Ecological Resilient Landscapes: Averting a Pending Disaster
Abstract
Scars can be inflicted on landscapes after decades of human intervention. This project
is meant to embrace the effects of remedial ecological design on our fragmented
landscapes. Limited human intervention is an essential element in designing long-term,
healthy environments.
Ecological resilience assists landscape architects in designing landscapes to respond to
environmental disturbances such as pest epidemics. Steady state landscapes do not
accommodate natural disturbances, ecological diversity and longevity. Disturbances
strengthen a landscape’s functional longevity by highlighting the complexities of
biodiversity. Diverse ecosystems provide society with a natural balance between
positive and negative pulses.
Silver Lake Park, a 100+ acre park, near downtown Rochester, Minnesota is currently
a fractured landscape in an urban environment. It has potential to serve as a
comprehensive landscape to illustrate effects of diverse functions and biodiversity in
southeastern Minnesota.The design results of my research serve as a catalyst in
promoting design that emphasizes ecological resilience, biodiversity and long-term
landscape health.