Best practice in landscape design and restoration – a global overview how to support biodiversity and

ecosystem services

Maria Ignatieva

SLU Sweden, Uppsala

Erfurt 2016

Modern approach to urban landscape design

• Domination of conventional modernistic paradigm:

• Global homogeneous landscape (picturesque-gardenesque-modernistic)

• Loss of biodiversity and local identity

• Emphasis to ”familiar”, uniform, predictable, prefabricated modernistic landcape design of green areas

Globalisation in Landscape Architecture

“English Garden” in Shinjuku Gardens, Tokyo

Globalisation: Western patterns in Japan

Urban Biodiversity and Landscape Design:

• Thanks to 18th century picturesque nature is identified with pictorial ideology of picturesque.

• Picturesque convention: seem so intrinsic to nature but: mistaken for ecological quality.

• Landscape architects are using standard design language and “global” plant material from a select number of nurseries

• The needs of searching the identity of place

• Biodiversity as a tool for returning nature into the city

• Using biodiversity as a new design language

• Support important ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural)

• But: needs to translation ecological patterns into cultural language

Cultural concept of nature

Resistance to globalisation: urban biodiversity

• Native component of biodiversity (native flora and fauna) as one of the most important “tools” for urban ecological and cultural identity

Design with native plants

• Very acute necessity in the Southern hemisphere countries (New Zealand, Australia, Pacific Islands, South Africa, South America)

• A lot of exotic naturalised plants • Loss of native species • New Zealand: last 30 years - clear

emphasis to the design with native plants

• Association of native plants (and biodiversity) with local indigenous culture

Native biodiversity as national identity: New Zealand, Christchurch

New Zealand: design with native plants

Bug Hotel

Design with Native plants: France

Annecy Alps plants Design: Frederic Dellinger

Extensive roof garden in Grenoble: Frederic Dellinger

Design with Native plants: France Participatory of population in the urban ecology research

• Example from France “Wildflowers in my street” Sabine Bouche-Pillon

Awaji Island (Japan): Izanagi Shrine

Tea Garden in the Izanagi Shrine. Reconstruction of the Tea House and the Garden: Mayumi Hayashi design with native plants

Gossa Kaito Iseki Heritage Park, Awaji Island, Japan

Biodiversity as a main design tool: alternative lawns

UK: design of “naturalistic herbaceous” plant communities for urban neighbourhoods

• Mimics the spatial and structural form of semi-natural vegetation

• ‘Utilises visual and functional characteristics that are absent in the native flora’

• Argument: importance to balance different value of biodiversity and attractiveness for humans

• Seed mixes of native and non-native bright coloured species

• Wildlife-friendly and cost-effective replacement for traditional lawns

Nigel Dunnett, James Hitchmough, University of Sheffield, UK

Pictorial Meadows

USA: Meadows and Prairies: Wildlife-Friendly Alternatives to Lawn

• Lawnless Examples in California

• N. California designer Michelle Derviss: lawn-to-xeriscape project

• Minimalistic approach

Xerophyte Garden

• EDIBLE ESTATES garden • Maplewood, New Jersey • Established: July, 2007

USA Lawnless Examples • The Lurie Garden,

Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois

• Opened: July 16, 2004. • The garden is a combination

of 26,000 perennial plants in 250 varieties native to the prairie.

Towards interdisciplinary research: lawn as ecological and cultural phenomenon:

Searching for sustainable lawns in Sweden

FORMAS Project at SLU, Sweden

• FORMAS (Swedish Research Agency) funded our 3 years research project (2013-2016)

• Interdisciplinary collaboration (11 scientists from different backgrounds)

• Including stakeholders - garden managers, landscape architects (from city’s and local municipalities)

LAWN PROJECT RESULTS

• Lawns dominates the urban green areas in Sweden: 51.8% of the total urban green are lawns!

• Total cover of lawn: 20.8% in Swedish cities (covering 0.6% of the total terrestrial land use in Sweden)

• 26% of the lawns of today have been managed during at least 50 year

LAWN PROJECT RESULTS

• YES, LAWNS DO THE JOB to be GREEN!

• We confirm the hypothesis that lawns in general have positive effects on the urban environment (compare to hard surfaces) through carbon sequestration in soil.

• BUT! Lawn as a specially designed element is required a lot of energy and management efforts. Positive carbon sequestration effect can be negated by mowing, irrigation and fertilisation, which require fossil fuel energy, labour costs and cause greenhouse gas emissions.

Cost: Lawn Management: per m2 per 2014, Göteborg 2,78 SEK conventional lawn 1,35 SEK meadow like lawn

BIODIVERSITY Biodiversity (plant species, pollinators and earthworms) were higher in meadow like lawns compare to conventional lawns

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Gothenburg Malmö Uppsala

Num

ber o

f spe

cies

Meadowlike lawn

Conventional lawn

Lawn: social paradox

• People like lawns even if they are not always using them

• important places for different outdoor activities (playing, resting, picnicking, walking, and socializing)

But!!!! • people want to see not just

a monotonous lawn but a variety of outdoor spaces which could provide conditions for different senses (sound, smell, touch and visual)

• Alternative lawns were also appreciated by citizens and managers.

• Paradox of people’s perception of a lawn (“must be” feature!) and the use of lawns in reality.

44 39%

1 1% 3

3% 7

6%

32 28%

11 10%

15 13%

Angered

Walk

Walk with dog

Bicycle

Picnic/ coffee

Playing

Sitting

Jogging/ exercising

23 37%

5 8%

11 18%

2 3%

14 23%

4 6%

3 5%

Holma

Walk

Walk with dog

Bicycle

Picnic/ coffee

Playing

Sitting

Jogging/ exercising

Alternative lawns

1) Grass-free lawn

2) Meadow with perennials

3) Pictorial meadow

Three alternative options of lawns for answering question 5. Pictures: J. Vilkenas and A. Helner, 2014.

• Quite a range of opinions. • Some nature enthusiasts would like to see flower rich meadows and

admitted that “certainly it is good for the environment” and “it could save money and it is worth to have”

• Many people still preferred more tidy conventional lawns but also argued that meadows could be “very good in some places”.

• People preferred meadows in the distance from the housing areas.

Alternative lawns • Many people found grass-free

lawns (flowering lawns) “amazingly beautiful”

• Perennial meadows framed by mowed grass areas received positive feedback from respondents in many cases.

• Preference for the middle choice clearly show the importance of “cues to care” approach (Nassauer, 1995 )

Clear indication of the presence of design and human care in meadow like lawns!

• Social aspects, aesthetics and standards influence decisions on planning and management of various types of lawns

• Needs in changing existing paradigm of ”ideal” lawn strategy

• Implementation of new approaches requires special planning and design solutions adjusted for each particular case.

Design solutions for Göteborg

“Cues to care”

• The most effective approach for using biodiversity as a major design language is “Cues to care” (J.Nassauer)

• “We must design to frame ecological function within a reognisable system of forms(J.Nassauer)

• We confirm ”cues to care” attractivness to people

• “Combination of traditional lawns surrounded by high meadows is beautiful and practical” (from one of our surveys)

“Cues to care”, London

New Paradigm: new generation of alternative lawns: tapestry lawns

Grass-free lawns rationale

• Alternative ecological solutions: “messy” ecological aesthetics (meadow like lawns, pictorial meadows)

• They do not fulfil the requirements made of the urban lawn

• Aesthetics is very important • New lawn format: combination of

environmentally friendly motivation, cues to care, aesthetically desirable.

• Law grass-free polyculture of diverse plant and insect species

• Has the potential to be very visually appealing and be a feature that gardeners may see as highly desirable (bring both flowers and diverse foliage forms) to an area of a garden that traditionally would be managed to be a monochrome green lawn.

L. Smith, UK

Inspiration: Medieval ’hortus conclusus’ and ’locus amoenus’

• Garden of Eden (paradise):presentation of heavenly conditions from which humanuity has fallen.

• Informal ’flowery mead’ or meadows planted with a great variety of sweet smelling herbs and flowers.

• Flowery mead: about enhancement of natural beauty in a direction of religious meaningfulness.

• Flowery meadows: locus amoenus ’delightful place´, God’s beautiful world which could be improved by addition more meadow flowers.

• Virgin Mary gardens where plants had specific symbolic meaning.

• Innocent flowers were ’tutors’ to remind people their ’inner spiritual tasks’.

Our Swedish tapestry lawn paradigm: abondoment of traditional sacred green carpet as an idea

• The task of our garden, underlying modern ecological ’symbolism’: improving biodiversity and returning to the Nature (’locus amoenus’)

• Difference to ’cues to care’ approach: to show and to teach appreciating nature as it is.

• And fulfill recreational needs-search for low growing plants.

New generation of alternative lawns: meadows

Sundbyberg Park, Stockholm

Can paradigm shift from the ideal lawn – green canvas concept to more cost-effective, biodiverse and climate friendly alternative solutions, “messy” ecological aesthetics?

Changing of the aesthetics: appreciation of

wastelands and ”go spontaineous” • Role in maintaining biodiversity in the

city • Habitats which urban planners need to

take into account and include in dynamic urban planning

• Examples: Germany, integration in urban planning as temporary sites and as a specific type of urban-industrial novel ecosystems

• Berlin (Natur-park Sugdelande) • Experience of nature • To improve public’s acceptance of

wastelands: minor changes - adding benches and small infrastructures (Duisburg Park in Germany)

• Nantes in France • Tallin, Estonia

Südgelände

Urban biodiversity and design approaches : “Go Spontaneous”

• Spontaneous in this case means vegetation which “occurs by chance, without conscious design intent”

• New approach in planting design: “make spontaneous vegetation more attractive” and “alternative to ornamental plantings in the city” (Kuhn, 2006)

• Very important point: increase diversity of species

• Use of native or combination of native and non-native species

• Big potentials for redesign of wastelands and industrial zones

Park am Gleisdreieck / Atelier LOIDL

Erfurt

Go sponatenous: Berlin

Germany: Erfurt

• Flowering meadows with native species

• ”Flowering ” parking lots (using seed mixtures from local brownfileds)

KongjianYu ecological design

• The ancient tradition of foot binding in China sacrificed the function of rustic ‘big feet’ in the name of gentrification and beauty.

• Yu approach: celebrate the aesthetic of high-performing, low-cost, healthy feet.

• Low and High Chinese culture • Place will sustain its identity

when design is adaptive • Adaptive landscapes based on

farming techniques and ecological design - it can provide an environment with a self-sustaining identity.

Shanghai Houtan Park / Turenscape Shanghai 2010 Expo Houtan Park. Towards ecological design and

ecosystem services

Ecological Design by Kongjian Yu for Moscow Park ”Zaryadiye” (2013))

Sponge Park in Xi’an

• Demonstration park for ecological design solutions.

• It will be a green corridor with flood control and purification of the water.

• Turenscape • Restoration, design and

recreation

• Big scale

Waterstorm management: design with ecological processes and biodiversity in mind

• Low impact development is a key piece in overall approach to managing stormwater

• Originated in the USA, then UK, and other European countries; Australia and New Zealand

• Similar concepts: Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD)

• Main goal: to manage stormwater locally, imitation natural water-cycles, providing multiple ecosystem services including biodiversity enhancement.

• Use of dynamic ecological aesthetics instead of passive 'scenic' aesthetics

• Create landscape LA that based on uderstanding and use of ecological and hydrological processes with ”elegance and inspiration”.

Key Elements of LID

• Bioretention (rain gardens, swales, detention ponds ):

shallow, landscaped areas composed of soil and variety of plants

• Permeable pavement

• Vegetated roofs

The New Zealand variation of LID- LUIDD in particular emphasis to urban biodiversity design aspects.

Bioswales in Olympic Park, London

Rain gardens and bioswales in France

Paris

Grenoble

Lyon

• Principles of LID could work in any urban environment; in each case it will need adjustment according to particular climatic as well as economic and social conditions.

• Site specific

• Northern European countries such as Sweden, Finland, Norway and North-West regions of Russian Federation share a similar climate.

• Do not have a severe problem with invasive species due to cold climate, compare to other parts of the world.

• Use mostly native plants • Can be a lot of snow but

swales and rain gardens can handle it.

• Very few implemented examples

Sweden

• Rain gardens, • Swales, • Detention ponds • Permable surfaces

Sweden

Impressions and observations from landscape architects and clients (S.Hope 2014) 1. Lack of well executed

functioning examples that can be used as reference projects particularly with ”soft” vegetated solutions - no one wants to be the first with new solutions i.e. perceived high risk of failure. In the ground examples are important for both LA and client.

2. Domination of ”hard” LID solutions

3. Issues with salt/sand on vegetated stormwater solutions - potential plant replacement. 4. General lack of understanding regarding LID solutions.

Sweden

• Urgent need for well designed functioning LID examples

• Needs for actual comparison numbers of LID and conventional devices costs

St. Petersburg

• 2012-2014 • Rain gardens and swales • Administration is quite

open for new approach especially when they see the economic profit

• Citizen like new design • Good signage is

important

• This new ecological approach requires the use of different competences in park’s design and management processes.

Brazil: Rio de Janeiro

• Reconcile urban development with environmental achievements

• Preserve existing ecosystem patches

• Connect them by riparian corridors to other open spaces, such as streets, private yards and public areas

• Using native species and ecological design.

Local-scale proposition for the greenway along the Portinho River. Design: Cecilia Herzog.

With permission of C. Herzog

Restoration projects: return biodiversity into cities Good design should be a very important part of all projects

.

Tokushima Island A very rare attempt to mitigate the loss of habitats for an insect in a coastal environment (a new freeway along the Okinosu shore)

Tokushima Island: Estuary of Yoshino River Middle/lower reaches and estuary of Yoshino-gawa (including Okinosu-kaigan)Habitat of insect Cicindela lewisi

”Lizard gardens” (Zurich, Switzerland)

Insects Park in Sweden

Developing of ecological aesthetics as an opposition to the global gomogenised modernistic view

• Design with biodiversity should be complex • Developing of new aesthetics and ecological

wisdom of using nature as inspiration for design

• Should look beyond tidiness and smootheness of landscapes

• Developing of new LA style: biodiversinesque

• Identifying new ethics of landscape maintenance

• Take time for acceptance from public and administrations.

• Urban biodiversity should be included as a strategy in all scale documents: master plan, districts and local communities (parks, residential areas etc.).

How to promote and use biodiversity as an important design language: transdisciplinary approach

• Cooperation between scientists, professionals (landscape architects, architects, horticulturists, nurserymen, engineers, constructors), stakeholders (citizens) and decision makers (administration, politicians)

• Moving from top-down to bottom-up approach involving people in planning, designing and implementing new biodiverse landscape designs.

http://www.slu.se/en/lawn

Thanks!