Urban Ecosystem-Level Biomimicry and Regenerative Design: Linking Ecosystem Functioning and Urban Built Environments

Abstract

By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will likely live in cities. Human settlements depend on resources, benefits, and services from ecosystems, but they also tend to deplete ecosystem health. To address this situation, a new urban design and planning approach is emerging. Based on regenerative design, ecosystem-level biomimicry, and ecosystem services theories, it proposes designing projects that reconnect urban space to natural ecosystems and regenerate whole socio-ecosystems, contributing to ecosystem health and ecosystem services production. In this paper, we review ecosystems as models for urban design and review recent research on ecosystem services production. We also examine two illustrative case studies using this approach: Lavasa Hill in India and Lloyd Crossing in the U.S.A. With increasing conceptualisation and application, we argue that the approach contributes positive impacts to socio-ecosystems and enables scale jumping of regenerative practices at the urban scale. However, ecosystem-level biomimicry practices in urban design to create regenerative impact still lack crucial integrated knowledge on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services productions, making it less effective than potentially it could be. We identify crucial gaps in knowledge where further research is needed and pose further relevant research questions to make ecosystem-level biomimicry approaches aiming for regenerative impact more effective.

Sustainable Urban Agriculture as Functional Hybrid Unit—Issues of Urban Resilience

“…In the context of the forecast development directions for contemporary pro-environmental solutions [2], re-urbanization leads to formulating an innovative approach in shaping urbanized areas, namely, to regenerative design [53][54][55][56][57][58]. The issues related to blue and green infrastructure, presented in the above studies, form part of regenerative design and sustainable urban agriculture concepts.…”

Symbiotic and Regenerative Sustainability Frameworks: Moving Towards Circular City Implementation

“…biorefineries) while also making use of residues and wastes and optimizing the value of biomass over time via cascading. Such an optimization can focus on economic, environmental or social aspects and ideally considers all three pillars of sustainability" (Stegmann et al, 2020) Eco-localism Creating self-reliant local or regional economies in order to secure economic sustainability including via prioritizing the local society and community in the economy including the goals of preserving natural ecosystems, supporting the health of the community, meeting economic needs, and supporting quality of life (Curtis, 2003) Industrial Ecology Optimizing use of energy and materials and reducing waste and pollution by transforming industrial waste and by-products into inputs for other processes as part of a transition to economically viable industrial systems which mimic the behavior of natural ecosystems (Beaulieu, 2015) Industrial Metabolism Transforming linear economic systems into integrated ecosystems of industries (Prendeville et al, 2018) Industrial Symbiosis Physical exchanges of materials and resources, including energy, water, and byproducts between businesses (Chertow, 2007) Circular City A city "based on closing, slowing and narrowing the resource loops as far as possible after the potential for conservation, efficiency improvements, resource sharing, servitization and virtualization has been exhausted, with remaining needs for fresh material and energy being covered as far as possible based on local production using renewable natural resources" (Paiho et al, 2020) Urban Ecology Envisions urban systems as metaphorical heterotrophic ecosystems which can be optimized (Odum, 1983) Urban Symbiosis Assesses how urban cycles of resource exchange and material flows, such as of food, water, and energy, can be made more closed-loop and regenerative to reform linear urban resource consumption (Lenhart et al, 2015) Urban Metabolism "The sum total of the technical and socioeconomic processes that occur in cities, resulting in growth, production of energy, and elimination of waste" (Kennedy et al, 2007) Biomimicry Echoing the natural environment to achieve sustainability and resolve human problems relating to climate, nutrients, society, time, and habitats, with the implication that human civilization should live within natural limits and is dependent on nature (Spiegelhalter, 2010) Green Infrastructure A re-envisionment of the linkages of cities and their implementation to the natural environment, the economy, society, technologies, and people (Ghaffarian et al, 2013) Net-zero design Meeting building needs for resources at the building scale through generation, treatment, and reuse (Crosson, 2018) Regenerative Design Design with the intent to produce projects within cities which generate positive impacts on ecological and social systems, often involving ecosystem biomimicry in order to support both urban development and ecosystem health (Blanco et al, 2021) Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) Recovery and reuse of biological and technical materials in de...…”

“…These limits are perceived through the mediating systems of technology, culture, and socioeconomics (Spiegelhalter, 2010). Drawing on knowledge transfer and emulation of living organisms and ecosystems, biomimicry aims to foster greater sustainability (Blanco et al, 2021). Though biomimicry tends to imply the interpretation of nature-based ideas into physical designs, it can also prove a useful concept for other human systems like economies and cities (Pomponi and Moncaster, 2017).…”

Sustainability Assessment of the Anthropogenic System in Panama City: Application of Biomimetic Strategies towards Regenerative Cities

“…The services that humans obtain from the ecosystem are usually divided into provisioning services, such as food and medicine; regulatory services, such as pollination and climate regulation; supporting services, such as soil formation and solar energy fixation, and cultural services, such as artistic inspiration and entertainment. Based on these, strategies have been developed to apply these services in the urban environment [ 13 , 14 ] so that humans themselves contribute to their wellbeing and to the ecosystems with which they coexist. These services apply to the urban developments and can be described as follows: Nutrient Cycle: This can be added to cities through food and material imports and lost through exports.…”

“…Lavasa was redesigned using the Ecological Performance Standards framework designed by the Biomimicry 3.8 organization and identified six ecosystem services essential to the ecological functioning of the site that was relevant to the development of the urban project in the area. These are water uptake, solar gain; carbon sequestration; water filtration; evapotranspiration, and nitrogen and phosphorus cycling [ 13 ].…”