LA 402L Ecology Readings

Readings Against Sustainability

John May

Can biodiversity be Austin Brown accommodated in today’s urban environment?

Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity James Corner

The Concrete Robert Sullivan Jungle Robert Thayer

The Word Shrinks, The World Expands Kristina Hill

Shifting Sites

Against Sustainability John May

Technology improved people’s lives for generations • We came to rely on it and believe it could improve life ever more • Came to discover that these ideas, practices and tools were degrading the very conditions that provide for continued existence (the env. & its ecosystem services) • Today—“Sustainable” technology will save us?

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The problem with “Sustainability”

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The Problem with Objects

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The Problem with Objects

The Problem of Objects Impact

The ProblemConsequences with Objects

effect Impact ignored/ absorbed

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ignored/ Impact absorbed yes resolved

effect process invisible yes to resolved the consumer minor

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process invisible to the consumer

effect Effect’s Consequences Impact on Stakeholders effect major

Effect’s Impact on Industry pays for Consequences Stakeholders prevention or major mitigation

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Industry pays for Effect’s prevention or Impact on mitigation Externality

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An easily undermined idea Does not address consumption Conceptually incoherent Vague & shapeless (like pornography or obscenity) Politically inadequate

Fails to address underlying causes of environmental degradation/resource scarcity • The Problem of Objects—the idea that the world is composed of things • The Problem of Externalities--The actual cost of the final product does not reflect the real cost of extraction, production, consumption & degradation • The Problem with Newness & Novelty

Lifespan of products reduced

Collective psychology of durability erased in a single generation

Simply—Advocates for LESS BAD

• We are having the wrong conversation if we are truly interested in preserving ecological systems & ecosystem services

Relevant in Vernon—a city of Industry & Production • What will we make here in the future?

The Problem with Externalities

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The Problem with Newness & Novelty

The Problem of Newness & Novelty

The Problem with Newness & Novelty

Can biodiversity be accommodated in today’s urban environment?

Austin Brown

biodiversity be CanCan biodiversity be accommodated in in Can biodiversity be accommodated accommodated in today’s urban environment? today’s urban environment? today’s urban environment?

-Austin Brown -Austin Brown -Austin Brown

Habitat destruction a major factor affecting Habitat destruction a major affecting Habitat destruction a major factorfactor affecting biodiversity Habitat destruction a major factor affecting • • • •

biodiversity

biodiversity Urbanbiodiversity expansion now moreexpansion rapid than ever --Urban now more than ever --Urban expansion now more rapid rapid than ever --Urban expansion now more rapid than ever Urban expansion increasingly non-linear rather than incremental along outskirts --Urban expansion increasingly non-linear --Urban expansion increasingly non-linear --Urban expansion increasingly non-linear Ecologically sensitive areas at risk than incremental outskirts ratherrather than incremental alongalong outskirts rather than incremental along outskirts Habitat fragmentation increasing --Ecologically sensitive --Ecologically sensitive areasareas at riskat risk

--Ecologically sensitive areas at risk --Habitat fragmentation increasing --Habitat fragmentation increasing --Habitat fragmentation increasing 2010—International Year of Biodiversity

Past mode of expansion

Past mode of expansion Past mode of expansion Past mode of expansion

• Widely considered a missed opportunity 2010—International of Biodiversity 2010—International Year Year of Biodiversity Year of Biodiversity • “Decade on2010—International Biodiversity” announced to reach targets after Year of Biodiversity --Widely considered a missed opportunity --Widely considered a missed opportunity --Widely considered a missed opportunity failed --“Decade on Biodiversity” announced --“Decade on Biodiversity” announced to to --“Decade on Biodiversity” announced to reach targets after Year of Biodiversity • New developments should: reachreach targets after Year of Biodiversity failedfailed targets after Year of Biodiversity failed --New developments should: • Retain existing habitats --New developments should: --New developments should: -Retain existing habitats • Create habitat -Retain existing habitats -Retain existing habitats -Create habitat • Implement green infrastructure -Create habitat -Create habitat -Implement infrastructure -Implement greengreen infrastructure -Implement green infrastructure

Animal Estates London HQ: Wildlife Animal Estates London HQ: Urban Urban Wildlife Animal Estates London HQ: Urban Wildlife Animal Estates London HQ: Urban Wildlife Client Services Services ClientClient Services Client Services

Present mode of expansion Present modemode of expansion Present of expansion Present mode of expansion Urban Center ExistingExisting Urban Center Existing Urban Center

initiative to raise public awareness Urban Expansion --London to raise public awareness Linear Linear Urban Expansion The Changing • London initiative to--London raiseinitiative public awareness on biodiversity --London initiative to raise public awareness The Changing Mode Mode Linear Urban Expansion The Changing Mode on biodiversity Ecologically Sensitive of Urban Expansion Ecologically on biodiversity Sensitive Areas Areas of Urban Expansion • Incorporate native species back into London & urban environment on biodiversity Ecologically Sensitive Areas of Urban Expansion --Incorporate native species back into --Incorporate native species back into HabitatHabitat native speciesengineers, back into planners, architects, • Public networking --Incorporate & research space for activists, Habitat London & urban environment London & urban environment New Non-linear Development London & urban environment New Non-linear Development artists, residents and designers New Non-linear Development --Public networking & research --Public networking & research spacespace for for --Public networking & research space for activists, engineers, planners, architects, activists, engineers, planners, architects, activists, engineers, planners, architects, New Developments—Should be Habitat-Centric artists, residents and designers artists, residents and designers artists, residents and designers

• Functioning habitat as framework for design • Habitat buffers Developments—Should be Habitat-Centric New New Developments—Should be Habitat-Centric New Developments—Should be Habitat-Centric • Habitat linkages/corridors --Functioning habitat as framework for design --Functioning habitat as framework for design

“We need to recognize need to the We We need to recognize the We to recognize recognize the theneed changing role of cities --Functioning habitat as framework for design --Habitat buffers changing role of cities --Habitat buffers changing of cities --Habitat buffers changing role of of cities androle ecologies cities.

Existing Urban Areas --Habitat linkages/corridors --Habitat linkages/corridors --Habitat linkages/corridors and ecologies of cities. ecologies of cities.

• Attitudes slow to change--many designers & planners still support cities forandand ecologies of cities.

Cities can no longer people onlyExisting Urban Areas Cities can no longer be Existing Urban Areas Cities can no longer be be can seenno aslonger apart from Existing Urban Areas Cities be • Data increasingly support health benefits for people --Attitudes slow to change--many designers --Attitudes slow to change--many designers --Attitudes slow to change--many designers seen as apart from seen as apart from “nature.”

Densification seen as apart from • Need to retrofit cities & planners still support for people & planners still support citiescities for people only only & planners still support cities for people only --Data increasingly support health benefits “nature.”

Densification of Densification cities can protect --Data--Data increasingly support healthhealth benefits “nature.” of of increasingly support benefits “nature.”

Densification of for people for people for people cities protect functioning habitats in the cities cancan protect cities can protect --Need to retrofit --Need to retrofit citiescities --Need to retrofit cities hinterlands.” functioning habitats in functioning habitats in the functioning habitats in the the hinterlands. hinterlands. hinterlands.

Ecology and Landscape as Agents of Creativity James Corner

The Ecological Idea

• Ecology

Is never ideologically neutral, despite claims of its objectivity.

It is not without values, images and effects.

It is a social construction that can initiate, inform, and lend legitimacy to a particular viewpoint. (Example: from green

politics to nationalism to feminism)

Conjures up particular ways of seeing and relating to Nature • Two Distinct Natures

The cultural construction that enables people to speak of and understand the natural world

That which always escapes or exceeds human understanding

The Ambiguities of Ecology within Landscape Architecture • • • • •

Establishment of ecology as a central part of landscape architectural education and practice.

Ecology has changed and enriched the field of landscape architecture substantially.

Displaced some of landscape architecture’s more traditional aspects Prompted a somewhat ambiguous and estranged disciplinary identity.

Although ecology has surfaced in modern landscape architectural discourse, a culturally animate ecology-one that is distinct from purely scientific ecology-has yet to emerge.

Modernity and Environment

• The belief in human progress and mastery over Nature has at the same time promoted an often brutally mechanistic, materialistic, and impersonal world.

• The potential creativity of both Nature and culture is diminished to dull equations of utility, production, commodity and consumption.

• Landscape architecture remains caught within the technoeconomic, progressivist, and dualistic characteristics of modernity.

• Landscape architecture must recognize expeditiously how the root cause of environmental decline is buried in the complex foundations of modern culture.

Conservationist/ Resourcist and Restorative Ecology

• Conservationist/Resourcist Ecology - Landscape is composed of various resources that have particular value to people such as forestry production, mining, agriculture, built development, recreation, and tourism.

• Restorative Ecology - Emphasis is on the acquisition of technical knowledge and skill with respect to the physical reconstruction of landscapes or, at a larger scale, regional ecosystem.

Radical Ecology

• Focuses not on nature but on the sphere of culture • Also critical of progressivist ecology and its technocratic solutions to environmental problems • Social ecology (particular interest for landscape architecture) - Targets technoeconomic aspects of the modern cultural paradigm and is critical of social practices of domination, commodification, and instrumentality.

Dialetical Ecology and Language

• Human beings, by virtue of their ability to construct a reality through verbal and visual language, are radically different from the wild and indifferent flux that is nature.

• Cultural Worlds are composed of linguistics and imagistic structures

Bewilderment, Wonder, and Indetermination • • • •

Bewilderment is simply a prerequisite for another form of seeing.

Parallels between vocabularies of ecology and collage are striking Ecology and creative transmutation are indicative of an alternate kind of landscape architecture Catalytic frameworks that might enable a diversity of relationships to create, emerge, network, interconnect, and differentiate

Landscape Architecture + Ecology The hybridization of between, people, place material and earth

The Concrete Jungle Robert Sullivan

Introduction

The article denounces that contrary to popular belief; urbanization can provide more opportunities for housing habitat for wildlife than pristine pastoral open space can. Reason being that the variety of spaces and places wildlife finds themselves in are all too often more interesting than those of a naturalistic habitat. After many observations, a critical evaluation than an urbanized setting is no longer an impediment to wildlife succession, it can in fact, enhance and provide new opportunities for the natural world to thrive in.

“Concrete” Details

• For example, after an occurrence that left the Bronx River damaged and polluted, many native birds were killed for the duration, but with sacrifice came a discovery of survival. Robert Leaf, a recent Ph.D grad student came across a rare finding of Eastern floaters peeking through the muddy banks of the Bronx.

Through this discovery, this event exemplifies that through the accidents and ruin that may occur with an urban system, resiliency can be found through even the simplest of organisms.

• From this finding, this theory that the urban condition is not a great supporter at sustaining life can be denounced as folly. It is evident that even the most sensitive of species, if they live, it is to signify that life in a forgotten river or in any abandoned space have potential to thrive.

Urban landscape and Wildlife Interface

Rural landscape and Wildlife Interface

• If anything can be contrived from this article, this sentence just about sums up the whole thinking behind it. “Understanding nature as infrastructure means thinking about it less as a painting to restore and more as a process to encourage.”

• Other findings seeking out potential for new wildlife to thrive in the most extreme conditions can be contributed as a worldwide phenomenon that newage naturalists, biologists, and allied scientists have now been implicating. For example, biologists in Europe are now studying what once were bombing sites and anticipating new growth of a new species. It is Mother Nature at work with her heartiest and most resilient of soldiers.

• Another facet of interest that this article proposes is the idea of an ecological feedback loop. An ecological feedback loop works in such a way that whatever happens, intended and unintended occurrences both create a cause and effect relationship amongst the flora and fauna, neutral of habitat. Whatever occurs out in a rural setting can very much occur just as well, or even better within an urban setting.

In Summation

In culmination, the overhanging principle that the only living system that inhabits a city is of the Homo sapien kind, is proven to be false. Nature does exist within the city confines and it happens to be doing just fine. The question to ask now is whether the human citizens of the metropolis are willingly to share their space with neighbors that fly, swim, hop, buzz and everything else in between.

Robert Thayer

The Word Shrinks, The World Expands Introduction

If there are two irrelevant spectrums of study that seemed too distant to be even considered for comparison, it would be the world of geophysics and information technology. Two figures coming from their respective backgrounds, Norbert Wiener and King Hubbert have been proprietors of a unique and forthcoming situation.

Ideas involving both parties were the ideas of energy and matter in relationship to the happenings of the physical world, but when Wiener came into the picture, he introduced a third factor into the relationship, information.

Energy and the Landscape

• With this new tidbit of knowledge that information informs directional qualities of energy and matter, it is also a happenstance that information feedback influences living systems and the dynamics that can occur.

• In regards to the urban ecology, the matter of energy (oil) and it’s dutiful rise and decline as supported by the supply and demand curve is being researched through the physical planning perspective of it all. That everything that interacts within a system is interconnected through an invisible ecology that is unseen by economists and people alike.

• The article then proceeds to discuss the framing of the landscape if oil was not a subsequent source of energy for transportation purposes. It explained that with the decline in oil, shared systems of transportation will be on a rise, that the gap between suburbia and the bustling city will close and the landscape will change indefinitely. In the realm of tourism, the ideology of going someplace far to wander and vacation might be a thing of novelty and a new tourism may emerge. Localized tourism; tourism of people that live there become inhabitants as well as visitors of their own environment.

Information and the Landscape

To counteract these statements, while energy is shrinking the landscape into a more localized system, the transfer of information is doing just the opposite. Information is creating the hyper realities that represent the landscape, that give information but do not transcend space, energy, or matter. Though the effort in obtaining information has opened up the landscape to be a globalized monopoly, the quality of information in the transference is lacking in context.

The Three Scenarios of the post peak-oil landscape • Scenario 1: Global economy, global ownership • Scenario 2: Local economy, local ownership • Scenario 3: Local economy, global ownership

In Summation

In reverie, this article highlights the essential need to understand future projections of the supply and demand field in proposing new landscapes of the future. That landscapes for the pure aesthetic purpose are notions of the past and highly productive high variety landscapes to occur within the civic system are going to be the new normal.

Information and the Landscape

Energy and the Landscape

Kristina Hill

Shifting Sites The Nature of a Bounded Place

• A new understanding of place has emerged over the last few decades, the Nonequilibrium Paradigm • The Shifts

Spatial scale - whether local ecosystems can be considered “closed” to

larger flows or the influence of the larger flows should be integral to the

local systems

Temporal scale - local and regional history influences contemporary

ecosystem dynamics

Pattern - consideration of physical landscape patterns as an important

component of ecosystem functioning • Sites are flashpoints (a place, event, or time at which trouble flares up) in the theories of science and design • Collaboration will occur on a renewed basis as new metaphors are sought and accepted as the basis for the development of theory

Spatial Scale Are local ecosystems independent from an outside entity or are they an integral part of an even larger system? In the context of Vernon, the city is an industrial hub which serves as an employment hotspot for the people of Los Angeles County

Spatial Pattern The landscape acts as a shifting mosaic, working with a probabilistic factor of change. Industrial sized buildings fill the site of Vernon forming a mosaic of industry.

The Spatial Scale Shift: Organism Versus System, Boundary Versus Node • Two Dominant Metaphors

The first refers to them as forming a “super-organism,” as if the

interactions among species can be compared to the interactions among

individual organs within a body

The second describes them as a system of energy flows and exchanges, as

if they are comparable to the mechanical and electrical systems designed

by humans

The Temporal Shift: Cycles, Rates of Change, and the Role of History • This law simply states that geological processes operating today, such as weathering and soil formation, also operated in the past

The Spatial Pattern Shift: Landscapes as Dynamic Mosaics

• The metaphor of a shifting mosaic relies on a probabilistic conceptualization of change • Understanding sites as components of a probabilistic landscape mosaic requires that the significance of spatial and temporal patterns be evaluated on a speciesby-species basis

Flashpoints

• Complexity of categories derives from effort to reveal changing conceptual frameworks by thinking through both old and the new conceptual lenses • Designers will doubtless find it easier to pick up the current ecological theories and run with them without looking back