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.