Introduction to Ecological Landscaping: A Holistic Description and Framework to Guide the Study and Management of Urban Landscape Parcels

Abstract

Urbanized ecosystems and urban human populations are expanding around the world causing many negative environmental effects. A challenge for achieving sustainable urban social-ecological systems is understanding how urbanized landscapes can be designed and managed to minimize negative outcomes. To this end, an interdisciplinary Ecological Landscaping conference was organized to examine the interacting sociocultural and ecological causes and consequences of landscaping practices and products. This special issue of Cities and the Environment contains a diverse set of articles arising from that conference. In this introductory paper, we describe the meaning of ecological landscaping and a new conceptual framework that helps organize the topic's complex issues. The essence of ecological landscaping is a holistic systems-thinking perspective for understanding the interrelationships among physical-ecological and sociocultural variables that give rise to the patterns and processes of biodiversity, abiotic conditions, and ecosystem processes within and among individually-managed urban landscape parcels. This perspective suggests that 1) variables not considered part of traditional landscaping and 2) the effects of landscaping within an individual parcel on variables outside of it must both be considered when making design and management decisions about a parcel. To illustrate how these points help create a more holistic, ecological approach to landscaping, a traditional ecosystem model is used to create a framework for discussing how sociocultural and physical-ecological inputs to a landscape parcel affect its characteristics and outputs. As exemplified by papers in this issue, an integrated sociocultural-ecological approach to the study of urban landscaping practices and products is needed to 1) understand why and how humans design and mange urban landscape parcels, 2) describe how the combined characteristics and outputs of many parcels give rise to the emergent ecosystem properties of urbanized areas, and 3) develop effective educational programs that catalyze adoption of sustainable landscaping choices and practices. The paper concludes with a discussion of challenges for the future of ecological landscaping research and practice, and a list of preliminary guidelines for ecological landscaping. We hope that this special issue will increase understanding, visibility, and research about the value of an ecological approach to urban landscaping.

Residential landscapes as social-ecological systems: a synthesis of multi-scalar interactions between people and their home environment

“…Broader-scale studies have examined residential land-use/land-cover patterns, commonly with remote sensing imagery and geospatial technology in single regions (e.g., Grove et al 2006a). The nascent field of urban ecology has begun to examine coupled human-environment interactions using interdisciplinary approaches (Pickett et al 1997;Collins et al 2000;Grimm et al 2000), with limited but increasing attention to residential landscapes (Byrne and Grewal 2008). However, disparate disciplinary perspectives, analytical methods, and different scales of analysis render generalizations difficult and limit an integrated understanding of residential landscape dynamics.…”

The residential landscape: fluxes of elements and the role of household decisions

“…More recently, residential landscapes, especially trees, have received attention regarding their role in ecosystem services, such as mitigating air pollution (Nowak et al 2006), reducing nonpoint source pollution , and reducing energy use through shading and wind protection (Parker 1983). In the past decade there has been a growing body of work aimed at describing urban landscapes, including lawns, as complex biogeochemical systems in which fluxes of elements are affected by and result from coupled human-biophysical interactions (Kaye et al 2005;Byrne and Grewal 2008).…”

“…), although large-scale factors such as atmospheric deposition and climate also play a role. Therefore, social factors potentially affect landscape biogeochemistry through their influence on landscaping decisions (Byrne and Grewal 2008;Nelson et al 2008). Decisions that most directly affect the landscape ecosystem and its biogeochemical fluxes are made on various timescales, from decadal timescales, such as decisions regarding initial landscape contouring and the type and number of trees to plant, to annual timescales, such as decisions concerning rate and timing of fertilizer application, leaf and grass clipping management, and irrigation regime.…”

Social-ecological science in the humane metropolis

“…Why is this? The systems view, which is at the core of ecological science, studies the interactions among entities, the way that they are connected, and the implications of the porous boundaries within which they exist (Pickett and Cadenasso 2002;Cadenasso et al 2003). A system is a collection of entities and their interactions, within an explicitly delineated boundary (Jax 2007).…”

“…These include green building, ecological landscaping (Byrne and Grewal 2009), best management practices for the management of storm water and other resources, and efficiencies of energy use and transport.…”