RESTORATIVE DESIGN: TOWARD ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION

by

TULU TOROS

B.Arch., Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, 1991

A NON-THESIS REPORT

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

MASTER OF SCIENCE

Department of Architecture College of Architecture, Planning & Design

KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas

2011

Approved by:

Major Professor Gary J. Coates

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Copyright

TULU TOROS

2011

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Abstract

At the core of this study lies the recognition that the current human civilization is facing a

multitude of concurrent environmental challenges converging from many directions.

Deteriorating condition of the Earth's rehabilitative processes and regenerative systems gives out

subtle warning signals that these environmental challenges have the real potential of culminating

in a total environmental catastrophe, which may conceivably produce widespread devastation

unlike any other in human history. This study aims to identify major environmental design

principles and strategies to overcome these challenges, and to assist the civilization reestablish

the naturally regenerative harmony and the rehabilitative balances of Nature.

The results of literature review and resource analyses behind this study suggest that most

pressing environmental design challenges can be clustered within a few major categories

including environmental degradation, resource depletion, global climate change, and population

growth as offered in Chapter 3. As the majority of current environmental challenges appear to

originate from planning, design, and operations of urban environments, this study identifies a

series of Core Principles from mainstream urban design practices such as Smart Growth, New

Urbanism, Resilient Cities, Eco-Villages, Regenerative Design, Living Buildings, as well as

Green Urbanism. To complement the core principles, a series of Supporting Strategies are

derived from such practices as Urban Redevelopment and Infill, LEED-Neighborhood

Development, Transit-Oriented Development, Growth Management, Natural Capitalism,

Renewable Sources of Energy and Materials, Urban Agriculture, Hannover Principles, as well as

Next Industrial Revolution.

Based on this foundation the author synthesizes a new, integrated, comprehensive design

agenda aiming at the restoration of natural environment, which is coined here as Restorative

Design or Restorative Urban Design. The restorative approach not only realigns a wide variety

of fragmented design principles and strategies of designing inherently resilient and sustainable

environments but also repurposes their ultimate goals toward the restoration of pristine Nature.

Relying exclusively on multifaceted, multi-disciplinary, long-term, and comprehensive

environmental planning principles and strategies, the Restorative agenda sets out to propagate

appreciation and respect for Nature in order to prevent the destruction of planetary life and to

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reestablish human harmony within natural systems. It strongly advocates not only the

management of population growth and urban sprawl but also the expansion of open natural areas

and natural ecosystems. The Restorative theory encourages phasing out of nonrenewable

practices and promotes reliance on current solar income and other renewable sources of energy,

placing greater emphasis on increased urban densities, quality of life, as well as equality within

economic and social structures. It also seeks new legal instruments, land ownership, mass

transportation, as well as agricultural patterns toward transformation of existing urban fabric.

Finally, the study concludes that only through such a realignment and heightened purpose

can environmental planning and design efforts effectively restore and sustain the richness,

diversity, health, and beauty of the natural world. The worldwide application of the outlined

restorative principles and strategies can help the recovery, revitalization, and restoration of

pristine natural systems to the fullest extent possible.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... 3

Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1 - Introduction: The Context of Human Civilization ...................................................... 4

Human Exploration, Conquest, and Exploitation ....................................................................... 5

Deterioration in the Natural Environment .................................................................................. 6

Reestablishing Natural Balances ................................................................................................ 7

Rehabilitation in Urban Environments ....................................................................................... 8

Chapter 2 - Formulating The Environmental Design Agenda ........................................................ 9

The Literature Reviews and Analyses ........................................................................................ 9

Identification of Environmental Challenges ............................................................................. 10

Future of Human Settlements ................................................................................................... 10

Environmental Restoration and Healing ................................................................................... 11

Chapter 3 - The Approaching Energy Crisis & Environmental Catastrophe ................................ 13

I. Environmental Degradation and Deterioration .................................................................... 14

1) Urban Growth, Suburban Sprawl, and Loss of Ecosystems ............................................ 15

2) Destruction of Wetlands .................................................................................................. 18

3) Deforestation ................................................................................................................... 20

4) Desertification ................................................................................................................. 22

5) Species Extinction ........................................................................................................... 24

6) Loss of Farmlands ........................................................................................................... 25

7) Topsoil Erosion, Fertility Reduction, Salinization, and Groundwater Depletion ........... 27

8) Air, Water, and Land Pollution........................................................................................ 29

9) Acid Deposition ............................................................................................................... 29

10) Depletion of Natural Resources and Petroleum ............................................................ 31

II. Fossil Fuel Depletion: Peak Oil and Natural Gas .............................................................. 32

III. Ozone Depletion and Global Warming ............................................................................. 35

IV. Climate Change ................................................................................................................. 37

V. Population Growth .............................................................................................................. 39

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Ecologically Responsive and Environmentally Responsible Priorities .................................... 42

Chapter 4 - Designing Inherently Resilient & Sustainable Environments ................................... 47

Core Principles .......................................................................................................................... 50

1) Smart Growth .................................................................................................................. 50

2) New Urbanism ................................................................................................................. 53

3) Resilient Cities: Eco-Villages .......................................................................................... 57

4) Sustainable Communities ................................................................................................ 61

5) Regenerative Design ........................................................................................................ 64

6) Living Machines: Eco-Cities .......................................................................................... 66

7) Living Buildings, Neighborhoods, and Cities ................................................................. 70

8) Green Urbanism ............................................................................................................... 75

Supporting Strategies ................................................................................................................ 80

1) Urban Redevelopment and Infill ..................................................................................... 80

2) LEED-Neighborhood Development ................................................................................ 82

3) Transit-Oriented Development ........................................................................................ 86

4) Growth Management ....................................................................................................... 89

5) Natural Capitalism ........................................................................................................... 92

6) Renewable Sources of Energy and Materials .................................................................. 95

7) Urban Agriculture ............................................................................................................ 98

8) Hannover Principles ...................................................................................................... 102

9) Next Industrial Revolution ............................................................................................ 103

Comprehensive Environmental Design Agenda ..................................................................... 107

Chapter 5 - Aiming Beyond Sustainability: Restorative Design ............................................... 109

Context for Environmental Restoration .................................................................................. 110

The Necessity of Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Healing .................................................... 111

An Era of Restoration ............................................................................................................. 112

Principles of Restorative Design ............................................................................................. 113

Chapter 6 - Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 119

The Future of Environmental Restoration .............................................................................. 123

Epilogue ...................................................................................................................................... 125

References ................................................................................................................................... 127

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge exemplary assistance, infinite patience, and

resourcefulness of the Major Professor, Gary J. Coates. Without his brilliant vision and timely

consultations this work would not have been as extensive and comprehensive as it is. Prof.

Coates' conceptual and intellectual guidance especially on energy-related environmental

consciousness as well as neighborhood or district scale design concerns has helped form the

foundational basis of this study.

Special thanks are due to Prof. Larry Lawhon, Ph.D. for his contributions and guidance in

the fundamental principles of city planning, urban design as well as urban growth management

issues. Without his influence and inspiration this study would not have developed to be as

inclusive and encompassing as it turned out to be.

And, finally, Ray B. Weisenburger has been absolutely inspirational to this effort with his

guidance on the fundamental principles of urban preservation planning as well as on the issues of

conservation in design of urban places and public spaces. His seminal discussions on a wide

range of theoretical as well as practical urban design issues have helped lay down the conceptual

foundation for this endeavor.

Dedication

With my utmost compassion, to my children who will shine in a different, new world…

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Chapter 1 - Introduction: The Context of Human Civilization

The Earth can be viewed as a multidimensional fabric of life. On this otherwise desolate

celestial rock, the miracle of life exists against great cosmic odds, through an extremely narrow

window of conditions, and under surprisingly delicate circumstances. A finitely infinite cosmos

of constant change on the blue and green planet connects and binds all living inhabitants. An

immense variety of organisms, plants, and animals coexist within a spectacular banquette of

intricately balanced interdependence. The natural formation and envelope of the planet provide

stable yet ever changing conditions ranging from the most hospitable to utterly hostile.

Human experience in this epic continuum constitutes only an infinitesimal fraction in

both temporal and spatial terms. In fact, it is humbling to note that if the entire history of the

Earth – from its origin until the present – were considered as a full year, the evolution of life

would only be a phenomenon of the very last month, and the human presence would account for

just the last fifteen minutes before midnight on the New Year's Eve.

Despite the relative brevity of our presence on the planet humans have indeed managed to

accomplish supranatural advances in dominating their surroundings. The Earth's landscape is

littered with the remainders of such great civilizations as the Mayans, the Mesopotamians, the

Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Ottomans just to cite a few. All of these empires

formed the most impressive establishments of their times, walked prudently upon their

territories, and transformed their environments in profound ways. Naturally many felt absolutely

invincible. Surely many viewed themselves as the eternal owners of all that appeared

subservient to their means and ends at their time. In the end, they all lasted but a few seconds on

the timescale of terrestrial chronology.

Now eternally silenced, the archeological records attest to the aspirations, struggles,

triumphs, and failures of these ancestors. In many respects, their reminiscences bear witness to

the presence of a past that is, not at all, that different than our own. Relying solely upon the

humble provisions of the natural environment, generations upon generations of humans have

lived reasonably well within a seemingly endless bounty.

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Human Exploration, Conquest, and Exploitation Especially after the scientific and technological developments following the Renaissance

and Enlightenment in Europe, the historical progression starts to show the subtle beginnings of a

widespread rise of human dominion over Nature. Intensifying after 1800 AD, the human

evolution records theoretical rejection of and practical departure from the traditions of previous

generations. For a long time, these abandoned traditions seem to have underpinned, naturally as

it were, the allotment of humankind in Nature through a greater sense of humility, self-imposed

restraints, and genuine appreciation for the sanctity of plentiful providence.

The philosophical disengagement from the many traditional constructs appears, in

retrospect, to have contributed to escalating emergence of new sciences and immensely powerful

technological inventions that followed. On the same shifted foundations, the increasing

scientific knowledge and manipulation of natural laws for anthropocentric gains continue to

progress in full-throttle today. Indeed, the available literature strongly suggests that the

industrialized societies' strictly consumption-focused outlook on Nature is one of the primary

causes of disruption in the natural balances, 'quickening' in the depletion of natural resources,

and shift in the conduct of humanity further away from its natural course.

A naturally implanted drive, to ensure self-survival by overcoming obstacles, seems to

have finally taken the human civilization to a level where the cumulative effect of human

impacts now disturbs the vital balances for the entire living biosphere. The disrupted balances

frequently translate to environmental health problems in air, water, and soils, or ecological

stresses on plants and animals in natural habitats. Brown (1981) insightfully notes "throughout

history, humanity has periodically come up against constraints, but never before has it hit so

many in so many places at the same time" (p. 125).

Despite its extraordinary intelligence, ingenuity and industry, humankind has been rather

slow at recognizing the ecological wreckage in the global environment that has been spreading

over the last two centuries. For all of us who are genuinely concerned and helplessly compelled

to remedy this dramatic tableau in the natural environment the necessary tasks for rehabilitation,

restoration, and healing are nothing less than overwhelming. Yet, the modern civilization

marches on to survey, explore, formulate, and apply refined knowledge from many natural

sciences at unprecedented levels of spread, complexity, and speed. In a sense, the discoveries

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and subsequent uses of new technologies generally continue to divert the course of human

civilization further away from the basic natural balances and harmony every passing day.

It may be fair to observe, also at this point, that the old strategies of exploration, conquer,

and exploitation appear to be still very much extant in the culture of the 'developed' world, which

acts as a role model for the 'developing'. Mumford (1964) - an authoritative American historian,

philosopher, and theoretician of urban evolution - identifies exploration as the first step in

exploitation (p. 41). He would not have been surprised at all to see today that the same strategies

take the developed civilization well beyond Earth's biosphere and atmosphere, deep into the solar

system. The ever-advancing presence of human gadgetry now reaches outside of the Earth's

orbit, and touches many remote locations of the solar system. The surveillant gaze of the modern

technology for unexploited, retrievable, life-supporting new energies, resources, and

environments closely surveys neighboring planets, moons, objects, and even some of the other

galaxies that are seemingly beyond physical reach.

Deterioration in the Natural Environment The deterioration of the Earth's nonrenewable resources seems to be accelerating in all

parts of the world. The necessities of ever-growing populations for food and energy rise

progressively higher while the availability of finite resources and the conditions of fragile

support systems decline further.

In essence, the core issue feeding all of the other orbiting environmental problems

appears to be readily identifiable: the naturally regenerative living ecologies – once full of

exuberant diversity and radiant vitality – have been slowly but steadily diminishing under the

increasing weight of human impacts. Many elements, processes, and mechanisms, introduced to

the environment by humans, are specifically designed to defeat narrowly targeted natural agents

and endure most natural conditions. "Nature cannot do anything with the stuff by design: many

manufactured products are intended not to break down under natural conditions" (McDonough &

Braungart, 1998, p. 85).

Purposely or not, such persistent external pressures on the natural systems cause

degeneration and jeopardize the ecological health and longevity in the long run. In fact, against

the incessant attacks of alien chemicals, man-made agents, and conditions the defenseless natural

systems will often lose the battle rapidly. With the ever-increasing numbers of these incremental

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losses the overall impact of humans on Nature quickly equates to widespread depletion,

deterioration, and extinction of life on the planet.

Reestablishing Natural Balances Yet, there is hope. In fact, there are genuine prospects of reversal and cure for the most

daunting challenges ever created and faced by humankind. The prospects for hope spring from

deep within each individual human being, who is innately filled with an inalienable affinity to

associate self within Nature. That basic human affinity within each individual human being is

the primary driving force behind the current global understanding and awareness that the human

impacts upon nature are detrimental not only to the natural ecologies and fellow species but also

to mankind itself.

In the light of this awareness, other necessary priorities become readily evident as well.

The current and projected human footprint on Earth has to align with the carrying capacity of the

planet. which requires nothing less than an enormous, conscious, and collective effort on a global

scale at this point. All human activities, currently happening at the cost of deterioration in

natural systems and cycles, have to be completely modified to conform within natural cycles, or

be promptly transformed, or be completely abandoned. In other words, the unhealthy

environmental elements, processes, and practices, which are shown to cause degradation beyond

regeneration in the biosphere, have to be phased out promptly or be replaced by naturally benign

methods in an expeditious manner.

On both sides of the consumption-production scale balance, equity, and justice need to be

struck. Just as the tendencies of overproducing, overgrazing, and overfishing the ominous

practices of overconsuming, overeating, and overpopulating need to be scrutinized closely.

Overgrowth in population, businesses, markets and industries need to be continually monitored

and kept in check, for instance, by taxation in accordance with their environmental costs. These

seemingly nebulous goals can effectively be legislated at a national scale, planned regionally,

and implemented locally. In fact, the following discussions in the next chapters present

examples of several towns, cities, and metropolitan regions where a myriad of such self-imposed

measures against overconsumption and overgrowth are already implemented and operating

successfully.

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Rehabilitation in Urban Environments As the sources of most significant environmental problems are found in the heavily

concentrated and urbanized areas, so are their potential solutions. In this sense, the key aspects

of environmental rehabilitation arguably reside within the urban areas. Through successful

recultivation of natural ecosystems an environmental design model based on the living systems

can be applied to achieve non-destructive modes of energy generation, transportation, as well as

local food production. The urban environments, primarily created by the sterile and non-living

industrialized technologies, have to responsibly reintegrate the living elements of nature, which

would eventually help reestablish the stability of a healthy biosphere.

From this perspective, the densely populated and heavily interconnected regions of the

world present the best opportunities to administer large-scale improvements. These regions act

as invaluable platforms to accommodate large and diversified population segments within more

compact and closely-knitted communities. Such settlement patterns effectively cater increased

environmental diversity and reliable operational resilience, which simultaneously help reduce

major sources of inefficiencies, emissions, pollutions, and wastes. While reducing the

consumption of numerous resources, such integrated urban patterns have the potential to

generate surplus energy and food in addition to increasing certain efficiencies and productivity.

Compactly developed areas also seem to facilitate better management of populations in

many ways. They tend to deliver culturally enriched communities, facilitating diversification of

income levels throughout neighborhoods, further integrating segments of societies, improving

the qualities of lives and potentially opening up new socio-economic opportunities. In order to

accomplish such a complex body of demographic, cultural, political, social, economic, and

environmental goals and objectives simultaneously the design of urban areas needs to be

creatively envisioned, rationally programmed, systematically phased, and ultimately transfigured

in the way of rehabilitating the natural balances.

It is within this complex context and set of circumstances that this study outlines a

conceptual framework for a range of effective principles and strategies to be applied at multiple

levels of environmental design. The following chapters discuss in further detail the means and

methods to achieve such a necessary change of course in the near future of human civilization,

away from an oft-predicted total environmental catastrophe or collapse.

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Chapter 2 - Formulating The Environmental Design Agenda

This study is a comprehensive inquiry into a rather wide spectrum of prominent

environmental issues, concerns, problems, solutions, as well as implementations in the recent

decades with the underlying awareness that all these aspects are highly interrelated and

inseparable. It seeks to simultaneously answer various interrelated questions within the

contemporary environmental design theory and practices such as:

What are the most pressing problems in the natural as well as the human-made

environments at the present and the foreseeable future from the perspective of

environmental planning and design?

What are the major causes and major effects of these problems?

What are the nature and prominent sources of these environments problems?

Who are some of the experts in the environmental planning and design fields

successfully formulating and effectively addressing these problems?

What are some of the most effective design principles and implementation strategies

already developed, applied, and evaluated against these problems?

Where are some of these applications? What do these examples aim to achieve?

Do they really make tangible differences?

Could the adverse impacts of the human civilization on the natural environment be

totally alleviated?

How critical is it to think beyond the sustenance of the human species?

Could Nature, the source of sustenance for all species, realistically be rehabilitated,

restored, and healed at this point?

The Literature Reviews and Analyses At the root of this study is a rigorous, multi-disciplinary literature resource review and

analysis in order to identify, document, and examine the most vital environmental challenges in

the design of human environments as recorded by leading experts. The literature reviews

encompass continuous monitoring and evaluation of multidisciplinary literature sources dealing

with the history, present, and especially the foreseeable future of the human environments.

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Hence, the resource analyses behind this study include the opinions of experts in the

fields of urban ecology, geology, history, planning, design theory, environmental design, as well

as architecture.

Identification of Environmental Challenges The reviews and analyses in this report specifically point to two distinct yet continuously

interacting sets of environmental design challenges at the heart of all other concerns: a maturing

energy crisis and an emerging environmental catastrophe. In the next chapter the primary

elements of these two challenges are laid out and examined under five subsequent groups

comprised of environmental degradation and deterioration, fossil fuel depletion (peak oil and

natural gas), ozone depletion and global warming, climate change, and population growth. The

discussions following these present critical analyses of some of the inherent strengths and

weaknesses of mainstream sustainable design principles and strategies. Each critique focuses on

the significance and appropriateness of these efforts toward the rehabilitation of natural

environment.

As many experts now recognize, the current industrialized civilization works rather

efficiently at degrading the natural world, upsetting the intricate ecological balances, and

damaging the magnificent beauty of the natural environment. Even some of the so-called

sustainable, green, smart, and eco-friendly design strategies appear to work against the

rehabilitation of naturally living systems when analyzed from wider perspectives.

Future of Human Settlements Amidst much similar energy problems and environmental concerns of an earlier decade

Earle A. Barnhart (1981) records an extremely important observation for not just environmental

design professionals but also the planet's citizenry at large, stating that "as we and the biosphere

begin to pay for some of humanity's past gains, a slow awareness is developing that everything is

connected and that the trend toward absolute human dominion must be tempered with humility

for the unexpected complexity of nature" (p. 478). This awareness is absolutely vital to

accurately determine the causes and solutions of environmental problems within their proper

contexts.

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In order to create naturally integrated human ecologies that are intrinsically life-enriching

and sustainable, the principles of planning and design will have to be recalibrated at many design

levels – ranging from that of a region down to a neighborhood and a building. At each level

restorative measures need to be implemented along parallel and complimenting goals. Fully

recognizing the fundamental importance of multidisciplinary ecological design as well as

systemic restoration in the future of human settlements Coates (1981) asserts "if we are to

survive as a species we must learn to restore the circular ecological structure of the world which

our increasingly powerful technology has disrupted, [which], in turn, requires the restoration of

wholeness to our socio-politico-economic systems…" (p. 537).

Environmental Restoration and Healing A strong aspiration behind this study is to help promote the beginnings of a new

paradigm which effectively reverses the perilous patterns of current human civilization. Such a

shift may become possible through a large number and wide variety of individual programs in

proper alignment covering all kinds of issues from energy and food production to design of

industrial processes, materials, buildings, neighborhoods, and transportation. Such an alignment

in forces can expediently propel the humanity in the direction of restoring order, health,

richness, as well as pristine beauty and balances in the natural world.

A special emphasis is placed in this study on what Van der Ryn and Calthorpe (1986)

identify as that which is missing from our interaction with the naturally occurring living systems:

"beyond material efficiencies and simple conservation, our communities must express a

reverence for the nature of a place. This reverence bespeaks a greater everyday understanding of

a region, its watershed, climate, geology, plants, animals, and most importantly its activities – its

life. This understanding must go beyond static preservation in which 'nature' is placed in large

outdoor museum. We need to move towards a sense that our place is a habitat within, rather than

a settlement beyond, the ecosystem" (p. xvi).

The restorative approach to the environmental design needs to operate within a broadly

holistic perspective through which it conceives, evaluates, and responds to design intelligence

and feedback from all relevant disciplines. And, the resultant environmental design agenda,

outlined and further developed in the following chapters, spans across all scales of the man-made

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environments such as planning and design of urban regions, districts, landscapes, neighborhoods,

buildings, as well as interiors.

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Chapter 3 - The Approaching Energy Crisis & Environmental

Catastrophe

We have already reached the 29th day and…industrial civilization will be forced

to make a transition from its current business-as-usual growth ethic to a steady-

state society….Such a transition will require a shift in values, settlement patterns,

and institutional forms more profound and rapid than any in recorded

history….The next great transformation must be effectively completed within the

next 50 to 100 years. If it is not, we shall experience this turning point in history

as the greatest period of violence, suffering and destruction ever known. Even if

we are able to begin reversing current trends today, we shall not be able to escape

the disorientation, confusion, and suffering implied by such an unprecedented

'cultural change'. (Coates, (ed.), 1981, p. 28)

Coates' prophecy still remains as valid and applicable in today's environmental outlook as

when it was originally conceived three decades ago. There is an ever growing body of literature

converging from various disciplines establishing ever strengthening evidence that the

industrialized human civilization is in a steady descent into an unbeknownst energy crisis and a

widening environmental catastrophe, both of which have been in progression since before the

beginnings of industrial revolution.

A multitude of experts, theoreticians, practitioners, activists, policy-makers and authors

contribute to the widening awareness and improving definition of environmental problems

caused by the human activities. At a time of rapidly growing ecological concerns an

overwhelming number of sources provide research, analyses, findings, and forecasts that

elucidate the troublesome future of the modern conduct. Among the most influential authors are

Mumford (1964), Bateson (1972), Brown (1981), Coates (1981), Chiras (1992), Calthorpe

(1993), Hawken (1993), Lyle (1994), Orr (1994), Todd (1994), Van der Ryn (1996), Lovins

(1999), Beatley (2000), McDonough (2002), Heinberg (2003), McLennan (2009), Steiner (2009)

and Friedman (2008), who offer significant contributions in identification of current problems

and their solutions not just in theory but also in practice as well.

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Most experts in urban history, ecology, environmental sciences, planning and design,

who keep a keen focus on the human impacts on natural ecosystems, tend to concur that in order

to effectively deal with the environmental challenges it is critically important to understand the

underlying causes of the current issues and problems as clearly as possible. As Chiras (1992)

insightfully observes, the success of environmental improvement efforts is determined by their

efficacy "to address the underlying causes of the environmental crisis, not merely the symptoms"

(p. 14).

The body of literature especially representing the last several decades records an

abundance of environmental issues directly attributable to the impacts of urbanization,

infiltrating into rural areas, farmlands, open land, water, and air. The same literature strongly

suggests that the urban growth, development, and operation patterns are among the most

prevalent sources of current environmental issues. This also points out to the distinct

opportunity that the solutions of these problems can be best dealt with in the urbanized human

settlements.

The resource reviews and analyses behind this study clearly identify the following five

areas as the leading environmental challenges that are closely related to the design of the built

environment: environmental degradation and deterioration, fossil fuel depletion (peak oil and

natural gas), ozone depletion, climate change, as well as population growth, all of which are

discussed in further detail in the following sections of this chapter.

I. Environmental Degradation and Deterioration The long-term complications of human impacts on the natural environment seem to often

manifest themselves in the degradation and deterioration of the naturally occurring ecological

systems also known as the ecosystems. Numerous global, national, regional or local surveys and

reports strongly suggest that the environmental wellbeing as well as the ecological resilience in

Nature continue to decline at a steady pace. In most cases, the natural ecosystems are abused,

stressed, and paralyzed under enormous human pressures that effectively deprive them the

necessary opportunity to recuperate and rejuvenate.

Unfortunately, these trends unfavorable to natural ecosystems do not yet present any

hopeful signs of improvement either. On quite the contrary, many indicators suggest that there

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will be even rougher waters ahead if the status quo in the current global production, distribution,

transportation, and consumption patterns is simply carried on.

It is obviously impossible for any one study to cover all issues and concerns of the

environmental degradation and deterioration in great detail. This study therefore chooses to

focus and elaborate only on a select group of issues especially significant to environmental

design. The discussions in the following sections of this chapter then address the most

prominent causes and effects of environmental degradation and deterioration as they relate to

ecological and environmental design practices.

1) Urban Growth, Suburban Sprawl, and Loss of Ecosystems One of the most commonly researched dimensions of environmental degradation and

deterioration is the loss of naturally occurring ecosystems, and the eminent roles that urban

growth and suburban sprawl play in this phenomenon. Natural ecosystems are ecological and

biological communities of numerous interacting organisms that include insects, plants, and

animals in their native settings. In most cases, these natural settings lie rather defenseless against

the unscrupulous forces of urbanization and urban expansion perhaps with the exception of those

locations where sententious planning policies, preservation, and conservation regulations are

implemented.

Many factors such as the rapid population growth, the recent scientific and technological

advances in infrastructure, transportation, commerce, and the cheap availability of abundant

energy resources especially within last several decades tremendously escalated the formation as

well as expansion of many metropolitan areas throughout the world. In most of these

metropolitan areas often-sprawling urban growth patterns continue to exert significant

development pressures on their adjacent suburban or exurban surroundings. These areas

frequently become the battlegrounds for the struggle between the persistent push of human

expansion and the conservation of natural settings.

Especially at the outer fringe of the metropolitan regions the socio-economic forces

behind further development frequently give way to the infringement of natural habitats, which

directly translate to subsequent loss of wildlife, and even extinction of some species in certain

locations. While the expansion of urban areas generally means increased air, water, noise, and

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light pollution the contraction of natural areas means degradation and deterioration of numerous

regenerative systems that could neutralize many of those impacts.

Van Dresser (1981) captures this dimension of such myopic urban growth patterns as "a

tragic circumstance" where "most of our accumulated 'conventional wisdom', as it bears on

economic progress and technological development, leads only to intensification of trends that

contain the seeds of self-destruction" (p. 418). Another leading expert in the field of

regenerative human settlement patterns, Lyle (1994) terms the very essence of such short-sighted

development patterns as "degenerative", "devouring its own source of sustenance" i.e. the natural

ecosystems (p. 5).

Since the diagnosis of urban sprawl as much a form of environmental problem as social,

economic, and cultural environmental threat there has been an ever-expanding literature on the

nature, types, symptoms, as well as treatment of sprawling settlement patterns. This is now a

relatively well-researched field of urban planning and design where fundamental principles and

strategies are fairly well understood and established. Perhaps the most prominent initiatives of

unsprawl and antisprawl efforts are put forth by such movements as Smart Growth and New

Urbanism, whose guiding principles and strategies are adopted by countless planning and design

circles. There are literally hundreds of other organizations like Urban Land Institute (ULI),

American Planning Association (APA), American Institute of Architects (AIA), and a legion of

other governmental, academic, public and private institutions promoting parallel principles,

strategies, and guidelines through their surveys, researches, and publications.

The process of losing open spaces and natural areas to the expansion of urbanized areas is

often unavoidable and seldom reversible. As Orr (2006) summarizes, the process of urban

development steadily turns villages into cities, where "cities quickly become metropolitan areas,

and then formless, sprawling megalopolitan regions" (p. 9).

In the introduction to their rigorous formulation of the Regional City model, Calthorpe

and Fulton (2001) dwell on a series of central forces behind the sprawling cities, which include

enjoyment of single family property, open spaces, peace, quiet, low-crime, low pollution and

congestion, and so on (p. 4). While the Regional City model essentially seems to recognize the

real-world market drives behind low-density, low-pollution, peaceful, and quiet suburban

lifestyles the increasing number of such subdivisions, together with the spreading office parks

and shopping centers incrementally give way to decentralization, undesirable loss of 'social

17

touch', spreading lack of meaningful common spaces, and increasing isolation of socially

unhealthy neighborhoods.

Advancing the theory behind 'Sustainable Cities', the Melbourne Principles of United

Nations Environment Programme (2002) point out to the prominence of struggle against urban

sprawl. The principles instigate a vision based on the model of local ecosystem and diversity,

where the local sense of place is empowered through the local participation, partnerships, and

governance. The objective to manage urban sprawl remains central to these antisprawl efforts,

which aim to reduce the ecological footprint of urban areas, to protect the urban form and

function, to reduce the energy usage in transportation, and in turn, to reduce the environmental

degradation and deterioration (UNEP, 2002, p. 7).

Conceptualizing the urban areas as sustainable ecosystems Newman and Jennings (2007)

similarly point out to the need for these areas to reduce their ecological footprints as a

fundamental part of their sustainability efforts "…through becoming the focus of ecologically

regenerating architecture and infrastructure" (p. 90). They systematically show how ecological

footprints can be reduced by the "use of more environmentally sound technologies along with a

focus on meeting human needs and reducing consumption in the developed world" (Newman &

Jennings, 2007, p. 238).

There are also many resources that focus on how unsprawl measures are implemented in

the real world. An expert in the field of urban growth management, Kelly (2004) emphasizes the

importance of synchronized harmony of multiple growth management and land use control

techniques in appropriately addressing the issues and concerns of rapidly growing communities.

He closely examines a series of communities with "serious commitments to managed growth"

who have adopted "comprehensive programs consisting of multiple, coordinated techniques

addressing all types of new development" (Kelly, 2004, p. 63).

Under the constant pressures of human population and consumption growth, the pristine

landscape which peacefully hosts all kinds of natural occurring living things is first explored,

surveyed, and planned, then gradually transformed and developed to serve narrowly focused

human needs. As a result of this gradual but persistent transformation, the natural areas and the

open spaces continue to become increasingly sparse, precious, and irreplaceable assets where

they need to be methodologically conserved from urbanization. In many instances these natural

habitats are preserved by the genuine concern and compassionate care of sententious local

18

citizens or organizations who value these vulnerable ecologies, plants, insects, as well as other

animals against an indifferent backdrop of the surrounding soils, swaps, lakes, rivers, mountains,

and the clear, and open skies.

While the literature on urban growth, suburban sprawl, and loss of naturally occurring

ecosystems is considerably broad the central issues of growth, sprawl, and ecosystem losses are

directly linked to the planning and management of land ownership, uses, infrastructure, as well

as urban development or redevelopment patterns. Shaped by the policies, rules, regulations, and

guidelines set forth by various levels of governmental agencies, the urban environments are

critically important to meet most environmental design challenges. They are highly relevant to

effective management of community growth rates and patterns, infrastructure, and transportation

networks, which have direct consequences for ecology and environment. Especially as the

availability of new lands declines over time the market pressures to redevelop existing urban

areas are likely to increase, potentially opening up many new opportunities for ecological and

environmental improvements at multiple scales. The environmental design efforts to shape the

future human settlements therefore have to seize all of these opportunities toward accomplishing

a multitude of public and private goals simultaneously.

2) Destruction of Wetlands The history of town-siting and city planning evolves from older settlement patterns where

the bounties within immediate surrounding natural areas are to be exploited, often with little or

no regard to their capacities to recover. Mumford (1964) explains that this recurring pattern

starts with "exploration", which "was merely the first stage of exploitation; and with it came back

war, slavery, economic pillage and piracy, and environmental destruction; the ancient trauma of

'civilization', which has been imprinted upon every 'advanced' culture ever since" (p. 41).

As the size, footprint, and impact of the urbanized areas grow, the extent and rate of the

malignant exploitation leaves no room for recovery. Orr (1994) portrays the following subtle but

persistent change taking place on any "normal day" on Earth: 75 square mile desert land is

urbanized; desert, the size of West Virginia, is expanded; rainforest, the size of Washington, is

lost; 40 to 250 species are lost; 15,000,000 tons of carbon-dioxide is emitted; 2,700 tons of

chlorofluorocarbon is released; waters get a little more acidic; Earth gets a little hotter; and,

19

250,000 more people are born (p. 7). These concerning facts should be taken to heart by all

citizens of the planet.

As a direct result of all human pressures in ever more threatened ecologies, the non-living

systems made up of man-made elements such as concrete, steel, glass, and asphalt are constantly

replacing the breathing, regenerating, and living systems. An acre at a time. That is the battle

that Nature is losing every day. The resulting environmental destruction deprives Nature of its

wildlife habitats, wetlands, forests, grazelands, as well as farmlands. Like many other authors on

these subjects, McKibbon (1989) insightfully observes that the humanity has "deprived 'Nature'

of its independence", which has been fatal not only to the meaning of the word but also to vast

ecosystems in many regions of the world (p. 50).

The destruction of wetlands is a relatively small portion of these large-scale ecological

losses, which typically constitute rather subtle disappearances in natural areas. Wetlands are

naturally formed in areas where the land meets water, and the resident water table, from surface

or underground sources, resides at or near the top of the soil, supporting widely diversified

ecosystems of organisms, insects, plants, fish, birds, and other animals. The wetland ecosystems

are generally categorized under coastal wetlands, tidal salt and freshwater marshes, freshwater

swamps and marshes, and peatlands (Mitsch, Gosselink, Anderson & Zhang, 2009, p. 2).

Mitsch, Gosselink, Anderson, and Zhang (2009) also point out that approximately 90-95

percent of the world's wetlands are inland or 'non-tidal', which "are perhaps the most diverse of

the wetland types" (p. 87). Of the estimated total of 554 million hectares of wetlands in the

world, 41.5 million hectares is located in the United States, 68.8 million in Alaska, and 129.5

million in Canada (p. 88). These ecosystems are known to stabilize local climate, nutrient and

water cycles while sequestering carbon and methane at large scales. The most prominent cause

of destruction for wetlands is the direct transformation by human developments, followed by

"the natural mechanical changes due to water behavior, wind, soil erosion, and other natural

phenomena" (Mitsch, Gosselink, Anderson & Zhang, 2009, p. 127). This is precisely why

Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999) firmly emphasize the importance of protection and

conservation of wetlands, and point out that "we cannot manufacture watersheds, gene pools,

topsoil, wetlands, riverine systems, pollinators, or tropospheres, let alone create an entire

ecosystem" (p. 147).

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The Global Environmental Outlook (GEO4, 2007) cites the unfortunate loss of wetlands

among the leading causes of changes in local water flow regimes, in flooding patterns, and in

wildlife habitats (p. 136). The GEO4 (2007) gives a comprehensive account of the extent of

wetlands degradation and loss in the major parts of the world. In addition, there are literally

dozens of organizations like Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Geological Survey

(USGS), U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Society of Wetland Scientists

(SWS), and other governmental, academic, public organizations and private preservation groups

that contribute valuable surveys, researches, and publications in related topics.

The available literature strongly establishes the fact that the degradation and loss of

wetland ecosystems due to the human activities and developments dwarfs the natural causes of

degradation and loss in almost all countries of the world. Therefore, the fragile diversity of

species and biological processes in the freshwater as well as coastal wetlands need to be

systematically preserved against human impacts, and restored to the largest extent possible. The

environmental designs of future human settlements should specifically facilitate preservation,

conservation, and further expansion of wetland ecosystems.

3) Deforestation Deforestation worldwide is another well documented and published issue. There is

ample credible evidence on this subject, providing details of progression history as well as

current status of this issue. Some of the primary sources include the Global Environmental

Outlook (GEO4, 2007), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP, 2011),

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), GreenFacts (2007),

Greenpeace International, and National Geographic Society among numerous other sources.

Major sources of deforestation are widely researched and established. For environmental

and ecological design purposes, it is important to note that the leading factor behind the loss of

forested areas worldwide is the expansion of lands for agriculture and livestock (GEO4, 2007, p.

208). The second factor is the industrial resource needs for firewood and commercial timber

harvesting. Especially in the developing countries, these pressures are joined by the growth of

local populations and increasing poverty. Hence, in many areas of the developing world,

rampant deforestation becomes a pressing environmental problem increasing landlessness and

consumer demand.

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The loss of forests contributes to other major environmental problems such as the loss of

topsoil, the disruption of fertility and diversity in the local wildlife habitats. In many instances,

deforestation creates large gaps in the interdependent relationships among species, which

eventually brings about decline and collapse in the living ecosystems of insects, plants, and

animals (GEO4, 2007, p. 244).

In addition, deforestation has also been shown to cause severe local climatic shifts and

instabilities such as inconsistent precipitation patterns, persistent draughts, and unpredictable

floods. For instance, the Himalayan deforestation of the recent history clearly increases the

frequency and intensity of floods in Pakistan and Bangladesh. As a direct result of deforestation,

the harvest and livelihood of entire populations may be threatened and jeopardized by regional

floods. Depending on the exact location and timing of these occurrences, the resultant food

shortages and famines cause further social, economical and environmental stresses.

Brown (1981) points out to the relationship among population growth, increasing human

demands, and decreasing forestry resources. "Each year the Earth's inhabitants, all users of wood

products in one form or another, increase by the equivalent of the population of Mexico and

Central America combined, and each year the forested area shrinks by an area the size of

Hungary" (Brown, 1981, p. 37). Similarly, the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO4, 2007)

records that deforestation, on average, claims about 130,000 km2 (13 million hectares) per year

worldwide (p. 246). Orr (2006) documents the same rate for the loss of forests a little

differently, "9.4 million hectares per year" (p. 17).

Perhaps not too surprisingly, the forested areas are known to be much better protected,

regulated, and maintained in the developed parts of the world. Brown (1981) points out to this

stark statistics by stating that "...European stability [in terms of forestry assets is often] purchased

from others" i.e. the developing or underdeveloped countries (p. 37).

Globally speaking, one can summarize that the extent and level of deforestation pressures

throughout the world are extremely alarming especially when the vital importance of forest

elements in the stabilization of climate, carbon, air, water, and nutrient cycles is considered. For

their share in implementing the solutions for deforestation problem, the majority of jurisdictions

in the United States and Canada have specific planning guidelines and design regulations in

place to incrementally restore the living landscapes. As Brown (1981) points out, aside from

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family planning, few activities can contribute more to the evolution of a sustainable society than

planting trees (p.180).

A step beyond the prevention of forest loss is the restoration of the forested lands.

Reforestation is not a new concept or practice. There are numerous outstanding examples of

countries and regions in the world where depleted forests or deforested areas have been gradually

recultivated and fully restored over time. South Korea is one of the most inspiring examples,

where the barren countryside of 1970 was transformed by 1977 through 643,000 hectares of

planted pines. Other rigorous projects were realized in India (Gujarat, village woodlot

development), Ethiopia, and Kenya. China is another example where the land coverage of the

forests was increased from 5% in 1949 to 12.7% in 1978 (Brown, 1981, p.182).

The vast literature on deforestation quickly establishes the importance of conservation

and the urgency of reforestation. The environmental designs of future human settlements should

facilitate preservation and conservation of existing forests and wildlife habitats, as well as further

expansion of forested areas where possible.

4) Desertification Desertification is another major process that contributes to the degradation and

deterioration of the environment. GEO4 (2007) defines the desertification process as "land

degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including

climatic variations and human activities" (p. 104). The incremental losses of wetlands,

marshlands, natural meadows, grasslands, and other environmentally sensitive areas play

uniquely important roles in cumulative environmental decline.

One of the observations of Brown (1981) explicitly illustrates the direct correlation

between consumption and desertification brought about by the grassland degradation in the

United States. Brown (1981) records "roughly double the area in crops, the 23 percent of the

Earth's land surface (3.1 billion hectares) devoted to this purpose supports nearly three billion

domesticated ruminants" (p. 45). He continues on, asserting that "never before has world

demand for livestock products doubled within a generation" (p. 49).

The GEO4 (2007) identifies desertification as being especially severe in: Africa, where

two-thirds of the continent is desert or drylands, and where 73 percent of its agricultural drylands

are already seriously or moderately degraded; Asia, the largest amount of land affected by

23

desertification; Latin America, where all drylands are moderately to severely desertified. These

agglomerated facts summarize a multitude of local observations and recordings in these regions,

which serve to reinforce the need for the environmental design of future developments to

reestablish the harmony of the natural ecosystems. Rehabilitation and restoration efforts in these

places need not only face social, cultural, and economical difficulties but also overcome the

harshest and most hostile conditions imaginable.

As average temperatures increase and climates shift toward warmer and more arid

conditions in already arid regions the process of desertification is likely to become more and

more immanent. Deserts today are reported to cover one-quarter of the total land area of the

Earth. In sum, the areas of desertification are responsible for the degradation of 73 percent of the

world's rangelands, affecting nearly one billion people, or one-sixth of the world's population

(GEO4, 2007, p. 92). These conditions contribute to widespread poverty, resulting in much of

the migration out of the developing world (GEO4, 2007, p. 106). Therefore, experts of

environmental rehabilitation and restoration projects especially in these areas suggest that each

local improvement project should identify the history of its site and integrate an implementation

strategy to restore the pristine conditions as much as possible.

The UN Conference on Desertification of 1977 records the details on the progressive

deterioration of fragile arid soils. Reports point out that the desert-like conditions are further

exacerbated by such human abuses of land as deforestation, overgrazing, and overplowing. The

conference is reported to document the increased human and livestock populations in the

expanding deserts of Africa, Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan, North Eastern India, Sahara in

North Africa against the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Senegal, Sudan, as well as West Asia

(Brown, 1981, p. 22).

Additionally, it should be noted that another form of desertification, hidden from

immediate attention, is also silently progressing in the seas and oceans of the Earth. Decades of

overfishing practices in these waters have left behind a fragile underwater ecosystem that is

struggling to survive. Brown (1981) records that "overfishing has become the rule, not the

exception in oceanic fisheries, but it is often discovered after the fact – when the catch in a given

fishery begins to decline precipitously" (p. 41). Many countries like Norway, Iceland, Australia,

and Japan bear the consequences of overfishing in the recent decades. Peru's catch, for example,

24

was reported to have dropped from 12 million tons in 1970s down to 2 million tons in 1990s

(Brown, 1981, p. 41).

Ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design strategies can, and

should, be directed to curb desertification, i.e. loss of living natural ecosystems, both on land and

in water. In addition to slowing down and containing the spread of desertification the

environmental redevelopments should aspire not only to restore but also to expand the living

ecosystems of the natural world. The environmental designs of future human settlements should

facilitate such a restoration to the furthest extent possible.

5) Species Extinction The extinction of species and loss of biological diversity on the planet seems like a

peripheral issue at first glance. Nevertheless, this is an area of great concern that has potentially

grave consequences in the intermediate to long-term future of life on the planet. As a species on

top of the food chain humans are not immune to or isolated from the probable calamities

occurring within the web of life that depends so much on all of its living members.

Like few of the other crises the species extinction is one that utterly irreversible. Once a

certain kind of fish, bird or mammal is completely extinct it is lost for all time with no return.

The primary concern for the diversity and resilience of the animal and plant species comes from

the fact that the survival of humans, in turn, depends on the healthy existence of these supporting

biological pools. Van der Ryn and Cowan (1996) observe this fact by noting "in search of

comfort, convenience, and material wealth, we have begun to sacrifice not only our own health,

but also the health of other species" (p. 19). They further note that "we are starting to exhaust the

capacity of the very systems that sustain us, and now we must deal with the consequences" (p.

19).

The environmental restoration that is needed in this area has its roots at the very base of

the biological and ecological pyramid where preservation, conservation, and rehabilitation of

wild-life habitat, open spaces, and natural areas are absolutely necessary.

Van der Ryn and Cowan (1996) offer a simple example to illustrate the cascading nature

of human impacts on ecologies: "…while pesticides may partially curb the immediate problem –

an abundance of pests – they often create a chain of new problems left unconsidered by those

who design pesticides. These problems are large and diffuse, including the exposure of farm-

25

workers to carcinogens, polluted groundwater, and impacts on the beneficial birds and insects

that might have kept the pests in check in the first place" (p. 21). Such adverse impacts as these

are easily applicable to most human technologies, which are inherently narrow-focused and only

selective in their response.

"Besides climate, the changes in the biosphere are widespread". Hawken, Lovins, and

Lovins (1999) record that the world lost a fourth of its topsoil and a third of its forest cover in the

past half century (p. 4). At the present rates of destruction, "we will lose 70 percent of the

world's coral reefs in our lifetime, host to 25 percent of marine life. In the past three decades,

one third of the planet's resources, its 'natural wealth' has been consumed. We are losing

freshwater systems at the rate of 6 percent a year, marine ecosystems by 4 percent a year"

(Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 4).

While identifying the fundamentals of environmental design, Orr (2006) outlines even

more concerning projections by the experts on the species extinction, predicting about a "1/4 to

1/3 decline by the end of the 21st century" in the number of species living on Earth (p. 12). He

also records that a 90 percent decrease in the amount of predatory fish in the oceans has already

happened (p. 16). These sobering facts and predictions directly translate to powerful threats for

the human food supply chains for many peoples and nations.

If all design efforts of human environments are considered responsible, at some capacity,

for increasing ecological pressures on other species then certain ecologically responsive and

environmentally responsible design strategies need to be used effectively not only to prevent

further increases but also to facilitate reduction of these impacts on the species living both on

land and in water. In order to contain the spread of extinction the environmental design of future

human settlements should aspire to restore local diversity, and to expand the territories of the

living ecosystems to the furthest extent possible.

6) Loss of Farmlands The loss of valuable farmland to urbanization is one of the most debated issues of the

literature addressing urban planning, growth management, sustainable, and ecological design as

it relates to degradation and deterioration of the environment. Most authors, including Brown

(1981), Chiras (1992), Calthorpe (1993), Orr (1994), Todd (1994), Van der Ryn (1996), Lovins

(1999), Beatley (2000), and McDonough (2002) touch on major aspects of this issue. In the

26

fields of environmental planning and urban design, the guiding principles and publications of

prominent organizations such as Smart Growth America (SGA), the Urban Land Institute (ULI),

the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) help

establish planning and design strategies that consistently protect greenfields, farmlands, and open

spaces against the expansion of urbanized lands.

The greenfields, farmlands, grazing fields are among the natural ecosystems that directly

support food production and livelihood of human settlements in many other ways. The primary

uses on these kinds of lands frequently come under considerable economic and practical

pressures especially in places adjacent to the developed urban lands. In the majority of these

situations, the farmlands and greenfields lose their productivity and their economic viability, and

become financially stressed while their property values increase due to their proximity to other

valuable properties, facilities, and services. Often times with such market pressures for

urbanization the land uses are changed or additional areas are annexed into urban boundaries for

specific uses.

Other significant reasons behind the loss of farmlands include natural causes such as soil

degradation or erosion. Even though the added pressures of decreasing economic viability, lack

of productivity, reduced land availability, and increased entrepreneurial opportunities make these

tracts attractive for land use conversion these lands generally serve as a refuge and a buffer for

the surrounding natural habitats from the impacts of the urbanized areas. Beatley (2000)

recognizes that such impacts become more obvious with unambiguous increases in "the loss of

sensitive habitat, destruction of productive farmlands and forestlands, and high economic and

infrastructure costs" (p. 3).

Brown (1981) notes that "irrigation lands, which provide a disproportionately large share

of the world's food, are…under siege" (p. 24). The loss of fertility and productivity in these

farmlands are also related to other factors such as water logging, salinity, and loss of fossil water

(aquifers). Salinization is primarily caused by the increasing underground waters, increasing

evaporation, and migration of capillary salts to the surface where the topsoil becomes unable to

support vegetation, which seals the fate of lost irrigation lands.

Another source of pressure on the farmlands comes from the increasing urban and

industrial demands for water, which often compete with irrigation, becoming a constraining

factor. Especially coal and oil resources divert substantial amounts of water from agriculture.

27

Most industrial processes add to the heightened water demand, and further exacerbate the

reduction of aquifer levels (Brown, 1981, p. 27).

The loss of productive farmlands, greenfields, irrigation lands, and grazing fields is not

just an important urban growth management issue but one that translates in the long-run to

diminishing local food production, which has important implications for the self-sustenance of

urban regions as well as their ecological resilience. The environmental designs of future human

settlements should preserve the integrity of these vitally important fields and promote their

expansion to the furthest extent possible. Reclamation of farmland is not an unheard of

phenomenon, and it should seen as a viable option at even larger scales.

7) Topsoil Erosion, Fertility Reduction, Salinization, and Groundwater Depletion Environmental issues such as erosion of topsoil, loss of soil fertility, and depletion of

groundwater are among the primary concerns of ecologists, biologists, agricultural scientists, and

industries. Yet, the far-reaching impacts of these issues are worthy of attention by planners and

designers, especially as they relate to the responsible practices of environmental design in the

urbanized areas.

Orr (2006) records the annual range of estimated total topsoil loss to be between 20 to 25

billion tons globally (p. 17). GEO4 (2007) summarizes that, over the last two decades, enough

topsoil has been lost to cover the entire cropland of the United States (p. 106), which roughly

translates to 24 billion tons of topsoil each year. Similarly, Brown (1981) notes the topsoil loss

in the United States to be "2.7 tons per acre per year" (p. 18), and points out that equally

concerning rates are present in populous countries such as India and the Soviet Union (p. 172).

The fertility, degradation, depletion, and erosion of topsoil are critically important to

agriculture and its related industries, which constitute the primary food source of modern

societies. The loss of this source is of critical importance in the sustainability of any community

as the replenishment of fertile topsoil is an extremely fragile and slow process. Brown (1981)

asserts that "degraded biological systems can usually recover if given the opportunity, but an

inch of topsoil lost through erosion may take nature centuries to replace. Civilization can survive

the exhaustion of oil reserves, but not the continuing wholesale loss of topsoil" (p.13).

In the rural farmland areas, as the topsoil is lost, subsoil becomes part of the tillage layer,

"reducing the soil's organic matter, nutrients content, water retention capacity, aeration, and other

28

structural characteristics that make it ideal for planting" (Brown, 1981, p. 17). At that point,

parallel with the topsoil depletion, the issue of salinization becomes a significant agricultural and

industrial problem, which has to be appropriately addressed by ecologically responsive design of

crops and cycles within the farmlands.

In general, the fertility and composition of topsoil are slowly renewed by natural

processes at the rate of about one to five tons per acre per year (Brown, 1981, p. 17). However,

the difference between the loss and renewal of topsoil affects long-term productivity in croplands

and farmlands. Such declining trends in the ecological and economical viability of greenfields,

especially adjacent to existing urban developments, builds up to vigorous pressures to change

uses on those properties.

In urban and suburban areas the countermeasures against topsoil erosion are primarily

concentrated at the stormwater drainage systems. The current regulations are established over

open landscapes, natural areas, parking lots, as well as construction sites, where erosion control

and water quality mechanisms are integral to design and approval processes. These systems

ensure that the precious topsoils are preserved to further support the longevity of urban

landscapes, and to keep rivers and basins downstream as open and clean as possible.

The depletion of groundwater reserves is another major environmental degradation

concern with long-term productivity consequences for greenfields. As the availability of

surface-water decreases a lot of agricultural and industrial operations choose to tap into the

underground waters i.e. aquifers. Increasing use of water often exceeds the rate of replenishment

in these natural underground reservoirs, which, in turn, accelerates the rate of depletion.

Prevention of groundwater depletion through environmental design, for the most part, means

reducing excessive water usage while increasing efficiencies, maintaining water quality systems,

and selecting plants, crops, and species that are resilient and appropriate for the local conditions.

Ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design, again, can make

substantial differences in lessening and even eliminating these spreading problems. First, the

extents of impacts by the current agricultural and industrial practices have to be researched and

understood. Then, this understanding, with the development of new technologies, should give

way to the restoration of pristine environmental and ecological balances in soil content and water

cycles as part of the design.

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8) Air, Water, and Land Pollution The built-environment in the industrialized societies of the 'developed' world continues to

be the leading source of resource depletion and pollution within the natural environment. In the

United States alone, it is estimated that "construction, maintenance, and operation of buildings

consumes about 40% of the country's raw materials and energy", while being responsible for

"40% of our SO2 [sulfur-dioxide], NO2 [nitrogen-dioxide] pollutions, 30% of our CO2 [carbon-

dioxide] emissions, 25% of our wood use, and 16% of our water use" (Orr, 2006, p. 5).

After spending years to develop their theory of a new industrial revolution, McDonough

and Braungart (1998) propose to alter the linear path of industrial production, which is currently

from material resources to wastes, into that of a circular loop which makes use of all its wastes as

material resources for other processes. McDonough and Braungart (1998) record:

Consider the cherry tree. It makes thousands of blossoms just so that another tree

might germinate, take root, and grow. Who would notice piles of cherry blossoms

littering the ground in the spring and think, 'How inefficient and wasteful'? The

tree's abundance is useful and safe. After falling to the ground, the blossoms

return to the soil and become nutrients for the surrounding environment. Every

last particle contributes in some way to the health of a thriving ecosystem. 'Waste

equals food'... (p. 84)

Polluting gases, liquids, and solids are typically wasted byproducts from industrial

processes, which for the most part have now found their ways to the 'underdeveloped' countries,

after facing heavy regulations, high prices, and shortages in the 'developed' world. Ecologically

responsive and environmentally responsible design practices of future human settlements

anywhere should transform the built-environment into one that cleanses, purifies, and restores

the surrounding ecological conditions.

9) Acid Deposition Another inevitable outcome of the industrial civilization has been the unnatural increase

of acidic emissions into the natural environments. From industrial processes and combustion,

many chemical byproducts and waste materials such as sulfuric and nitric acids have long been

disposed directly into the atmosphere, streams, and water bodies. Even though some natural

30

events, like volcanic activities, organic decomposition, and other chemical reactions, produce

these materials naturally, the increased amounts and concentrations of these acidic compounds

especially sulfur-dioxide and nitrogen-dioxide, largely introduced by industrial activities,

continue to heighten the acidity levels in Nature.

In the course of the last two centuries, the emissions of these often hazardous and toxic

elements have been progressively accumulating. Only in the last few decades, however, has the

toxicity and acidic saturation reached levels where the adverse consequences are manifesting

themselves in air, waters, as well as soils. Observing the increased ill-effects of these agents in

the environment, Calthorpe (1993) notes that "we threaten nature and nature threatens us in

return: sunlight causes cancer, air threatens our lungs, rain burns the trees, streams are polluted

and poisonous, and soil too often toxic" (p. 25).

Brown (1981) further elaborates that "the sulfur-dioxide produced combines with the

moisture in the atmosphere to produce acid rain, to which freshwater lakes are especially

vulnerable" (p. 84). Within its natural cycles, water passes through all kinds of living

ecosystems until, finally, being deposited into the larger bodies of waters and soils.

Brown (1981) also notes that acid rain and "air pollution can damage crops directly, and

through its effect on soils, indirectly" (p. 85). These impacts become most noticeable in the

wetlands, watersheds, and riparian ecosystems where the acidic depositions slowly poison the

living organisms and get transferred from one organism or plant to another. The adverse

biological impacts of these chemicals continue to spread among plants, insects, birds, and other

animals in ecosystems where some organisms typically tolerate the consequences of exposure to

these chemicals better than the others.

Ultimately, a significant portion of these chemicals ends up in the largest depositories,

which are the waters on Earth, the lakes, seas, and oceans. So now, the Earth's major seas and

oceans display the most concerning consequences of acid depositions, buried far below the

surface where large expanses of marine ecosystems are lost to marine deserts. The loss of

marine life is especially extensive at the deltas of great streams and rivers, which travel through

the lands of densely developed industrial and agricultural areas.

Since the acidity dissolves the natural composites of calcium, the shelled-creatures of the

deep as well as the coral reefs, which normally host the largest varieties of living animals, now

show the unmistakable signs of rapid decline and extinction. In addition to loss of other marine

31

ecosystems, the coral reefs have already been reportedly diminished by some 70% within the last

two decades (Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 4).

There is a lot that can be done through ecological and environmental design to contain

these emissions and neutralize their impacts at their sources. In addition to the industrial process

improvements, environmental design can reduce and even eliminate the needs for combustion

driven heating, cooling, and transportation through passive means. Future human settlements

should readjust and reintegrate the natural processes in ways that eliminate all types of toxic

emissions to the furthest extent possible.

10) Depletion of Natural Resources and Petroleum Under the pressures of growing human populations and proportionally increasing

consumption the finite natural resources of the Earth are squeezed further each year. The

advancements in the petroleum technologies have worked effectively to offer synthetic

substitutions in the supply of increasing demands for many natural materials. Genuinely

concerned with the future prospects of natural resources, Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999)

point out that, while humankind has inherited a 3.8-billion-year store of natural capital at present

rate of use and degeneration, they predict that there will be little left by the end of the 21st

century (p. 3).

The extent and depth of fossil fuel dependence in the United States as well as other

leading industrialized countries are well-established. The literature abounds with information on

imports, exports, transportation and uses of fossil fuels in the industrialized countries. In his

petroleum-based prophecy, Steiner (2009) asserts that "every day that passes, the United States

consumes another 20 million barrels of oil and our suburban society grows closer to extinction".

Friedman (2008) also provides similar statistics on the daily consumption of crude oil in the

United States as being "over 14 million barrels primarily for transportation", and "over 7 million

barrels primarily for buildings" (p. 290). Brown (1981) records the total petroleum consumption

of the modern society at "some 60 million barrels a day" (p. 57).

The ecological and environmental design issues relating to the use of oil products do not

stop at transportation and auto-dependency but continue on to petroleum derivative fabrics and

materials that are deeply integrated into the modern consumption patterns. The synthetic

substitutes that have gradually replaced the natural materials such as rubber, cotton, wool,

32

leather, wood fiber, and so on now have a considerable bearing on the daily fuel consumption.

This is an area of great difficulties for the future, where the transition to locally produced natural

materials and fabrics is likely to be very challenging. Petroleum products are also utilized at

some capacity in the chemical feedstock, commercial energy use, and electricity generation.

Brown (1981) insightfully observes that the use of oil in the form of fertilizer and

synthetic substitutes for natural minerals has served as a safety valve, alleviating the pressure on

natural system. However, he also recognizes that as oil reserves dwindle, this safety valve will

close, reversing the substitution process and putting even more pressure on croplands and the

basic biological systems (p. 56).

Fossil fuel dependence runs deep and wide in the developed countries primarily and in

the U.S in particular. The current consumption patterns obviously cannot go on indefinitely

without substantial negative consequences. Environmental design practices can drastically

reduce, systematically replace, and gradually transform the use of nonrenewable resources into

totally renewable, benign, non-toxic and non-hazardous resources. Future human settlements

should be supplied with naturally renewing and organically regenerative resources.

II. Fossil Fuel Depletion: Peak Oil and Natural Gas Of all the other aspects of environmental issues, fossil fuel depletion in an increasingly

overpopulated and energy-dependent civilization is an alarming concern. Many sources,

including Heinberg (2003), Friedman (2008) and Steiner (2009), document in meticulous detail

the fact that the nonrenewable energy resources, oil and natural gas in particular, continue to be

consumed at unprecedented rates, and that the point of their depletion is fast approaching.

Many experts argue that the 'Peak Oil' – the peak capacity in annual production from the

world's conveniently available oil reserves – has already happened sometime between 2005 and

2007. Mark Hubbert, a prominent geologist referenced in many resources including Brown

(1981) and Heinberg (2003), is largely recognized to have accurately predicted the timing of the

production peak not just in the United States but the world as well. Following the U.S. peak in

1970 and the world's peak in 2006 decline is considered to be underway globally, which

promises dire scarcities ahead.

On the surface, this appears to be remotely related to the design of the human

environments. However, in reality, it is extremely relevant to the longevity of current lifestyles

33

and operations, also involving the long-term plans of many governments and industries. For a

multitude of communities, especially in the fossil fuel dependent 'developed' world, peak oil

marks the beginning of increasing pressures, which are likely to cause painful and costly

modifications to the built environment and lifestyles in the near future. Many experts have made

considerable contributions to this segment of the literature with their documentary works about

not only the historic progression but also futuristic forecasts of a 'post-industrial' civilization.

For instance, Friedman (2008) lays out the evolution of how the industrialized civilization has

come to the brink of an energy crisis. Whereas, Steiner (2009) constructs a phase by phase

prophecy for the probable future of an energy-driven civilization largely based on incrementally

rising fuel prices.

Similarly, Heinberg (2003) acknowledges that the "industrial civilization is based on the

consumption of energy resources" which are "inherently limited in quantity, and…are about to

become scarce" (p. 1). He takes a close look at meeting the real demands of the civilization

through other possible energy sources such as coal, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal, hydro,

biomass, cold fusion, and so on. He concludes that the decline in fossil-fuel extraction and

consumption could, on balance, be relatively good or very bad indeed. "It will all depend on

how the governments and other institutions choose to respond" (Heinberg, 2003, p. 200). He

then suggests that durable solutions are likely to materialize in resilient and self-reliant

households, towns, cities, regions, and nations, which produce the means of their livelihood from

locally available resources and technologies (Heinberg, 2003, p. 202).

Steiner (2009) provides detailed answers to many fundamental questions starting with:

"How will the rising price of gas affect our lives?" (Steiner, 2009, p. 5), which he answers, "a

lot". He observes how deeply the fossil fuel-based products and the synthetic derivatives are

fused and integrated into the structural fabric of contemporary conveniences including

transportation, urban landscapes, buildings, businesses, homes, medicine, foods, textiles, and so

forth. He offers valuable predictions on the kinds of dramatic changes that are likely be brought

about the price of gasoline at each incremental increase i.e. every dollar per gallon. "Each extra

dollar unlocks new possibilities and ushers out an old product or way of life" (Steiner, 2009, p.

6).

Another rather grim reality that Steiner (2009) raises as a possibility is the rapid

expansion of population and industry in other countries such as China and India. The middle

34

classes in China, India, and other developing countries continue to expand the energy demands

by adding new roads, highways, and millions of cars in urbanized areas annually. These

industrial-era developments continue to raise the demand for gasoline and other petroleum-based

products. He records that other societies "...want what Americans have had for decades: easy

cars and an easy life. These people will get what they want, but in the process they will catalyze

a global economic reformation on a scale never seen, changing our lives, changing the Earth"

(Steiner, 2009, p. 11).

Under current policies and practices, increasing energy demand is constantly matched by

further diversification and expansion of the energy supply chain utilizing more coal, oil, and

natural gas. However, much like the petroleum-based energy resources there are serious issues

with the supply of other kinds of nonrenewable sources as well. The renewable portion of the

supply still remains dismal and far from a satisfactory level. The U.S. Department of Energy

statistics, for instance, clearly portray the continued dependence of the electric supply system,

like those of many other leading industrialized countries, on fossil fuel and nonrenewable

resources. The statistics indicate that, of the electricity generated in the United States, 50

percent comes from coal, 20 percent from nuclear, 15 percent from natural gas, 3 percent from

oil whereas only 2 percent from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and

biofuels (Friedman, 2008, p. 350).

In an age of increasing availability and desirability of renewable resources these statistics

stimulate a unified vision of a future more pleasant than crisis, catastrophe, and extinction. An

ever-increasing number of experts, organizations, governmental agencies and industries are

recognizing the size and breadth of the approaching energy crisis, and thus ramping up their

investments in the development of alternative energy solutions. Many individuals, businesses,

and organizations are turning their attention back toward the largest and the most abundant

source of free radiant energy, which literally sustains all life on the planet: the sun.

The literature review behind this study suggests that the resource depletion may distinctly

be recognized as the leading outcome of environmental challenges for the present and the near

future. Since all nonrenewable resources including fossil fuels are bound to become increasingly

scarce and expensive with passing time, the human environments of the future will one day have

to accomplish full-independence from nonrenewable energy resources.

35

In order to alleviate the resource depletion challenges and problems, the environmental

designs of the future have to achieve much higher energy efficiencies while relying in large part

on locally generated renewable materials, energies, and systems that not only reduce non-living

synthetic substitutes but also increase the health and longevity of living systems. The human

environments of the future need to make best use of what little nonrenewable resources must be

used while generating means and supplying demands through largely renewable resources.

III. Ozone Depletion and Global Warming Perhaps one of the most prominent public figures to boldly address the issues of ozone

depletion and global warming has been Al Gore, who rightly acknowledges that the most

pressing environmental problem is not "our effect on environment as much as it [is] our

relationship with the environment" (Gore, 2006, p. 34). Gore recognizes the fact that human

activities and lifestyles are among leading causes of severe global environmental changes, and

notes that "we must all become partners in a bold effort to change the very foundation of our

civilization" (Stefoff, 2009, p. 27).

Indeed, the lack of understanding about the intricate balances of Earth's biosphere as well

as the absence of genuine concern for the human impacts on Nature, have clearly manifested

themselves in the growing environmental problems being witnessed globally today. Bateson

(1972) points out to the certainty of these "irreversibilities" surrounding "all around us; many,

like global warming, the decay of the ozone layer, and movement of poisons through the global

food chains, are set on courses it is too late to change". He also affirms his prediction that "we

have yet to suffer their full effect" (p. xiv).

It is the presence of excess carbon compounds in the atmosphere that underlies the

catastrophic effects of ozone depletion and global warming. In the conclusion of Seven Rules for

Sustainable Communities, Condon (2010) convincingly asserts that the resident carbon content in

the atmosphere is the "most cancerous illness in the body of the world", and that "no responsible

planner, architect, landscape architect, politician, or developer can escape the moral imperative

to change the way he or she does business in response" (p. 161).

Calthorpe (2011) notes "…we will have to take 10 gigatons of carbon out of our economy

by 2050, cutting our total to just 2.5 gigatons total greenhouse gas emissions. Of that amount,

urbanism plus efficiency in cars and buildings can deliver 4 gigatons of savings. The other part

36

involves integrating green technology and renewable sources of energy within an urban future"

(Calthorpe, 2011, p. 38).

As the broadening effects of ozone depletion and climate change continue to be felt

throughout the globe in more profound ways the experts of atmospheric sciences draw attention

to the prominence of the 'effects of doubling'. The doubling of atmospheric carbon-dioxide

concentration levels simply refers to the amount of carbon reaching twice the level of

preindustrial readings. This mark is widely accepted to be the beginning of irreversible changes

toward a terrestrial environment that is fundamentally harsh and increasingly hostile to life.

Newman, Beatley, and Boyer (2009) are among those who acknowledge the astonishing

fact that the human activities "have altered the whole atmosphere to such an extent" that the

Arctic ice is lost "at a rate of double the size of France every two years" (p. 18).

Credible institutional, governmental and intergovernmental sources continue to signal the

significant likelihood of political shifts in the near future due to environmentally induced crises

such as flooding, food shortages, and so on, possibly translating to the minimum requirements on

key environmental concerns. A close review of literature available from the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) as well as the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS,

1997) reveals that, due to man-made causes, the warming trends in the average land and ocean

temperatures, desertification, food scarcities are real, present, and more likely to get worse

before improving unless intervened globally by counteractive measures.

Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999) explain the incremental warming process as follows:

As the planet traps more heat, it drives more convection that transports surplus

heat from equatorial to the polar areas (heat flows from hotter to colder), so

temperature changes tend to be larger at the poles than at mid-latitudes. Warmer

poles mean changes in snowfall, more melting icecaps and glaciers (five Antarctic

ice sheets are already disintegrating), and more exposed land and oceans. Ice-free

oceans, being dark, absorb more solar heat and therefore don't freeze as readily.

Rising amounts of runoff from high-latitude rivers lower ocean salinity. This can

shift the currents, including the Gulf Stream, which makes northern Europe

abnormally cozy for its Hudson's Bay latitude, and Kuroshio Current, which

likewise warms Japan. Warmer oceans raise sea levels, as ice on land melts and

warmer water expands; sea levels have risen by about four to ten inches in the

37

past century. Warmer oceans probably bring more and worse storms, more loss

of costal wetlands that are the nurseries of the sea, and more coastal flooding.

(p.238)

The ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design practices may not

immediately resolve the ozone depletion and global warming issues however they can go a long

way in facilitating the mitigation of numerous sources of established causes behind these

phenomena. In the revitalization, redevelopment, and restoration of the human settlements, the

future is now. The environmental design practices should pay careful attention not to release any

forms of carbon compounds, and start increasing the sequestration of the excess carbon produced

by the human activities to the largest extent possible.

IV. Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the primary organization that

assembles and disseminates expert scientific information on the general as well as specific

aspects of climate change throughout the globe. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Panel

(IPCC, 2007) plainly illustrates the changing trends both recorded in the recent past and expected

in the future based on international scientific surveys, observations, researches, studies,

experiments, and computational models.

The IPCC Report (IPCC, 2007) describes the "anthropogenic warming and cooling

influences on climate" summarizing that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal" (p. 5).

The Report observes in considerable detail the steadily rising average global air and water

temperatures, the widespread melting of snow and ice, rising global average sea levels,

widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind patterns and extreme weather

conditions such as droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and tropical cyclones, and

increasing oceanic acidification – all primarily due to heightened levels of greenhouse gases.

Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999) observe "what is beyond doubt is that the

composition of the atmosphere is now being altered by human activity, more rapidly than it's

changed at any time in at least the past 10,000 years" (p. 240).

The body of international surveys, observations, studies, research, experiments, and

computational models contextualize the irrefutable links to increasing levels of carbon dioxide,

38

methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere among other human impacts. The Fourth

Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007), for instance, plainly warns that the 'equilibrium climate

sensitivity' will be shifting at 'doubling' of carbon-dioxide concentration before industrial

revolution (280 ppm), causing irreversible changes in familiar climate patterns. Projection

models in the Report (IPCC, 2007), based on the historically escalating growth trends, predict

the 'doubling' at 560 ppm to occur in 2050, and the possible 'tripling' at 800 ppm to occur in 2075

(p. 824).

Friedman (2008) surmises that in order to prevent doubling, 200 million tons of carbon

needs to be avoided between now and 2050 (p. 258). The enormity of such a task is more

fathomable when the following example is considered: if the humankind were to achieve this

goal by simply employing nuclear power plants it would take an estimated total of 13,000 new

nuclear reactors around the globe, which would mean that one reactor would have to go online

every day until 2050 (Friedman, 2008, p. 260).

Calthorpe (2011) presents an alternative calculation method in 'the 12 percent challenge',

where the emphasis is placed on reducing "carbon emissions 80 percent from 1990 levels by

2050". In order "to achieve this each person in 2050 must on average emit only 12 percent of

their current rate" (Calthorpe, 2011, p. 21).

Expert atmospheric scientists consistently predict the consequences of climate change to

exponentially increase in the coming few decades. Orr (2002) states that "with climatic change

will come severe weather extremes, superstorms, droughts, killer heat waves, rising sea levels,

spreading disease, accelerating rates of species loss, and collateral political, economic, and social

effects that we cannot imagine" (p. 143).

Van der Ryn and Cowan (1996) point out that, under these pressures, the only way out

lies in the 'expert interventions' through which "the planet's medical symptoms are carefully

stabilized through high-profile international agreements and sophisticated management

techniques" (p. 20). Recognizing the carbon and climate problems, many institutions are taking

charge to identify possible solution paths. For instance, the Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI)

at Princeton University, in association with British Petroleum (BP), aims to "identify the most

credible methods of sequestering and capturing a large fraction of the carbon emissions from

fossil fuels" (Edwards, 2010, p. 183). Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala lead a portion of such

39

multidisciplinary efforts on the storage technologies as well as the policy implications of the

carbon mitigation techniques.

The mitigation of climate change is perhaps the most pressing aspect of the ecologically

responsive and environmentally responsible design practices for the present and foreseeable

future. A central goal in the environmental design of future human settlements should be to help

reduce the release of excess carbon produced by the human activities. The future systems should

facilitate reduction of fossil fuel dependence, reduction of consumption, elimination of

combustion processes, in addition to storage of excess carbon.

V. Population Growth The future forecasts on urban growth, for the large part, are based on the historic

population statistics and trends. Nearly all countries in the world are closely monitoring their

own population demographics. The growth in population often relates directly to a wide range of

environmental problems, which necessitate appropriately complex design solutions. Especially

in the last few decades, the environmental experts have been genuinely concerned about the

steady increase in the growth trends that have been continuing since the 1800s.

The continuing growth pattern in the global populations is perhaps largely attributable a

wide range of circumstances created by the advances in sciences such as agriculture, biology,

chemistry, medicine, and so on, as well as technologies such as mechanization, construction,

infrastructure, electronics, and so forth. "The human population did not reach one billion until

about 1820; in less than two centuries since then, it has increased nearly six-fold. This is a rate

of growth unprecedented in human history" (Heinberg, 2003, p. 30).

Reviewing the global population trend in recent history, Friedman (2008) observes the

fact that throughout history the world population is believed to have "never exceeded 1 billion,

which has presumably happened for the first time in 1800" (p. 68). After that point the UN

World Population (2004) reports the world population to have grown exponentially, reaching 2

billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1975, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000 (p. 5).

The report estimates the current world population to be approximately 6.8 billion in 2011, and

extrapolates it to reach 8 billion in 2030, and 9 billion in 2050 (UN, 2004, p. 5).

This trend in global demographics correlates to a myriad of current and future

environmental problems. Orr (2002) summarizes these problems as "a considerable challenge",

40

which includes "feeding, housing, clothing, and educating another 4 to 6 billion people [by the

end of the century] and providing employment for an additional 2 to 4 billion without wrecking

the planet in the process" (p. 16).

The population growth and urban expansion projections from China are as sobering and

concerning as well. Among other facts, Friedman (2008) documents that, according to the

official Chinese plans and estimates, that by 2040: 400 million people will have moved to urban

centers (about 134% of the current size and population of the entire United States), erecting more

than half of all the buildings built in the world during this period; more than 40 new, large

airports will be brought online; 14,000 new cars to be built every day reaching a total of 130

million cars by 2020 (more than the current totals in the United States) (p. 59-60).

Such 'runaway growth' is also reportedly well underway in India, where the rate of

growth is expected to remain at a minimum of about 9% a year within the same time frame

(Friedman, 2008, p. 61). Meanwhile, American-style metropolitan regions, downtowns,

highways, and suburbia continue to mushroom in the North African, Egyptian, Arabian deserts

and even in the dormant civilizations of ex-Soviet nations and South America in breath-taking

rates of acceleration (Friedman, 2008, p. 62).

Forecasts of population and expansion in major metropolitan areas for the foreseeable

future show no apparent indications of slowing down, promising to extend these trends well into

the twenty-first century. This, in turn, practically guarantees further worsening of the

circumstances for the limited energy resources and the natural environment. Therefore, it is of

paramount importance to plan toward a future where the human population grows in a

reasonably scrupulous manner.

Heinberg (2003) pins the recent unnatural growth of human population on the use of

technological innovations and states that "there are now somewhere between two to five billion

humans alive who probably would not exist but for fossil fuels". He further argues that "if the

availability of these fuels were to decline significantly without our having found effective

replacements to maintain all their life-sustaining benefits, then the global human carrying

capacity would plummet – perhaps even below its pre-industrial levels" (p. 33).

A thorough and focused scholarly examination of the salient sources of the approaching

energy crises and environmental catastrophe leads any "honest and searching mind uncluttered

by trivialities or intellectual fashion" – in the words of Lyle – to the same well-reasoned

41

diagnosis: "in the language of ecologists," the demands of our civilization "have exceeded the

Earth's carrying capacity" (Chiras, 1992, p. 10). He believes that the environmental problems

the humanity faces today are among the unmistakable "signs that we have transgressed critical

ecological thresholds", and he continues to add that, unfortunately, "few people in positions of

power understand the meaning of carrying capacity and the limits it places on human endeavor.

Even fewer people understand how far we have overstepped ecological boundaries, and the long-

term consequences of continuing to do so" (Chiras, 1992, p. 9).

Brown (1981) points out that the first manifestations of the ecological stress and resource

scarcities that emerge as population increases are physical such as overgrazing, overfishing,

deforestation, and soil erosion but then these translate into economic stresses such as lower

output, inflation, and unemployment, "but, ultimately, they translate into social stresses [such as]

hunger, demoralization, forced immigration, higher infant mortality, and reduced life

expectancy" (Brown, 1981, p. 132).

Brown (1981) also asserts that population growth is not merely an obstacle to improving

our lot, "it may eventually make improvement impossible" (p. 144). If the current trends in

consumption of 'biological capital' and mining of soils continue human civilization is likely to

seal its fate as the Mayans did. That path is simply not tenable or consistent with the course an

inherently resilient society. In order to strike a sustainable balance goals for slowing population

growth have to be established. Again, according to Brown (1981), the first step in starting a

viable course toward managing the global problem of population growth is "reducing the average

birth rate from 32 per thousand (the 1980 level) to 26 by 1990" (p. 148). Then, each decade

thereafter, he prescribes a drop by 5 until reaching 11 in 2020, which would be about the same as

Austria, Sweden, or West Germany today.

The challenge of managing the unscrupulous population growth in the majority of

countries of the world still remains to be addressed today. Meanwhile the possibilities of a

globally unified commitment continue to diminish with each passing year. Fully realizing the

repercussions of the population growth, Brown (1981) asserts that slowing down the rampant

growth of population is "necessary to preserve our resource base but it is by no means sufficient"

(p. 165). He predicts that the protection of croplands, the effective land-use planning, the

consistent erosion control, and the maximization of agricultural yield will require just as

rigorous efforts as transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies or conservation efforts.

42

Ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design practices may not

directly address the population issues; however, they can facilitate the containment of this

phenomenon, and help reduce the sprawling development of human-built environments through

revitalization, redevelopment, and restoration of the human settlements. The design of human

settlements should aim to transform the environments and activities to be in harmony with the

natural processes and limits.

Ecologically Responsive and Environmentally Responsible Priorities The resource analyses of the prominent issues for environmental design from a broad

multidisciplinary perspective promptly establishes the nature of the approaching energy crisis as

well as the broadening environmental catastrophe propelled by the growth of human population.

This endeavor establishes that the adverse impacts of human activities, development, and

operation patterns can effectively be addressed by the ecologically responsive and

environmentally responsible design of the urbanized areas of industrialized societies.

Discussing the principles of effective ecological design, Orr (2006) points out that such

efforts begin "with the recognition that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts, that

unpredictable properties emerge at different scales, and that as a result we live in a world of

surprise and mystery", calling for a "careful meshing of human purposes with the patterns to

inform human intentions leaving wide margins of error, malfeasance, and unknown" (p. 27). Orr

(2006) records that ecologically responsive design is "not a formula but rather a complex process

of adapting human intentions to ecological realities" (p. 55).

Exploring the environmentally responsible practices, Heinberg (2003) observes that "if

we were to add together the power of all of the fuel-fed machines that we rely on to light and

heat our homes, transport us, and otherwise keep us in the style to which we have become

accustomed, and then compare that total with the power that can be generated by the human

body, we would find that each American has the equivalent of 150 'energy slaves' working for us

24 hours each day. In energy terms, each middle-class American is living a lifestyle so lavish as

to make nearly any sultan or potentate in history swoon with envy" (p. 31).

The dimensions of the ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design

practices encompass a broad landscape of resources and environments available at the service of

human civilization. Many experts extrapolate widespread disasters and calamities if the current

43

course of history is not systematically altered. Lyle (1994) insightfully explains that "whether

planned or not, the trajectories of resources and environment that are visible right now, including

depletion of petroleum reserves, deforestation, acid precipitation, the build-up of greenhouse

gases and ozone depletion, assure us there will be major changes in the not-so-distant future" (p.

317). He further asserts that "these will occur with or without planning and management, with or

without any human control. Virtually everyone who has contemplated the resource/environment

dilemma has emphasized the importance of a carefully orchestrated transition to sustainability.

Without planning, the transition is likely to be painful and difficult" (Lyle, 1994, p. 317).

Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999) skillfully define 'the Natural Capital' of the world to

include "all the familiar resources used by the humankind: water, minerals, oil, trees, fish, soil,

air, et cetera," also encompassing the living systems such as "grasslands, savannas, wetlands,

estuaries, oceans, coral reefs, riparian corridors, tundras, and rainforests," which are all

"deteriorating worldwide at an unprecedented rate" (p. 2). They document the fact that there is

no longer any serious scientific dispute that the decline in every living system in the world is

reaching such levels that an increasing number of them are starting to lose, often at a pace

accelerated by the consequences of their own decline, their assured ability to sustain continuity

of the life process. "We have reached an extraordinary threshold" (p. 4).

Within the natural cycle of birth, growth, decline, and death, Mumford (1964) approaches

the nature of impending catastrophe and environmental demise from a theoretical perspective,

and observes that "an organic world picture cannot…deny entropy" (p. 418). "It must accept as

given the breaking down process that accompanies all vital activities: indeed, they are no less an

integral part of life, no less a contrapuntal contribution to its creativity than orderly constructive,

up-building functions; for the two processes can no more be separated than body and energy in

the mind that in rare moments bypasses these organic limitations and ignores or defies the

ultimate terminus of death: this reveals itself as the impulse to transcendence" (Mumford, 1964,

p. 418)

A series of authors actually contemplate the terms under which the crises and the ultimate

catastrophe may become a reality. Among them, Heinberg (2003) gives an extensive account of

how this total collapse scenario might be managed at the respective scales of the family, the

community, the nation, and the world. He concludes:

44

It has been a fabulous party. But from those to whom much has been given, much

should be expected. Once we are aware of the choice, it is up to us to decide:

Shall we vainly continue reveling until the bitter end, and take most of the world

down with us? Or shall we acknowledge that the party is over, clean up after

ourselves, and make way for those who will come after us?" (Heinberg, 2003, p.

262).

Steiner (2009) takes a market-based practical approach and defends the notion that the

future world's route to "energy equilibrium will be determined by sets of equations that

determine utility, worth, and function. The same equations will replace our gluttonous American

model for life with an elegant one, a model so innovative that our world, while recognizable, will

be far, far from the same. These equations will render McMansions defunct and SUVs

dinosaurs", and finally he concludes "these equations are not expressed through indecipherable

statistics, but through one simple modern idiom: dollars per gallon" (p. 253).

Of course, it is hoped that the extinction of McMansions and SUVs does not wait until

the price of gasoline reaches cost-prohibiting levels. In fact, the transformation of these lifestyles

may be achieved through the redesign, rehabilitation and redevelopment of the man-made

environment as one where alternative choices and patterns facilitate drastically different results.

The observations and lessons cited thus far in the preceding sections are some of the

prominent peaks in a landscape of design challenges, running deep and wide. However, they are

sufficient to serve as a theoretical foundation on which effective design goals and objectives can

be formulated. The following may be considered as a concise list that identifies the focus of

ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design priorities in the alteration of

human settlement patterns:

1) Stimulate and promote specific initiatives and actions to resolve a multitude of linked

global issues simultaneously such as fossil fuel depletion, environmental degradation, and

climate change.

2) Stabilize the rampant human population: lessening severe stresses on resources,

materials, and wastes at all scales of environmental design as exemplified by Friedman

(2008), Calthorpe and Fulton (2001), Todd and Todd (1999), Lyle (1994), and Brown,

1981) among others.

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3) Stabilize the conditions of overconsumption and overexploitation of nonrenewable

natural resources: increasing efficient use, reuse and sharing of resources, decreasing,

and reclaiming wastes as discussed by Lyle (1994), Todd and Todd (1999), and

McDonough and Braungart (1998) among others.

4) Contain unscrupulous urban expansion, growth and sprawl: preventing further problems

with energy, infrastructure, and environment as addressed by Kelly (2004) and SGA

(2004) among others.

5) Localize and regionalize the generation and distribution of the energies used in buildings,

personal mobility as well as transportation of foods, goods, and services as pointed out by

Lyle (1994), Heinberg (2003), and Newman, Beatley, and Boyer (2009) among others.

6) Employ appropriate design principles in order to mitigate the environmental problems

inherent in the human-built environments. Among other environmental design experts,

Van der Ryn and Cowan (1996) note that "we have been late to acknowledge that the

environmental crisis is also a crisis of design, and slow to generate forms of knowledge

and policies that might favor more sensible kinds of design. We have created sterile

places because we have not honored the small, constant acts of compassion required to

care for the living world" (p. 26). They propose that "a rich enough set of ecological

concerns" be built "into the very epistemology of design", which may create "a coherent

response to the environmental crisis" (Van der Ryn & Cowan, 1996, p. 26).

7) Address multiple layers of urban design issues simultaneously through ecologically

responsive planning and environmentally responsible implementation techniques.

Pointing to the significance and difficulties of multi-layered environmental planning and

design, Calthorpe (2011) notes that each scale depends on the others and that only a

whole system approach, with each scale nesting into each other, can deliver the kind of

transformation we now need to confront climate change (p. 3). Similarly, Calthorpe and

Fulton (2001) emphasize "the need to deal with problems at the appropriate scales,

whether that scale is a thousand square mile metropolitan region or a one-square block of

neighborhood" (p. 30).

8) Increase and diversify the alive and living processes in the environment rather than

increasing the dead and the non-living. Among others Lyle (1994) describes an eminent

46

characteristic of the modern urban environment, and notes that "we have created a world

that is simultaneously growing out of control and progressively destroying itself" (p. 12).

9) Finally, simply learn "to live within the same energy flows that sustain all other life on

this planet" (Coates, (ed.), 1981, p. 10).

To that end, the discussions presented in the following chapter offer critical analyses on

the principles and strategies of a select series of design theories, movements, as well as trends

that appear to work rather effectively toward the design of inherently resilient and sustainable

environments. These featured core principles and supporting practices are specifically chosen

for their intrinsic characteristics in enabling ecologically responsive and environmentally

responsible places.

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Chapter 4 - Designing Inherently Resilient & Sustainable

Environments

All thinking worthy of the name now must be ecological, in the sense of

appreciating and utilizing organic complexity, and in adapting every kind of

change to the requirements not of man alone, but of all his organic partners and

every part of his habitat. (Mumford, 1964, p. 393)

A sustainable society will differ from the one we now know in several respects.

Population size will more or less be stationary, energy will be used far more

efficiently, and the economy will be fueled largely with renewable sources of

energy. As a result, people and industrial activity will be more widely dispersed,

far less concentrated in urban agglomeration than they are in petroleum-fueled

society. (Brown, 1981, p. 246)

To the extent that the transition does bring civilization and nature into harmony, it

could unleash a torrent of initiatives and innovations in sciences and the arts.

With the human spirit unleashed, we may even find that many problems will be

solved more quickly than we anticipate. (Brown, 1981, p. 370)

As clearly illustrated by the discussions up to this point, there are a myriad of aspects at

multiple levels of the environmental design that have to be taken into consideration

simultaneously in order to facilitate the rehabilitation and restoration of the natural environment.

There is also a lot to be done in changing and refining the ways in which the human settlement

patterns that have been established, energized, and operated over the last several decades.

Mumford (1938) is among the first to diagnose the ill-effects of 'hastily' developed patterns of

the nineteenth century concentrating on "the exploitable areas of the world" (p. 198). He also

accurately foresees that "one of the major tasks of the twentieth century [will be] the re-

settlement of the planet" (Mumford, 1938, p. 388).

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Validating Mumford's assertions, Coates (1981) calls for reorganization of urban

settlement patterns in an effort to confront both of the energy crisis and the environmental

catastrophe challenges simultaneously. He boldly ascertains that "the key to achieving a

radically reduced energy demand in the U.S. by the year 2050 is the reorganization of the

existing pattern of human settlements" including the basic life support systems (p. 32). Indeed,

such large scales interventions, integrated within the zoning, planning, and development

regulations of the existing urban areas, could work to alleviate major environmental hindrances

by reestablishing densities, transportation, property ownership, and development patterns.

As a first step toward the redesign of resilient and sustainable urban areas, Calthorpe and

Fulton (2001) point out that urban planners and designers "must recognize the need to deal with

problems at the appropriate scales, whether that scale is a thousand-square-mile metropolitan

region or a one-square-block neighborhood" (p. 30). Accordingly, there must be a harmonious

hierarchy among various scales of decision making, where each level should deliver coherent

solutions as well as appropriate details on the design issues.

Orr (2002) further identifies 'the great conceit of the industrial world' – the belief that

humans are "exempt from the laws that govern the rest of the creation" – as potentially

misleading. He asserts that nature is not something to be overcome and subordinated. "The goal

is not the total mastery but harmony that causes no ugliness, human or ecological, somewhere

else or some other time" (Orr, 2002, p. 4). This is, indeed, the very first threshold that the

'developed' nations would need to cross in order to proceed further down the road to

sustainability. Yet, this seemingly simple mental and philosophical transformation might be the

hardest, if not totally impossible, in practical terms.

On the fundamental principles of ecological and sustainable design, Orr (2002) concisely

summarizes the inherent characteristics of a resilient and sustainable society as well as the

necessary economical and cultural changes as follows:

…A sustainable society...[will] be a smarter, more resilient, and ecologically

more adept society than the one in which we now live. It would be also more

materialistic society in the sense that its citizens would value all materials too

highly to treat them casually and carelessly. People in such a society would be

educated to be more competent in making and repairing things and in growing

their own food. They would thereby understand the terms by which they are

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provisioned more fully than most of us do. There is no good argument to be made

against such as society. (Orr, 2002, p. 178)

Another sustainable design expert, architect and planner Peter Calthorpe (1993),

emphasizes the necessity of addressing the environmental design challenges primarily at urban

and regional planning scales. He observes that the human impacts on natural environment

largely depend on the type of settlements as well as their supporting technologies. Conveying

the nature of interdependence among various facets in the design of urban areas, he points out

that "the way we build suburbs affects the viability and vitality of our city centers" (Calthorpe,

1993, p. 9).

The redesign and redevelopment of urban environments also should be considered as part

of the natural evolution of existing fabrics, where settlement patterns are retooled in order to

integrate ecological diversity and to build in resilience. Based on local needs and resources

redevelopment efforts should focus on the existing urban fabric, where authorities make

informed design decisions aiming at improving the ecological patterns such as water cycles, food

and energy generation and distribution, transportation, recycling of materials and other resources.

As Orr (2002) asserts, the logical starting point for ecological design "is not some mythical past,

but the heritage of design intelligence evident in many places, times and cultures prior to our

own" (p. 5).

DeKay (2011) promotes the transformation to sustainability through an alternative model

that he coins as 'Integral Sustainable Design', which he defines as the "formation of whole,

unified and complete, plans and schemes that conserve the natural environment for future

generations" (p. 27). Like the majority of field experts, in his theoretical approach he calls for a

vigorous "motivation to increase the density and intensity of life in our cities, the fire of their

beauty, aliveness, wholeness and integrity" (DeKay, 2011, p. 381).

In the real world, such large scale transformations require rigorous collaboration of

numerous groups, organizations, and agencies at multiple levels of the societies where the

holistic vision behind planning and design efforts have to be maintained open, well-informed,

and inclusive at all times. Realizing the difficulties of maintaining an ecologically constructive

focus through consensus building, coalition forming, public processes, design charrettes and

stakeholder meetings, and so on, McDonough and Braungart (1998) point out that "blindly

50

adopting superficial 'environmental' approaches without fully understanding their effects can be

no better than doing nothing" (p.84).

In this highly complicated decision-making, planning, and design environment, the

discussions in the following sections present a series of core principles in addition to another

series supporting practices. All of these methods are relevant and applicable to the design of

inherently resilient and sustainable environments at varying degrees today. Their primary scales

of operation range from buildings and neighborhoods to cities and regions. The prominence and

relevance of these efforts to the restoration of natural environment are summarized within each

category of discussion.

Core Principles The landscape of urban transformations to more sustainable societies features a wide

variety of salient movements which are literally forming the urban environment of the future,

one project at a time. Whereas some of these initiatives are better established and implemented

than the others, the selection rendered in this endeavor presents a range of theoretical as well as

practical tenets that support the restoration of the natural environment, beyond sustainability.

A number of movements with broader goals and design agendas align perfectly and are

well-positioned to form the core principles of restoration in the natural environment. These

movements include Smart Growth, New Urbanism, Resilient Cities: Eco-Villages, Sustainable

Communities, Regenerative Design, Living Machines: Eco-Cities, Living Buildings,

Neighborhoods and Cities, and Green Urbanism. Seldom are there inherent conflicts and

contradictions among these movements, which are readily discernable and easily manageable.

The following sections critically analyze each movement with respect to its potential

contributions toward environmental restoration.

1) Smart Growth In the relatively recent history of Urban Design and Planning the governing authorities,

public agencies, private institutions, as well as design professionals, have conceived, developed

and experimented with working concepts to lessen the adverse effects of urbanization upon its

inhabitants and the rest of the environment. Based on such a conscious environmental agenda

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the principles of a new movement were eventually instituted under a non-profit organization

called Smart Growth America (SGA).

The main principles of the Smart Growth movement were set to promote mixed-use and

mixed-income, walkable, compact, urban infill projects seeking higher urban densities,

stimulating better integration of transportation while preserving natural areas and open spaces as

well as conserving the identity and quality of urban places. Over time the movement has also

proven the power and effectiveness of multidisciplinary collaboration in public-private

partnerships.

Offering an analysis and synthesis of the prominent movements at the time, Calthorpe

and Fulton (2001) point out that the new "set of coalitions goes by many names and represents

many groups. Most often, it is called Smart Growth – a recognition that the question today is not

whether growth occurs, but how" (p. 274). In their evaluations Calthorpe and Fulton place the

New Urbanism "clearly at the heart of this movement" together with other concepts such as

'Sustainability', 'Livable Cities', and 'Metropolitanism'. Regardless of the names or trademarks,

they note that "this movement is an important breakthrough in overcoming the institutional

inertia and vested interests supporting sprawl and inequity" (Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001, p. 274).

The Ten Principles of Smart Growth can be summarized as follows:

1) Mixed land uses

2) Compact building design

3) Range of housing choices

4) Walkable neighborhoods

5) Creation of distinctive and attractive places

6) Preservation of open spaces and farmlands

7) Development in existing communities

8) Transportation choices

9) Predictable and fair decision making

10) Participation of community and stakeholders

These principles are generally well established, widely adopted and successfully

implemented by many jurisdictions in the United States. The organization maintains a particular

focus on the integration of housing, businesses, jobs, economic conditions, urban transportation,

natural resources and environment, health of communities, and revitalization of neighborhoods.

52

Many communities have been exemplary in their resultant economic vitality and social

prosperity, including Bethesda, MD; Arlington, VA; Denver, CO; Gaithersburg, MD; Pittsburgh,

PA; Raleigh, NC and so on (SGA, 2004).

Although Smart Growth efforts have been somewhat effective in stimulating adaptive

reuse and urban infill redevelopments they appear to have fallen short of being conclusive at

preventing sprawl or neutralizing the pressures of urban areas on the surrounding open-spaces.

The Smart Growth projects also tend to miss the mark in developing the project sites to their

optimum potentials. This is an often recurring trend, which appears to stem from the fact that

Smart Growth projects heavily rely on the economic support of entrepreneurs, joint ventures,

long-term commitment and partnerships of public and private entities, which exert various legal,

economic and political pressures on the decision-making processes involved.

Bethesda Row is a Smart Growth community located in downtown Bethesda, MD, which

illustrates "the revitalization of a suburban commercial district into a mixed-use, walkable

downtown", realizing the SGA principles #2, 4, 5, 7, and 9. The development is "a thriving,

pedestrian-friendly streetscape…a walkable neighborhood" with "brick sidewalks, trees,

fountains, plazas, and outdoor seating all encourage residents and visitors to walk around the mix

of local, regional, and national retailers and restaurants" (Porter, 2008, p. 92).

The project is planned and designed by Cooper Cary, with a unique urban character of the

new buildings mirroring that of the old, comprised of: seven phases on four city blocks; 360,000

sq. ft. of retail and restaurant space; 140,000 sq. ft. of office space; and 100,000 sq. ft. of

residential space; 4th phase completed in 2002. The Capital Crescent Trail provides a

convenient connection from the project to downtown Washington, DC by bicycle, in-line skate,

or foot travel, while the Metro station within 1/4 of a mile of the center offers easy access to

public transit. The Bethesda Row is the recipient of The Charter Award by Congress for the

New Urbanism, 2002 and the Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence, 2007. The

Washington Smart Growth Alliance recognizes Phase Seven of Bethesda Row as "an exemplary

smart growth proposal" (EPA, 2010).

From the environmental restoration standpoint the integration of ecological elements are

extremely limited in this urban infill project, as pedestrian, seating, landscape, and renewable

energy and recycled materials are almost non-existent. By not taking the full advantage of

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development densities, mixed income, and mixed uses the project actually blocks the full

potentials of this metropolitan site.

Highlands Garden Village is another Smart Growth community located near downtown

Denver, CO, which is "a compact, mixed-use, urban infill community built on the site of an

abandoned amusement park", exemplifying the SGA principles #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10.

The development features "a density gradient, with highest densities near the existing

commercial area and lowest densities near existing neighborhoods of single-family homes"

(EPA, 2010).

The project is master planned by Peter Calthorpe, one of the founders of the Congress of

New Urbanism, as a model green urban infill project comprised of a 27-acre site, containing 291

homes, as well as 200,000 sq. ft. of commercial and live-work space, preserving and restoring

140,000 sq. ft. of open space, completed in 1999. The Highlands Garden Village is the recipient

of the following awards: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Air Excellence Award,

2003; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Smart Growth Achievement Award, 2005;

International Economic Development Council Excellence in Economic Development Award,

2006; Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence, 2007 (www.higlandsgardengardenvillage.net).

From the environmental restoration perspective the integration of ecological elements are

somewhat satisfactory in this suburban infill project. Compactness, walkability and pedestrian

connectivity aspects are perhaps at the satisfactory mark. However, the integration of renewable

energies and materials as well as diversity of transportation modes are lacking. By not taking the

full advantage of further rehabilitating the pristine ecological balances the project actually limits

the full potentials of this suburban site.

2) New Urbanism The charter and canons, published by the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU),

establish design principles, fundamentally parallel with those of Smart Growth. The CNU

promotes the restructuring of policy and development practices in order to support "the

restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions", standing

for "the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and

diverse districts,...the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built

legacy" (www.cnu.org).

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The principles of CNU, at the scale of the region, encompass the metropolis, the city, and

the town, recognize geographic boundaries in topography, watersheds, coastlines, farmlands,

regional parks, and river basins, with multiple urban centers and definite edges as a basic

environmental, economic, cultural unit in governmental cooperation, public policy, as well as

planning. The principles aim specifically to protect agrarian hinterlands, natural landscapes, and

farmlands. The CNU supports urban infill development over peripheral expansion, respecting

historical patterns of development, encouraging proximity as well as mixture of public and

private uses for all income levels.

The CNU principles also address issues relating to diversity of housing and employment,

incorporating alternative transportation modes to maximize mobility and to minimize auto-

dependence with close attention to infrastructure, public facility and tax issues. New Urbanist

design principles promote compact, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, interconnected

neighborhoods and vibrant, diverse and active districts, establishing a range of parks, from tot-

lots, village greens, ballfields, community gardens, conservation areas, and open lands (CNU,

1999).

The CNU charter at the regional scale also infers urban improvements through 'graphic

design codes'. The Smart Code offers such a comprehensive web of correlated design

requirements that assist municipalities in establishing their guidelines and regulations based on

the New Urbanist principles (DPZ, 2008).

The principles of the CNU, at the scale of the neighborhood block, include the streetscape

and the building, focusing on: environmental design of streets and public spaces; establishing

continuity and quality of use, style and character, preserving accessibility and openness; and

encouraging pedestrian safety, comfort, and interest. The New Urbanist architecture and

landscape design also aims to respond appropriately to local climate, topography, history,

identity, traditions, and distinction, allowing natural methods of heating and cooling while

preserving historic buildings, districts, and landscapes in the continual evolution of urban

societies (CNU, 1999).

The addition of Agricultural Urbanism is the latest in the evolving vocabulary and

language of the New Urbanist movement, which functions as another supporting theory within

different Transects of the urban fabric for integrating food production to the furthest extent

possible (DPZ, 2009).

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The Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism (CSAU, 2008) aim to address

global climate change, as well as the related ecological and environmental challenges including

habitat destruction and sprawling settlement patterns. Focusing primarily on transportation and

building sectors where the majority of energy and non-renewable resource usage is concentrated,

the canons provide design guidelines for policy makers, planners, urban designers and citizens

addressing the impact of our towns and cities on the natural and human environment. The

canons stimulate long life and permanence in design rather than transience, and thus enabling

reuse, accommodating growth and change within local climate, landscape, resource, as well as

cultural patterns (CSAU, 2008, p. 2).

The CSAU building and infrastructure principles encourage adaptive reuse with

permanence, endurance, and longevity. They respond appropriately to local climate, landscape,

topography, history, culture, and traditions. The design principles promote production of

renewable energies to reduce reliance on nonrenewables while usage and inefficiencies are

minimized and efficiencies in low-tech and passive methods are maximized. Local food

production is encouraged to promote decentralization, self-sufficiency, and reduced

transportation impacts on the environment (CSAU, 2008, p. 3).

The proposed design principles at the scale of street, block, and network envision

integrated pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular uses, and well-connected networks minimizing

material and utility infrastructure that reduce overall energy usage and enhanced quality of life in

the public realm. The canons seek to integrate green streets with balanced sidewalk and roadway

establishing proper street connectivity and hierarchy, allowing for a range of parking strategies

that induce less driving and provide more human-scaled public spaces (CSAU, 2008, p. 4).

The CSAU principles at the neighborhood, town and city scale aim to balance public and

private uses integrating areas of food production and natural places in neighborhoods, taking

advantage of infill sites and protecting farmlands, parklands, habitat conservation and restoration

areas. The cannons stimulate responsibly increased urban densities to accommodate growth

within boundaries. The generation of renewable energies, redevelopment of brownfields,

protection and expansion of wetlands in natural watersheds, stimulation of aquifer recharge,

reduction of light and noise pollution are among the design goals (CSAU, 2008, p. 5).

The cannons at the regional scale prescribe definite urban boundaries based on geology,

topography, watersheds, coastlines, farmlands, habitat corridors, regional parks and river basins,

56

where self-sustenance of foods, goods and services, economies, energies and water supplies is

achieved within urbanized lands respecting prime farmlands, forests, native habitats, species and

ecological communities (CSAU, 2008, p. 6).

Even though there are many enormously successful applications of the CNU principles,

some applications arguably seem, in effect, unable to either increase the densities much beyond

market demands, which are often short of ecological and environmental objectives, nor to

decrease auto-dependency to the desirable levels. The fundamental ineffectiveness of the New

Urbanist movement to facilitate appropriately higher densities and connectivity, gives way to its

involuntary contribution to further decentralization and suburban sprawl.

In fact, in a lot of suburban cases, the New Urbanist principles seem to produce large-

scale Greenfield developments, which contribute to ill-conceived densities, transportation

patterns and sprawl. This is mostly because, unlike the Smart Growth movement, the New

Urbanist projects are mostly conceived, driven, and carried out by private investors who

understandably cannot leave the comfort zones and manageable risk limits imposed on them by

present real-world market conditions.

Crystal City Vision Plan 2050 is an urban core (T6 Transect) New Urbanist community

vision plan located in Arlington, VA, which illustrates a design response "to remake an existing

urban center struggling to recover from obsolete urban design concepts". The project area is

260-acres of densely developed urban land that "has grown to include 25 million square feet of

high-rise, mixed-use development" (www.cnu.org).

The plan, by a design team that includes Torti Gallas & Partners, Kimley-Horn and

Associates, DMJ Harris, AECOM, and EDAW, increases uses and densities, as well as

connectivities, and introduces an additional 8,800 residential units in the mix by 2050. The

project expands pedestrian provisions enhancing the experience on public streets, creates higher

quality public parks, reestablishes street retail throughout Crystal City, humanizes the building

landscapes, and integrates a multi-modal transit system linking the neighborhoods and

communities. The Crystal City Vision Plan is the recipient of The Charter Award by Congress

for the New Urbanism, 2009 (www.cnu.org).

From the environmental restoration standpoint the integration of ecological elements are

encouraging and appropriate for the context of this urban redevelopment project. The

tremendous increase in the density and mixture of uses help concentrate considerable amount of

57

human population and activities while intrinsically reducing pressures that otherwise would have

contributed further sprawl.

State Center is another urban core (T6 Transect) New Urbanist community project

located in Baltimore, MD, which illustrates a design response to restore "the street grid and the

area's traditional 'urbanism'. A greater mix of uses supports a sustainable and seamlessly

integrated district" (www.cnu.org).

The plan, by a design team that includes Design Collective, Inc., Glatting Jackson

Kercher Anglin, Urban Strategies Inc., and Encore Arts, practices and promotes sustainability

throughout planning, implementation, and operations. The project calls for LEED Silver

buildings, reuse of buildings, as well as 'green' technologies and guidelines for residents and

users. The master plan meets LEED-ND Platinum certification criteria, placing over 4 million

sq. ft. of mixed uses near transit. The design incorporates a high-density, mixed use, mixed

income TOD neighborhood with 30% affordable housing, as well as a new Metro station and

auxiliary uses. The State Center is the recipient of The Charter Award by Congress for the New

Urbanism, 2010 (www.cnu.org).

From the environmental restoration standpoint, these examples indicate that increases in

the density and mixture of uses, as well as introduction of new transit facilities help considerably

in accommodating more population and activities within already developed urban environments.

From ecological integration and sustainability perspectives, the project could have been more

resourceful and diversified especially in using locally produced renewable energy and food.

3) Resilient Cities: Eco-Villages Driven by the exponential increases in the sheer numbers, fueled by the conveniences of

personal mobility, the urban planning policies and regulations seems to have contributed

immensely to the current energy crisis and the environmental catastrophe now threatening the

entire globe. Reflecting on these challenges, Newman, Beatley, and Boyer (2009) observe that

"we have spent the last 60 plus years building our cities and rural regions around availability of

cheap oil and now we must contemplate a different future" (p. 23).

In contemplating the future of urban civilization, Newman, Beatley and Boyer (2009)

identify four distinct and possible scenarios i.e. the collapse, the ruralized city, the divided city,

and the resilient city. Searching for genuine planning and design solutions for current

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environmental challenges, the authors suggest that the concept of a 'Resilient City' appears to be

the most promising, feasible, and desirable option. Resilience is hardly a new concept, although,

the planned application of it in the formation of neighborhoods, cities, and regions is a newly

developing area of design awareness and methodology.

Newman, Beatley, and Boyer (2009) offer the model of the Resilient City as an

inherently compact, walkable, inclusive, adaptable, diversified, redundant, regenerative, and life

enriching human environment. The methodology behind the model includes ten simple steps,

involving parallel practices:

1) Setting a vision: preparing an improvement strategy

2) Learning on the job: setting strong goals, planning, and implementing

3) Targeting public buildings, parking, and road structures

4) Building TODs (Transit-Oriented Developments), PODs (Pedestrian-Oriented

Developments), GODs (Green-Oriented Developments)

5) Building resilient infrastructure

6) Letting prices drive change

7) Rethinking rural regions

8) Regenerative household and neighborhoods

9) Facilitating Localism: businesses, food, enterprises, tourism, materials

10) Regulating post-oil transition

A majority of these principles are tried and time-tested methodologies, however, the sixth

principle, to let market prices drive change, needs to be taken cautiously. Much like the New

Urbanist results, this aspect of the resilience model is potentially prone to result in unfavorable or

less than desirable new environments, which may create more problems than they solve.

The characteristics of the urban environments depicted in the Resilient City model

closely resemble those of preindustrial towns and cities prior to the widespread infiltration of

personal vehicles into the lives of urbanites. Perhaps with motives similar to those of Newman

et al., Steiner (2009) visualizes a future where "urbanites ditch their cars for a lifestyle centered

on pedestrian shopping trips," which means that "small local stores will once again be ensconced

within our residential neighborhoods, not just in dedicated strip malls" (p. 139).

Visualizing the impacts of energy constraints on the transportation of goods and services,

Steiner (2009) makes another projection in his price-based prophecy and predicts that "the force

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that brought globalization to every American's closet will have been laid to waste by gas prices

soaring past $14. Wal-Mart will die" (p. 143). Such absolutely definitive conclusions often

overlook the element of adaptation and malleability in the living mechanisms of the real world.

Nevertheless, the national and global corporate operations, like Wal-Mart, are likely make

drastic changes to their current operational patterns in order to stay alive. The reliance on cheap

labor market production as well as the 'halfway around the world' business model, may perhaps

disintegrate, then but only then, to be replaced by the next mode of exploitation.

In his pursuit of examining urban resilience, Orr (2002) observes "most traditional

cultures" as being able to "sustain themselves indefinitely within the ecological limits of their

regions", where they contribute "little of nothing to climate change, cancer rates, and loss of

biodiversity, and they are invulnerable to any technological failure originating within their own

community" (p. 6). There are, in fact, many emerging examples of resiliently designed benign

communities as such.

Kronsberg is one of these kinds of 'ecological urban districts' located in the German city

of Hannover. Newman, Beatley and Boyer (2009) observe that a number of low energy or

renewable energy ideas have been "integrated into this compact, walkable community. There are

relatively large wind turbines (the largest a 1.8 megawatt turbine) have been sited just a few

hundred meters from some residences, and many of the apartments are supplied with a

centralized solar hot water heating system. Direct heating and two small combined heat and

powers stations (one in the basement of a residential building) provide the neighborhood's

remaining hot water needs and produce electricity. The use of district heating, and combined

heat and power plants, has become a standard design in new European developments and is a

much more efficient and sustainable way to heat and power communities" (p. 72). Outside of

inherent difficulties and inabilities of accommodating future growth without outward expansion,

there are hardly any flaws in these kinds of small, self-sustaining, and inherently resilient

communities with small ecological footprints.

Vauban is another such community, which is "a development of five thousand

households on a former military base in Freiburg, Germany" (Newman, Beatley & Boyer, 2009,

p. 55). Newman, Beatley, and Boyer (2009) identify Vauban as "a model ecological

community", which is being studied "with increasing interest as the economic, health, and

environmental costs of car dependence come into focus. Residents are offered numerous

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incentives (such as free tram passes and options for carpooling) and disincentives (extremely

pricey parking only available on the edge of town) to live car free. (There is already strong

disincentive to driving with gas over eight U.S. dollars per gallon.) The car ownership rate in

Vauban is 150 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to the U.S. 640 vehicles per 1,000

inhabitants" (p. 55). Though many 'ecovillages' like Vauban are more self-sufficient than others,

some may never move beyond being a Transit-Oriented Development.

Focusing on the applied technologies, "the Vauban eco-village," according to Newman,

Beatley and Boyer (2009), "has a cogeneration power plant using wood chips generated from the

local forestry. The plant provides the five thousand residents and one thousand local businesses

with heat and power. Vauban's buildings contain some 450 square meters of solar heating panels

and 1,200 square meters of PV collectors" (p. 75).

Elaborating on the second principle of the resilient city model, Newman, Beatley and

Boyer (2009) recognize the genius of the Freiburg process as the fact that local residents

"understood the value of involving the community, and this gave those involved a chance to

reflect on the value of the framework they were using to solve the problem. Real innovation then

had a chance to emerge, and professionals were able to provide advice as they learned on the

job" (p. 75).

And, finally, another "very positive model" of a self-reliant and inherently resilient

community is found "in the redevelopment of the Western Harbor in Malmö, Sweden. Here the

goal was to achieve a 100 percent renewable energy, produced from local sources. This has been

realized by incorporating into the fabric of this new neighborhood a mix of renewable energy

production ideas and technologies, including a wind turbine and façade-mounted solar hot water

collectors. The solar panels are a visible feature of this delightful urban district, which boasts

other sustainability initiatives (innovative storm water management, habitat and biotope,

restoration, and green courtyards and green rooftops)" (Newman, Beatley & Boyer, 2009, p. 72).

All of these efforts closely parallel those of ecovillages, which are typically grassroots

community initiatives by the local inhabitants of a region. Like Bang (2005), Walker (2005),

and Downton (2008), Dawson (2006) specifically places the movement of ecological villages on

the frontlines of building future communities. He notes that "the good news is that the types of

applied research, demonstration and training that the ecovillages are engaged in are precisely

those that will be needed to navigate the rough waters ahead. Seen in this context, the initiatives

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that have been described on these pages – in reforestation, seed-saving, place-specific

technologies for energy-efficient housing, food-growing, energy-generation, the development of

inclusive decision-making structures, voluntary simplicity, and so on – appear not so much

idiosyncratic tinkering as the very stuff that the building of future societies will be made of" (p.

77).

4) Sustainable Communities Mumford (1964) points out that "unlike an organism, which is an open system, subject to

chance mutations and to many external forces and circumstances over which it has no control,

mechanisms are closed systems, strictly contrived by the inventor to achieve clearly foreseen and

limited ends" (p. 97). Theoretically, this terminology can be applied to the resilience of a

community or a city, which can be observed to function as an organism or a mechanism. By

extension, a sustainable community needs to behave more like an organism, rather than a

mechanism, where it functions as an "open system, subject to chance mutations and to many

external forces and circumstances over which it has no control" (Mumford, 1964, p. 97).

The evolution of human settlements into naturally sustainable communities is an

extremely prominent issue for all environmental designers in the 21st century, due to a multitude

of problems and concerns. Amongst these issues, "responding to climate change and our coming

energy challenge without a more sustainable form of urbanism" Calthorpe (2011) asserts, "will

be impossible" (p. 7).

On a quest to define the Sustainable Communities and to identify the strategies for

designing such communities in the post-carbon world, Condon (2010) lays out the Seven Rules

for Sustainable Communities as follows:

1) Restore the streetcar city

2) Design an interconnected street system

3) Locate commercial services, frequent transit, and schools within 5-minute walk

4) Locate good jobs close to affordable homes

5) Provide a diversity of housing types

6) Create a linked system of natural areas and parks

7) Invest in lighter, greener, cheaper, smarter infrastructure

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Even though these are all valid practices that are essential to the physical vitality and

longevity of any community, this list is perhaps incomplete without the inclusion of food,

energy, social, and cultural patterns to be addressed for the operation and functioning of such

communities.

Condon (2010) summarizes that the essence of such a community is "found in its

integrated systems" (p.161). Elaborating on the integrated nature of support systems in

sustainable communities, for example, Condon (2010) points to the transportation modes and

notes "it does no good if there are jobs close to home, but the street network still frustrates

moving by any means other than a car. It does no good to be a five-minute walk from

commercial services and transit unless this system is scaled up to allow for reasonable access to

walkable destinations at the other end of the trip" (Condon, 2010, p.161).

In their endeavor to define and explicate Sustainable Communities, Van der Ryn and

Calthorpe (1986) use a slightly different approach. They presuppose that if a community is truly

'sustainable' then it inherently "exacts less of its inhabitants in time, wealth and maintenance, and

demands less of its environment in land, water, soil and fuel" (p. ix). Such a broad approach

perhaps is more productive in identifying strategies that will address multiple layers of concerns

simultaneously.

Van der Ryn and Cowan (1996) further argue that "if we believe we can sever our design

decisions from the ecological consequences, we will design accordingly" (p. 25). In that case,

they conclude "we will consistently find, in the words of Wendell Berry, a 'solution that causes a

ramifying series of new problems, the only limiting criterion being, apparently, that the new

problems should arise beyond the purview of the expertise that produced the [original] solution'"

(Van der Ryn & Cowan, 1996, p. 25). Perhaps, this kind of approach to characterization of the

'sustainable' qualities is more appropriate as judged directly by their consequences.

Marin Solar Village is one of the earliest examples of 'sustainable communities' located

in Novato, CA, which illustrates "a model community that combines energy-efficient homes,

centers for local employment, on-site energy and food production, workable mass transit on the

old railway line, and return six hundred acres of runway into marsh" (Van der Ryn, 2005, p.71).

The project, master planned by Van der Ryn Calthorpe and Partners in 1979 through

1981, "was a dream that affected many people" records Van der Ryn (2005) "and became the

prototype for many positive things that happened in the American urban and regional planning

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since 1980. Peter Calthorpe, now a leading innovator in urban and regional planning speaks of

the lasting impact of the Marin Solar Village: 'Sim Van der Ryn planted a seed that has

blossomed in many places. For example, many of Marin Solar Village's features are

incorporated in the reuse of Denver's former Stapleton Airport, where 2,000 acres of riparian

corridor replace the former runway. Sim helped show us the way.'" (p. 72).

From the environmental restoration standpoint, the restoration of sizable wetlands,

natural habitats, the integration of regional transit with ecological elements, plans to provide a

mixture of uses, on-site energy and food generation are among the inspirational attributes of this

suburban redevelopment project.

Stapleton is another example of a 'sustainable community' located in Denver, CO. It is

considered 'a model of sustainability', boasting to be "the nation's largest redevelopment project,

at more than 4,500 acres". Stapleton's adaptive reuse and contextually appropriate new

neighborhood planning revitalizes a 4,700 acre parcel of land, which is the site of Denver's

former Stapleton Airport. The plan incorporates 12,000 residential units, 7,800,000 sq. ft. of

office, and 4,300,000 sq. ft. of retail spaces. Various phases of the projects are ongoing since

1999, where over 3,600 homes occupied with over 10,000 residents (www.calthorpe.com).

The community design project, by Calthorpe Associates, is "a mixed-use urban infill

community" that transforms the former Stapleton Airport land into "a project that sets new

standards of environmental responsibility for the Denver region". This significant urban design

project features: various mixed-use transit-oriented neighborhoods, each with a distinct

architectural character; a pedestrian-focused design of walkable streets; a mix of office, retail,

civic, and residential uses; abundant open space in each neighborhood; and regional open spaces

between each of the project's distinct neighborhoods. All of Stapleton's new neighborhoods

follow local traditions of Denver's historic residential and commercial districts. Stapleton also

preserves and links sensitive habitats, recycles airport materials such as runway concrete and

asphalt, and increases development intensity around a planned light rail stop. The project has

won numerous awards (www.calthorpe.com).

From the environmental restoration standpoint the restoration of sizable wetlands and

natural habitats, the integration of regional transit as well as ecological elements, the mixture of

uses are all very inspiring attributes in this suburban redevelopment project. However, the on-

site energy as well as food generation aspects seem to lag behind.

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5) Regenerative Design The keys to sustainability lie in the urban landscape. If the course of evolution

moves in the regenerative way, we can expect to see cities developing in forms

very different from those of the past. (Lyle, 1994, p.286)

Lyle's visions of sustainability and regenerative design still hold true today. Only by

restoring the natural habitat, and then reintegrating human activities within the regenerative

natural systems and processes, can the civilization achieve substantial advances toward

overcoming the current crises and the potential future ones. In order for humans – as part of

Nature – to overcome their unnatural impacts within the biosphere the human lifestyles, systems,

mechanisms, and processes need to be transformed to conform with the laws of Nature. The

battle remains to be waged within the human communities, and the battleground remains the

urban landscape.

Making another accurate observation, Lyle (1994) questions humans' ability to identify

the dysfunctional events happening within the natural environment, and states that by living in an

artificial environment for so long "we may have lost our ability to perceive that something is

wrong when natural processes become dysfunctional" (p. 100). Perhaps, he observes, this is the

only logical explanation of why humans have been so reluctant in taking immediate, decisive,

and corrective measures.

The work of Center for Regenerative Studies showcases various strategies of

'Regenerative Design', where all design is simply based on understanding and replicating or

reenacting the regenerative processes observed in Nature. Regenerative Design, in essence, aims

to maintain the balances of the natural systems while benefiting from them. Lyle (1994)

articulates in great detail some of the regenerative strategies of this project, which include:

understanding how Nature works; taking Nature as model and context; designing natural

technologies to fit needs; valuing information and feedback as a source of power; observing

multiple pathways; finding common solutions; formulating storage as a key; giving form to

guide flow; and making sustainability a priority.

In his immensely influential theory and work, Lyle (1994) establishes the 'Goals of

Regenerative Habitat' in the four fundamental tenets as follows:

1) Design shelters without depleting resources or damaging natural systems

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2) Join buildings with earth

3) Give visible and meaningful form to that relationship

4) Shape building and urban form to foster community interaction (p. 101).

These four tenets form the heart of Regenerative Design in its purest and most basic

form, everything else gets progressively more complicated from there. Perhaps a fifth tenet

could have been so entrenched in his work that did not need to appear on the list: Live, and let

live, within the same natural energy flows that sustain all the other forms of life.

The vision of Lyle (1994) for the 'regenerative cities' of future does not prescribe how

everything is to be formed but rather gives a silhouette of figures that "resemble neither neatly

defined preindustrial cities nor the undifferentiated arbitrary sprawl and Paleotechnic cities. The

Neotechnic city will emerge into the larger pattern of landscape as other uses do" (p. 286). He

conveys a sketchy but complete description of his vision for the Regenerative City as a

"…pattern of discrete, identifiable, interrelated communities joint together by the working

landscape" (p. 300). He clearly sees the entire landscape as the city where human settlements are

completely integrated into Nature.

Others such as Melby and Cathcart (2002) share the same vision as well, in that, "the

human ecosystem should be the blending of humans with nature in such a manner that human

life support needs are met through regenerative processes characteristic of the natural ecological

system" (p. 19).

The Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies in particular is an exemplary working

laboratory for regenerative environmental studies located in Pomona, CA, which illustrates

"energy-efficient building design, energy production, food, water, and waste systems, ecological

restoration and sustainable community processes". The center showcases building systems,

energy systems, food systems, water systems, waste systems, ecological context, human

community elements (www.csupomona.edu/~crs).

The Center, today, actively supports "research and outreach by Cal Poly Pomona faculty,

students and staff that directly supports the mission of advancing principles of environmentally

sustainable living," and it "offers space for conducting research projects and outreach programs,

provides resources through their faculty fellowship program," offering "logistical support for

facilitating grants and contracts" (www.csupomona.edu/~crs). The research initiatives currently

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active at the Center include the Faculty Fellowship Program and Habitat 21: The Lyle Center

Project for Sustainable Settlements.

From the environmental restoration standpoint the center is the hub for understanding,

experimentation, and dissemination of regenerative theories and practices within natural habitats.

The regenerative design methods are critically important to be seamlessly integrated within the

urban areas, from ecological elements to on-site energy and food production.

6) Living Machines: Eco-Cities In their exemplary work on ecological design, Todd and Todd (1994) point out that it is

"a sound idea to look to biology as a basis of design...as an informed affirmation of the

regenerative capabilities of the planet and of the human role as steward of the Earth" (p. 8).

Their research and application technologies, then, take the form of 'bioshelters' and 'solar

villages' as viable alternatives for the future human settlements.

In the evolving synthesis of biology and architecture a neighborhood could begin

to function in a manner analogous to an organism. On the proposed block or

neighborhood scale, parts become symbiotic to the whole and the basic social and

physical functions work together. (Todd & Todd, 1994, p. 116)

The theoretical, as well as practical studies, of Todd and Todd (1994) are organized into a

series of nine precepts for biologically-based ecological design. Each of these precepts fulfills

an important role in forming a cohesive environment. The precepts of Biological or Living

Design can be outlined as follows:

1) The living world is the matrix for all design

2) Design should follow, not oppose, the laws of life

3) Biological equity must determine design

4) Design must reflect bioregionality

5) Projects should be based on renewable energy sources

6) Design should be sustainable through the integration of Living Systems

7) Design should be coevolutionary with the natural world

8) Building and design should help to heal the planet

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9) Design should follow a 'sacred ecology' where the authors define the term 'scared

ecology' as "the undifferentiated interconnectedness of the human and nature worlds

in an unknowable 'metapattern which connects'", which serves as "the foundation and

the summation of all the preceding precepts of design" (p. 79).

Among these principles, the eighth precept 'to heal the planet', is perhaps of particular

significance today. Todd and Todd (1994) realize the need for human lifestyles, activities, and

environments to replicate the rehabilitative, regenerative, and restorative characteristics of all

natural systems (p. 65). They record their conviction that the equivalent of such a planetary

healing thread now exists in the form of "some accumulated and interacting disciplines such as

biology, ecology, and cybernetics, and as a result, advances in material sciences and technology,

make large-scale restoration possible" (p. 75).

Todd and Todd (1994) naturally project the emerging 'living system' model to the

redesign of communities. Discussing the bioregional restoration efforts in many metropolitan

areas such as New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Kansas City, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson, and San

Diego, they reference various environmental quality projects for the restoration of landscaping

and salt marshlands, the rehabilitation of water fronts, and reclamation of farmlands.

A key focus in their efforts is integrated agriculture, which is a necessary byproduct of

the living systems. The scope and scale of the agricultural practices that Todd and Todd (1994)

anticipate transcend the current methods and technologies. Whereas the current techniques are

based on extraneous use of energy, machinery, chemical fertilizers, irrigation, electricity, and

biocides that agriculture integrated into the 'living systems' are based on bio-sensitive soil

management, intense planting techniques, aquaculture, bioshelters, small pot grains, and

agricultural forestry (p. 159).

On the pressing energy resource and environmental health issues, Todd and Todd (1994)

assert that "we now confront global ecological alterations which are already in progress – from

the emerging effects of ozone depletion to the range of catastrophes feared from global warming

– and find the nuclear capability of the world as or more dangerous. Over our heads hang not

only the threat of our own deaths but responsibility for change to life on a far broader scale than

humanity has ever inflicted before" (p. 161).

Todd and Todd (1994) also offer 'living machines', as viable ecological design

alternatives at building, neighborhood, and even regional scales, which can be designed "to

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produce food or fuels, treat wastes, purify air, regulate climates, or even to do all these

simultaneously. They are designed along the principles evolved by the natural world in building

and regulating its great ecologies or forests, lakes, prairies, and estuaries. Their primary energy

source is sunlight. Like the planet, living machines have hydrological and mineral cycles"

(p.167).

The Nine Principles for designing 'Living Machines' formulated by Todd and Todd

(1994) are based on the harmonious cohesion of elements and processes such as:

1) Microbial communities

2) Photosynthetic communities

3) Linked ecosystems and the law of the minimum

4) Pulse exchanges

5) Nutrient and micronutrient

6) Geological diversity and mineral complexity

7) Steep gradients

8) Phylogenetic diversity

9) Microcosm as tiny mirror image of macrocosm (p. 167).

The New Alchemy Institute (NAI) was an exemplary working laboratory for restorative

technologies located in Cape Cod, MA. It illustrates "the creation of ecologically derived human

support systems [such as] renewable energy, agriculture, aquaculture, housing and landscapes".

The institute showcases strategies requiring "minimal reliance on fossil fuels…on a scale

accessible to individuals, families and small groups" with a belief that "ecological and social

transformations must take place at the lowest functional levels of society if humankind is to

direct its course towards a greener, saner world" (www.thegreencenter.net).

The programs at the NAI "are geared to produce not riches, but rich and stable lives,

independent of world fashion and the vagaries of international economics. The New Alchemists

work at the lowest functional level of society on the premise that society, like the planet itself,

can be no healthier than the components of which it is constructed". The urgency of NAI's

efforts was based on the belief that "the industrial societies, which now dominate the world, are

in the process of destroying it" (www.thegreencenter.net).

From the environmental restoration standpoint the New Alchemy Institute was another

hub for understanding, experimentation, and dissemination of restorative theories and practices

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within natural processes. The 'living' design methods are still critically pertinent to the natural

integration of ecological elements, on-site energy and food production into the urban

environments.

Arcosanti is another vigorous project, 'an urban laboratory', in search of design strategies

at the opposite end of inherently hospitable living conditions, located in Mayer, AZ. It illustrates

"the concept of arcology (architecture + ecology), developed by Italian architect Paolo Soleri".

In an arcology, the basic principle is for the built and the living environment to "interact as

organs would in a highly evolved being", which means that "many systems work together, with

efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar orientation for

lighting, heating and cooling" (www.arcosanti.org).

Arcology, Soleri's concept of fusing architecture with ecology in cities, proposes "a

highly integrated and compact three-dimensional urban form that is the opposite of urban sprawl

with its inherently wasteful consumption of land, energy and time, tending to isolate people from

each other and the community". Arcological miniaturization "enables radical conservation of

land, energy and resources," needing only "about two percent as much land as a typical city of

similar population". Whereas modern cities devote "more than sixty percent of [their lands] to

roads and automobile services" Arcosanti effectively "eliminates the automobile from within the

city" through the "multi-use nature of arcology design" which puts the "living, working and

public spaces within easy reach of each other [by] walking" (www.arcosanti.org).

The Arcosanti project, began in 1970 by the Cosanti Foundation, is an experimental town

in the high desert, planned to accommodate 5000 residents "demonstrating ways to improve

urban conditions and lessen [the] destructive impact on the Earth. Its large, compact structures

and large-scale solar greenhouses will occupy only 25 acres of a 4060 acre land preserve,

keeping the natural countryside in close proximity to urban dwellers". On the educational front,

the project offers a workshop on "building techniques and arcological philosophy, while

continuing the city's construction" with volunteers and students from around the world"

(www.arcosanti.org).

From the environmental restoration standpoint Arcosanti seems to be an ambitious but

yet almost utopian experimentation that may have limited applicability for the majority of

existing urban areas. The arcology concept is perhaps most inspiring in certain aspects such as

condensation of human needs, integration of resilient ecological elements, use of solar energy

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and production of food on-site. However, Arcosanti proves that the inherently desolate

environments like deserts remain largely inconducive to cultivation of many life forms, even

though the right conditions may be engineered with the intentions of sustainability. As Lyle

(1994) points out, "lack of fresh water near the soil surface is the major stumbling block to

restorative process" (p. 71).

7) Living Buildings, Neighborhoods, and Cities The development of 'Living Technologies' had to wait the advent of ecology. It

had also to wait the materials sciences to evolve to the point at which energy

efficient and environmentally responsive materials could be manufactured cost

effectively. (Lyle, 1994, p. 175)

The process of rehabilitation, regeneration, and restoration in Nature is never

instantaneous or speedy. Patiently persevering efforts are needed on many fronts: slowing down

or eliminating the ill-effects of growth; naturalizing the human activities, processes, and

environments; as well as refurbishing and revitalizing the natural systems. While ecological ruin,

environmental deterioration, and economic dislocation race ahead, Orr (2002) observes that "the

preservation of biological diversity, the transition to a solar society, the widespread application

of sustainable agriculture and forestry, population limits, the protection of basic human rights,

and democratic reform occur slowly" (p. 51).

Pointing the way to reestablish the correlation between architecture and biology, John

Todd insightfully points out that "the integrity of nature can guide us, for in the broadest, truest

sense, nature is the only thing that has proven adaptive and successful in the long run" (Van der

Ryn & Calthorpe, 1986, p. 141). Todd and Todd (1994) advocate the living machines as the new

"ecological paradigm" to be "a governing world view, and trigger adaptive behavior in

significant numbers of people" in hopes of creating "a renewed promise for the future" (p. 9).

With parallel motives, the Cascadia Region Green Building Council (Cascadia), in 2009,

"founded the International Living Building Institute (ILBI) to encourage the creation of Living

Buildings, Sites and Communities in countries around the world while inspiring, educating and

motivating a global audience about the need for fundamental and transformative change" (ILBI,

2010, p. 47). The ILBI is a non-governmental organization "dedicated to the creation of a truly

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sustainable built environment in all countries around the world". "Comprised of leading green

building experts, futurists and thought-leaders, we believe that providing a compelling vision for

the future is a fundamental requirement of reconciling humanity's relationship to the natural

world" (ILBI, 2010, p. 47).

In 2005, Jason McLennan, one of the prominent authors for ILBI, turned the theoretical

idea of a 'living' building into a codified standard, which was introduced as an ambitious

initiative for global change in the form of 'Living Building Challenge' version 1.0. The Living

Challenge evolves over time but remains deeply embedded in the theory and practice of

biological and ecological design principles originally developed by the New Alchemy Institute.

Much like the LEED program of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the ILBI seeks to

stimulate the germination and spread of the 'living technologies' at the building, neighborhood,

and city scales through the Living Challenge program.

The vision behind the Living Challenge is broadly shared within the ecological design

arena by many authors, experts, and visionaries who expand different aspects of the biological,

ecological, sustainable, green, and living design principles that take Nature as a model and

context. McDonough and Braungart (1998), for instance, challenge design professionals as well

as citizens to imagine a building as a kind of a tree, which could purify air, accrue solar income,

produce more than it consumes, create shade and habitat, enrich soil, and change with the season

(p. 138). Operating primarily within the industrial processes and systems, McDonough and

Braungart (1998) define the challenge as the design of "a system of production that: releases

fewer pounds of toxic material into the air, water and soil every year; measures prosperity by

less activity; meets or exceeds the stipulation of thousands of complex regulations that aim to

keep people and natural systems from being poisoned too quickly; produces fewer dangerous

materials that will require constant vigilance from future generations; results in smaller amounts

of waste; puts fewer valuable materials in holes all over the planet, where they can never be

retrieved; and standardizes and homogenizes biological species and cultural practices" (p. 90).

The ILBI (2010) asserts, with legitimate concern, that when compared to the rate of

change required in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change and other environmental

challenges, "our progress has been minute and barely recordable" (p. 6). "It is our belief that less

than a few decades remain to completely reshape the humanity's relationship with Nature and

realign our ecological footprint to be within the planet's carrying capacity" (ILBI, 2010, p. 6).

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The Living Building Challenge operates under four Typologies, into which all projects

are categorized, namely: Renovation, Landscape, Building, and Neighborhood. The Challenge

integrates the New Urbanist Transect model, 'Living Transect', and encourages "the transition of

suburban zones either to grow into new urban areas with greater density, or be dismantled and

repurposed as new rural zones for food production, habitat and ecosystem services" (ILBI, 2010,

p. 8).

The Living Challenge constitutes seven 'petals', which present different subsequent

requirements as follows:

1) Site: establishes Limits on Growth, encourages Urban Agriculture at varying

densities, stimulates Habitat Exchange, and Car Free Living

2) Water: urges Net Zero Water import on all sites, integrates Ecological Water Flow

3) Energy: promotes Net Zero Energy practices on site

4) Health: values Civilized Environment, targets Healthy Air, propagates Biophilia

5) Materials: features a Red List, considers Embodied Carbon Footprint, partners with

Responsible Industry practices, seeks Appropriate Sourcing, supports Conservation

and Reuse

6) Equity: celebrates Human Scale and Human Places, seeks Democracy and Social

Justice, assigns Rights To Nature

7) Beauty: stimulates Beauty and Spirit, advocates Inspiration and Education

In addressing the subtle relationships between density and sustainability of living urban

environments, McLennan (2009a) encourages formation of "carbon-neutral cities with

decentralized neighborhood and building scale systems" where the energy and water

independency, as well as the on-site generation and reuse become primary requirements for the

Living Buildings and Neighborhoods of the future (p. 29).

With the increased densities in human environments come other types of issues such as

carrying capacity of the land, transportation effectiveness, security, passive survivability,

vulnerability to disruptions, ease of servicing energy and water needs, reliance on 'globally-

sourced materials' for building and maintenance, all effectively reducing the environmental

resilience. The optimal range, he observes, "tends to be in the four-to-eight story height range at

densities between 30 to 100 dwelling units per acre", which provides the best mix of energy

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efficiencies while maintaining "a fundamental human-to-nature connection" (McLennan, 2009a,

p. 28).

Discussing another dimension of humankind's inborn need for Nature within the city,

'Biophilia', McLennan (2009a) notes that "when density is disproportionate to nature and we are

disconnected from our earthly surroundings, we face the very real risk of what writer Richard

Louv has identified as 'Nature Deficit Disorder'" (p. 31). Consequently, the ILBI recommends a

sensible balance of development density with building heights not too high for users to see faces

on the streets.

Carbon neutrality is another significant area of focus within the Living Building

Challenge. In responding to concerns from some of design professionals, McLennan (2010b)

asserts that the "living buildings are intended to strive for the highest level of environmental

performance currently possible, using nature as both metaphor and measuring stick. Which

means that combustion has no place in them" (p. 52).

One of the fundamental arguments on the human environment for living naturally comes

from Orr (2002), who poses the questions: "can our use of the world be transformed from

desecration to sacrament? Is it possible to create a society that lives within its ecological means,

taking no more than it needs, replacing what it takes, depleting neither its natural capital nor its

people, one that is ecologically and also humanly sustaining?" (p. 178). Perhaps these

dimensions of ecological and environmental sustainability are yet to be formulated.

Eco-Sense is one of the 'Living' status certified projects with Petal Recognition located in

Victoria, BC, Canada, which exemplifies "a sustainable home that functions as a part of the eco-

system". With a conservation first philosophy, the project features "passive solar design, solar

PV with grid tie, net zero electricity, energy and water conservation, solar thermal hot water,

composting toilets, rain water harvesting, graywater re-use, a living roof, earthen floors and

natural finishes into their exceptionally beautiful, modern and affordable version of Earthen

Architecture" (www.ilbi.org).

The Eco-Sense project, designed by Ann and Gord Baird in 2008, is 2,500 sq. ft. house

plus owner-occupied outbuildings. Originally a brownfield, the conditions of the 7.5 acres site

are greatly improved from an ecological perspective and most of the buildings have living roofs

planted with native plants. Of the estimated 20,872 gal annual water use 38,596 gal is harvested

on-site by a 10,000 gallon water cistern. Rainwater and groundwater well are basic sources of

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water for domestic use, where 20,872 gal of graywater is used for irrigating the organic garden

and the orchard. The estimated annual water use with composting toilets is 3,478 gal per capita

where the living roof filters the rainwater in addition to assisting stormwater management,

beauty, habitat replacement, longevity, quiet, insulation, and solar PV panel temperature

reduction goals. Twelve 175W PV modules provide a 2kW DC electric supply to an 800 amp

hour battery servicing fridges, freezer, pumps, controllers and LED lighting wired for 24 VDC.

The actual annual electricity usage is 24,998 kWh (34.1 kWh/ sq. ft.), of which 2,469 kWh is

generated on-site. The house is grid-tied to BC Hydro via a 3.5kW Outback inverter. A solar

thermal combination system, with a 120 gallon solar boiler, supplies domestic hot water and

hydronic earthen floor heating (www.ilbi.org).

From the environmental restoration standpoint the Eco-Sense project features a

combination of the most ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible technologies

available today, including improvement of native ecological elements, on-site energy and food

production. The application of a majority of these 'living' design strategies are possible, in fact

critically vital, for the naturalization of urban environments.

Tyson Living Learning Center is a 'Living' status certified (version 1.3) project located in

Eureka, MO (the Heartland bioregion), which exemplifies "a true whole building approach to

achieve net zero energy, minimizing energy demand while maximizing efficiency". Firstly, the

project limits the amount of required energy for consumption, and secondly, provides an on-site

renewable form of energy generation capable of handling the demands, estimated to be

approximately 10 kWh per sq. ft. per year (www.ilbi.org).

This 2,968 sq. ft. project, designed by Hellmuth and Bicknese Architects in 2009, is an

addition to the Living Learning Center at Washington University's Tyson Research Institute, a

2,000 acre field station located just outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area. Located in an L3

Transect, the Tyson Living Learning Center substantially reclaims a degraded parking lot and

restores 24,751 sq. ft. of native habitat by introducing a rain garden and landscaped areas. The

building features many natural resource technologies including domestic water system with a

capacity of 13,000 gallon harvested rainwater, graywater irrigation system, and a natural

blackwater composting system. The project employs other renewable energy systems such as

solar roof and pole mounted PV panels, which generate 22,985 kWh of electricity in supply of

the actual annual demand of 21,291 kWh at an approximate rate of 33.1 kWh/sq. ft.

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The energy efficient design of the Tyson Center integrates proper building orientation,

high efficiency glass, shading of exterior glazing, high R-value insulation, point-of-use domestic

water heating, utilization of natural ventilation, high efficiency HVAC systems, demand control

ventilation, daylighting of occupied spaces, lighting controls, Energy Star appliances and

equipment, as well as owner training on efficient building operations. Other renewable energy

sources such as wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass boilers were also evaluated and

deemed inapplicable to the project.

From the environmental restoration standpoint the Tyson Living Learning Center project

also employs the most ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible strategies

currently achievable. The project is an especially important example of restoring native

ecological systems, on-site energy generation.

8) Green Urbanism Cities can be fundamentally greener and more natural. Indeed, in contrast to the

historic opposition of things urban and things natural, cities are fundamentally

embedded in a natural environment. They can, moreover, be reenvisioned to

operate and function in natural ways – they can be restorative, renourishing, and

replenishing of nature, and in short like natural ecosystems: cities like forests, like

prairies, like wetlands. (Beatley, 2000, p. 198)

The Green Urbanist movement springs from the immensely influential observations of

Timothy Beatley on planning and design theories, in which he insightfully observes the key

ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible features and potentials of urban areas.

Green Urbanism is defined as "the practice of creating communities that are mutually beneficial

to humans and the environment" (GU Summit, 2009, p. 2). The principles of Green Urbanism

seem to appropriately address a multitude of environmental issues ranging from land use, urban

form, housing, urban ecology, car-free transportation, bike-friendly mobility to renewable energy

generation, ecological governance and sustainable economy. Beatley's work remains a solid

foundation and an inspirational theoretical framework for 'green' urban redevelopment. A

significant portion of the Green Urbanism methodology is concentrated on the use and

integration of solar powered technologies among other renewable resources and practices.

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Beatley (2000) also outlines a spectrum of existing patterns and conceivable future strategies

specifically within the major metropolitan regions of the world where many practices have

already been proven to work effectively toward reducing the ecological and carbon footprint of

larger populations.

Calthorpe (2011) similarly analyzes the fundamental characteristics of urban areas and

concludes that "certainly cities are green...on a per capita basis, they require less land, less auto

travel, less energy, and less carbon. But this message may well oversimplify the complex,

multilayered urban and regional strategies that are key to our future" (p. 4). Consequently, he

argues that more than isolated, self-sufficient, 'sustainable communities' or even 'green cities',

"we need 'sustainable regions' – places that carefully blend a broad range of technologies,

settlement patterns, and lifestyles" (Calthorpe, 2011, p. 4).

The Green Urbanist design principles are really relevant and applicable at all levels of

environmental design. At the district scale level, for instance, the strategies focus on integrated

natural areas, ecological waterways, tree corridors, parks, and open spaces. And at the building

scale, they prescribe special attention to the greenroofs, courtyards, green walls, streets,

balconies, which integrate 'greening' methods of reducing hard surfaces, collecting rainwater,

recycling graywater, conserving water within 'urban gardens' (Beatley, 2000). The inspiring

promise of Beatley's approach is that a significant majority of these features are inherently

available and easily achievable elements in many urban areas.

Beatley (2004) further offers a series of essential design qualities primarily for the urban

spaces, which target meaningful renewal and rehabilitation of places. He asserts that

"meaningful and happy lives require connections to nature, and real places provide the contact

with nature and our physical surroundings that are also necessary" (Beatley, 2004, p. 9). He

proposes creation and redefinition of 'real places' where unique qualities, character, history,

natural environmental ecosystems, landscapes, as well as artistic impulses of local places would

be magnified in ways that value and establish strong connections to Nature (p. 14). "Being

native to somewhere means working toward the creation of real places, places that are genuine

and authentic, not replicas or copies" (Beatley, 2004, p. 23).

Examining many cities around the United States, Canada and Europe including Portland,

Seattle, Denver, Austin, Vancouver, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beatley

(2004) discusses a wide range of findings and suggestions for 'greening' of urban areas (p. 48).

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Being intimately familiar with the necessity of accomplishing numerous goals simultaneously he

reemphasizes the importance of containing sprawl, promoting compact urban infill development,

increasing diversity, reconstructing walkability culture, supporting small, local community,

protecting, restoring and designing-in Nature, and revitalizing ecology, heritage, resources,

cultural life, and local renewable energy resources that are native to any given location or place.

The 2009 Green Urbanism Summit, one of peak events in the Green Urbanist movement,

establishes that "a combination of principles and practices with a high level of ambition such that

the end result could address the vast scale of urban problems in the 21st century" (p. 3). The

agenda of the Summit guides professionals and experts toward developing "a post-carbon

economy that is based on local cycles of investing, making, fixing, trading, and growing, instead

of pure consumption of globally produced goods" (GU Summit, 2009, p. 4). The Summit poses

and attempts to answer critical questions such as: "How do you design a city like an

ecosystem?" "What is the right benchmark for a sustainable city?" "How do you integrate the

many components of urbanism to generate the synergies necessary to create a sustainable place?"

(GU Summit, 2009, p. 14). "With shifting environmental qualities, a changing economy, and

ongoing challenges in ensuring fairness and equity, for Green Urbanism to be relevant, it must be

multi-faceted, nimble, and responsive to the understanding that the questions that seem hard

today will only be more challenging in the years ahead" (GU Summit, 2009, p. 17).

An outstanding example of Green Urbanism is the Viikki Eco-Neighborhood, located in

Helsinki, Finland. It is one of the exemplary 'green-urban' projects that illustrate an "opportunity

to implement applied research and development as well as to test ecological solutions

immediately in the field" (Eco-Viikki, 2005, p. 2). The neighborhood is "a sustainable, healthy

and amendable living environment, where practical solutions save energy and reduce the amount

of waste generated", by establishing "ecological building criteria" for "environmentally friendly

energy and environment solutions" (www.environment.fi).

Under planning and construction since 1989, the Viikki ecological neighborhood plan,

developed by the winner of 1994 planning competition, architect Petri Laaksonen, and the block

level ecological design strategies, developed by the winner of 1996 design competition, Hunga-

Hunga Architects (Eco-Viikki, 2005, p. 9). The competition criteria for this 23 hectare

residential project for 1,700 residents establish specific pollution, natural resource, health,

biodiversity, and nutrition goals summarized as the 'PIMWAG Criteria' (Eco-Viikki, 2005, p.

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13). The ecological design strategies prescribe the utilization of specific strategies such as solar

energy, adaptable multistory wood buildings, natural ventilation, shared saunas, natural low-

energy environments, glazed balconies and conservatories, as well as allotment gardens which

Beatley (2000) refers to as 'horticulture centers' to be rented out to residents (p. 222). The eco-

neighborhood incorporates streets and buildings relying primarily on solar, geothermal, wind,

and biofuel resources where considerable savings and reductions on water usage, energy

consumption, waste generation, soil and environmental depletion have been achieved through

meticulous data monitoring systems (Eco-Viikki, 2005, p. 36).

From the environmental restoration perspective the Viikki Eco-Neighborhood is an

inspirational example for implementation strategies on numerous ecologically responsive

technologies which include on-site energy and food production in suburban settings. However, it

may arguably be another example of a well-intentioned 'greenfield' development that serves to

spread low-density suburbia.

Hammarby Sjöstad is another illustrious 'green-urban' environment located in Stockholm,

Sweden. This project exemplifies the imposition of "tough environmental requirements on

buildings, technical installations and the traffic environment", developing "a common eco-cycle

model – known as 'The Hammarby Model' that requires the resultant environment impacts to be

on average about 50 % lower than that of corresponding, newly constructed development

projects (www.hammarbysjostad.se).

The Hammarby Model focuses on six major aspects of urban 'greening' as follows:

1) Land usage: sanitary redevelopment, reuse and transformation of old brownfield sites

into residential areas with beautiful parks and green public spaces

2) Energy: renewable fuels, biogas products and reuse of waste heat coupled with

efficient energy consumption in buildings

3) Water and Sewage: as clean and efficient as possible, both input and output, with the

aid of new technology for water saving and sewage treatment

4) Waste: thoroughly sorted in practical systems, with material and energy recycling

maximized wherever possible

5) Transportation: fast, attractive public transport combined with car pools and beautiful

cycle paths, in order to reduce private car usage

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6) Building materials: healthy, dry and environmentally sound

(www.hammarbysjostad.se).

The Eco-Cycle model specifically used in this project is composed of three major

sustainability components. First one of these is the Energy component, where combustible

wastes are converted into district heating and electricity. Biofuels from nature are converted into

district heating and electricity, and heat from treated wastewater is converted into district heating

and district cooling. Solar cells convert solar energy into electricity, and solar panels utilize

solar energy to heat water where electricity must be a 'Good Environmental Choice' product, or

equivalent.

The second component of the model is Water and Sewage, where water consumption is

reduced through the use of eco-friendly installations such as low flush toilets and air mixer taps.

A pilot wastewater treatment plant has been built specifically for the area in order to evaluate

new sewage treatment techniques. Digestion is used to extract biogas from the sewage sludge,

and the digested biosolids are used for fertilization. Rainwater from yards and roofs is drained

into Hammarby Sjö, rather than into the wastewater treatment plant. Also the rainwater from

streets is treated locally using settling basins and then drained into Hammarby Sjö, rather than

being drained into the wastewater treatment plant.

The third component is Waste, which is handled by an automated disposal system with

various deposit chutes. The system includes block-based units of recycling rooms and an area-

based environmental station system that helps the residents sort their wastes. Organic wastes are

converted and digested into biosolids and used as fertilizer. Combustible wastes are converted

into district heating and electricity. And, all recyclable materials are sent out for recycling

(newspapers, glass, cardboard, metal, etc.). Hazardous wastes are incinerated or recycled

(GlashusEtt, 2007, p. 33).

From the environmental restoration perspective, the Hammarby Sjöstad presents an

outstanding example of integration of ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible

'green-urban' strategies within existing urban environments, which exercise managed growth,

measured consumption, shared resources, and maximized recycling. Perhaps there is still room

for further increases in the supported population densities, as well as local food production

levels.

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Supporting Strategies In the landscape of urban transformations toward environmental rehabilitation and

sustainability there is even a greater number and variety of design trends that make up the rest of

the picture. The majority of these design trends are either necessitated by or devised for much

narrower purposes. Some are highly specialized while others are well on their way to become

local and regional standards, all of them ultimately supporting the restoration of the natural

environment in one form or another. For the most part, these trends fulfill important roles within

the overall transformation of the urban fabric, where they provide supporting strategies to close

gaps and patch holes in the rehabilitation of the urbanized areas.

The group of such trends or movements specifically selected as part of the resource

review and analyses of this study include Urban Redevelopment and Infill, Transit-Oriented

Developments, the Hannover Principles, LEED-Neighborhood Development, Growth

Management, Urban Agriculture, the Natural Capitalism, Renewable Sources of Energy and

Materials, and the Next Industrial Revolution. Even though occasionally there may appear slight

conflicts and contradictions among various strategies of these design trends those conflicts are

often readily discernable and not too significant. The following sections critically analyze each

trend with respect to its potential contribution toward environmental restoration.

1) Urban Redevelopment and Infill Urban redevelopment and infill projects have become a planning and design specialty

within the last few decades. With the rising and falling tide of local markets and economies the

forces that shape the real estate landscape in the urban areas tend to change accordingly. While

some land and real estate owners are better endowed for survival than others the majority of

players change over time as well. As the forces and the players in the landscape change, so do

the shape and form of the urban environments. This fluidity in the urban fabric is often shaped

by the incumbent market forces and reflected in the human activities. The location, pattern and

size of uses, densities, and proximities among different urban facilities, amenities, activities,

attractions within convenient transportation networks play significant roles in determining the

scale and scope of urban redevelopment and infill projects.

Concentrating on the effects of redevelopment planning, Calthorpe and Fulton (2001)

record that "physical design plays a central role in the long-term effectiveness of many efforts to

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renew urban life" (p. 243). They point out that more and more cities value "their overall

urbanity, rather than singular features". Indeed, the general awareness of urbanism today is well

beyond "just the new convention center, downtown mall, or a growing central business district

that make a city workable", encompassing "the historic neighborhoods, mixed-use districts, and

civic places that sets it apart" (Calthorpe and Fulton, 2001, p. 243).

The environmental policies, guidelines, laws and regulations behind urban redevelopment

and infill are also critically important aspects that tremendously effect outcomes. In his prophecy

based on gasoline prices, Steiner (2009) predicts that "zoning laws like everything else, will

yield and reform around the realities of $12 gasoline. Bureaucratic obstacles will be no match

for the financial and demographic necessities that densification will represent" (p. 140). He

further expects that "changing zoning laws, in a future of higher energy prices, will allow the

return of more than densely packed buildings. The neighborhoods store, the corner bakery, the

butcher shop – these places will return to our urban neighborhoods. Older American cities and

inner-ring suburbs are pocked with buildings that, at one time were clearly storefronts of some

sort" (Steiner, 2009, p. 140).

Calthorpe (1993) presents a fundamentally different redevelopment approach based

primarily on "understanding the qualities of nature in each place, expressing it in the design of

communities, integrating it within our towns, and respecting its balance" (p.25). He points out to

the important role these 'essential ingredients' play in "making the human place sustainable and

spiritually nourishing", and describes the "preservation and care of a region's natural ecologies"

as the "fundamental prerequisite of a sustainable and humane urbanism" (Calthorpe, 1993, 25).

In physical terms, as Calthorpe argues, regardless of the impetus behind the initiatives to

influence and change the existing urban fabric, the end-results have to be sustainable as well as

humane.

Urban redevelopment and infill projects are immensely valuable opportunities in

rehabilitating and improving the existing built environments toward higher living quality and

sustainability goals. Around successfully completed redevelopment projects in any given

context, further interests and investments tend to germinate rather expeditiously. Therefore, the

infill opportunities have to be taken full advantage of by reasonably anticipating possible future

alterations as well.

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Mixed-use or multi-use urban infill projects are especially effective in providing more

sustainable lifestyles and improving quality of life for their inhabitants. Depending on the scale,

size, location, and nature of these projects, the introduced uses, e.g. housing, office, retail,

hospitality, recreation, etc., need to be evaluated at neighborhood and even district scales, where

local population density, economic activity, transportation, legal, financial, and policy patterns

greatly influence the outcomes.

As the number and kinds of human settlements increase, specialized neighborhood

redevelopment types of projects similar to the Eco-District efforts by Portland Oregon

Sustainability Institute (POSI) tend to become not only possible and but desirable. Brickman

(2009) defines an Eco-District as "a neighborhood that generates all its energy from on-site

renewables, collects and recycles rainwater and waste, and prioritizes pedestrian, bike, and

transit access. It combines mixed use, mixed income development, neighborhood scale parks,

schools, community centers and services, and enhanced IT infrastructure" (p. 27). The Eco-

District Initiative in Portland continues to develop localized pilot plans for five Portland Eco-

Districts.

The sustainability roles of dense, compact, walkable, and bikeable communities are well-

researched and documented in the literature on the urban design practices aimed at reducing

human impacts. The environmental benefits of urban infill projects become more obvious when

they are densified, diversified, and situated within a network of various public transportation

modes. Calthorpe (1981), for instance, recognizes that "the form and density of housing, the

land-use patterns, and the resulting transportation systems have a much greater potential for

energy savings than any solar applications" (p. 317). Similarly, Calthorpe (1993) observes that

"many studies of land-use and transit energy consumption have reached identical conclusions:

Higher-density, mixed-use environments in all cases required less transit per capita" (p. 54).

2) LEED-Neighborhood Development The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has been rigorously applying

implementational tools to operationalize widespread sustainable planning and design practices at

building and site design scales since 1993. The exemplary work and outstanding success of the

USGBC at these scales was expanded in 2009 to include neighborhood development at urban

design scale with the introduction of LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND).

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LEED-ND (2009) primarily focuses on the land use and neighborhood design patterns

aiming at improving 'environmental performance' through the configuration of land uses and

transportation, which "accounts for roughly one-third of greenhouse gas emissions, a large

portion of which can be attributed to personal automobile use" (p. xi). The system intends to

promote pedestrian-oriented and mixed-use developments while preventing sprawl and

protecting endangered habitats, sensitive lands and water bodies, as well as farmlands.

The design stimulation perpetuated by LEED-ND encourages the proximate provision of

housing and work places targeting the reduction of car trips. The USGBC acknowledges that

"mixed-use development and walkable streets encourage walking, bicycling, and public

transportation for daily errands and commuting. Environmentally responsible buildings and

infrastructure are an important component of any green neighborhood, further reducing

greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing energy consumption. Green buildings and infrastructure

also lessen negative consequences for water resources, air quality, and natural resource

consumption" (LEED-ND, 2009, p. xi).

The LEED-ND (2009) rating system places special emphasis on "the site selection,

design, and construction elements that bring buildings and infrastructure together into a

neighborhood and relate the neighborhood to its landscape as well as its local and regional

context" (p. xii). The USGBC records that LEED-ND (2009) "has been guided by sources such

as the Smart Growth Network's ten principles of smart growth, the charter of the Congress for

the New Urbanism, and other LEED rating systems" providing incentives for "better location,

design, and construction of new residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments" (p. xii).

The rating system is comprised of a total of five sections, featuring prerequisites and

available credits on a range of design variables as follows:

1) Smart Location and Linkage (SSL)

2) Neighborhood Pattern and Design (NPD)

3) Green Infrastructure and Buildings (GIB)

4) Innovation and Design Process (IDP)

5) Regional Priority Credit (RPC)

The first section is 'Smart Location and Linkage' (SLL), which has 27 possible points,

with prerequisites such as Smart Location, Imperiled Species and Ecological Communities,

Wetland and Water Body Conservation, Agricultural Land Conservation, and Floodplain

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Avoidance. The prerequisites are to be absolutely avoided. The rest of the available credits

range from Brownfield Redevelopment and Reduced Automobile Dependence to Housing and

Jobs Proximity or several specific credits to stimulate Habitat, Wetland, Water Body

Conservation and Restoration.

Secondly, the 'Neighborhood Pattern and Design' (NPD) section offers 44 possible points,

where the prerequisites are Walkable Streets, Compact Development, Connected and Open

Community. The available credits of this section build upon these basic requirements and

encourage the use various design features from Walkable Streets and Mixed-Use Neighborhood

Centers to Transportation Demand Management and Local Food Production.

The third section, 'Green Infrastructure and Buildings' (GIB), includes 29 possible points

where the prerequisite requirements are Certified Green Buildings, Minimum Building Energy

Efficiency, Minimum Building Water Efficiency, as well as Construction Activity Pollution

Prevention. Water-Efficiency, Existing Building Reuse, Historic Resource Preservation, and On-

Site Renewable Energy Sources are among the available credits.

The 'Innovation and Design Process' (IDP) section offers a total of 5 possible points in

'Innovation and Exemplary Performance' and 1 possible credit for 'LEED Accredited

Professional'. And finally, the fifth section of the LEED-ND (2009) checklist is 'Regional

Priority Credit' (RPC), which is only 1 possible credit for Regional Priority. Hence, the LEED-

ND (2009) has 106 possible points that are strategically designed to stimulate design patterns

that are critically essential to creating ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible

human settlements.

The LEED-ND (2009) rating system has the hopeful potential to fulfill important roles in

the environmental regulation and requirements arena for sustainable urban planning and design

practices. Although currently it is not widely enacted and legally adopted for regulation, the

LEED-ND creates an extremely workable operational framework for businesses, organizations,

institutions, governments, and markets, which are highly likely to adopt these guidelines in the

very near future as with earlier LEED rating systems. The preservation, conservation, and

restoration strategies for habitat, wetlands, and water bodies are encouraging aspects of this new

LEED system. Especially the design strategies encouraging the integration of food production,

renewable energies, efficiencies, as well as shared facilities and systems have the potential to

renew the entire urban landscape.

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There are a few projects in the rating system that have already been certified in all the

categories. The Emeryville Marketplace project, for example, is such a vibrant, pedestrian- and

transit-oriented community redevelopment located in Emeryville, CA. It transforms an

"outdated, suburban, auto-dominated commercial project" on an existing site of "a trucking

terminal and a brownfield site". The Emeryville Marketplace, developed by TMG Partners and

designed by Heller Manus Architects in 2008, is planned to have 1.2 million sq. ft. mixture of

dense residential, office, and retail uses on a 14 acre site that integrates approximately 3 acres of

open and natural reserve areas. The project is "the first LEED for Neighborhood Development

project in the nation to achieve Platinum certification for its plan". The project features reuse

and remediation of a brownfield site, reuse of existing structures, taking advantage of existing

transit, housing, and jobs. The redevelopment plan introduces 'green design features and

programs' such as green roofs, native plant landscaping, open space and natural habitat

(www.usgbc.org).

From the environmental restoration standpoint, the Emeryville Marketplace accomplishes

certain sustainable urban design objectives such as contiguous development, compactness,

densification, walkability, mixture and diversity of uses. The project attains the LEED-ND

Platinum certification by achieving a total of 87 out of 106 possible points (www.usgbc.org).

A second example is the Twinbrook Station located in Rockville, MD. This is a transit-

oriented development project that is a joint effort between The JBG Companies and The

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The project transforms 26 acres

of existing commuter parking lots adjacent to the red line of the Metro subways system. The

Twinbrook Station project, designed by Torti Gallas & Partners in 2008, introduces a full built-

out total of 2.2 million sq. ft. mixture of 1,595 residential units, 325,000 sq. ft. office, and

220,000 sq. ft. retail uses on the site that integrates some open space and natural areas. The

project is also a recognized Smart Growth project by the Washington Smart Growth Alliance,

recipient of International Charter Award For Excellence from the Congress for the New

Urbanism, and "the first project in the Washington, DC area to be awarded Stage 2 LEED for

Neighborhood Development Gold-level certification for its plan". The integrated 'green building'

patterns feature "green operations and cleaning plans, as well as organic gardening practice".

The new buildings feature "energy- and water-efficient design strategies, as well as waste

management and recycling programs" (www.usgbc.org).

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From the environmental restoration standpoint, the Twinbrook Station also accomplishes

many sustainable urban design objectives such as compact, dense development, walkability,

mixture and diversity of uses, as well as integrating many green technologies. The project

attains the LEED-ND Gold certification by achieving a total of 66 out of 106 possible points.

3) Transit-Oriented Development In the literature on ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible design auto-

dependency and lack of public transportation opportunities in a significant portion of the

urbanized world are cited to be the root-causes of current energy and environmental problems.

Among many authors, Calthorpe (2011) for instance states that at the center of "energy and

carbon problems in the United States – and in many developing countries in the not-too-distant

future – is transportation" (p. 17). Indeed, the public transportation systems and different modes

of mass transit play prominent roles in the sustainable redevelopment of the urbanized regions.

From this perspective, perhaps one of the most environmentally responsible

developments in the planning of sustainable human environs has been the advancement of

Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) in recent years. Especially in moderate to highly

urbanized areas, some TODs are arguably among the most successful applications of

environmentally friendly and responsible design intelligence as well as sustainability principles

available to us today.

One of the pioneers in the TOD arena, Calthorpe (1993), defines a Transit-Oriented

Development as "a mixed-use community within an average 2,000 feet walking distance of a

transit stop and core commercial area; mixing residential, retail, office, open space, and public

space in a walkable environment; making it convenient for transit, bike and foot" (p. 56).

Calthorpe (2011) expands on the TOD experience as "a cross-cutting approach to development

that can do more than help diversify our transportation system, it also offers a new range of

development patterns for households, businesses, towns, and cities" (p. 86).

Steiner (2009) asserts that in our current world, with our current attachments to individual

transportation, "the New York City subway system, built anew, could not happen. But the world

of $12 gas will be much different. In that world, subway systems will romp across our cities and

course beneath our homes, rerouting America toward an urban ideal" (p. 114).

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Many institutions such as the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Transit

Administration (FTA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Green Building

Council (USGBC), the Smart Growth America (SGA), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the

Center of Transit Oriented Development (CDOT) among countless others have been particularly

instrumental in spreading the theoretical and practical awareness on this highly specialized

planning, design and development type through a wealth of books, publications, and events.

TODs, by their very nature, require extensive and long-term public-private partnerships

in addition to public transportation planning expertise relating directly to the location and

operation of transit stations. The landscape design theory in the field of TODs is dominated by

the leading research and cutting edge design experts such as Robert Cervero, G.B. Arrington, PB

PlaceMaking, Calthorpe Associates and Cooper Cary among many others.

Successful TODs are most often realized through highly collaborative undertakings

among many public and private institutions. And, most commonly in larger scale projects, a city

or county government initiates the project with land entitlements, financial capital commitments,

special tax incentives and other regulatory contributions. These contributions are typically

matched by those of a public transportation authority, which also commits significant design,

engineering, construction, operation and maintenance resources toward realization of the project.

Other stakeholder institutions, groups and individuals – such as recreational, educational or civic

entities – may also make significant contributions in exchange for certain rights as well.

Focusing on the best practices of TODs, Dittmar and Ohland (2004) draw attention to the

overall effectiveness of TODs in "creating and exploiting synergies: between the community

and the region, between jobs and housing, between levels of density and levels of transit service,

between people and a vibrant community life, and among different generations, income levels,

and people" (p. 36). In practice today, the only conceivable disadvantage of a TOD may be its

inherent dependence of the availability, longevity and consistency of the supporting transit

systems.

The determination of appropriate size and mix of uses in a TOD, more than any other

project, carries critically important nuances vital to the long-term livability and sustainability of a

project. A TOD is literally designed around a transit station, typically with a commercial core.

The experts in operational planning of a transit project, Cervero, Ferrell and Murphy (2002), note

that "most TOD design guidelines are careful to note that the type of commercial and retail uses

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should be informed by neighborhood objectives, market realities, and existing development

patterns" (p. 89).

As discussed earlier, most TOD projects accomplish the intrinsic sustainable goals of

enjoyable, walkable, pedestrian-oriented, compact development patterns with increased urban

densities and balanced mixture of uses. Some of the most published Transit-Oriented

Developments in the United States include Rosslyn Ballston Corridor - Alexandria, VA; Pearl

District Portland, OR; Downtown - Silver Spring, MD; LoDo - Denver, CO; Bethesda Row -

Bethesda, MD. A shortfall of these kinds of denser, more urban projects settings is perhaps the

lack of better opportunities to integrate more natural areas, open spaces, and ecosystems

primarily due to the financial pressures and the physical constraints.

Richmond Transit Village is an exemplary urban infill project located in Richmond, CA.

It illustrates a mixed-use, transit-oriented infill project that "provides high-density housing

within walking distance of BART". The Village successfully transforms an "underutilized land

while promoting transit ridership and home ownership", helps "revitalize the historic commercial

core", and encourages "other mixed use projects in the area". This urban infill project, designed

by Calthorpe Associates and completed in 2006, improves a 17 acre site providing convenient

access to the station from the new village as well as Downtown Richmond. In addition to other

neighborhood amenities such as parks and a small performing arts center, the redesigned transit

plaza now features shops and restaurants catering to the commuters as well as the residents, who

enjoy a variety of housing types, with many of the townhomes designed for live-work

(www.calthorpe.com).

From the environmental restoration perspective, although the Richmond Transit Village

accomplishes a series of fundamentally sustainable urban design practices such as compactness,

walkability, mixture and reliance on public transit and so on, it lacks any significant attempts to

incorporate on-site water generation of renewable energies or food and waste management

techniques. In this sense, the project appears to contribute to the spread of well-intentioned

'greenfield' developments that, in effect, expand the low to mid-density suburbia.

Uptown District is a dense urban infill, neighborhood revitalization plan, located in

Oakland, CA that successfully transforms an underutilized land while promoting transit ridership

and home ownership while helping to revitalize the historic commercial core of Richmond and

encouraged other mixed use projects in the area. The Uptown District Concept Plan, developed

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by Calthorpe Associates and finalized in 2005, proposes development of 2,350 residential units

i.e. 1,100 mid-rise apartments, 900 high-rise condominiums, 350 off-campus dorms as well as

150,000 sq. ft. of commercial uses served by transit, located adjacent to the newly-renovated

Civic Center and downtown. By introducing a significant density of residential units primarily

for the benefit of UC Berkeley students, the Concept Plan results in an energetic and active

community, safer neighborhood, which spurs retail and entertainment activity on adjacent streets

(www.calthorpe.com).

The Uptown District Concept Plan aspires to accomplish a series of sustainable urban

planning practices such as compactness, densification, walkability, mixture and diversity of uses

and so forth it lacks serious attempts to incorporate on-site water renewable, energy, food

generation and waste management techniques, which falls short of developing the full potentials

of the site, from the environmental restoration perspective.

4) Growth Management Growth in human populations, consumption, production, industries, and consequently the

built environment are normal, natural, and predictable trends for the urbanized areas. However,

the rampant and often unforeseen growth trends cause significant environmental, social, and

economical pressures, which require proper planning and design provisions.

The planning practices of the last few decades, including separation of land-uses and

auto-dependent design, especially around metropolitan areas are now seen to be ill-conceived,

poorly executed, and short-sighted with unpleasant, unhealthy, and costly-to-fix consequences.

One of the most frequent results of such development patterns is called 'urban sprawl', which is

typically defined as low density, non-walkable, auto-dependent, disjointed, and isolated

urbanized areas that generally lack innate environmental quality or distinguishable identity.

Realizing the importance of planning control and management over new development

patterns for the future of urban areas, Van der Ryn and Calthorpe (1986) recommend "converting

the scale of new development contiguous to existing suburbs toward the goal of greater social

and ecological sustainability, consistent with accepted economic practices" (p. 54). Indeed, this

very method is implemented today as part of 'growth management' in many developing urban

regions.

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At the core of planning efforts against urban sprawl, Calthorpe and Fulton (2001) place 'a

shared vision' for the community in focus, which "fosters a range of strategies to achieve

containment of growth and conservation of open space, better transit and ride-sharing use,

reduced dependency on single-occupancy vehicles, more energy efficient and less-polluting

development patterns, and a more equitable distribution of economic growth that benefits all

areas of the region" (p. 161). In planning for the end of sprawl, the experts conclude that the

remedy against sprawl as "not a forced march back to the city but a hierarchy of places – each

walkable and diverse – of various densities and various locations" (Calthorpe & Fulton, 2001, p.

274).

Especially in the last few decades, many planning jurisdictions in the United States and

Europe have been implementing policies and regulatory techniques to curb ill-effects of urban

sprawl and stabilize urban growth rates and patterns. Some of these control techniques are

defined as Growth Management tools, which are typically imposed to regulate expansion of

urban areas and to protect and preserve adjacent natural lands and resources. In the real world,

these tools translate to laws and regulations that specifically address infrastructure, land-use,

environmental impact, and other related development requirements, aimed at minimizing

economical, social and environmental impacts of unmanaged urbanization.

In the United States, one of the leading examples in the evolution of growth management

has been the adoption of 'Vision 2020' in the Seattle metropolitan region in the 1980s. The

Washington Growth Management Act is a landmark legislation that introduced a series of vital

regulations in order to accomplish several goals as follows:

1) Contain urban sprawl through the use of regional boundaries and a regional open-

space system

2) Organize urban development into compact communities, and focus on a hierarchy of

'central places' including urban centers throughout the region

3) Protect rural areas by promoting the use of rural lands for farming, forestry,

recreation, and other rural uses

4) Provide a greater variety of housing choices in all parts of the region including

accessory units, townhouses, and small-lot single-family houses

5) Create a regional transportation strategy that focuses on creating a high-frequency,

high-speed bus and rail transit system connecting the urban centers

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6) Identify Urban Growth Areas contiguous to existing urban areas

7) Require concurrent transportation and public facilities requirements

8) Include affordable housing requirements

9) Protect natural resources and environmentally critical areas (Calthorpe & Fulton,

2001, p.164).

Some of the most prominently utilized growth management regulations include Adequate

Public Facilities, Growth Phasing Programs, Urban Growth Boundaries, and Rate-of-Growth

Programs, where Comprehensive Programs may be any combination of these various techniques

(Kelly, 2004).

Growth management techniques are designed to regulate the timing, location, and rate of

growth in any given location. Perhaps among the most effective techniques is Adequate Public

Facilities (APF) requirements, which predicate the approval of developments contingent on the

availability of adequate public facilities. The APF requirements typically stipulate that adequate

infrastructure, roads, highways, and utilities to be provided prior to or during the implementation

of new development projects. In addition, the APF requirements also include various

government services such as police, fire fighting, education, libraries, recreation facilities, and so

on. Fort Lauderdale, FL and Livermore, CA are among the jurisdictions that employ Adequate

Public Facilities requirements (Kelly, 2004, p. 44).

Growth Phasing programs are another set of techniques typically prescribing the timing

and location of urban developments as part of a larger comprehensive plan adopted by a

jurisdiction, where subsequent development approvals are not issued unless the stipulations of

the program are satisfied. Ramapo, NY and Lexington, KY are exemplary cities that implement

growth phasing programs (Kelly, 2004, p.48).

Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) is arguably the most effective yet controversial growth

management technique as it establishes a permanent urban boundary outside of which no

development is allowed to occur. This technique achieves the preservation of open spaces,

natural areas and habitats adjacent to the urban areas, however, in the long run it exerts

tremendous pressures on the availability of developable urban land area, which constantly drives

up the real estate values and associated costs. Portland, OR, Boulder, CO and Seattle, WA have

self-imposed growth boundary regulations that are extensively researched, documented, and

debated in urban growth and planning literature (Kelly, 2004, p. 53).

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Rate-of-Growth program requirements specify exactly how much new growth is

acceptable within the urban areas in accordance with a long-term plan. The rate of growth

typically is expressed as a percentage, total number of units or square footage allowed to be

developed per year within a given jurisdiction. The growth is controlled by the size and number

of permits issued for development annually. Petaluma, CA and Boulder, CO are among the

cities that consistently implement this technique (Kelly, 2004, p. 55).

Finally, Comprehensive Programs are simply combinations of the aforementioned

techniques depending on the particular circumstances of the location and community. To

manage their patterns of growth Montgomery County, MD and Westminster, CO have a large

majority of these techniques implemented simultaneously (Kelly, 2004, p. 60).

In order for these programs to work properly, the towns, cities, and metropolitan regions

need to develop their own comprehensive plans that address the extent and nature of future

growth. As developing towns and cities approach one another and form a cohesive region the

cooperation and collaboration among the constituent governments become extremely important.

In many instances, market forces alone cannot resolve many issues related to the growth of

communities. Hence, Calthorpe and Fulton (2001) advocate the formation of regional growth

plans for larger urban regions where the issues within the resulting urban growth areas become

much more complex, depending on how the balances are established for "the goals of the local

communities with the goals of the region as a whole" (p. 187).

5) Natural Capitalism Another theory that is often used and extensively referenced in the sustainable urban

design literature is that of 'Natural Capital' (or 'Natural Capitalism'). The originators of the

theory, Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999), record that "natural capital can be viewed as the

sum total of the ecological systems that support life, different from human-made capital in that

natural capital cannot be produced by human activity. It is easy to overlook because it is the

pond in which we swim, like fish, we are not aware we're in the water" (p. 151).

Establishing ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible human settlements

starts with the understanding that Nature is the quintessential setting that must be valued,

preserved, and – today – restored. All natural elements, then, can be viewed as the 'natural

capital', including "the familiar resources used by humankind: water, minerals, oil, trees, fish,

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soil, air, et cetera. But it also encompasses living systems which include grasslands, savannas,

wetlands, estuaries, oceans, coral reefs, riparian corridors, tundras, and rainforests. [All of] these

are deteriorating worldwide at unprecedented rates" (Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p.2).

The struggling health, richness, and diversity of life are perhaps most directly evidenced

by the changes that are taking place in the global climate and the atmosphere. Hawken, Lovins

and Lovins (1999) observe that a healthy environment "automatically supplies not only clean air

and water, rainfall, ocean productivity, fertile soil, and watershed resilience but also such less-

appreciated functions as wastes processing (both natural and industrial), buffering against

extremes of weather, and regeneration of the atmosphere" (p. 3).

Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999) provide a concise inventory of the environmental

degradation and deterioration, and record that "besides climate, the changes in the biosphere are

widespread. In the past half century, the world has lost a fourth of its topsoil, and a third of its

forest cover. At present rates of destruction, we will lose 70% of the world's coral reefs in our

lifetime, host to 25 percent of marine life. In the past three decades, one-third of the planet's

resources, its 'natural wealth' has been consumed. We are losing freshwater ecosystems at the

rate of 6 percent a year, marine ecosystems by 4 percent a year. There is no longer any serious

scientific dispute that the decline in every living system in the world is reaching such levels that

an increasing number of them are starting to lose, often at a pace accelerated by the interactions

of their decline, their assured ability to sustain the continuity of the life process. We have

reached an extraordinary threshold" (p. 4).

Drawing a parallel to the conventional capitalism, which is fundamentally based on the

material prosperity, exploitation, and consumption patterns, the authors observe that "the

increasing removal of resources, their transportation and use, and their replacement with waste"

continues to steadily erode the Earth's stock of the 'natural capital' (p. 7). "By any measure, we

are destroying the most productive systems ever seen on earth while statistically blinding

ourselves to the problem. Economics cannot function as a reliable guide on the balance sheets of

companies, countries, and the world" (Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 54).

Hence, Hawken, Lovins, and Lovins (1999) offer the theory of Natural Capitalism to

stimulate the operation and growth of human settlements "as if living systems mattered" (p.9).

Their work lays out a theoretical framework for an entirely new industrial system based on

completely renewed values. The values they introduce include: considering the environment as

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(not a factor) an envelope, living on availability of natural capital without substitutes,

understanding that misconceived businesses, population growth and wasteful consumption leads

to loss of natural capital, maintaining a democratic, market-based system, resourcing

productivity increase, prioritizing for human welfare services, putting ecological and

environmental sustainability first, redressing inequities, and focusing on needs of people

(Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 9).

Natural Capitalism, as laid out by Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999), bears on four

central strategies. First is the 'Radical Resource Productivity', which promises to yield ten-fold

increases in productivity by weeding out inefficiencies, conflicts, and wastes in production. The

strategy has been recognized for adoption by prominent organizations such as the United Nations

Environmental Program (UNEP), and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

(WBCSD) (p. 11).

Secondly, 'Biomimicry', which implies imitating biological and ecosystem processes, is

seen as an essential strategy for the expansion of the natural capital resources. The natural

capitalist industry is conceived as integrating solar powered, low-pressure, and life-temperature

processes with no boiling sulfuric acid. Natural composites, microbial farms, meta-industrial

engineers, zero-emission industrial parks are among the environments envisioned in this precept

(Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 14).

Thirdly, 'Service and Flow' is a promising strategy that is already in practice in many

parts and industries of the world today. It is based on provision of services by providers in

exchange for smaller monthly fees where products always return to manufacturer i.e. cleaning

clothes vs. purchasing a machine. Such a cycle of 'continuous purchase' would certainly stabilize

businesses and markets (p. 18).

And, lastly, 'Investing in Natural Capital' is necessary so that it can flourish and grow just

as exploitation and consumption do. Hawken, Lovins and Lovins (1999) insightfully observe

that living systems are "a supplier of key components of life of the planet, and they are now

falling behind on their orders" (p.19), which manifests itself in resource shortages, regional

conflicts, income polarization, instabilities and refugee populations. "Environmental forces

transcend borders," they point out "societies need to adopt shared goals that enhance social

welfare but that are not the prerogatives of specific values or belief systems. It is neither

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conservative nor liberal in its dialog, but appeals to both constituencies" (Hawken, Lovins &

Lovins, 1999, p.20).

The theory of Natural Capitalism naturally encompasses a multitude of other actionable

principles, strategies, and ideas such as natural economy, natural capital gains, making markets

work, and human capitalism that fall outside of the focus of this resource analysis. However,

from an environmental restoration standpoint, it is reasonably obvious that such sweeping

changes in the ways that human industry, economy, politics, and culture operate, are necessary in

order to change the course of the human civilization.

6) Renewable Sources of Energy and Materials The design theories and practices on the renewable sources of energy and materials have

been rapidly expanding in the environmental design literature over the last few decades. The

approaching energy scarcities as well as the broadening environmental degradation and

deterioration increasingly necessitate the appropriate use and integration of a spectrum of various

renewables in the supply of human needs. The renewable sources in this analysis are mainly

examined for their relevance and prominence in creating ecologically responsive and

environmentally responsible human settlements.

Among many prominent authors, Heinberg (2003) effectively explicates the fast-

approaching end of the cheap energy bonanza and recognizes the fact that the renewable

alternatives are capable of providing net-energy benefits in industrial societies. Like many

others he reiterates the need for investing in them and the need for converting the current

infrastructure to make more use of them. Heinberg (2003) records that "if there is any solution

to industrial societies' approaching energy crises, renewables plus conservation will provide it.

Yet in order to achieve a transition from nonrenewables to renewables, decades will be required

– and we do not have decades before the peaks in the extraction rates in oil and natural gas

occur" (p. 183).

Coal remains to be the primary energy source for the generation of electricity in the

United States and some of the developed countries while the renewable energies remain largely

unsubsidized and underdeveloped with respect to their potentials. "In 2004, public and private

U.S. electric utilities derived 51 percent of their power from coal, 20 percent from nuclear

fusion, 7 percent from hydro, 16 percent from natural gas, 3 percent from oil, less than 1 percent

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from wind and photovoltaics, with the remainder from other alternative sources" (Heinberg,

2003, p. 64). While the U.S. is at the grip of the old-world industry energy sources many

countries in Europe are pioneering the development and integration of renewable technologies

such as solar, wind, hydro, and so on.

Anticipating a lengthy transition, Heinberg (2003) speculates that the energy

infrastructure would be "quite different from our present energy infrastructure, and so the

transition would require time and the investment of large amounts of money and energy. That

transition would be aided tremendously if we were to switch present government subsidies from

nuclear power, oil, and coal to renewables, fuel cells, and hydrogen. But, given the political

influence of car and oil companies and the general corruption and inertia of the political process,

the likelihood of such a subsidy transfer is slim for the moment. Yet if we simply wait for price

signals from the market to trigger the transition: it will come far too late" (p. 166).

Even though there has been steady-but-slow progress recorded in the spread of renewable

energies the industrial sectors that capitalize on the renewable technologies still remain largely

underprivileged primarily due to technological and economical difficulties. From an

environmental restoration perspective, the timely substitution of carbon-emitting technologies is

of paramount importance, which points to replacement of coal and other burning fossil fuels.

Some of the most prominent alternatives are:

1) Solar: Heinberg (2003) notes that "the sun continues to give off an almost unimaginable

amount of energy – the equivalent of roughly 100,000,000,000 hydrogen bombs going

off every second – radiating in all dimensions into space. The Earth, 93,000,000 miles

away, is a comparatively tiny target for that energy, receiving only an infinitesimal

fraction of what our local star radiates [1,372 watts/square meter]" (p. 12). He projects

that "the total influx of solar energy to the Earth is more than 10,000 times the total

amount of energy humankind presently derives from fossil fuels, hydropower, and

nuclear power combined" (Heinberg, 2003, p.13). So it is clear that a civilization that

relies solely on current solar technologies should never have a real energy problem.

2) Wind: The wind is utilized by windmills, turbines, and sails. Although it is a low-cost,

low-impact source or energy the availability of sustained wind speeds for commercial

capitalization is only regional, which is typically limited to mountain passes, ridges,

along coastal lines, and in the great plains. The use of wind technologies is prominent in

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countries such as Denmark, Netherlands, India, South Argentina, and China (Heinberg,

2003, p. 156). In the United States, the wind harvest is concentrated primarily in

California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and

Wyoming.

3) Hydrogen: Currently, the major drawback the hydrogen technologies face is inefficiency.

Heinberg (2003) summarizes that the available "process of hydrogen production always

uses more energy than the resulting hydrogen will yield" (p. 161).

4) Hydroelectric: At the national or regional scales dams serve as effective sources of

irrigation as well as electricity generation. However, there are also environmental

concerns with the interruption of riparian ecosystems. As the 'Microhydro' scale in some

rural areas rely on local electrification systems that are benign, locally-controlled, and

smaller investments.

5) Geothermal: The use of geothermal technologies is site specific and essentially available

for any project. Heinberg (2003) records that the United States utilizes "44% of the

global capacity" (p. 164).

6) Biomass, Biodiesel, and Ethanol: Biomass simply refers to burning of energy stored in

natural fibers such as plant materials, which are only viable in few urban areas and

largely supplementary in most rural areas. Biodiesel is produced from animal fats or

vegetable oil, which is only available in limited capacities. And, ethanol is fuel grade

alcohol that is made primarily from corn, which is a food source for animal and human

population as well. Burning of these fuels advances the carbon-dioxide emissions.

7) Tidal and Wave: These renewable energy technologies can only be employed in certain

coastal regions where large scale movement of water can be put to limited use.

8) Fusion, cold fusion and free-energy: Research is on-going.

9) Magnetism: Research is on-going.

10) Nuclear: And, finally, the nuclear energy appears to be increasingly losing popularity as

a viable option due to the long-term ecological and environmental costs of the current

technologies. Brown (1981) concisely summarizes the heart of the issue and records that

"nuclear power is unique among power sources in that it produces a carcinogenic

radioactive waste that remains dangerous for thousands of years, bequeathing risks to our

children that will endure for more generations than ever been encompassed in any

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geologist's family tree. With no permanent means of waste disposal yet available, the

world nuclear waste problem literally grows larger day by day" (p. 78). Unless the

'wastes' can be fully reutilized and their impacts completely neutralized by new

technologies the future viability of the nuclear energy as a sustainable alternative remains

dubious at best.

7) Urban Agriculture The production of food within fabric of urban areas is referred to as 'urban agriculture' in

the urban design literature, which appears indeed vital to designing ecologically responsive and

environmentally responsible settlement patterns. Due to various health, safety, and welfare

reasons, the industries, including food production and processing, have been purposely separated

or removed from the urban areas in the recent decades to such an extent that "people have [now]

very little connection to the process of food production" (McLennan, 2009c, p. 14).

With the increasing sustainability concerns, however, the reintegration of food production

into the everyday fabric of urban civilization is seen as a necessity for designing inherently

resilient and sustainable environments. "In a number of U.S. crops, 10 calories of fossil fuel are

consumed to produce 1 calorie of human food. If the energy needed to package, promote and

distribute the food to our present centralized populations is included, the ratio is even higher"

(Olkowski, 1981, p. 329).

Hence, Olkowski (1981) envisions a kind of urban agriculture, called 'Urbagriculture',

which is "small intensive production, close to living" (p. 331). He advocates a 'self-life support

system' that consumes less fossil fuel and pesticides while providing abundant "nutrition

improvement; variety; recycling through policy and education" (Olkowski, 1981, p. 331).

Steiner (2009) forecasts the world beyond $16 gas to have 'a new farming economy'

where abundant wind resources are converted to "food grown on local farms along rail tracks

leading into cities" and the grains and produce of farms ride "to urban consumers along sleek,

dedicated rails towed by purring locomotives spewing not the smoke or particles of diesel fuel

but nitrogen and water" (p. 197).

Many experts in the fields of human ecology, biology, agriculture, and environmental

design have made similar projections with or without energy concerns. For instance, Todd and

Todd (1994) emphasize the importance of integrating food production back into the operations of

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cities, and assert that "urban agriculture will take many forms" which include the shade trees

being "replaced by urban orchards of fruit and nut trees" (Todd & Todd, 1994, p. 121). They

envision the integration of agriculture into urban areas through various means such as: sunlit

walls for espaliered fruit and vine crops; community gardens and urban gardening practices with

farmers' markets; agricultural bioshelters in vacant lots or ringing parks – where year round

gardens would be possible; and floating barges lining harbors and selling their "produce of fish,

vegetables, flowers and herbs" (p.158). Additionally, old warehouses and unused factories could

be converted into "ecologically inspired agricultural enterprises floor by floor where fish,

poultry, mushrooms, greens, vegetables, and flowers could be grown in linked, integrated cycles"

(p. 121). They identify the wasted expanses of roof tops as offering "an unused resource for the

application of bioshelter concepts or market gardens all year" (p. 159).

With regards to the concept of urban agriculture, the New Urbanists at Duany Plater-

Zyberk (DPZ) assert that Urbanism must be cohesively designed. In their approach by

concentrating development, "land is liberated for agricultural use. Agricultural projects must be

precise both in terms of the land cultivated, and in the management of it" (DPZ, 2009, p. 2). The

New Urbanists also record that "there is a very positive attitude towards agricultural urbanism on

the part of those who are environmentally concerned, those who would enjoy the society of a

shared endeavor (front gardens were introduced for the purpose of social discourse — a role not

unlike that of a porch) and for those who wish to take precautions with their health and welfare"

(DPZ, 2009, p. 2).

The LEED-ND (2009) similarly urges the integration of local food production in

neighborhood redevelopment through a series of credits e.g. Smart Location, Agricultural Land

Conservation, Diverse Communities, and Local Food Production.

Similar trends of urban agriculture exist in other prominent urban planning and design

methods as well. In reference to urban food production in Living Cities, McLennan (2009c)

observes that "a great disconnect now exists between what it takes to sustain ourselves and what

the environment can safely and sustainably produce. The cultural knowledge of how to sustain

our life as a species has been outsourced.... In short, we have engaged in a rapid social,

economical and ecological experiment that we now know is responsible for a significant portion

of our global environmental and social problems" (p. 14).

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A recipe for responsible and successful integration of urban food production is introduced

by the Living Building Challenge. In fact, the energy-intensive and chemically-based food

production as well as the global distribution of food underpins a significant portion of the current

energy and environmental deterioration issues. From many angles the local production and

consumption of food appears to be desirable, promising to mitigate at least a certain portion of

the problems. "The idea is to return food to its local and sustainable roots, ensuring that we can

feed humanity for thousands of more years rather than hijacking the future so that we can have

tomatoes in January and fish flown in from South America" (McLennan, 2009c, p. 19).

Other goals for ecologically responsive and inherently healthy foods of the near future,

include a predominant consumption of vegetables and fruits, grown locally and organically, with

less processing involved. McLennan (2009c) convincingly argues that "our current paradigm has

a shelf life of likely two-to-four decades at most. Peak oil, peak water, the growing toxicity of

our oceans and soils and increased population, combined with the globally disruptive impacts of

climate change are going to bring change to us. Food in 2030 will be radically different than

2010" (p. 21).

Preparing the framework for the urban agriculture of the future, the Living Building

Challenge first acknowledges that cities will continue to grow denser in the coming years,

greatly lowering their environmental footprints and "yet we have to recognize that there is a

tension between growing food in communities and significant density – after all – there is only

so much space" (McLennan, 2009c, p. 21). The Challenge estimates that a typical family would

need "to devote a half- to a full acre to agriculture" in order to be self-sufficient (McLennan,

2009c, p. 22), which leads to a matrix of set aside lands for food production. The Living

Building Challenge recommends 80 percent of land to be set aside for food production on

properties with Floor Area Ratio (FAR) less than 0.05. On developments with FAR between

0.05 and 0.09, 50 percent set aside lands are recommended. And, for areas where FAR is 3.0 or

greater, there are no requirements for food production (McLennan, 2009c, p. 23).

One of the urban agriculture elements introduced by the Living Building Challenge is the

'Urban Farm Czar' (Urban Farming Department), which is conceived to be the manager of urban

agriculture. Some of the hypothetical responsibilities and privileges of the Urban Farm Czar

include: satisfying all levels of density, enhancing the strength of the local food industry,

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nurturing entire communities, establishing grants and financial incentives, and introducing food

and animals back into the culture.

Our food system is unquestionably broken. But it is fixable. If enough of us

reject overly packaged foods, purchase more local food products, commit to

environmentally-friendly processes and make better use of the land that surrounds

us, we can plant the seeds of profound food-oriented change that will sprout as

inevitable pressures drive food local once again. (McLennan, 2009c, p. 25)

Hampstead Urban Farm is an urban agriculture integration project located in downtown

Montgomery, AL. The main objective of this project is to "not only provide produce for

residents and restaurants in the area, but also serve as an educational tool and a place for people

to relax in the community". The Urban Farm is a step forward for Montgomery to become an

eco-friendly city (www.al.com). The farm, initiated by the Hampstead Institute and designed by

Plater-Zyberk & Company, finalized in 2011, cultivates a 2.7 acre farm on the Tallapoosa

riverfront for the residents of Hampstead, which is the very first new community in the United

States to be designed and built under the SmartCode (a revolutionary zoning code that allows for

diverse, mixed-use neighborhoods) (www.hampsteadinstitute.org).

From an environmental restoration perspective, the Hampstead Urban Farm aspires to

integrate the production of agricultural food back into the urban fabric and sets a precedent for

similar local urban agriculture projects to follow. If executed properly with entirely organic and

natural methods, the project may actually move toward rehabilitating, restoring, and even

improving the pristine ecological balances for its vicinity.

The Southlands is another urban agriculture project located Tsawwassen, British

Columbia, Canada. Conceived to be a unique plan focused on walkability and local agriculture

in a "pioneering model community", this project combines housing, agriculture, and other

amenities on Tsawwassen property (www.planetizen.com). The Southlands project was

commissioned by the Century Group and designed by Plater-Zyberk & Company in 2008. The

plan encompass an area of 538 acres, containing almost 2,000 housing units, playing fields, a

college, and a neighborhood market square. Largely influenced by Zenger Farm in Portland, OR

which is a 16 acre CSA with youth programs, community garden plots, preserved heritage

structures, and enhanced wetlands, the Southlands project evolved through an eight day design

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charrette that documented the community vision where key innovation was the integration of

"urban agriculture features from community gardens to small plots to larger acreages"

(www.planetizen.com).

From an environmental restoration perspective, the Southlands project plans to

accomplish a greater degree and variety of integrated agricultural production of food within the

fabric of the community especially if the appropriate farming techniques, organic, and natural

methods are employed. The project also plans to facilitate large scale revitalization of its

ecological surroundings through preservation of wildlife habitats, conservation of open space, as

well as restoration of wetlands.

8) Hannover Principles The Hannover Principles, which were originally commissioned by the City of Hannover

for the international design competition at EXPO 2000 in Germany, were developed by architect

William McDonough. The principles were produced to lay the foundations of a comprehensive

sustainable design philosophy through a set of nine principles, where the central theme was for

environmental design to facilitate "living as part of the Earth by understanding development and

growth as processes which can be sustained, not exploited to impractical limits" (McDonough,

1992, p. 2).

The principles call for environmentally sensitive expression "as part of the evolving

matrix of nature", and environmentally responsible expression through design that enables us to

"remain in the natural context" (McDonough, 1992, p. 3). The Hannover Principles can be

grouped under nine maxims as follows:

1) Insist on rights of humanity and nature to coexist

2) Recognize interdependence

3) Respect relationships between spirit and matter

4) Accept responsibility for the consequences of design

5) Create safe objects of long-term value

6) Eliminate the concept of waste

7) Rely on natural energy flows

8) Understand the limitations of design

9) Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge

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By using basic natural elements such as earth, air, fire, water, and spirit, the guidelines

for the competition require the designs to: establish balance between context and material,

maintain livable diversity of scale; achieve benefits for flora and fauna, preserve sense of

community; create flexible buildings, lower embodied energy and characteristics of toxicity,

while recycling materials, minimizing hazardous chemicals and toxic matter. Life-cycle analysis

approach to materials, processes, and costs is encouraged (McDonough, 1992, p. 6).

These principles lead to minimal air, wind, and noise pollution while natural processes of

ventilation, optimum renewable natural energy flows, on-site energy generation and export,

integrating mass transit, as well as decentralized energy generation. Considerate use and

continuous cycle of water are based on: increasing reclamation, use efficiency, organic

treatment while reducing contamination, surface run-off and impermeable ground covers

(McDonough, 1992, p. 12).

And, finally, the Hannover Principles are built on the principle of humility in realizing

the inherent limitations of both human and natural processes. "Living in sustainable architecture

is nothing less than an appeal to accept our place in the world, meditated between human and

natural purposes" (McDonough, 1992).

The Ti O'Spaye Village project located in Pine Ridge Reservation, SD is one that directly

springs from the Hannover Principles, where McDonough is working with the Ogallala Sioux

Indians to design villages powered by wind energy, built of local natural materials that meet the

Indians' desire to live lightly on the land (www.virginia.edu/insideuva). The project aims to

integrate the traditional Lakota values with sustainable building practices and "serve as a model

for impoverished peoples around the world to build their own sustainable communities" (Todd &

Todd, 1994, p. 62).

9) Next Industrial Revolution The Next Industrial Revolution is a powerful theory that seeks to transform the entire

global industrial civilization from its foundations by changing how its industries are designed

and operated. The leading principles behind the movement are a combination of several sources,

which are deeply engaged in not only the production industries of goods and services but also the

physical planning and design of ecologically responsive and environmentally responsible

communities.

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One of the core origins of the adverse human impacts on nature is the fact that the outputs

and byproducts of human environments are intended to overcome natural factors, which they

effectively do. So much so that McDonough and Braungart (1998) point out "nature cannot do

anything with the stuff by design: many manufactured products are intended not to break down

under natural conditions" (p. 86). Hence, the remedy lies in figuring out how products,

processes, and environments of human industries should follow natural processes instead.

McDonough and Braungart (1998) ask "whose food are the buildings we make?" In most cases,

it seems, "the answer is no one's. Building products – indeed most consumer products – are

simply made in such a way that is difficult for nature to reintegrate or 'digest' them once the

human species finds that they are no longer useful" (Wagner, 1993, p. 55).

Examining the wasteful outlook of the current industrial environment, Hawken, Lovins,

and Lovins (1999) point out that the "industry mines, extracts, shovels, burns, wastes, pumps,

and disposes of 4 million pounds of material in order to provide an average middle-class

American family's needs for a year": 1 million pounds of materials per person per year. Each

year, 3.5 billion pounds of carpet land-filled; 3.3 billion pounds of CO2 emitted; 19 billion

pounds of polystyrene peanuts deposited; 28 billion pounds of food at home discarded; 360

billion pounds of organic and inorganic materials processed; 710 billion pounds of hazardous

waste created; and 3.7 trillion pounds of construction debris produced (p. 52). Total waste in the

U.S. is estimated to be about 50 trillion pounds per year where only less than 2% is recycled

(Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 52). The authors also observe that, in nature, "the ultimate

loop-closers, the basis of planetary metabolism, are the soil microorganisms that turn back into

nutrient flows everything that falls on or grows within the ground" (Hawken, Lovins & Lovins,

1999, p.203).

So, McDonough and Braungart (1998) explicate the founding principles for a new

industry, as the maker of materials and systems of human settlements, and mandate the design of

an industrial system for the next century that:

...Introduces no hazard materials into the air, water, or soil; Measures prosperity

by how much natural capital that we can accrue in productive ways; measures

productivity by how many people are gainfully and meaningfully employed;

measures progress by how many buildings have no smokestacks or dangerous

effluents; does not require regulations whose purpose is to stop us from killing

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ourselves too quickly; produces nothing that will require future generations to

maintain vigilance; and celebrates the abundance of biological and cultural

diversity, and solar income. (McDonough & Braungart, 1998, ch. 4)

McDonough and Braungart (1998) lay down the foundation of the 'Next Industrial

Revolution' by identifying the two distinct cycles: the 'Biological Metabolism' where "biological

nutrients will be designed to return to the organic cycle – to be literally consumed by

microorganisms and other creatures in the soil" and the 'Technical Metabolism' where "technical

nutrients will be designed to go back into the technical cycle" (p. 86).

Consider the cherry tree. It makes thousands of blossoms just so that another tree might

germinate, take root, and grow. Who would notice piles of cherry blossoms littering the

ground in the spring and think, "How inefficient and wasteful"? The tree's abundance is

useful and safe. After falling to the ground, the blossoms return to the soil and become

nutrients for the surrounding environment. Every last particle contributes in some way to

the health of a thriving ecosystem. 'Waste equals food' – the first principle of the Next

Industrial Revolution. (Hawken & McDonough, 1993, p. 85)

The second principle of Next Industrial Revolution is 'respecting diversity'. "Designs

will respect the regional, cultural and material uniqueness of a place. Wastes and emissions will

regenerate rather than deplete, and design will be flexible, to allow for changes in the needs of

people and communities" (McDonough and Braungart, 1998, p. 89).

And, finally, the third principle is that the 'Next Industrial Revolution' is to rely largely on

'using the sun'. Working toward transforming of the buildings, environments, and vehicles that

pollute, contaminate, and deplete their surrounding ecology, they envision, instead, these

elements to function as "a kind of tree. It would purify air, accrue solar income, produce more

energy than it consumes, create shade and habitat, enrich soil, and change with the seasons"

(McDonough & Braungart, 1998, p. 89).

In formulating the intentions behind their environmental design approach, Hawken and

McDonough (1993) develop "a plan to create a sustainable future" and determine "its objectives

through practical, clearly stated goals and strategies" (p. 81). They record their core intentions as

follows:

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1) Eliminate the concept of waste: By transforming the making of things (Intelligent

Product System, created by Michael Braungart), based on three types of products:

Consumables i.e. either eaten or turn into soil without any harmful side effects; Products

of Service i.e. durables, never be sold; only licensed, always belong to manufacturer

within a closed-loop system; and Unsalables i.e. radioactive material, heavy metals, and

persistent toxins that no living system digests, which can never be thrown away (p. 83).

2) Restore accountability: By taking back the charter, transforming the making of things (p.

83).

3) Make prices reflect true costs: By replacing the entire tax system. "In order for a

sustainable society to exist, every purchase should reflect or at least approximate its

actual cost, not only the direct cost of production but the cost to the air, water, and soil;

the cost to future generations, the cost to worker health, and the cost of waste, pollution,

and toxicity" (p. 83). The authors at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC,

estimate that "the cost of a gallon of gas, when pollution, waste disposal, health effects,

and defense expenditures like the Persian Gulf War are factored in, is approximately

$4.50, four times what we pay at the pump". Also another study by the University of

California at San Francisco shows that "a pack of cigarettes costs citizens in the state

another $3.63 in health care and related costs. Economist Robert Repetto estimates that

traffic congestion costs an extra $200 billion a year in wasted fuel, lost time, wear and

tear, accidents, and higher insurance premiums" (p. 83). And, finally, the authors also

argue that the entire tax system needs to be "incrementally replaced over a 20-year period

by green fees – taxes that are added onto products, energy, services, and raw materials, so

that prices more closely approximate true costs" (p. 84).

4) Promote diversity: By taking an inventory (p.84).

5) Make conservation profitable: By allowing resource companies to be utilities (p.84).

6) Insist on the accountability of nations: By creating a most-sustainable-nation tariff

(p.85).

7) Restore the guardian: By getting the business out of government (p.86).

From an environmental restoration perspective, the 'Next Industrial Revolution' promises

to help not only solve a multitude of current problems at the level of materials, processes, and

systems but also open up future prospects for developing a diverse array of further innovations to

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transform the human settlements into more ecologically responsive and environmentally

responsible systems. Especially if it maintains a constant focus on the development and use of

solar technologies, this theory promises a great deal of hope for the future of human civilization.

Comprehensive Environmental Design Agenda Naturally, the practices supporting the core principles of designing inherently resilient

and sustainable environments cannot be limited to the few ideas and examples selected and

discussed as part of this study. One may cite numerous other methodologies and applications

generated by other movements as well. In fact, just about every year there seems to be a new

wave of theoretical and practical design methods to address different aspects of the approaching

energy crisis as well as the broadening environmental catastrophe. The readers are also

reminded, repeatedly in the literature, by Albert Einstein's famous maxim, that "the world will

not evolve past the current crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation"

(McDonough & Braungart, 1998, p. 89).

While the multiplicity of these principles and strategies may deserve far more time for

examination and consideration Orr (2002) cautions us against a phenomenon that he terms as

'fast knowledge'. A concerning fact behind how the human civilization and the natural

environment reached the point where they are today lies entirely on the fact that many inventions

and interventions in the history of the human world are introduced to the natural world without

ecologically proper consideration and environmentally appropriate scrutiny. This is why Orr

(2002) records "a significant percentage of the problems we now attempt to solve quickly

through complex and increasingly expensive means have their origins in the prior applications of

fast knowledge" (p. 40).

There remain a lot of credible reasons to have confidence in and hope for the future as the

necessary solutions appear to be near and within reach. Calthorpe and Fulton (2001), for

instance, observe that the American Dream is changing, emphasizing that the future need not be

a linear extension of the past and there are changing variables in the equation. "The issue is not

density but design, the quality of place, its scale, mix and connections" (p. 274). Indeed, with

comprehensive planning and regional design of urban ecologies as well as effective local

implementation the environmental challenges may be overcome. The richness, diversity,

resilience, and health of man-made environment can be restored again.

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However, it is the author's belief that the failure to acquire a multi-disciplinary, multi-

dimensional, and, multi-faceted understanding of the full extent of multi-layered environmental

contexts and problems, while failing to envision similarly complex treatment plans and

comprehensive solutions, runs the risk of creating more entanglements complicating the matters

even further at multiple levels. That's why the goals and objectives of broadly effective

environmental design solutions cannot be provided solely through narrowly focused,

technological fixes. Effective large-scale solutions to environmental challenges need to be

planned at higher levels. Solutions need to be in sync with an all-encompassing understanding of

the major issues. And, holistic visions that address the nature and extents of the deepest

concerns need to be followed.

The environmental design agenda for the future, therefore, needs to start with a vision of

rehabilitation and restoration that is all-inclusive and just. All human purposes need to transcend

the exclusive benefit of the self or the group, but aim to serve that of the whole. The highest

values guiding the efforts need to be placed back on the Nature again. All environmental

planning and design efforts need to aim collectively higher, beyond sustainability, toward the

rehabilitation and restoration of the natural environment.

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Chapter 5 - Aiming Beyond Sustainability: Restorative Design

As physicians have learned from the study of body, a disease often indicates not a

permanent deterioration, but an attempt to restore an equilibrium that has been

disturbed, and recover natural functions that have been thwarted or suppressed.

Without some expert manifestation of pathological symptoms, permanent damage

might result before the disease could be detected and adequate measures taken to

overcome it. (Mumford, 1964, p. 371)

Particularly in the countries of the developed world, there is an increasing understanding

and recognition that the human population, the built-environment, as well as the urban lifestyles

constitute a big part of the approaching energy crisis as well as the emerging environmental

catastrophe. The pathological agent here has been diagnosed to be the humans. A systematic

review of the literature on key environmental issues finds that the exponential increase in human

population is on of the greatest sources of environmental destabilization. This single cause

brings forth a whole host of other related problems such as the spatial expansion of humans into

precious natural areas and the consuming invasion of humans on natural resources, and so on.

Calthorpe (2011) records that somewhere in the mid-1980s, "mankind crossed a critical

line: for the first time in human history, our collective material demands exceeded the capacity

of the planet to support us with its regenerative biological income. We are now consuming the

Earth's capital reserve at an increasing rate. We see this in the atrophy of ecologies and

biodiversities throughout the planet; we see it in climate change, increased species extinctions,

collapsing fisheries, erosion from deforestation, and many other environmental costs" (p. 35).

One can find a wide variety of existing design theories, concepts, initiatives, programs,

and projects that aim to improve 'sustainability' by accomplishing little more than justifying the

existing patterns. These design principles and their practical implementations inadvertently fall

short of achieving much more significant results for the environment, simply because they are

not conceived to pursue higher goals beyond the preservation of human existence.

Despite some minimal gains in the integration of natural environs into urban areas, the

primary result of human activities in the natural world continues to be the degradation and

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deterioration. Even many forms of 'green', 'sustainable', 'eco-friendly', and 'smart' efforts

arguably contribute to the expansion of similar urban patterns that dismember, dismantle, and

cause the demise of natural ecosystems. Especially the fossil-fuel dependent private mobility,

commercial transportation, as well as freight networks serving the long-distance distribution of

goods, services, and products continue to severely exacerbate both the approaching energy crisis

and the broadening environmental catastrophe. Within this mix, highly energy intensive,

inefficient, and wasteful production practices also continue to weaken efforts to establish

resilient and self-reliant urban settlements. Lacking resolute regional consensus, alliances, and

legal support structures, many local organizations and groups are rendered disadvantaged,

ineffective, and helpless in correcting any of these problems.

"No wonder", Friedman (2008) records, "the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet 2008

Report concluded that we are already operating 25 percent above the planet's biological capacity

to support life. And that is before we add another billion people by the early 2020s" (p. 25).

Context for Environmental Restoration Within the context of increasing demands and decreasing supplies, reducing the rate of

deterioration alone is not sufficient to achieve the necessary rehabilitation of the natural

environment at the desired scales. If human civilization is to initiate a serious reversal of its

ominous descent into total extermination it has to sincerely aim much higher than the reduction

of degradation and urgently initiate drastic reconfiguration efforts in urban settlements. The

concerns of Todd and Todd (1994) are still valid today, "if we are to continue to shelter and feed

the people of the world in the coming centuries, we will have to design in a different way than

we do now" (p. 12).

Labeling the business-as-usual approach as the 'Plan A', Brown (2003) observes that the

current plan is clearly not working. He notes "the stakes are too high and time is not on our side"

(p. 19). Instead, he lays out a 'Plan B' that calls for raising productivity in utilizing land and

water, cutting carbon emissions, responding to social change and rising to the challenge in order

"to restore the Earth" (p. 111). He notes that "the choice is ours – yours and mine, we can stay

with business-as-usual" or "we can be the generation that stabilizes population, eradicates

poverty, and stabilizes climate. Historians will record the choice, but it is ours to make" (Brown,

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2003, p. 222). And, Friedman (2008) stresses some of the key frustrations shared by many as

follows:

I have read or heard so many people saying, 'We're having a green revolution'. Of

course, there is a lot of green buzz out there. But whenever I hear that 'we're

having a green revolution' line I can't resist firing back: 'Really? Really? A

green revolution? Have you ever seen a revolution where no one got hurt? That's

the green revolution we're having.' In the green revolution we're having,

everyone's a winner, nobody has to give up anything, and the adjective that most

often modifies 'green revolution' is 'easy'. That's not a revolution. That's a party.

We are actually having a green party. (Friedman, 2008, p. 205)

He, then, points out that "it's a lot of fun. I get invited to all the parties. But in America,

at least, it is mostly about a costume party. It's all about looking green – and everyone's a

winner" (Friedman, 2008, p. 205).

The Necessity of Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Healing The rehabilitation of natural environment inherently relies on the sustainable

technologies, however, sustainability alone is not enough to recover the pristine natural

ecosystems of the Earth. Slowing down the rate of environmental damage while preserving

existing lifestyles, coasting along conveniently with the existing consumption habits without any

fundamental changes is likely to prove disappointingly ineffectual due to the increasing human

population.

"By some estimates," Orr (2002) records "humankind is preparing to build more in the

next half century than it has built throughout all of the recorded history. If we do this

inefficiently and carelessly, we will cast a long ecological shadow on the human future" (p. 133).

He also recognizes that many other cultures "armed with far less hard science but much more of

what we disparage as myth have made far better management decisions than we have" (p. 155).

So much more of the natural environment needs to be restored in order to accommodate the

increasing number of people with increasing needs, within a finitely limited biosphere with

decreasing diversity, longevity, and availability of resources.

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Efforts for rehabilitating the environment need to be aimed at the restoration of natural

balances and ecosystems not only inside, but also outside, the urban areas. The existing

buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and regions need to be systematically repositioned,

reconstituted, reconnected, reenergized, and revitalized through multi-disciplinary design and

multifaceted redevelopment efforts. Somewhere along this process, humans may reestablish the

intricate relationships and the delicate interdependence with Nature, where the natural

phenomena is voluntarily followed, and not overcome. These transformations, in turn, may

revitalize the appreciation for authentic values of spiritual purity, sanctity, and sacredness of the

living.

Likewise, Orr (2002) speaks of a restorative approach by noting that in the century ahead

a different course needs to be charted, which "leads to restoration, healing, and wholeness". He

notes that ecologically-sound environmental design serves as "a kind of navigation aid to help us

find our bearings again. And getting home means recasting the human presence in the world in a

way that honors ecology, evolution, human dignity, spirit, and the human need for roots and

connection" (p. 30).

Todd and Todd (1994) similarly assert the necessity of environmental rehabilitation and

ecological restoration, and record that "it now has become possible to reverse the path of

ongoing destruction of the natural world which, although old or older than the dawn of

agriculture, in our time has been proceeding at an unprecedented rate. We are now capable of

affecting a reversal of the millennia-long tearing of the planetary fabric. We have acquired the

knowledge of biology, the technology, and the potential partnership in coevolution with the

organic world to begin a process of planetary healing" (p. 75).

An Era of Restoration The pendulum has swung too far to the side of environmental detriment as well as

ecological suffering, that engulfs all of the inhabitants of the biosphere without discrimination. It

is now time for the humanity to wake up, unite, and act responsibly, collectively, and decisively

to move beyond the worries of miserly selfish gains. Now, is the time to sincerely collaborate

toward restoration of the pristine atmospheric, aquatic, and biospheric balances that the humanity

has so critically disrupted for so long, and almost irreparably destroyed.

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We have been growing in a way that is not healthy for either our markets or our

planet, for either our banks or our forests, for either our retailers or our rivers.

The Great Recession [of 2008] was the moment when the Market and Mother

Nature got together and said to the world's major economies, starting with the

United States and China: 'This cannot continue. Enough is enough'. (Friedman,

2008, p. 6)

…

At this juncture the continuing saga of the human civilization enters a new phase in the

history of the terrestrial evolution; An Era of Restoration.

…

"If design is the first signal of human intention," as Hawken and McDonough (1993)

describe it, then, naturally our intention to create a restorative future shall "realize its objectives

through practical, clearly stated goals and strategies" (p. 81). The fragments of similarly-aligned

principles and practices have already been in progress. The next phase in the reversal of the last

several decades of degradation and deterioration is to strategize and implement intrinsically

restorative visions in well-diversified and localized applications.

Observing that the challenges are grand, Calthorpe (2011) insightfully recognizes that

"urban design must balance economic, social and environmental needs; and it must at the end

create places that are beautiful, memorable, and convivial. A good designer must be part artist,

part scientist, part historian, part futurist, part architect, part engineer, part planner, and part

politician" (p. 51).

Principles of Restorative Design Massive restorations are needed in ecological, social, cultural, economical, and

environmental aspects of the living environment. Balances need to be reestablished in measures,

equities, mixtures, diversities, rights, responsibilities, authorities, provisions, costs,

compensations, penalties, incentives, rewards, policies, regulations, laws, fundamentals,

convictions, beliefs, and truths that vouchsafe the peace and harmony of the inhabitants and

environments.

Within the larger context of these restorative efforts toward environmental recovery and

restitution the fair share of architects, urban planners, and designers is hereby coined as

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'Restorative Design'. The 'restorative' approach to environmental design, ecological design, and

urban design, first and foremost aims to define, formulate, and implement the agenda of

environmental restoration. The author conceives and proposes an all-inclusive environmental

agenda for the emerging paradigm of restoration primarily at the scale of urban design. The

values and principles concisely adumbrated in the following help identify the core precepts:

1) First and foremost, an appreciation and respect for all creation should be restored. Only

through a sincerely humble, gratefully attentive, and selflessly compassionate care can

the natural environment be rehabilitated for all its inhabitants. The leadership roles and

stewardship responsibilities lie with all humankind.

2) Secondly, it should be acknowledged that humanity is not at all detached, remote, or

isolated from Nature, but is very much integral and subservient to the intricate balances

of the natural biosphere and ecosystems. Inconsiderate, arrogant, greedy, and excessive

approaches toward natural resources have to be moderated with consideration, humility,

compassion, care, and self-restraint. Orr (2002) observes that the "settled cultures tend to

limit excess in variety of ways,...showiness, ego trips, great wealth, huge homes, hurry

and excessive consumption are mostly discouraged, while cooperation, neighborliness,

competence, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance are encouraged" (p. 9).

3) Thirdly, a great deal of damage that has already been done to the natural environment has

to be acknowledged. If the current course of human impacts is merely sustained and not

changed drastically there is no hope to avoid devastating environmental consequences.

The benefactors of the past gains have to take responsibility and be held accountable for

restoration.

4) The most urgent item on anyone's agenda should be progress toward stopping any further

destruction of planetary life, and adopting lifestyles that are fundamentally in harmony

with Natural phenomena.

5) Products, services, businesses, institutions, industries, and governmental agencies that

threaten or destroy any form of benign environments or life forms should be reexamined.

All resources have to be directed to sustain processes and functions that directly support

life and the living inhabitants, over destruction and non-living.

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6) Without conflicts, contradictions or resentments, the restorative efforts should converge

under one umbrella and be unified on the goals and strategies of environmental

restoration where sustainability is achieved as a natural, benign byproduct.

7) Conceptual models, or existing applications of successful environmental restoration

initiatives, should be followed, adopted, and improved upon by local, regional

communities, and national governments as well as international alliances. Plagiarism and

merciless competition toward restorative ends are strongly encouraged.

8) The core focus of environmental restoration should be the design, development, and

operation of human environments, urbanscapes, as well as lifestyles since the

fundamental sources of environmental problems are concentrated in and around urban

areas. This means that human impacts have to be identified and neutralized locally. For

instance:

a. Rampant population growth has to be moderated to a sustainable level through

education.

b. Urban expansion onto rural areas has to be effectively managed through growth

boundaries, rate programs, as well as various planning, permit, incentive, and

reward techniques.

c. Open spaces and natural lands have to be not only preserved but also expanded

within urban environments.

d. Natural rehabilitation and restoration of living ecosystems have to take place not

only outside and around buildings, neighborhoods, and cities but also inside them.

Urban redevelopment has to be modeled after biological organisms and

ecosystems, rather than mechanical processes and systems.

e. Current solar income has to be the primary source of energy for all fundamental

technologies just as it is for the rest of the nature.

f. Renewable resources such as wind, geothermal, hydro, and tidal energies have to

be harvested in support to the primary role of the solar technologies.

g. Energy generation through unnatural and unsustainable means such as fossil fuels,

gasses, burning, combustion or nuclear methods need to be phased out promptly.

Subsidies to coal, petroleum, and gasoline auto industries have to be reassigned to

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renewable resources. Caution has to be employed in developing anti-gravity and

magnetic field technologies.

h. Urban densities and quality of life have to be raised for better connected,

integrated, inclusive, diversified, and resilient communities.

i. Economic and social mixture of classes, groups, and communities have to be

planned for higher degrees of integration and diversification as desired by the

people.

j. New legal instruments for air, land, water, resource, and communal ownership

rights, means of assembly, as well as equitable transfer of such development and

ownership rights need to be formed in order implement significant planning,

zoning, and redevelopment changes. The patterns of land ownership have to be

restructured to benefit the sustainability and resilience of societies to the fullest

extent. The property rights and ownership issues could perhaps be revisited

where revolutionary new regulations and environmental requirements may be

entertained by the will of the planetizens.

k. Varying modes of mass transportation should provide creative and benign new

alternatives as well as economic opportunities. An array of new transportation

technologies should be powered by solar technologies.

l. As a species we are still crawling on a two-dimensional ground-plane. Many

urban designers feel trapped within the inherent restrictions of gravity and

development laws, which monumentalize the lack of imagination,

entrepreneurship or excitement in urban environments. Could it be time to finally

take advantage of the long ignored potentials of the third dimension – mobility,

freedom, and connectivity?

m. Existing buildings, neighborhoods and cities have to be regulated, retooled,

readapted, and revitalized to provide sustenance primarily from local means,

materials, and resources. Industrial processes have to be incentivized to locate

near urban settlements.

n. Agriculture has to be diversified and localized to the furthest extent possible,

through federal, state and local planning and incentives. Urban agriculture needs

to be nationally, regionally, and locally subsidized.

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9) Multifaceted, multi-disciplinary, mid-term, and local implementation efforts should line

up with the regional, multi-agency, intergovernmental, long-term and comprehensive

planning endeavors. The implementation efforts should be realized by alliances and

collaborative actions of public and private interests.

10) Social, economic, and environmental process should be interconnected and

interdependent in such ways that byproducts and wastes of all cycles have to be treated as

resource for other processes. Efficiency and continuity of cycles in all energy and

material processes should be established and maintained.

Orr (2002) accurately diagnoses that western culture with its "worship of egoism, doing

your own thing, consumption, the cult of wealth, and keeping one's options open is simply

incomprehensible from the viewpoint of settled people" (p. 10). He continues on to note that

whatever their particular theology, "settled cultures limit the expression of seven sins – pride,

envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust – simply because these vices make living in close

quarters difficult, if not impossible" (Orr, 2002, p. 10).

With clarity and conviction, one can persuasively argue that the proud, envious, greedy,

and lustful nature of short-sighted capitalist developments and imperialistic exploitations by the

industrialized world may be squarely at the heart of the approaching energy crisis and the

environmental catastrophe. As these trends continue to spread freely on the planet with

deepening roots, their ill-effects and consequences seem to intensify and affect the disadvantaged

and the poor the most. The situation begs for the questions: Where exactly are the sources of

these problems? Do the answers not lie in the human patterns of exploitation and consumption

of natural resources on the Earth? So, what exactly should change? Who should change the

most? How should they change?

Summarizing the challenge ahead, Condon (2010) concisely concludes that "whatever is

the solution, we know for sure that the North American city will need a dramatic retrofit". He

refocuses our attention to the urgency of predicted time frame for environmental restoration,

"according to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have

only fifty years to do it" (Condon, 2010, p. 162).

With great deal of optimism, Calthorpe (2011) formulates a response to the fifty-year

challenge "just how much our community and culture have changed since World War II shows,

just how much they can, and indeed will, change in the next half of the century" (p. 35). Among

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other aspects, Calthorpe (2011) examines social and physical norms, demographics, health and

mobility, economic transformations, and energy profiles. He concludes his review by observing

that the challenges in "the past fifty years have left United States with unsustainable energy

needs and a disproportionate share in the world's emissions: five times that of the average

person on the globe. But this history shows that big shifts are possible, in fact inevitable. It also

brings us to a point of reckoning regarding energy, climate change, and the way we shape our

communities" (Calthorpe, 2011, p. 35). A point of reckoning, indeed, is about to befall us, like a

judgment of the human purpose and experience.

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Chapter 6 - Conclusions

Perhaps the most serious limit we confront is time. The risk is that we will fail to

perceive and act on the dangers presented by exponential growth. (Coates, (ed.),

1981, p. 21)

At this time of rapid population growth and worsening environmental conditions, the

discussions in the preceding chapters are only a brief snapshot of the available facts, figures and

statistics that make up the context of the approaching energy crisis and the broadening

environmental catastrophe. The literature review and resource analyses behind this study

encompass a wide variety of interrelated concerns, intertwined causes, and interconnected

problems in the human-built as well as the natural environment. Since significant majority of the

environmental issues reviewed thus far are caused by the scientific and technological advances in

human environments, effective solutions and remedies are likely to be found within the context

of human settlement patterns in the urban areas.

The ecological, social, cultural, economical, as well as environmental problems that exert

increasingly debilitating pressures on the modern civilization are summarized under five major

groups:

1) Environmental degradation and deterioration i.e. urban growth, suburban sprawl, and

loss of ecosystems, destruction of wetlands, deforestation, desertification, species

extinction, loss of farmlands, topsoil erosion, fertility reduction, salinization, and

groundwater depletion, air, water, and land pollution, acid deposition, and depletion

of natural resources and petroleum

2) Fossil fuel depletion i.e. peak oil and natural gas

3) Ozone depletion and global warming

4) Climate change

5) Population growth

A review of multi-disciplinary literature on environmental design challenges promptly

reveals a wealth of prominent design theories, initiatives, policies, programs, and projects. The

majority of these efforts earnestly seek to establish genuine solutions to alleviate the malignant

120

human impacts on Nature at multiple levels. However, only a select portion of these efforts are

included in this study. Some of these prominent applications are identified as the 'core

principles' whereas the others are grouped as the 'supporting strategies' depending on their

relationship and relevance to the design of inherently resilient and sustainable environments.

The core principles examined in this study are those of Smart Growth, New Urbanism,

Resilient Cities: Eco-Villages, Sustainable Communities, Regenerative Design, Living

Machines: Eco-Cities, Living Buildings, Neighborhoods and Cities, and Green Urbanism. The

supporting strategies include those in Urban Redevelopment and Infill, LEED-Neighborhood

Development, Transit-Oriented Development, Growth Management, Natural Capitalism,

Renewable Sources of Energy and Materials, Urban Agriculture, the Hannover Principles, and

the Next Industrial Revolution.

Based on the various design challenges and opportunities examined within these

movements a comprehensive approach is proposed in order to not only harmonize, organize, and

realign all of these fragmented sustainability efforts but also redefine the ultimate goal of these

efforts in rehabilitating and healing of the natural environment. The ecologically responsive and

environmentally responsible design principles and strategies outlined as part of the discussions in

the preceding chapters may help formulate an environmental design agenda that aims at restoring

the health, vitality, and longevity of a struggling planet.

Under the incessant pressures of increasing human population, decreasing availability of

resources and the deteriorating health of naturally occurring ecosystems, Coates (1981) poses a

question that still remains relevant: "what, then, has allowed civilization in general and industrial

civilization in particular to develop in such an anti-ecological direction?" He continues on to

assert that "the answer" – which remains fundamentally unchanged and sadly spreading today –

as related in the biblical story of the Garden, "can be traced to the desacralization of nature:

when life is no longer seen as a gift of the 'Garden', narrow human purpose becomes the sole

criterion of action" (Coates, (ed.), 1981, p. 537). He explains "by no longer internalizing the

interests of the non-human environment through an unshakable belief in the sacredness of all

creation, the regenerative potential of human purpose, amplified by planning and technology and

industrialized in culturally prescribed behavior, is unleashed resulting in Lamarckian evolution

and maladaptation" (Coates, (ed.), 1981, p. 537).

121

One of the greatest minds of the recent history, Bateson (1972), approaching the same

issue from a totally different theoretical framework points out to virtually the same conclusion:

"ecology of mind is an ecology of pattern, information, and ideas that happen to be embodied in

things – material forms", he records, "a science which limits itself to counting and weighing

these embodiments is likely to arrive at a very distorted understanding" (p. x). The

'desacralization', indeed, appears to be at the very root of what has been happening to the natural

environment. The essence of presence and living on Earth, which is created to overflow with

bounty and beauty, giving the meaning to life, has been reduced to lifeless means and material

ends of worldly provisions that are ultimately bound to deteriorate and diminish.

Observing the persistent human disregard for natural environment, Bateson (Coates,

(ed.), 1981) explains that this tendency runs much deeper than social or cultural ethos, and

observes that the "anti-ecological animus of human civilization is the result of the exercise of

purposive consciousness in behavior, which seeks to achieve narrowly defined human ends

without concern or regard for the circular structure of cause and effect which characterizes the

functioning of the rest of the living world" (p. 526). "What we believe ourselves to be should be

compatible with what we believe of the world around us to be" (Coates, (ed.), 1981, p. 526). The

'narrow focus' in human purposes, combined with deliberate disregard for environment, indeed

underlies most of the adverse human impacts on the natural environment as mentioned in the

preceding sections.

The fundamental shift to a 'reductive worldview' of purely scientific objectivity and

material existence without the acknowledgement of nurturing and healing spiritual essence of the

living ultimately results in collapse unsurprisingly. Barnhart (1981) makes explicit such a

worldview by observing that "in a world where more money is invested in military technology

than in energy, health, food production, and environmental protection combined, one concludes

that modern intellectual and political paradigms are failing to create a path to future peace and

well-being" (p. 495).

Another prominent source of decline in the value of the living on Earth seems to come

from the 'conscious purpose' of humans, which can be viewed as humans' gift, ability, and power

to rationally formulate deliberate intentions behind actions, like changing the surroundings to fit

their desires, rather than simply conforming to the conditions. This innate drive or instinct

appears to be more prominent in certain cultures than others, reaching one of its peaks in the

122

United States. Coates (1981) records an extremely critical observation about the profound

importance of conscious purpose, and notes that "unless we can find a way, both individually and

collectively, to transcend the paradox of conscious purpose, we shall continue to win the battle of

domination of nature but lose the war of survival" (p. 527).

Yet another prominent source of behind the relentless expansion of human dominion

seems to originate in 'Will-to-Power', which Coates (1981) diagnoses as, an eyeless monster that

"must be hauled to the surface of consciousness before man can bring all his other spiritual and

cultural resources to bear on it. That task plainly takes precedence over further technological

improvements" (p. 530). This innate drive or instinct also appears to be more prominent in

certain cultures than others, reaching many of its historic peaks in the United States and Europe.

Observing the overwhelming effects of globalization, "that the old hierarchies are being

flattened, that the playing field is being leveled, and that people who understand this

transformation can wield more power than ever" Friedman (2005) asserts. "I am convinced that

the flattening of the world, if it continues, will be seen in time as one of the fundamental shifts or

inflection points, like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or

the Industrial Revolution – each of which, in its day, noted Rothkopf, produced changes in the

role of individuals, the role and form of governments, the ways business was done and wars were

fought, the role of women, the forms of religion and the art took, the way science and research

were conducted, not to mention the political labels that we as a civilization have assigned to

ourselves and to our enemies" (Friedman, 2005, p. 48).

McDonough (Wagner, 1993) looks in a different direction for the possible cures and

remedies, "if influential people who have a serious presence in a healthy planet can be made to

understand how the 'built' environment and its attendant technologies affect ecological

imbalance, it will give prestige to the role that architecture (and building technology) can play in

mitigating its effects" (p. 55). As McDonough suggests, the politics, policy, and regulation

dimensions of the ecological, social, cultural, economical, as well as environmental problems,

are often times a lot more important than the mere design principles and strategies of

implementation. Likewise, in order for many of these problems to be addressed, the proper

circumstances need to be created by design, which requires tremendous amounts of initiative,

creativity, and rigor.

123

It ought to be no surprise to anyone that the keys to unlock a different future are deeply

embedded in the values that guide the human societies. The worth of societal value systems is

reflected in the environments they create, just as trees are known by their fruits. And, so it goes

for the current civilization of modern conveniences as well.

And, finally, the great sense of urgency in orchestrating collective and decisive actions is

increasingly becoming clearer. Comprehensive large-scale planning as well as prompt local

implementations through human ingenuity are both desirable and necessary. The extreme

complexity and interconnected nature of the emerging energy crisis and the deepening

environmental catastrophe requires no less than equally sophisticated improvements and

correlated amendments in the man-made environment. The effectiveness of these interventions

ultimately depends on understanding the needs for prompt, synchronized and consistent

realization of significant environmental and operational changes.

In the event that we fail to initiate and follow such a restorative course Nature itself shall

certainly take over the reigns in absolute dominion, and restore justice and harmony for all

participants. The guilt shall have no room for plea, then, as the opportunities for timely change

will have been have already exhausted. The Owner of the Garden is certainly infinitely patient,

neither acting in hurry, nor hastening the finale. However, the respite given for the insolent

rebellion of adolescent irresponsibility is quickly running out.

The Future of Environmental Restoration The environmental challenges outlined in this study, if neglected for much longer, are

forecasted to culminate in irreversible conditions that are likely to hinder the continuity of life on

Earth. In a not-too-distant future these forecasts are expected to start becoming realities just as a

series of predictions made decades ago have already taken place. Especially when the timelines

of necessary social changes, economic adjustments, technological advancements and adaptations

of humanity are considered the urgency of timely action becomes exceedingly clear.

Fully recognizing the adverse impacts of human developments on the natural

environment the discussions should address the need for effective urban design principles and

strategies to move beyond goals of sustainability towards achieving restoration of the Earth’s

ecosystems (Toros, 2010a, p. 14). Moving beyond the goals of sustainability, the restorative

design targets at adequately and sustainably reestablishing the pristine ecological conditions of

124

Nature, those that existed prior to the human developments in urban settings. Environmental

impacts created by the introduction of human activities and uses on any given site should be

minimized approximating predevelopment levels as much as possible (Toros, 2010a, p. 2).

The next phase in the widespread application of Restorative practices requires the

formulation of a redevelopment model that is to be implemented in the urbanized areas. Through

the local and regional implementations of the Restorative Design model of urban redevelopment

it would be possible to take decisive, concrete, and timely action toward relatively rapid

remediation of the outlined environmental challenges.

The success of environmental restoration, for the most part, lies in the reestablishment of

rehabilative balances and cycles of natural ecosystems, which need to be integrated back into the

environmental fabric through the processes of urban redevelopment. The model of Restorative

Design should focus on the implementation of specific principles within Atmosphere, Ecology,

Water, Energy, Mobility, Resources, Wastes, Materials, Places, Community, and Values (Toros,

2010b, p. 1).

While the adaptation of Restorative Design Model should be entirely open to unique local

circumstances all implementations should yield results that are in alignment with the global

expectations. The model of restorative practices should aim to facilitate comprehensive, multi-

disciplinary, and multi-faceted real-world regulations on urban developments to contain further

harm to Nature and to neutralize human impacts to the environment at their source (Toros,

2010b, p. 1).

125

Epilogue

A young woman from Wampanoag Tribe conveys to John Todd " 'My people

don't understand you or why you do the things you do. We don't understand why

you are still trying to take more of our land. Why must you own things. Why

must you always have more.' Her eyes clouded for a moment as she searched for

the right explanation, then she gestured to a nearby flower bed. 'A seed, a flower,

a tree unfolds according to the instructions it has been given. We have always

tried to live by ours. We don't understand yours. How you have been taught to

live. What your instructions are.' (Todd & Todd, 1994, p. 13)

One of the driving objectives behind this study is to help initiate the theoretical basis of

the next epoch in the evolution of human civilization: An Era of Environmental Restoration.

That new epoch begins with a clear understanding and awareness of the far-reaching impacts of

the human civilization on the planet. A clear realization that, there are multitudes of delicately

established balances, naturally occurring processes, and living systems sharing the same Garden

with the humans.

Such intimate understanding of the multi-dimensionality of the challenges can perhaps

propel the humankind into the next era beyond the merely selfish worries of sustaining its own

species. Only, then, could can it be expected that the dormant but infinitely potent human

powers to heal the environment be unleashed: an epoch of rehabilitation, regeneration and

restoration of Man and Nature. Such a restoration starts with imagination and creativity:

Imagine for a minute a world where cities have become peaceful and serene

because cars and buses are whisper quiet, vehicles exhaust only water vapor, and

parks and greenways have replaced unneeded urban freeways. OPEC has ceased

to function because the price of oil has fallen to five dollars a barrel, but there are

few buyers for it because cheaper and better ways now exist to get the services

people once turned to oil to provide. Living standards for all people have

dramatically improved, particularly for the poor and those in developing

countries. Involuntary unemployment no longer exists, and income taxes have

126

largely been eliminated. Houses, even low-income housing units, can pay part of

their mortgage costs by the energy they produce; there are few if any active

landfills; worldwide forest cover is increasing; dams are being dismantled;

atmospheric CO2 levels are decreasing for the first time in two hundred years;

and effluent water leaving factories is cleaner than the water coming into them.

Industrialized countries have reduced resource use by 80 percent while improving

the quality of life.

Among these technological changes there are important social changes. The

frayed social nets of Western countries have been repaired. With the explosion of

family-wage jobs, welfare demand has fallen. A progressive and active union

movement has taken the lead to work with businesses, environmentalists, and

government to create 'just transitions' for workers as society phases out coal,

nuclear energy, and oil. In communities and towns, churches, corporations, and

labor groups promote a new living-wage social contract as the least expensive

way to ensure the economic growth and preservation of valuable social capital. Is

this the vision of a utopia? In fact, the changes described here could come in the

decades to come as a result of economic and technological trends already in place.

(Hawken, Lovins & Lovins, 1999, p. 1)

127

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