Place-based urban ecology: A century of park planning in Seattle

Abstract

This research responds to calls from within the field of urban ecology to explicitly incorporate humanities-based research in order to achieve robust interdisciplinarity. Our research provides an example of a place-based urban ecological analysis. We use this framework to analyze over a century of park planning and development within the city of Seattle. We identify four eras of park planning that are linked by a comprehensive 100-year park plan. This case study examines how the political, cultural, and economic aspects of park planning have produced and been influenced by long-term trends and historical contingencies. This research also offers practical insights for effective contemporary urban planning, emphasizing the need for flexible and adaptive long-term plans when confronted with unpredictable events, emerging political arrangements, changing cultural priorities, and shifting fiscal climates.

Creating the park cool island in an inner-city neighborhood: heat mitigation strategy for Phoenix, AZ

“…Research in this field combines urban socio-ecological and historical perspectives to argue that intra-city disparities in the location of quality parks are the outcome of complex interactions between cultural, ecological, and political processes that continuously reshape urban environments and differentially benefit socio-economically advantaged populations at the expense of poor or low-income communities (Brownlow 2006;Dooling et al 2006). The provision of ecologically adequate-and adequately maintained-vegetation is important for equitable outcomes, especially since neglected parks often create "ecologies of fear" that emphasize legacies of race-based social control and criminalization of environments and their occupants (Brownlow 2006).…”

Changing relationships in public open space and private open space in suburbs in south-western Australia

“…Even more recently, there is growing interest regarding the emotional and psychological benefits of nature in close proximity to urban and suburban areas (Kahn, 2002;Miller, 2005;Dooling et al, 2006), and the consequent need for more areas which satisfy these needs in POS. These changes in the meaning of POS in Western Australia, both major and subtle, have occurred without awareness of the recreational designations upon which the 10% allocation was made in 1955.…”

“…Some projected issues are currently under global discussion as additions to POS (Ward Thompson, 2002). For example, research in Seattle (Dooling et al, 2006) has revealed a shift from a primarily human-centric management view to a larger ecological agenda in the 1990s. They reported that "park users wanted not only passive and active recreation opportunities, but they also wanted opportunities for observing urban wildlife species and experiencing 'natural' settings, as well as the preservation of contiguous forested and green areas" (Dooling et al, 2006, p. 313).…”

Analysis of the acoustic climate of a spa park using the fuzzy set theory

“…The visitors willingly choose, in their opinion, quieter areas. Therefore, subjective sounds perception and its correlation with physical measurements is an important part of creating a soundscape in this type of areas [6,10,11]. The above analysis showed inconsistencies in the perception of sounds.…”

“…In this type of park, it is very di cult to isolate di erent functions because a park is always an open space where the introduction of arti cial barriers separating individual zones does not seem to be a good solution. There is also a problem of mutual penetration of noise between such zones [11,12]. Sadowski [13] de ned the acoustic shaping of environment as a process based on the formation of such acoustic conditions that would be the most favourable for human health and activities.…”