Nature-Based Urbanization: Scan Opportunities, Determine Directions and Create Inspiring Ecologies

Rob Roggema, Nico Tillie and Greg Keeffe
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Rob Roggema: Cittaideale, Office for Adaptive Design and Planning, 6706 LC Wageningen, The Netherlands
Nico Tillie: Urban Ecology and Ecocities Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands
Greg Keeffe: School of Natural and Built Environment, Queens University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5AG, Northern Ireland, UK

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-30

Abstract: To base urbanization on nature, inspiring ecologies are necessary. The concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) could be helpful in achieving this goal. State of the art urban planning starts from the aim to realize a (part of) a city, not to improve natural quality or increase biodiversity. The aim of this article is to introduce a planning approach that puts the ecological landscape first, before embedding urban development. This ambition is explored using three NBS frameworks as the input for a series of design workshops, which conceived a regional plan for the Western Sydney Parklands in Australia. From these frameworks, elements were derived at three abstraction levels as the input for the design process: envisioning a long-term future (scanning the opportunities), evaluating the benefits and disadvantages, and identifying a common direction for the design (determining directions), and implementing concrete spatial cross-cutting solutions (creating inspiring ecologies), ultimately resulting in a regional landscape-based plan. The findings of this research demonstrate that, at every abstraction, a specific outcome is found: a mapped ecological landscape showing the options for urbanization, formulating a food-forest strategy as the commonly found direction for the design, and a regional plan that builds from the landscape ecologies adding layers of productive ecologies and urban synergies. By using NBS-frameworks, the potentials of putting the ecological landscape first in the planning process is illuminated, and urbanization can become resilient and nature-inclusive. Future research should emphasize the balance that should be established between the NBS-frameworks and the design approach, as an overly technocratic and all-encompassing framework prevents the freedom of thought that is needed to come to fruitful design propositions.

Keywords: food forestry; landscape first; nature-driven urbanism; nature-based solutions; research by design; Western Sydney (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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