murphy deserves special credit for his critical insights. He reviewed many versions of the entire manuscript.

I owe particular thanks to Trisha Gottschalk, and especially Thena Mor-ris, for their invaluable contribution in getting this manuscript into form. Thena ensured that I got all the permissions we needed for the essays and artwork. Debby Bernal also deserves credit for her support and assistance. Many of my friends and current colleagues—far more that I can name here— provided help and advice at various stages in the preparation of this manu-script: Jon Rodiek, George Rogers, and Chanam Lee.

I thank Dr. Jorge Vanegas, Dean of the College of Architecture as well as Chris Novosad and his team in the College of Architecture business office, for providing monetary support and processing the financial transactions that en-abled me to obtain the necessary permissions for the essays in this document in a timely manner. I also express my gratitude to Heather Boyer, my editor, for

xxii Acknowledgments

her persistent support and encouragement and for reviewing the drafts of this manuscript. I appreciate the efforts of the Island Press team, especially Rebecca Bright for her insights and review of the artwork in the manuscript.

Lastly, I thank my family, especially my brothers and sisters Chinedu, Bennett, Uju, Ngozi, and Chioma for their encouragement and support; my daughter Danielle for her patience and thoughtful insights, and my wife June for her inspiration and review of earlier drafts of this manuscript.