城市景观生态英文文献和中文翻译(4)

菜单

Jianguo Wu (Arizona State University) delves into the way that ideas about urban sustainability are being reshaped by a paradigm shift in urban ecology from the 1990s. In landscape architecture, we are familiar with urban ecology because of the published works of Ian McHarg (1969), Anne Spirn (1985), John Lyle (1985,1994), Frederick Steiner (1990), and Michael Hough(2004).But the use of urban ecology by these landscape architects is based on just one branch on the tree of knowledge in urban ecology, extending into design and planning. Wu reviews the other branches, or paradigms, that have reshaped urban ecology as an ecological science in the United States during the past three decades. He argues that combining landscape ecology with some elements of sustainability science will serve the needs of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration most effectively.

Building on the work of Jianguo Wu, Forster Ndubisi (Texas A&M University) presents a conceptual framework for sustainable regionalism, and explains how it would affect the spatial order of humanized ecological regions at a larger scale. He emphasizes that "sustainable regionalism seeks to create, revitalize, and restore the ecological region in metropolitan areas through the physical design and planning of neighborhoods, villages, and cities" (this issue). Ndubisi traces the roots of this concept in regionalism, ecological regionalism, critical regionalism, sustainability, and sustainable development, and draws from a pantheon of important figures and historical influences in urban planning and landscape architecture. He also addresses how sustainable regionalism can be used to re-establish ecological regions and shape public policy, design, and planning objectives.

Translational Explorations: Sustainability, Resilience, and Regeneration

In summarizing current concepts of sustainability from the Literature in their respective disciplines Wu and Ndubisi make it quite clear that ecology, design, and planning are converging toward a shared domain of knowledge. But are the two disciplines really aiming at the same target? Important questions remain: how well would Ndubisi's humanized ecological region relate to the Environmental Protection Agency's ecoregional classification scheme? How might the artistic expression of design be integrated into Wu's framework for urban ecology? These questions raise important issues about how to integrate and translate knowledge to environmental problem-solving in metropolitan landscapes.

As metropolitan regions continue to expand across the globe, signs increasingly indicate that the current spatial forms and organization of metropolitan landscapes are becoming less sustainable and more vulnerable to change because of larger environmental trends such as global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and biopersity loss. Translational research that involves scientists, landscape architects, planners, and engineers will be crucial for guiding best practices in sustainable development toward the goals of metropolitan landscape sustainability, resilience, and regeneration. Both European and American perspectives on these goals are explored in the final section, including articles by Paul Opdam and Eveliene Steingrover, Craig Groves, Joan Woodward, and James Miller.

One of the hottest topics for translational research is the design of corridors and ecological networks, a topic that has been debated for the past several decades. However, the conservation benefits of corridors for biopersity are most widely accepted in landscapes that have been heavily modified by people. In these types of landscapes, less than 20 percent of the original natural vegetation may be left. An excellent example of this type of landscape is The Netherlands and, to nobody's surprise, this landscape has inspired some of the most comprehensive studies about the scientific merits and conservation benefits of ecological networks. Paul Opdam and Eveliene Steingr8ver (ALTBRRA, Wageningen University) offer an excellent example of this type of research. These authors share their experiences with the use of ecological networks in the metropolitan landscape of The Netherlands. Their major premise is that landscape architects and planners need "help" to create ecologically sustainable landscapes, and they distill many concepts from metapopulation and biopersity research to ten useful principles for ecological network design. In the manner of other guidelines in landscape ecology, for example Dramstad et al. (1996), their approach uses diagrams to explain complex ecological processes in relation to spatial patterns. Yet, this article also raises some questions about how the artful aspects of human experience may be integrated into these ten principles. On this matter, landscape architects may also make an important contribution to the scientific and artistic basis of landscape sustainability.