Abstract
The objective of this paper is to discuss concepts of landscape sustainability in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Phoenix is situated in the greater Salt River Valley of the lower Sonoran Desert in the southwest United States. In this paper I use the ecological frameworks of ecosystem services and resiliency as a metric for understanding landscape sustainability. An assessment of landscape sustainability performance benchmarks were made by surveying research findings of scientists affiliated with the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project (CAP LTER). In Phoenix, present day emphases on cultural, aesthetic, and habitat formation ecosystem services within an arid ecoregion of low natural resilience coupled to a complex matrix of socioeconomic stratification, excessive landscape water use and pruning practices has had the undesired effect of degrading landscape sustainability. This has been measured as mixed patterns of plant diversity and human-altered patterns of carbon regulation, microclimate control, and trophic dynamics. In the future, sustainable residential landscaping in desert cities such as Phoenix may be fostered through use of water-conserving irrigation technologies, oasis-style landscape design motifs, recycling of landscape green waste, and conservative plant pruning strategies.
Highlights
Human activities impact most terrestrial ecosystems, altering ecological and biogeochemical processes at a global scale and at unprecedented rates (Vitousek et al 1997)
Because of the affordability and abundance of natural resources, past efforts by people to optimize landscape water use and management practices have been lacking. This has had the unintentional effect of degrading landscape sustainability even though landscapes in Phoenix may be viewed within an anthropogenic context as having relatively greater resilience than that of the surrounding Sonoran Desert ecoregion
I have proposed that landscape sustainability in Phoenix may be understood through the ecological contexts of ecosystem services and resilience
Summary
Human activities impact most terrestrial ecosystems, altering ecological and biogeochemical processes at a global scale and at unprecedented rates (Vitousek et al 1997). Cities are profound modifications of the earth’s surface (Redman 2006), and in the early part of this century more people will live in urbanized than rural environments (United Nations Statistics Division). Because of these demographic trends, daily interactions with “nature” for the majority of people on earth will soon be in an environment largely designed and structured for concentrated human living. From 750 to 1250 AD, an estimated 250,000 Hohokam Native Americans resided in central Arizona’s fertile Salt River Valley region at the northeast fringe of the lower Sonoran Desert (Anderies 2006). The modern day ascent of Phoenix to become a major metropolitan center has occurred mostly during the second half of the 20th century, present day irrigation delivery systems in this a regional desert oasis city are patterned in part after those of the earlier Hohokam peoples (Keys et al 2007)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
