Aesthetic Resilience

Abstract

The contributors to this volume propose strategies of urgent and vital importance that aim to make today's urban environments more resilient. Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research and is especially relevant in creative urban design, as urban areas exemplify complex systems. With something approaching half of the world's population now residing in coastal urban zones, many of which are vulnerable both to floods originating inland and rising sea levels, making urban areas more robust in the face of environmental threats must be a policy ambition of the highest priority. The complexity of urban areas results from their spatial heterogeneity, their intertwined material and energy fluxes, and the integration of social and natural processes. All of these features can be altered by intentional planning and design. The complex, integrated suite of urban structures and processes together affect the adaptive resilience of urban systems, but also presupposes that planners can intervene in positive ways. As examples accumulate of linkage between sustainability and building/landscape design, such as the Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park and Toronto's Lower Don River area, this book unites the ideas, data, and insights of ecologists and related scientists with those of urban designers. It aims to integrate a formerly atomized dialog to help both disciplines promote urban resilience. Ecology, Design, and Social Contexts: Disciplinary Voices and History -- Ecology of the City as a Bridge to Urban Design / S.T.A. Pickett, M.L. Cadenasso, Brian McGrath -- Three Tides: The Development and State of the Art of Urban Ecological Science / M.L. Cadenasso, S.T.A. Pickett -- Social Dynamics and Sustainable Urban Design / Christopher G. Boone -- Integral Urbanism: A Context for Urban Design / Nan Ellin -- Landscape as Method and Medium for the Ecological Design of Cities / Joan Iverson Nassauer -- Shared Conceptual Understanding: Four Themes for Bridging Ecology and Urban Design -- Ecological Heterogeneity in Urban Ecosystems: Reconceptualized Land Cover Models as a Bridge to Urban Design / M.L. Cadenasso, S.T.A. Pickett, Brian McGrath, Victoria Marshall -- Urban Patch Dynamics and Resilience: Three London Urban Design Ecologies / D. Grahame Shane -- Eco-engineering for Water: From Soft to Hard and Back / Kelly Shannon. Beyond Restoration and into Design: Hydrologic Alterations in Aridland Cities / Elisabeth K. Larson, Stevan Earl, Elizabeth M. Hagen, Rebecca Hale, Hilairy Hartnett -- Ecological Resilience as a Foundation for Urban Design and Sustainability / Jianguo Wu, Tong Wu -- Slow, Moderate, Fast: Urban Adaptation and Change / Brian McGrath -- Anchoring a Terrain: Landscape Beyond Urbanism / Dilip da Cunha -- Storyline and Design: How Civic Stewardship Shapes Urban Design in New York City / Erika S. Svendsen -- Eco-Cities Without Ecology: Constructing Ideologies, Valuing Nature / Julie Sze, Gerardo Gambirazzio -- Bridging Ecology and Urban Design Practice -- Sponge City / Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa -- Civic Space in Regional Frameworks: Resilient Approaches to Urban Design / Jill Desimini -- Aesthetic Resilience / Victoria Marshall -- Anchoring Philadelphia / Anuradha Mathur, Dilip da Cunha -- Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park Treatment Wetland: Integrated Strategies in Natural Treatment System Design / Kerry J. Rubin, Rowan Roderick-Jones. Just Ground: A Social Infrastructure for Urban Landscape Regeneration / Julie Bargmann -- Ecological and Social Linkages in Urban Design Projects: A Synthesis / J. Morgan Grove -- Urban Design in Expanded Disciplinary and Geographical Contexts -- The Design Process as a Framework for Collaboration Between Ecologists and Designers / Alexander J. Felson -- Remixing Messages: A Call for Collaboration Between Artists and Scientists / Mary Miss -- Landscape Urbanism: A North American Perspective / Alissa North, Charles Waldheim -- Urbanism and Ecological Rationality / Paola Viganò -- Bangkok: The Ecology and Design of an Aqua-City / Danai Thaitakoo, Brian McGrath, Suebsiri Srithanyarat, Ying Palopakon -- Disturbanism in the South Pacific: Disturbance Ecology as a Basis for Urban Resilience in Small Island States / Rod Barnett, Jacqueline Margetts -- Moving Forward -- The Ecology of the Metacity: Shaping the Dynamic, Patchy, Networked, and Adaptive Cities of the Future / S.T.A. Pickett, Brian McGrath, M.L. Cadenasso.