biodiversity (+)
urban design tools and conditions for community intervention
Introduction
tools and conditions
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Introduction
The challenge to understand and improve biodiversity calls for our action at multiple scales – from the global to the local. Biodiversity [+] is a community toolkit of urban design interventions deployable in various scales, site conditions, and contexts. It is a planning and design resource book for local governments, civic groups, and individuals to understand and improve biodiversity in their farms, waterfronts, cities, and regions.
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Introduction
what is biodiversity?
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Introduction Biodiversity refers to species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecological diversity. It is the infrastructure that enables the stable functioning of the planet’s natural systems and cycles – powering the earth’s atmosphere, oceans, forests, landscapes, and waterways. Biodiversity supplies vital ecosystem services including food, medicine, water security, health and psychological well-being (for humans); as well as habitat, carbon sequestration, and climate change mitigation, among many others (for both humans and non-humans).
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Introduction
why is it important?
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Introduction According to the 2018 Living Planet Report, the population of known living species has declined by 60% since 1970. This massive and increasing loss of species diversity continues to profoundly impact the balance of our ecosystems and us. Vital ecosystem services including food security, medical treatments, coastal flooding and sea level rise mitigation, among others, are in a constant state of threat - increasing the risks we face as our climate continues to change.
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Introduction
co-habiting habitat
The biggest threats to biodiversity are land conversion and habitat fragmentation.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) anticipates that 290,000 square kilometers of natural habitat (equivalent to the size of 900 New York Cities) will be lost to urban growth by 2030. 40% of these natural habitats are projected to be within a 50km radius of urban areas. As the world continues to urbanize – how can we galvanize urban design to accommodate non-human life, the wild, the natural? How can we design to co-habit?
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Introduction
table of contents
landscape conditions 09 - 10 habitats 11 - 12
design tactics by landscape condition
13 - 14
agriculture 15 - 20 urban/suburban 21 - 35 transportation networks 36 - 44
how to engage 49 - 52 glossary 53 additional resources 54
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Introduction 9
landscape conditions
agriculture
urban/
Agricultural practices such as mono-cropping, pesticide use, and large-scale livestock pastures pose threats to the natural landscape and biodiversity including soil degregation, water contamination, and large carbon emmissions leading to climate change.
Urban/Suburban conditions fragme changing environm within urban patch habitat quality of landscape, creatin and edge conditio
[ general tools and conditions ]
Introduction
suburban
landscapes and ent habitats by mental conditions hes that affect the the surrounding ng biological islands ons.
linear infrastructure Linear infrastructure such as transportation networks and utility lines create barrier effects on landscape ecology, restricting the movement and migration of animals. Existing networks of linear infrastructure can also be seen as opportunities to improve continuity in the landscape mosaic. 10
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Quercus
Cornus florida
Cephalanthus
Lonicera sempervirens
Sambucus
Helianthus
Physocarpus opulifolius
Alnus serrulata
Salix humilis
Cornus amomum
Rosa palustris
Myriophyllum
Typha angustifolia
Vallisneria
Water chestnut
Introduction
habitats forest habitats
grassland habitats wetland hab
[ general tools and conditions ]
Introduction
species legend amphibian
s
amphibian (slow travel) reptile
bitats
rodent aquatic animal bird pollinator (bee) butterfly
aquatic habitats
mammals - small mammals - medium mammals - large winged mammals
Habitat Ecologies can be broadly categorized into forests, grasslands, wetlands and aquatic habitats. Local planning authorities and communities can make these habitat ecologies more context specific by mapping a Natural Resources Inventory. A Natural Resource Inventory maps local habitats such as upland meadows, hardwood and shrub swamps, freshwater tidal swamps, and the like. 12
Introduction
design tactics by landscape condition landscape conditions
fragmentation elements
agriculture
monocropped farmland pastureland paths/trails
urban/ suburban
buildings parking lots and vacant lots
lawns and backyards urban streets waterfront development linear infrastructure
roadways
railways utility corridors bridges
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[ general tools and conditions ]
Introduction
design tactics
species
crop rotation three sisters pallet pits silvopasture pollinator corridors buffer zones green roofs green walls urban bird nests eco-parking lots urban farming community gardens rain gardens flower gardens setback guidelines tactical gardening flower beds bio-swales street trees soft edge living shorelines
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
narrow corridor underpass wide corridor underpass overpass corridor road medians railway corridor underpass corridor railway overpass corridor railway powerline corridor co-habit bridge corridor
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
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design tactics for [ monocropped farmland ]
Agriculture
crop rotation
Monocropping or growing the same crop in the same place for many years in a row leads to soil degradation by depleting the soil of certain nutrients. Crop rotation or growing different types of crops in the same area in sequenced seasons can reduce soil erosion and increase soil fertility and crop yield.
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design tactics for [ monocropped farmland ]
three sisters corn Agriculture
squash beans
The three sisters refer to the three main agricultural crops of various Native American groups in North America - winter squash, maize (corn), and beans. Using a technique called companion planting, these crops are planted close together for mutual benefit.
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design tactics for [ pastureland ]
Agriculture
pallet pits
Pallet pits create planting mediums that encourage the fast growth of vegetation. Typically deployed in non-productive urban landscapes such as vacant lots, brownfields, industrial sites, or impermeable contexts; they are cheap, easy, and fast solutions to increase biodiversity at any given scale.
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design tactics for [ pastureland ]
silvopasture
Agriculture
Silvopasture combine trees, forage plants, and livestock into an integrated mutually beneficial system. Trees and forage provide food and shelter for livestock, increasing the productivity and biomass of the landscape. As an alternative to commercial livestock practices, this technique increases the economic yield and ecological services of pasture landscapes over time.
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design tactics for [ paths and trails ]
pollinator corridors
Agriculture
pollinator corridors
Strategic planting along existing right-of-way passages, highways, power lines, gas lines, and other maintained corridors can increase landscape connectivity and provide pathways and habitats for pollinators. These corridors can benefit the ecosystems and habitats of surrounding landscape patches and facilitate the genetic flow and movement of plant species.
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design tactics for [ paths and trails ]
buffer zones
Agriculture Buffer zones create neutral areas around landscape edge conditions. They can be regulated to protect patches from external pressures, protect habitats and conservation areas, segregate regions, or join them. Depending on their scale, buffer zones can also act as linear or landscape corridors.
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design tactics for [ buildings ]
Urban / Suburban
green roofs
Green roofs or living roof systems typically consist of vegetation, growing medium, a drainage layer, waterproofing membrane, and often, an irrigation system. There are two types: intensive roofs and extensive roofs. They provide habitat for wildlife, reduce surface runoff and urban heat island effect, and increase carbon sequestration.
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design tactics for [ buildings ]
green walls
Urban / Suburban Green walls, living walls, or vertical gardens are vertical installations of planting material, growing medium, and often, integrated water delivery systems. Green walls improve biodiversity by accommodating a variety of plant species and creating habitat. They also provide insulation and reduce urban heat island effect.
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design tactics for [ buildings ]
Urban / Suburban
urban bird nests
Urban bird nests encourage active bird life in cities. Larger contexts of bird migration patterns should be considered in the urban design strategy of these corridors. Strategic placement of urban bird nests can establish ecological corridors in fragmented urban landscapes, improve the urban soundscape, and increase experiences of nature in the city.
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design tactics for [ parking lots and vacant lots ]
eco-parking lots
bioswales
permeable parking spot
Urban / Suburban
Parking lots and large impervious areas negatively impact habitat quality and increase surface runoff and urban heat island effect. Because parking lots occupy large surface areas of the urban landscape, networks of bioswales, permeable surface treatment, and trees placed strategically in a variety of contexts and scales of parking lots can generate significant impact.
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design tactics for [ parking lots and vacant lots ]
urban farming
Urban / Suburban
planter
Commercial urban farming improves food security within a given area by providing locally grown alternatives for consumers. It can also transform non-productive landscapes such as rooftops, landfills, brownfields, and vacant lots into productive landscapes that provide added ecosystem services.
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design tactics for [ parking lots and vacant lots ]
community gardens
Urban / Suburban Community gardens allow people who do not have access to private open space to grow and maintain their own plots, benefitting from the associated social interaction and a closer relationship to the land. 30-minutes of daily gardening measurably lowers cortisol levels, improves immune function, increases memory and learning, and reduces the risk of heart disease.
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design tactics for [ parking lots and vacant lots ]
Urban / Suburban
rain gardens
Rain Gardens are gardens of native shrubs, perennials, and flowers planted in depressions meant to temporarily hold and infiltrate rainwater runoff from roofs, driveways, patios, or lawns. Rain gardens create habitat and reduce surface runoff and urban heat island effect.
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design tactics for [ parking lots and vacant lots ] design tactics for [ monocropped farmland ]
butterfly gardens
three sisters
n squash
[ case study
Urban / Suburban
or sit er d bh ut
Butterflies are wildlife indicators they communicate the health of an ecosystem. Increased populations of butterflies indicate increases in plant diversity and other pollinator populations. Butterflies also navigate over vast distances across the landscape mosaic. Butterfly gardens supply food and shelter for migrating butterflies, improve the ecosystem quality of an area, and create beautiful name movement ] in the landscape.
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design tactics for [ parking lots and vacant lots ]
Urban / Suburban
setback guidelines
Setback guidelines for a variety of landuses (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) can be tactically employed to create linear corridors and landscape corridors. Well integrated and managed corridors reduce fragmentation in the landscape, create and improve habitats, and multiply opportunities for added ecosystem services.
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design tactics for [ lawns and backyards ]
tactical gardening
Urban / Suburban Choice of planting is important in improving and maintaining urban biodiversity. Traditional gardening is often concerned with cultural aesthetics, but in creating plant palettes for tactical gardening, plants that increase productivity (the generation of additional biomass or species diversity in an ecosystem) and provide greater ecosystem services for site specific conditions are greater valued.
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design tactics for [ urban streets ]
Urban / Suburban
flower beds
Flower Beds are cheap to plant, easy to manage, and quick to provide ecosystem services. They provide significant benefits to human health and emotional well-being.
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design tactics for [ urban streets ]
bio-swales
Urban / Suburban Bio-swales are natural drainage courses designed to concentrate surface runoff and remove the runoff debris and pollution typical in urbanized landscapes. They can be filled with vegetation, compost, or engineered rip rap. Large scale applications of bioswales can be extremely beneficial in protecting local waterways and watersheds from pollution.
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design tactics for [ urban streets ]
Urban / Suburban
street trees
As an alternative to monocultures, biodiversity in street tree planting can reduce susceptibility to disease and pests. Proper choice in the variety, maintenance, and location of street trees can be powerful in removing air pollutants, reducing surface runoff and urban heat island effect, creating habitat, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and improving health outcomes.
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design tactics for [ waterfront development ]
soft edge
Urban / Suburban Creating and maintaining soft edges, natural landscapes, and gradual slopes along water bodies can improve species and ecosystem biodiversity for marine and estuarine landscapes. Soft edges reduce soil erosion, provide filtration of runoff, and create landscape corridors for wildlife.
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design tactics for [ waterfront development ]
Urban / Suburban
living shorelines
Shoreline hardening, typical in today’s urban context, create an abrupt transition from dry land to deep water – fragmenting shoreline corridors and blocking migratory pathways for wildlife. Living shorelines create and maintain inter-tidal habitats that enable marine and estuarine ecosystems. They often cost less than hardened seawalls and improve in performance and ecosystem services over time.
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
narrow corridor small underpass
Linear Infrastructure
Wildlife corridors promote connectivity between species, ecosystems, and ecological processes across many different scales. Narrow linear infrastructure (narrow roads, railways, etc.) for humans may not be “narrow� at the scale of small species. In developing a corridor strategy, various scales of biological communities are considered.
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
narrow corridor medium underpass
Linear Infrastructure
Medium underpasses have widths that typically measure between 1.5-2.4 meters. These underpasses can also allow water passage and maintain streams apart from serving as a wildlife corridor. They can be utilized by small sized mammals such as foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and the like.
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
narrow corridor large underpass
Linear Infrastructure
Large underpasses have typical widths of 3.1 - 6.1 meters and above. They are typically built to restore important migration corridors cut by linear infrastructure such as roads or canals and are typically designed for hoofed animals and large carnivores (e.g. deer, elks, moose, etc.).
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
wide corridor small underpass
Linear Infrastructure
Small wildlife underpasses may be metal or concrete pipe culverts or box type culverts with 1.5-meter widths or less. They can be made for both aquatic species and terrestrial species (e.g. amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, etc.) These passages can serve dual purposes allowing both surface water runoff and wildlife to travel under roadways.
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
wide corridor medium underpass
Linear Infrastructure
Medium underpasses have widths that measure between 1.5-2.4 meters and can be utilized by small sized mammals (e.g. foxes, coyotes, bobcats, etc.) Apart from serving as a wildlife corridor, they can also allow water passage to maintain a stream’s flow.
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
wide corridor large underpass
Linear Infrastructure
Large underpasses have widths of 3.1 - 6.1 meters and above. They are typically built to restore important migration corridors cut by linear infrastructure such as roads or canals and are typically designed for hoofed animals and large carnivores (e.g. deer, elks, moose, etc.).
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
overpass corridor
Linear Infrastructure
Overpass corridors are bridges 6.7 meters wide and above and can be built to span valleys, roads, and streams. Because bridges allow openness, vegetation, and a view to the horizon, overpass corridors can create better continuity with the existing landscape and provide effective wildlife crossings for species of large carnivores such as grizzly bears and wolves.
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design tactics for [ roadways ]
road medians
Linear Infrastructure
Medians create biological islands but provide wildlife corridors for micro-organisms and worms – species that improve soil drainage, soil structure, and improve the productivity of these landscape patches. Networks of medians and in-between spaces in the urban fabric improve habitats and ecosystems and provide ecosystem services such as reducing surface runoff and reducing heat island effect.
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design tactics for [ railway corridors ]
railway corridor
Linear Infrastructure
Because railway lines receive relatively low levels of human disturbance, they often function as habitat corridors for wildlife across the landscape mosaic. Railway corridors act as effective pollinator pathways. Studies show that crop fields located close to railway lines have greater productivity than isolated agriculture patches.
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design tactics for [ railway corridors ]
Linear Infrastructure
underpass corridor railway
Areas below existing elevated linear infrastructure such as railroads or roads can provide opportunities to be developed or designed as wildlife corridors. Keeping these areas as permeable surfaces and considering proper vegetation can improve the habitat quality of these underutilized zones.
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design tactics for [ railway corridors ]
overpass corridor railway
Linear Infrastructure
Railways create barrier effects physical and behavioral barriers that restrict wildlife and disturb habitat causing specie mortality and habitat fragmentation. In the case of railways, additional barriers or fences are usually used to treat this issue - further multiplying barrier effects. Overpass corridors can create better continuity with the existing landscape and provide effective wildlife crossings for a variety of species.
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design tactics for [ utility corridors ]
Linear Infrastructure
powerline corridor
Landscapes along existing networks of utility infrastructure such as power lines can improve continuity between large habitat blocks over great distances. Utility corridors can be designed and optimized to provide greater ecosystem services (e.g. serve as pollinator pathways), maintain and restore target species, and facilitate the genetic flow and movement of species and biological communities.
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design tactics for [ waterways ]
co-habit corridor bridge
Linear Infrastructure
Bridge Infrastructure is typically designed for human use but can be designed to improve landscape continuity over waterways or other barriers. A bridge can act as a corridor for both humans and non-humans, connecting habitats across streams, rivers, or lakes.
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how can you engage?
intern organi
state and city authorities
The challenge to improve biodiversity in our cities calls for us to understand the issues and take action at multiple scales – from the global to the local.
neighbo community
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national izations
local institutions and organizations
orhood and organizations
Find ways to engage constituents to enrich each project. List or map institutions, regulatory bodies, organizations, citizen groups, local businesses, or citizen stewards, that provide resources, participate in, engage in, or derive benefits from design tactics. 50
glossary landscape connectivity Facilitates the movement of biotic processes such as animal movement, genetic exchange, etc. and abiotic processes such as water, energy, material movement, etc. within ecosystems. corridors Spaces in which connectivity between species, ecosystems, and biological processes are maintained and restored at various scales. Many classifactions of corridors exist in landscape ecology including linear corridors and landscape corridors. An interconnected system of corridors is referred to as a network. fragmentation Discontinuities in the landscape causing the isolation of habitats (into biological islands) and ecosystem decay. patches Relatively homogenous areas in the landscape which differ from their surroundings. Patches are the basic unit of landscape ecology and can have definite shape, configuration; they can be described by variables such as number of trees, height of trees, species, etc. mosaic The pattern of patches, corridors, and “background ecological systems� (known as matrix) that constitutes the landscape. 51
resources additional andresources weblinks landscape connectivity and corridors Applying Nature’s Design by Anthony Anderson and Clinton Jenkins https://www.researchgate.net/ublication/ 270588823_Applying_Nature’s_Design fragmentation Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-use Planning by Dramstad, Olson, and Forman https://www.researchgate.net/publication/ 308869435_Landscape_Ecology_Practices_in_ Planning_Landscape_Connectivity_and_Urban _Networks urban ecology Toward an Urban Ecology, (Cohabit) by Kate Orff https://www.scapestudio.com/ideas Ecological Urbanism by Nina Marie Lister https://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=31738 habitat, natural land, and species conservation WWF Living Planet Report 2018 https://wwf.panda.org/knowledge_hub/all_ publications/living_ planet_report_2018/ Atlas for the End of the World http://atlas-for-the-end-of-the-world.com/index_0. html climate change IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ 52
Co-habiting Habitat Hudson Valley Team: Angela Crisostomo adc2186@columbia.edu Junyu Cao jc5040@columbia.edu Shuo Yang sy2798@columbia.edu Yanli Zhao yz3389@columbia.edu