Perhaps it was writing my previous post that gave the final push and incentive: I've finally read the book I had asked for last Christmas. Ecosystem Services Come To Town is not a brand-new title, it was published in 2012. I would never have stumbled across it, not least because of the strange title. Unless you are working in climate research, landscaping, urban planning and a few other such fields, I doubt you'd know what Ecosystem Services means. Or is this just me? Anyway. Last autumn I went to a brief seminar about the urban landscape of the future, which I found incredibly inspiring. One of the experts talking was Gary Grant. He is the author of this book about "Greening cities by working with nature", its subtitle.
Starting point and basic motivation for the book is the fact that already more than half of the world's population lives in cities: "We therefore need to consider how we can make life in those cities as efficient, comfortable and fulfilling as we can without continuing to rely on the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. It will not be straightforward and there will probably be no single solution, but the future will surely involve city greening. This book is intended to describe some of those difficulties and various ways that city greening can occur - not only for adornment and liveability, but also to make cities function in harmony with natural processes."
"Greening", in this context then, is much more than creating a few parks and adding some trees along the road or a few planters to a piazza. It is a far wider, more holistic approach. As Grant writes: "People are beginning to look differently at the way our towns and cities are designed, built and operated. This new approach goes beyond the necessary reduction in energy and water use and the mitigation of impacts on the wider environment. How mean-spirited it is to limit our ambitions to reducing negative environmental impacts!" In order to achieve this, he says later, "there must be a fundamental shift in the way we design and manage the built environment."
We are totally reliant on nature - even city dwellers
What is behind that - gradual and encouraged - shift? A growing body of evidence, of course. It's not just the moral but somewhat fluffy sense that nature should have a place, too, or that people prefer to live in nice, pretty environments. There are "proper, substantial reasons" even those only concerned with figures, economic data and the like will get. For their sake, perhaps, the horrible and abstract term "ecosystem services" has been coined. As Grant explains it: "There [now] is an acknowledgement that our society, our civilisation and our cities are reliant on the goods and services supplied free of charge by the natural world - so-called ecosystem-services." (And no, the term wasn't Grant's invention.)
These ecosystem-services, according to the book, can be classed in four groups: provisioning, cultural, regulating and supporting Ecosystem services. The most obvious perhaps, Provisioning, comprise fresh water, food, wood & fibre and fuel. Cultural services nature provides to us are those of an aesthetic, educational, recreational and spiritual kind. Among the regulating services are water purification (either through aquatic plants or geological layers), flood regulation (think river flood plains, the sponge effect vegetation has etc.), climate regulation and disease regulation. Finally, primary production (including oxygen, I'd guess), soil formation and the nutrient cycle are grouped as supporting eco-system services.
"Greening", in this context then, is much more than creating a few parks and adding some trees along the road or a few planters to a piazza. It is a far wider, more holistic approach. As Grant writes: "People are beginning to look differently at the way our towns and cities are designed, built and operated. This new approach goes beyond the necessary reduction in energy and water use and the mitigation of impacts on the wider environment. How mean-spirited it is to limit our ambitions to reducing negative environmental impacts!" In order to achieve this, he says later, "there must be a fundamental shift in the way we design and manage the built environment."
We are totally reliant on nature - even city dwellers
What is behind that - gradual and encouraged - shift? A growing body of evidence, of course. It's not just the moral but somewhat fluffy sense that nature should have a place, too, or that people prefer to live in nice, pretty environments. There are "proper, substantial reasons" even those only concerned with figures, economic data and the like will get. For their sake, perhaps, the horrible and abstract term "ecosystem services" has been coined. As Grant explains it: "There [now] is an acknowledgement that our society, our civilisation and our cities are reliant on the goods and services supplied free of charge by the natural world - so-called ecosystem-services." (And no, the term wasn't Grant's invention.)
These ecosystem-services, according to the book, can be classed in four groups: provisioning, cultural, regulating and supporting Ecosystem services. The most obvious perhaps, Provisioning, comprise fresh water, food, wood & fibre and fuel. Cultural services nature provides to us are those of an aesthetic, educational, recreational and spiritual kind. Among the regulating services are water purification (either through aquatic plants or geological layers), flood regulation (think river flood plains, the sponge effect vegetation has etc.), climate regulation and disease regulation. Finally, primary production (including oxygen, I'd guess), soil formation and the nutrient cycle are grouped as supporting eco-system services.
This doesn't count... - a plastic rose stuck on a fence made from twigs
Incidentally, the thought process behind this is mentioned in another - very different - book I've just read (and one I can highly recommend!): "A Brush with Nature - Reflections on the Natural World" is a collection of columns British nature writer Richard Mabey has written for BBC Wildlife magazine since 1984. One column from 2006, called "Nature: The New Prozac?", looks at the re-discovery of the health benefits of nature:
"There's been much discussion recently about encounters with nature being good for your health - physical and psychological. [...] But it's not new, really. The idea that you can be mended by the healing currents of the green outdoors, by engaging with rhythms and ways of life different from your own, goes back to classical times. [...] Now [though] there are statistics to back up this ancient common sense. [...] This is all exciting stuff, both for people and the natural world. It could lead to savings in health budgets and, reciprocally, to quantifiable economic value being put on natural habitats."
Today, open-source software such as i-Tree can calculate or quantify the economic value of even individual urban trees! (For those interested, click this for more about the i-Tree tools and projects, not just from London.) Mabey predicted the development, I guess. For although the i-Tree tools were first released in August 2006, initially this happened in and for the US. Only later were they adapted by interested practitioners, scientists and non-profit organisations around the world to their local conditions and requirements. I doubt Richard Mabey was aware of them when writing his column.
"There's been much discussion recently about encounters with nature being good for your health - physical and psychological. [...] But it's not new, really. The idea that you can be mended by the healing currents of the green outdoors, by engaging with rhythms and ways of life different from your own, goes back to classical times. [...] Now [though] there are statistics to back up this ancient common sense. [...] This is all exciting stuff, both for people and the natural world. It could lead to savings in health budgets and, reciprocally, to quantifiable economic value being put on natural habitats."
Today, open-source software such as i-Tree can calculate or quantify the economic value of even individual urban trees! (For those interested, click this for more about the i-Tree tools and projects, not just from London.) Mabey predicted the development, I guess. For although the i-Tree tools were first released in August 2006, initially this happened in and for the US. Only later were they adapted by interested practitioners, scientists and non-profit organisations around the world to their local conditions and requirements. I doubt Richard Mabey was aware of them when writing his column.
Nature for the money men in London's financial district, the City
If all this sounds too abstract, lets look at more concrete examples: Cities usually are by some degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside. All the concrete and stone creates so-called heat islands, as is the relative lack of shade and lack of cooling from evaporation. The sun's radiation is stored as heat in the materials our conventional buildings and streets are made of and emitted again at night, preventing the area from cooling down as much as non-built up tracts. That's the reasons why even when there's snow outside of London, even when it snows in London, it hardly ever settles on the ground. And it also is why everyone tries to flee cities in a really hot summer...
By introducing more plants - via street trees or as more parks, green roofs, green walls - you reduce this "heating up". Air quality will improve. Plants can even reduce the level of noise city dwellers are constantly subjected to. And soil and plants will also mop up excessive rainwater - helping prevent flash floods. All "proper quantifiable benefits": people in offices that don't overheat so much are less likely to be "off sick" and probably more efficient at that. Insurance costs for flood damages - think overflowing drains after a downpour, for instance, or flooded subways - are down, costs for air conditioning needed, too. For the number crunchers, you do not even have to point to the cultural services...
By introducing more plants - via street trees or as more parks, green roofs, green walls - you reduce this "heating up". Air quality will improve. Plants can even reduce the level of noise city dwellers are constantly subjected to. And soil and plants will also mop up excessive rainwater - helping prevent flash floods. All "proper quantifiable benefits": people in offices that don't overheat so much are less likely to be "off sick" and probably more efficient at that. Insurance costs for flood damages - think overflowing drains after a downpour, for instance, or flooded subways - are down, costs for air conditioning needed, too. For the number crunchers, you do not even have to point to the cultural services...
Green wall at Stratford shopping centre: maybe not too big on biodiversity, but a step forward nonetheless
Unmistakably a reference book, Ecosystem Services Come To Town is strongly structured: ten main chapters are each divided into many subchapters - or perhaps "headlines for paragraphs", as you often find two of these "subchapters" to a page. In the introduction he sets out store: starting from a modern disconnect between nature and many city dwellers, the spike in urban populations and the human population in general he moves on to the limits to growth, global threats and why a good stewardship of nature (and ecosystem services with it) is vital. Greening cities, Grant says, is an essential and increasingly inevitable part of this.
The main body is divided into the following chapters: Origins of Cities (going right back to the emergence of humans), Modern Cities, Issues facing contemporary cities, Working with nature, Urban nature, Water and Cities, City-wide Greening (concerned with regional efforts like water catchment management or regional networks of linked spaces where wildlife and plants can thrive, such as green belts) and finally Greening Neighbourhoods and Buildings: green roofs and rooftop gardens, green walls or vertical gardens, so-called pocket parks etc..
In addition to the usual index plus "notes and references", there are two extensive appendices to the book. One presents over a dozen innovative projects which have won awards at the Integrated Habitats Design Competition. The latter is a contest instigated in 2009 by the author and two other experts. The second appendix is a well-structured list of resources, briefly explaining and providing the web link to a great number of institutions, concepts and documents encountered in the book.
The main body is divided into the following chapters: Origins of Cities (going right back to the emergence of humans), Modern Cities, Issues facing contemporary cities, Working with nature, Urban nature, Water and Cities, City-wide Greening (concerned with regional efforts like water catchment management or regional networks of linked spaces where wildlife and plants can thrive, such as green belts) and finally Greening Neighbourhoods and Buildings: green roofs and rooftop gardens, green walls or vertical gardens, so-called pocket parks etc..
In addition to the usual index plus "notes and references", there are two extensive appendices to the book. One presents over a dozen innovative projects which have won awards at the Integrated Habitats Design Competition. The latter is a contest instigated in 2009 by the author and two other experts. The second appendix is a well-structured list of resources, briefly explaining and providing the web link to a great number of institutions, concepts and documents encountered in the book.
Urban nature? Don't go about it like this...
So - what is the way forward then? What should the cities of the future look like? And, just as important, how can we actually get there (and I'm not thinking of means of transport, although these of course are part of the vision)? Grant feels sure that:
"Towns and cities do not need to be barren, hot and dry, they can be green and pleasant, with created habitats providing ecosystem services on and around buildings where people live and work. This means that landscapes on or around buildings and infrastructure can be more than an optional ornamental extra but a multi-functional layer of soil and vegetation that controls surface water, provides food and wildlife habitats and keeps us cool, fit and sane. To make this transformation from grey to green will require panoramic, trans-disciplinary thinking and coordinated action. We will need to move away from our over-specialisation and the widespread and common feeling that dealing with the conservation of nature is either irrelevant or in some cases, nice, but 'someone else's department'."
He finishes his book with the following conviction: "There will be a new direction for architecture that will stimulate further innovation. This will be accelerated by new ways of collaborating and thinking, but we do not need to wait for such changes in order to begin the green transformation of our cities". A heartening call to arms or, to remain civilian, to action!
A great book to start you on the subject of greening cities for the future
My own conclusion? While Ecosystem Services Come To Town is a reference book, it is easy to read and - in my opinion - contains very little professional jargon, making it easy to understand for people with an interest but not much in the way of knowledge on the subject. Since so often talk of the future is framed in scenarios of gloom and doom - climate change, pollution, scarcity of resources, dwindling number of species - I especially like the author's positive attitude: "The intention is to be brief, informative, inspirational and practical. And optimistic - there is no benefit in being anything else." It is, in short, a very good introduction to a topic which will become ever more important and (hopefully) mainstream rather than a niche issue. And it is detailed enough to cater for a far wider audience than the interested layperson!
Oh, and since I've used the term in the headline but not in the post itself, I probably ought to explain "Green infrastructure". I can't do it better than Wikipedia though, so in case you are still unsure I'll simply refer you to there.
"Towns and cities do not need to be barren, hot and dry, they can be green and pleasant, with created habitats providing ecosystem services on and around buildings where people live and work. This means that landscapes on or around buildings and infrastructure can be more than an optional ornamental extra but a multi-functional layer of soil and vegetation that controls surface water, provides food and wildlife habitats and keeps us cool, fit and sane. To make this transformation from grey to green will require panoramic, trans-disciplinary thinking and coordinated action. We will need to move away from our over-specialisation and the widespread and common feeling that dealing with the conservation of nature is either irrelevant or in some cases, nice, but 'someone else's department'."
He finishes his book with the following conviction: "There will be a new direction for architecture that will stimulate further innovation. This will be accelerated by new ways of collaborating and thinking, but we do not need to wait for such changes in order to begin the green transformation of our cities". A heartening call to arms or, to remain civilian, to action!
A great book to start you on the subject of greening cities for the future
My own conclusion? While Ecosystem Services Come To Town is a reference book, it is easy to read and - in my opinion - contains very little professional jargon, making it easy to understand for people with an interest but not much in the way of knowledge on the subject. Since so often talk of the future is framed in scenarios of gloom and doom - climate change, pollution, scarcity of resources, dwindling number of species - I especially like the author's positive attitude: "The intention is to be brief, informative, inspirational and practical. And optimistic - there is no benefit in being anything else." It is, in short, a very good introduction to a topic which will become ever more important and (hopefully) mainstream rather than a niche issue. And it is detailed enough to cater for a far wider audience than the interested layperson!
Oh, and since I've used the term in the headline but not in the post itself, I probably ought to explain "Green infrastructure". I can't do it better than Wikipedia though, so in case you are still unsure I'll simply refer you to there.
This may count... As the saying goes: every little helps.
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