Ecological Embeddedness in the Maya Built Environment: Inspiration for Contemporary Cities

Naji Akbar,Wafa Al-Madani,Ismaila Rimi Abubakar,Ayesha Agha Shah

doi:10.3390/land10121360

Naji Akbar, Wafa Al-Madani + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land10121360

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Abstract

Cities nowadays are the most significant source of environmental degradation threatening local and global ecosystems. Interestingly, many ancient settlements present excellent lessons and inspiration for addressing our current urban predicaments, given their environmental stewardship. This research explores how the ecologically embedded settlement patterns, building configurations, urban agriculture and home gardening, and water conservation of the Maya-built environment can offer insights about mitigating contemporary urban sustainability challenges. Mayans’ respect for nature not only guaranteed sustainable habitats but also engendered one of the most remarkable civilizations in a region that did not offer generous support for human accommodation. The Mayan world view promoted the idea of one spirit dwelling in all humans and other-than-human entities in an environment, making everything sacred and kin to everything else. The regional climate was kept under control by protecting the vegetation that also provided other ecological benefits. Land use was mixed, and residences were constructed with native and recyclable materials utilizing natural light and ventilation. The Mayan civilization inspires us to manage and protect plants, not cut them down; conserve water, not waste it; listen to the environmental feedback, not reject it; and, most importantly, it begs us to embrace nature as our own mother, not disown it as something dispensable. These principles have significant implications on urban land-use planning and policies today.

Highlights

The literature strongly suggests that cities today are the major cause of adverse environmental impacts globally, which negatively affect them and the wider landscapes [1,2,3,4]
Can we look at the past to reconceive our present and future cities? While some scholars, such as Campbell [13], argue that it would be less relevant, several others opine that exemplary instances of ecological embeddedness and sustainable practices regarding the built environment can be found in past civilizations for us to think about and possibly adapt for the benefit of the present and future generations [6,7,19,20]
We present and discusses the study findings, divided along the ecological embeddedness of the Mayan-built environment according to the four themes that emerged from data analyses: (1) settlement pattern, (2) building configuration and construction, (3) urban agriculture and home gardening, and (4) water conservation

Summary

Introduction

The literature strongly suggests that cities today are the major cause of adverse environmental impacts globally, which negatively affect them and the wider landscapes [1,2,3,4]. Cities are expected to account for 68% of the global population by 2050, with land consumption outpacing population growth by as much as 50% [5] This sprawling development pattern has deleterious impacts on the ecosystem, especially biodiversity. The ecological dis-embeddedness of cities, which has divorced people and their activities from the local and regional environments, is among the causes of environmental degradation [6,7,8,9,10]. This has left many societies without concrete guidance that could be drawn from the context of which they are a part. It is becoming evident that healthy habitats can only be reformulated through developing respect for nature, which can be accomplished by learning lessons from the ecological embeddedness of ancient settlements [16,17,18]

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