Smart Sustainable Cities of the New Millennium: Towards Design for Nature

Abstract

Urban environments consist of a mosaic of natural fragments, planned and unintentional habitats hosting both introduced and spontaneous species. The latter group exploits abandoned and degraded urban niches which, in the case of plants, form what is called the third landscape. In the Anthropocene, cities, open spaces and buildings must be planned and designed considering not only human needs but also those of other living organisms. The scientific approach of habitat sharing is defined as reconciliation ecology, whilst the action of implementing the ecosystem services and functioning of such anthropogenic habitats is called Urban Rehabilitation. However, urban development still represents the main cause of biodiversity loss worldwide. Yet, the approach of planners and landscape architects highly diverges from that of ecologists and scientists on how to perceive, define and design urban green and blue infrastructure. For instance, designers focus on the positive impact that nature (generally associated with indoor and outdoor greeneries) has on human well-being, often neglecting ecosystems’ health. Instead, considering the negative impact of any form of development and to achieve the no net loss Aichi’s objectives, conservationists apply mitigation hierarchy policies to avoid or reduce the impact and to offset biodiversity. The rationale of this review paper is to set the fundamentals for a multidisciplinary design framework tackling the issue of biodiversity loss in the urban environment by design for nature. The method focuses on the building/city/landscape scales and is enabled by emerging digital technologies, i.e., geographic information systems, building information modelling, ecological simulation and computational design.

Creating ecologically sound buildings by integrating ecology, architecture and computational design

“…BIM converts 3D geometry into an informed object by adding detailed hierarchical information in relation to construction, life cycle assessment including cost‐, project‐ and facility management and also has applications in green building. Thus, BIM is a standard to make planning more efficient and sustainable (Catalano et al, 2021; Jalilzadehazhari et al, 2019; Shadram & Mukkavaara, 2018).…”

“…Even though both systems are similar in concept, it is a challenge for software vendors making GIS and BIM models interoperable, because in GIS models vectors are featured as points, lines, polygons, while BIM models are non‐metric (e.g. Catalano et al, 2021; Mignard & Nicolle, 2014). Catalano et al (2021) have developed a promising framework that represents a spatial‐based approach to integrate species habitats in constructed ecosystems.…”

Digitalization of Participatory Greening - The case of UnionYouth in Chania

“…al., 2017). Within the frame of Chania and its wider landscape areas, the authors designate three points of particular importance, the handling of which entails interdisciplinary collaboration: firstly, regarding (urban) biodiversity conservation as pointed out by Antonelli et al (2020, p.51) along with actions for the conservation of remnant ecosystems, and avoidance of their fragmentation (Catalano et. al., 2021); secondly, pertained to conservation biology as featured by Frankham, Ballou and Briscoe, (2004, p.142) and thirdly with regard to urban invasion ecology and biosecurity as well as, with accompanying guidelines and policies (Scott and Hislop, 2020).…”

Co-De|GT: The Gamification and Tokenisation of More-Than-Human Qualities and Values

“…The public sector and more specifically public service, are where blockchain could have the most impact [13]. There is a current rise in discussions related to the use of information and communications technology (ICT) when dealing with urban ecosystems in sustainable smart cities [15]. This paper aims to address these challenges.…”