Urban Ecosystem-Level Biomimicry and Regenerative Design: Linking Ecosystem Functioning and Urban Built Environments

Eduardo Blanco,Philippe Clergeau,Kalina Raskin,Maibritt Pedersen Zari

doi:10.3390/su13010404

Eduardo Blanco, Philippe Clergeau + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010404

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Abstract

By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will likely live in cities. Human settlements depend on resources, benefits, and services from ecosystems, but they also tend to deplete ecosystem health. To address this situation, a new urban design and planning approach is emerging. Based on regenerative design, ecosystem-level biomimicry, and ecosystem services theories, it proposes designing projects that reconnect urban space to natural ecosystems and regenerate whole socio-ecosystems, contributing to ecosystem health and ecosystem services production. In this paper, we review ecosystems as models for urban design and review recent research on ecosystem services production. We also examine two illustrative case studies using this approach: Lavasa Hill in India and Lloyd Crossing in the U.S.A. With increasing conceptualisation and application, we argue that the approach contributes positive impacts to socio-ecosystems and enables scale jumping of regenerative practices at the urban scale. However, ecosystem-level biomimicry practices in urban design to create regenerative impact still lack crucial integrated knowledge on ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services productions, making it less effective than potentially it could be. We identify crucial gaps in knowledge where further research is needed and pose further relevant research questions to make ecosystem-level biomimicry approaches aiming for regenerative impact more effective.

Highlights

Cities are the primary habitat of human beings
There is significant evidence that a new regenerative urban design approach is emerging which relies on ecosystem-level biomimicry theories to integrate and more fully take account of ecosystem health alongside urbanisation processes, and contributes to the possibility that the regenerative paradigm shift can ‘scale jump’ to beyond the building scale to the urban scale [6,7]
We argue that the approach could be expanded to consider current knowledge and developments related to ecosystem services production, such as the ecosystem services cascade theory and the ecological integrity concept

Summary

Introduction

Cities are the primary habitat of human beings. By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will likely live in urban centres, representing more than 6 billion urban dwellers [1]. Anthropic alterations to ecosystems reduce their capacity to create benefits, goods, and services that are both vital to and are expected by society [3] To engage with these challenges, regenerative design aims to create urban projects that promote positive impacts, allowing social and ecological systems to co-evolve and thrive [4,5]. In this context, there is significant evidence that a new regenerative urban design approach is emerging which relies on ecosystem-level biomimicry theories to integrate and more fully take account of ecosystem health alongside urbanisation processes, and contributes to the possibility that the regenerative paradigm shift can ‘scale jump’ to beyond the building scale to the urban scale [6,7]

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