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Ecological Cities: A Brilliant Future
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|  | Urban ecological restoration is fast becoming one of the most important endeavors of this century. Half the world’s population now lives in urban centers: thus, as our cities become more fully functioning as ecological systems, many of the problems of urban living will be overcome.1 Air quality and water quality will vastly improve, and noise and temperature moderation and pollution reduction within cities will be measured as key indicators of urban quality of life.2 Many of the problems that cities now create, including exacerbating global warming, will be reversed.3 Through modeling cities after natural systems, cities can become sinks for carbon, reservoirs of intentional managed biodiversity, and centers for the highest expression of collaboration between humans and nature.
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| | Imagine the cities of the future where not only will you enjoy unique bio-regional cuisine and products, but you will experience self-powered buildings designed for the specificities of climate4, surrounded by landscapes highlighting native plant guilds, replete with a thriving balanced web of animals and birds and beneficial insects.5 Rooftops and vertical spaces will employ native and adapted plants for beauty, habitat and food production.6 Waste will be a relic of past inefficient practices as we master the natural cyclic model of regeneration in all phases of living, including industry.7 Water will be captured and used in urban centers to enhance landscape function and esthetics, eliminate flooding from storm surges in local waterways, and provide recreational links and habitat corridors right through the urban core. Biking, skating and walking trails on porous paving will be found along greenways throughout all neighborhoods and business districts. These human-scale networks will connect to light rail corridors and water taxis feeding the city centers of higher education, healing, trade and governance. |  |
|  | Overall tree canopy coverage will be a vital city statistic8 that will parallel an environmental systems approach to water management and improved air quality: a healthy urban forest signifying a wealth of benefits to residents in improved quality of life and health. Through schools, universities, community groups and organizations, citizens will play a pivotal role as local stewards to urban habitats, “a functional sense of place” being key to long-term urban revitalization.9 Crime and stress will be drastically reduced as ecological sustainability is sought through an integrated whole systems approach that addresses all issues, including racism, disenfranchisement, oppression, and economics.10 People will be drawn to participate in these evolving hubs of commerce, government, experiential education, service and ecological design. Cities will become the new trademarks of more mature, creative and spiritually grounded societies as we co-create these dynamic centers of culture, diversity, business and economics in cooperation with all life on the planet.11 |
| | These changes are happening already in many places across the United States and the world. The speed and extent of change will be determined by the level of public insistence on good leadership. We will manifest our highest ideals for the benefit of all.12 Everyone is invited to work together in creating these great transformations. |  |
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