Urban Wastelands Research Articles

HAVNEN OG DET HETEROGENE BYRUM - NORDHAVN BETRAGTET GENNEM GEORGES BATAILLES HETEROLOGI

THE HARBOUR AND THE HETEROGENEOUS URBAN. NORDHAVN READ ON THE BASIS OF BATAILLES HETEROLOGYThis article deals with the revitalisation of post-industrial waterfronts on the basis of the French philosopher Georges Bataille’s concept of the heterogeneous. Using the northern harbour area in Copenhagen (Nordhavn) as its analysis site, the article investigates the way in which a heterologically based position can be introduced into urban space-making, pointing to a different urban ideal and the possibility of including something formless and wholly other in the conventional development process. Based on Bataille’s heterology, Nordhavn can predominantly be considered a radically different urban space on a spatial, reflexive and socio-cultural level. The harbour area can be characterised on the basis of four spatial types (ruin, shed, accumulation monument and terrain vague), each expressing aheterogeneous aesthetic identity as something more or less excluded, non-ideal, and entropy- and waste-like. The heterogeneous typology thus establishes the experience of a progressive spatial formlessness, as well as emphasising the aesthetic and cultural potential in urban wastelands. In this sense, the heterogeneous urban environment underlines the importance of the procedural, non-planned, unexpected, other and hybrid in relation to the current discussions about how to create a vibrant urban space. In the age of gentrification, wall-to-wall city design and homogenised waterfronts, a heterogeneously inspired urbandevelopment may thus generate an alternative aesthetic strategy leading towards a more value-pluralistic city.

Reurbanisierung und bauliche Dynamik

Abstract Since the early 1990s Zurich regains population and has a powerful attraction for well-qualified, high-income workers. Reurbanisation is at work in Zurich. Through detailed building unit-based analysis in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, the research discloses that between 1994 and 2007 the majority of new-build development was replacement building, i.e. a new building was built on a plot that had been cleared preliminarily. Supplemented by records of the city's registration office, the impact of the new-build developments on the socioeconomic and sociospatial urban structure is analysed. The study reveals that the urban fabric was rebuilt significantly and far beyond urban wastelands like brownfields, waterfronts, Belle Epoque neighborhoods or knocked down public housing estates reported in recent international literature. The phenomenon of replacement building is associated with socioeconomic upgrading.

Imaginary Africa and London’s Urban Wasteland in Edith Sitwell’s “Gold Coast Customs”

Research Article| March 01 2010 Imaginary Africa and London’s Urban Wasteland in Edith Sitwell’s “Gold Coast Customs” Gyllian Phillips Gyllian Phillips Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Twentieth-Century Literature (2010) 56 (1): 71–91. https://doi.org/10.1215/0041462X-2010-2006 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Gyllian Phillips; Imaginary Africa and London’s Urban Wasteland in Edith Sitwell’s “Gold Coast Customs”. Twentieth-Century Literature 1 March 2010; 56 (1): 71–91. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/0041462X-2010-2006 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsTwentieth-Century Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © Hofstra University2010 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Essays You do not currently have access to this content.

Does the invasive species Reynoutria japonica have an impact on soil and flora in urban wastelands?

Invasive plants are recognised as a major threat to biodiversity. Although they are well-established in natural areas, the supposed negative impacts of invasive plants upon communities and ecosystems have so far been poorly investigated in urban areas, where invasions are a main issue for ecologists and for urban planners and managers. We propose to assess the effects of an invasive species along an invasion gradient in a typical urban habitat. We focused on the Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica Houtt.), a widespread invasive species in Europe and North America. We considered eight urban wastelands invaded by this species in the heart of the Greater Paris Area, France. On each site, we ran four transects from the centre of the Japanese knotweed patch towards the uninvaded peripheral vegetation. We recorded the flora using the line intercept method, and several soil parameters (thickness of A horizon, abundance of earthworm casts, topsoil Munsell value, pH) every metre along each transect. The A horizon was thicker and the topsoil darker under R. japonica canopy. Thus, this invasive plant species seemed to influence soil organic matter pool. However, our results also steadily showed that R. japonica locally excluded and/or severely reduced the cover of many plant species through competition. Our study clarified the local effects of R. japonica: an influence on the soil organic matter, and a severe negative impact on wasteland plant communities. We suggest implications in both conservation and restoration ecology.

The Population of the Piraeus in the Roman Period: A Re-Assessment of the Evidence of Funerary Inscriptions

In 87–86 BCE, the Roman army under L. Cornelius Sulla invaded Attica and, after a long siege, sacked Athens and the Piraeus. In both ancient and modern eyes, Sulla's sack has been seen as a key event, which marked not only the end of Athenian independence but also the beginning of an irreversible decline for its port, the Piraeus, in antiquity. Ancient literary testimonies in the decades following the Sullan sack portray the Piraeus as an urban wasteland, crammed with ruins but devoid of life. Strabo, writing in the Augustan age, notes that the town of his time endured, but had shrunk between the two harbours (the Kantharos and Zea); Pausanias, writing later in the second century CE, mentions a number of monuments but pays more attention to the old, ‘Classical’, town than to the contemporary ‘Roman’ Piraeus. Rescue excavations in the last few decades have provided corroboration for Strabo's remark. Building remains dating to the Classical period (mainly the fourth century BCE) extend over a larger area than those of Roman date, which tend to concentrate on the isthmus between the Kantharos and Zea harbours. Nevertheless, more recent finds and a reconsideration of the available archaeological evidence has shown that settlement clustering around the main harbour did not result from the destruction of the port by Sulla but had started in Hellenistic times and was intensified in the Roman period.

Barrenness and Abjection? : The Iconography of the Wasteland in the Photographs and Collages of Julian Trevelyan, 1937–1938

British artist Julian Trevelyan (1910–1988), during 1937 and 1938, went to work for a series of short periods in Bolton, Whitehaven, and Blackpool, three northern English towns where scenes of urban, industrial, and even corporeal decay appear to have surrounded him on every side. Having been plucked from his southern middle‐class background and installed within this deprived geographical area by Tom Harrisson (1911–1976), founder of the anthropological research organization Mass‐Observation, this strangely neglected surrealist figure produced numerous photographs, collages, paintings, and texts that almost always explore, as their central theme, the aesthetic category of decline. This he achieves in visual terms through an amalgamation of surrealist and documentary techniques and methods, and the results are powerfully reflective of Britain’s seriously depressed interwar economic climate. In this article, I examine one aspect of Trevelyan’s visual output in Bolton: the iconography of the typically barren and abject territory that is the urban and industrial wasteland. I consider, for example, his interpretation of the physical and metaphorical impact upon this indeterminate site of electricity. This is represented visually by proliferating chains of looming pylons, which ultimately are seen to throw into question Blackpool’s adoption of electrical energy as its most proudly boasted modernizing force. Visual evocations of Britain’s thriving class divide, made possible by this radical artist’s picturing of the wasteland as a particular kind of void, are also probed here.

A Midsummer Night's Manga: An Anglo-Japanese Collaboration at The New National Theatre, Tokyo (review)

A Midsummer Night's Manga: An Anglo-Japanese Collaboration at The New National Theatre, Tokyo, May 31-June 17, 2007 Attending a Shakespeare play in a foreign language can be like returning a childhood home thirty years after one's family moved away; the architecture is the same but the ambiance is decidedly unfamiliar. Audience members less than fluent in the tongue--full disclosure: my knowledge of Japanese is rudimentary at best--will find that their attention drifts from Shakespeare's verbal pyrotechnics fixate with greater acuity than usual on the visual and physical aspects of the performance. Fortunately spectacle looms large in A Midsummer Night's Dream and this production at the New National Theater in Tokyo exploited it with creativity and verve leap sprightly over the language barrier. Shifting back and forth between a neo-classical Athens and a futuristic Tokyo (with a few glimpses of Elizabethan London), this Dream achieved an innovative fusion of English and Japanese culture which, startling at first, had by Act Five grown to something of great constancy / But, howsoever, strange and admirable. The cast, studded with well-known Japanese actors, was phenomenal; given that many were making their first foray into Shakespeare, a great deal of the credit for the success of this production also belongs director John Caird, a RSC veteran with over twenty Shakespeare plays under his belt, including an acclaimed version of the Dream at The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 2000. While this was his first time directing Shakespeare in Japan, Caird has previously overseen Tokyo productions of Les Miserables and The Beggar's Opera. His musical background was evident from the start, as a live eight-piece band performed a rousing jazz rendition of Mendelssohn's Overture, which segued into the first of the play's many dance sequences. Certainly there needs no director come from the RSC tell us that the Dream lends itself well the balletic, and yet the choreography, ranging from stately waltzes frenetic break-dancing (and sometimes both combined in extended schizophrenic medleys) was outstanding and consistently inventive, while the live band helped the actors sustain a level of energy unmatched in the twenty-odd productions I've seen of this play. Despite several familiar elements (even a lanky blond Helena), this show featured some distinctly Japanese flourishes, illustrating the potential for cross-cultural Shakespeare. The forest seemed less a forest than an enchanted landfill, evoking the post-natural urban wastelands of Japanese science fiction. Black metal staircases snaked round the skeleton of three wrought-iron trees with random debris entangled in the branches. The most striking innovation was the costumes of the faeries, designed by Sue Blane with the same playful panache she brought the wardrobe of the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Clad in white tube tops, white tutus, white thigh-high socks, and black tennis shoes, and sporting wild dyed pastel hair-dos, the faeries in Titania's entourage seemed have fluttered straight out of the pages of a Japanese manga--the graphic novels that are something of a national obsession and have developed a sizeable fan-base in the West. Or, considering that these roles were all filled by adolescent girls (led by Kanda Sayaka, daughter of a legendary J-pop star in the role of Peaseblossom), perhaps a more precise analogy would be with the cos-play (short for costume play)--the troupes of suburban teenagers (mostly female, mostly misfits) who descend on Harajuku station on weekends decked out as their favorite manga characters for impromptu fashion shows. From a sociological perspective, the outlandish costumes provide the cos-play with a sense of psychic liberation, an escape from their mundane personality and the strict dress code of Japanese schools where identity-effacing uniforms are de rigeur. Shakespeare's plays are full of references the power of clothes alter our sense of self (recall Perdita's line methinks this robe of mine doth change my disposition); likewise the allusion cos-play by an English costume designer provided a clever commentary on the collapse of fantasy and reality in contemporary Japanese society, and a reminder of why cross-cultural collaborations can be so refreshing: inspiration, like a jet stream, can circulate around the globe in both directions. …

London and Contemporary Britain in Monkey Dust

Disturbing, fantastically rude, and far more realistic than any sitcom ... The animated social satire ... is named after the drug PCP, renowned for giving rise to hallucinations, mania, delirium and disorientation ... Most people I’ve talked to about Monkey Dust say it is a complete nightmare ... ‘That cartoon scared the crap out of me,’ runs a typical fan’s message. ‘It’s really disturbing.’ Certainly there is not much sunshine. It’s all night, rain, knives, rats, garbage, urine and syringes in an urban wasteland. But it’s also very funny ... The contents of Monkey Dust are barely describable in a daily newspaper ... Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph, 4 November 2003

The role of soil and microclimatic variables in the distribution patterns of urban wasteland flora in Brussels, Belgium

Despite increased recognition of the importance of urban vegetation research, few attempts have been made to assess the relative influence of ecological variables on the species composition of urban wastelands. The main aim of this paper is to assess the relative importance of soil and microclimatic variables in structuring plant species richness and diversity in this habitat. Field investigations were carried out in 22 wasteland sites situated within the city of Brussels. The vegetation has been recorded in 38 4 m 2-plots according to the Braun–Blanquet-method. A total of 19 environmental variables were taken into consideration, among others the presence of different kinds of anthropogenic substrates and microclimatic variables. Results indicate that plant species composition in urban wastelands is mainly driven by soil nutrient content, soil moisture, soil pH and light intensity (as inferred by the mean Ellenberg's indicator values). Various types of anthropogenic substrates such as concrete, pebbles, sand and rubble had different effects on the species composition, the proportion of neophytes, hemeroby and urbanity level. Air temperature and humidity did show a significant influence on the presence of some species. The contribution of these environmental variables to the species composition and diversity of urban wastelands is discussed.

In the Cut

Abstract Jane Campion's newest film, In the Cut, confounded critics, as it leaves her familiar territory of Anglo Australia and a high literary mode for New York City and the pop culture associations of a slasher/thriller. Transcending genre, the screenplay and cinematography unconventionally render a psychic landscape of female desire and romantic longing surviving in a male urban wasteland.

Ballpark Village or Urban Wasteland: Rhetorical Invention, Civic Ego, and the St. Louis Cardinals' Controversial New Home

OUT WITH THE NEW, IN WITH THE OLD Tickled by charm and success of Camden Yards in 1992, Major League baseball clubs have spent last decade demolishing their old, modern stadiums and constructing new, old-fashioned ballparks for their teams. Some of these old stadiums were multipurpose mammoths, ill-fitted for any of several sports and events they hosted. Other stadiums were simply too old. Structural problems, often with dubious technical substantiation, were cited as cause for their inevitable demise. Certainly, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, with its falling concrete and cosmic vastness, exemplifies both of these architectural justifications--but, unlike Expos, it is not slated for demolition. By contrast St. Louis Cardinals are already lining up wrecking balls for Busch Stadium. Opened in 1966 it was called by architect Harris Armstrong the first American sports stadium that looks like architecture. Harris added: It has three essentials: clarity, simplicity, and honesty, and it is in these three that its beauty lies. (1) Built in an era of Epcot visions of future, Busch Stadium resembles a circular wedding cake with an arched fringe along its roofline (to evoke and complement Gateway Arch). Aesthetically, it belongs to bygone era of modernist architecture, but it is recognized as one of best stadiums of its time. Over years Busch has been well-maintained, and it currently has no serious structural issues. Cardinals consistently draw over 3 million fans a year to stadium, so team owners cannot employ argument that a trendy, new stadium will attract more fans--fan loyalty and attendance figures are not a problem in St. Louis. Busch Stadium is not an eyesore, nor is it dilapidated in any way. Why, then, is it being replaced? PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE AND THE NEED FOR RHETORICAL INVENTION Interestingly, as noted by St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bernie Miklasz, no case ever was made that a new stadium was needed. (2) Cardinals never made an issue of Busch Stadium's structural inadequacy, aesthetics, seating capacity, or poor location--in fact, from this list, aesthetics are only aspect of stadium that will change significantly. main difference between Busch Stadium and new ballpark will be luxuriousness of luxury boxes. new ballpark will actually have ten fewer luxury boxes than Busch Stadium's seventy, but owners claim that boxes will be much nicer and, therefore, command a steeper price than current boxes. With characteristic obtuseness, Cardinals president Mark Lamping asserted: The economics of staying in an aging Busch Stadium demand that we act now. (3) Claims that stadium was becoming obsolete were sometimes tied to need to generate extra revenue and help team compete with richer rivals. (4) Associating luxury boxes and extra revenue to competitiveness, however, became a rhetorical liability for owners when matter of financing new ballpark inevitably arose. Public resentment was stoked by groups such as Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums, and public opinion polls showed strong disfavor for public financing of a new ballpark that would stereotypically amount to taxpayer subsidies for wealthy. Since standard stadium-building arguments rang hollow, Cardinals management and their political supporters had to develop a new argument. BALLPARK VILLAGE Modeled after similar efforts in San Diego and ultimately mimicking Wrigleyville neighborhood in Chicago, architects, developers, and Cardinals' owners developed idea of Ballpark Village: a development adjacent to new ballpark consisting of mixed-use retail, office, and residential space. With advent of Ballpark Village concept, center of discourse shifted from a spotlight on revenues and luxury boxes--inside stadium--to contribution new ballpark would make toward overall revitalization of downtown St. …

"The Land of Rape and Honey": The Use of World War II Propaganda in the Music Videos of Ministry and Laibach

is a loud, powerful and often shocking style of avantgarde popular music. It is constructed from mechanical rhythms, harsh and distorted timbres, and dark minor key or modal harmonies, all of which contribute to the creation of a dystopian soundscape. This brutal postapocalyptic attitude is not produced, however, by the music alone. The visual images that accompany these Industrial bands during their live performances, and in their music videos, work with the music to design environments resembling a futuristic urban wasteland. These visual images frequently contain distorted scenes of riots or warfare, pictures of cogs, hammers, robots, or soldiers. These images, and others like them, evoke the imagery of World War II propaganda in their visual style and composition, which make use of bold colors, sharp lines, scenes of mass spectacles, and military themes. It is also quite common to find images that are directly related to World War II propaganda that promoted fascist ideologies or, more specifically, the German National Socialist, or Nazi, political party. Many Industrial bands claim that these images are used solely for shock value, to send a political message to their audiences about the social systems in their respective countries and the evils of disguised fascism and totalitarianism in general. There is often, however, a dis-

La mise en culture des friches urbaines. Territoires en transition à Nantes

The Acculturation of Urban Wastelands : Transitional Territories in Nantes By serving as artists' studios as well as housing and services for people in a precarious situation, former industrial sites in Nantes are being kept viable while waiting to be called to a new function. These provisory installations act as a professional springboard for young artists who are institutionally marginalized. The socio-economic status of these projects is not sufficiently stable for them to be transferred from one district or city to another.

The lichen flora of unprotected soft sea cliffs and slopes

Soft unprotected sea cliffs and slopes were surveyed at forty localities around the English coast and found to support a restricted lichen flora that was zoned in relation to sea-level. Bed rock composition, structural heterogeneity and high levels of instability largely control the terricolous lichen vegetation, which is predominantly composed of calcicoles typical of early successional stages. Cyanobacterial lichens are well represented. The species encountered can be arranged into three provisional assemblages characteristic of alkaline bed rock, acidic bed rock, and turf edges. Few species with maritime affinities were present but this group included rarely recorded species of Pyrenocollema and abundant Lecanora zosterae. Other rare and unusual lichens were present, often at a low density and in only a few localities. The lichen flora of soft cliffs has links with that found on urban wasteland and, remotely, with that of sand dunes.

Continental rain forest fragments in Singapore resist invasion by exotic plants

Abstract Aim In general, the plant communities of oceanic islands suffer more from exotic plant invasions than their continental equivalents. At least part of this difference may be contributed by differences in non‐biological factors, such as the antiquity and intensity of human impacts and the absence of internal barriers to dispersal, rather than differences in inherent invasibility. We tested the resistance of species‐rich continental rain forests to plant invasion on a small, continental island that has been subject to prolonged and intensive human impact.Location Singapore is a 683‐km2 equatorial island <1 km from the Asian mainland and with a population of 4 million people. It has a continental biota but has been subject to human impacts as intense as on any oceanic island.Methods We sampled twenty‐nine sites in seven vegetation types, ranging from urban wasteland to fragments of primary lowland rain forest. In each sample plot, all plant species were identified, exotic cover was estimated, and a range of environmental variables measured. Additional qualitative surveys for exotic invasion were made in other forest areas in Singapore. The data were analysed by Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.Results The number of exotic species recorded at a site was unrelated to the number of native species. Across all sites, percentage canopy opening had the highest correlation with the number of exotic species, while soil pH (which largely reflects the incorporation of calcareous construction wastes) had the highest correlation if the mangrove sites were excluded. There were no exotics in mangrove forest and only a tropical American, bird‐dispersed shrub, Clidemia hirta (L.) D. Don (Melastomataceae: Koster's Curse), in primary and tall secondary forest patches. The species‐poor early stages of woody plant succession on highly degraded soils were also very resistant to exotic plant invasion.Main conclusions Long‐isolated rain forest fragments in an exotic‐dominated continental island landscape resist invasion by exotic plants, suggesting that the problems on oceanic islands may reflect an inherently greater invasibility. This study also adds to the increasing evidence that the floras of tropical rain forest fragments in South‐east Asia are remarkably resilient on a time‐scale of decades to a century or more.

Exploring the city of Rubble: botanical fieldwork in bombed cities in Germany after World War II.

In recent decades, the flora and fuana of cities have become the objects of the inter-disciplinary research field of urban ecology and related policies of urban nature conservation. Although the term "urban ecology" is quite recent, it is argued in this paper that the formation of urban nature as an object of ecological knowledge has a much longer history. For example, in Germany, after World War II, the large rubble areas that existed in all bombed cities soon became important research fields for botanists studying plant migration and vegetation development in the context of the city. This paper uses the case of these botanical research activities to shed light on the historical origins of ecological thinking about nature in the city. Drawing upon a socio-spatial approach to science and practice, the paper explores the interaction between the social and material order of the city and the formation of ecological knowledge. As will be shown, botanists studying the rubble areas created various representations (e.g., lists, statistical tabulations, maps) of urban space that contributed to the transformation of the cultural and political meaning of urban wastelands. At the same time, it will be argued, urban wastelands were practically appropriated as scientific workplaces in which these representations were locally crafted. What later became the science and politics of urban ecology is to a large extent the outcome of this mutual shaping of knowledge and urban space in the post-Second World War period.

Conserving biodiversity that matters: practitioners' perspectives on brownfield development and urban nature conservation in London

Policies designed to conserve sites of nature conservation importance are an important aspect of city planning in the UK. London has led the way in putting in place a spatial hierarchy of sites of nature conservation importance designed to protect wildlife habitats from development. Some wasteland habitats associated with derelict and vacant land receive protection in this way but development pressure on these so-called ‘brownfield sites’ is high and is likely to continue. This paper examines how conservation professionals in the private, public and voluntary sectors are responding to the threats of biodiversity loss and opportunities for habitat creation posed by re-development of brownfield sites. The study draws on in-depth interviews conducted with conservation professionals and the practices employed by ecological advisers employed by developers seeking to re-develop wasteland sites. It finds that practitioners are negotiating their role in the re-development process in different ways. Key issues relate to the role of ecological science in codifying wasteland habitats, uncertainties about how best to evaluate the conservation importance of such sites and the strategies and tactics employed by different practitioners as they seek to mobilise a range of knowledges and practices to secure ecologically sensitive proposals. Scientific knowledge about wasteland habitats has not stabilised in ways that can consistently inform conservation policy and practice. As a result biodiversity issues of wasteland sites are often discounted in the re-development process. Investment in studies of the basic ecology of urban wastelands could provide a firmer scientific foundation on which conservation policies could build. At the same time, many conservation professionals involved in urban re-development are struggling to promote a pro-active approach to secure environmentally sensitive development. The knowledge and co-operation networks being mobilised to support this approach are fluid and unstable, and favourable development outcomes as yet are few. Formalising these networks to achieve more effective engagements with developers and the construction industry could consolidate ecological practices designed to conserve and re-create the biodiversity of wasteland habitats.

Experimental Techniques for Evaluating the Success of Restoration Projects

The ecological background of a restoration project is complex and difficult to betermine without experimentation. A useful context for experiments is the well-studied process of natural succession, because the factors that drive or inhibit succession are also at work during reclamation (a form of primary succession) and restoration (which often resembles secondary succession). Using experimental studies on urban wasteland reclamation, we have tested for factors that stimulate or inhibit succession during early phases of woodland development in the Northeastern United states. The emphasis has been on mutualisms (seed dispersal, pollination, and mycorrhizae) and microsite limitations in the recruitment, growth, and reproduction of woody plants. Using plantings of seeds, seedlings, and clusters of reproductively mature plants on abandoned landfills, we have observed that (1) soil microsite deficiencies lead to very poor germination (<0.1<TEX>$\%$</TEX>) and seedling survival (<0.01<TEX>$\%$</TEX>) of most native species; (2) seed dispersal by birds is a significant and reliable source of woody plant recruitment; however (3) proximity effects are strong, with most (up to 95<TEX>$\%$</TEX>) of seed rain falling in the vicinity of planted clusters that are closest to putative seed sources; and (4) remnant natural woodlands are critical components of the recruitment process. To emphasize the last point, in one case, we found that the destruction of approximately 50<TEX>$\%$</TEX> of nearby natural woodland vegetation led to a commensurate decline in seed rain. In another case, we found that the species richness of recruits was strictly limited by the species composition of nearby source plant communities, with no evidence of community enrichment by long distance dispersal over 5 years. We conclude from these results that the size and proximity of remnant natural populations are critical considerations when planning reclamation and restoration programs that rely on natural successional processes.

The flora of selected urban land-use types in Berlin and Potsdam with regard to nature conservation in cities

Part of this investigation is the flora of three different urban land-use types which represent typical biotope characteristics of Berlin and Potsdam. The majority of these urban land-use types is located in the former GDR territory of East Berlin and Potsdam, which were almost unexplored and are therefore of special botanic interest. The focus lies on the inventory of wild-growing vascular plants, their diversity, richness, and value for nature conservation. The first investigated land-use type are the landscape parks of Potsdam with their plant communities of meadows and lawns which differ from many other grasslands of today in having unique plant species due to their historic garden design and the continuous way of extensive garden management. Second, the residential areas of the 20/30s in Berlin and their diversity of wild-growing vascular plants and planted trees which reflect the original garden management and the gardening traditions of this decade are presented. The third urban land-use type is the area of the Berlin wall with urban wasteland communities. It will be shown that also in the inner city with a high population density a special variety of species makes urban wastelands worthy for nature conservation.

Introduction

We are all haunted by visions that we are trying in vain to put out of our minds. Robert Jungk (3) You loved the scenes, didn't you, when I first showed you them? A flat-out fascination with the threat, soberly maintaining that the only thing to do when the world begins to end is to stand aside and paint it. Richard Powers (341) The arbitrary chronometric click of the millennium was registered last I year, and it was quite wonderful to see the millennial dawn in every time zone broadcast on Public Television. It was so serious, such an Event, a sure sign that nothing was happening. Only the Danes thought to perform a millennial parody, which ended with the queen of Denmark being assassinated! What was truly noteworthy, though, was not how little took place, but how little was expected. Millennial feeling, for the first time, was almost entirely severed from apocalyptic urges and fears. There were still, of course, people catastrophizing on websites, stockpiling weapons in Texas, and waiting for the end in Jerusalem. But these responses seemed quaintly anachronistic; one could feel almost a pleasant nostalgia knowing that there were still a few people looking forward to the end of the world. The only endemic anxiety concerned Y2K, the possible worldwide computer glitch. Most of us, though, ultimately were convinced by government and business assurances that the problem had been addressed; and, as it happened, the world's computers changed their dates quite smoothly. And yet, as Walt Whitman once wrote, Something startles me where I thought I was safest (208). Certainly, I am relieved that nuclear annihilation no longer seems imminent. One doesn't really feel nostalgia for Mutual Assured Destruction, Ronald Reagan, and Hal Lindsey. But still I wonder about the causes of the sudden evaporation of apocalyptic feeling at the end of the twentieth century, a century so thoroughly marked, perhaps even defined, by apocalyptic impulses, fears, representations, and events. The reasons for this general millennial calm are both obvious and not so obvious. First, there is no great global crisis that would help precipitate apocalyptic fears and desires. There is, of course, a very real ecological crisis, but corporate and government public relations seem to have successfully numbed public concern. Without the Cold War and the Soviet Union, there is no Evil Empire, no Antichrist, no immediate threat of annihilation. The terrible eruptions of bloody local conflicts do not seem likely to widen into Armageddons; even the Middle East conflict, without the added heat of superpower ideological rivalry, has receded to the status of just another brutal, local idiocy, in spite of the efforts of zealots to make it something more. Furthermore, the apparent prosperity created by global capitalism has made the millennium seem irrelevant. Even those of us bashing this consumerist Babylon and its international war against labor and the environment want to make sure our TIAA-CREF funds are doing well. But there is another factor, I believe, contributing to the relative scarcity of apocalyptic fervor at the end of the millennium, and that is a kind of apocalyptic fatigue, or indeed, a widespread sense that the apocalypse has, in some sense, already happened. No, we didn't actually get nuked or wiped out by ebola or nerve gas; aliens didn't land on the White House lawn. We in the developed West are still alive and more or less kicking. But we need to consider seriously the fact that even the most dystopic visions of science fiction of the last half century cannot replicate events that have actually taken place, events that we have seen, recorded, and reproduced. We don't need to speculate. We know what the end of the world looks like. We kno w because we've seen it, and we've seen it because it's happened. The images of Nazi death camps, of mushroom clouds and human silhouettes burned onto pavements, of not just massacres but genocides in a dozen places, of urban wastelands and ecological devastation are all part of our cultural heritage. …