Leading with Landscape: Eco-Planning and Design at the City Scale

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the terminology and conceptual frameworks of eco-planning, urban design history, and sustainable landscape architecture discussed in the lecture.

Urban Design

A process of envisioning and describing the shape of the future, posing alternatives from which to choose to prevent cities from being shaped by the politics of expedience.

Landscape (as a human construct)

A concept created in the eye of the beholder who perceives and evaluates their environment, bearing witness to the cultures that shaped it.

Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy

A Renaissance-era garden that served as a mediator between the Sacred City and the Profane Country.

Central Park, New York City

A $20$th-century park designed by Olmstead representing Romantic naturalism as a man-made antidote to the psychological intensity of the commercial city.

EcoResponsive Design

An approach that integrates knowledge of designing for human needs with a deeper understanding of natural systems across all scales of settlement.

Urban Ecosystemic Approach

An alignment of cities with natural ecosystems where resources, processes, and products are used effectively, creating less waste and viewing by-products as resources.

Bioregion

The geographical area and watershed context within which an eco-planning and design site is situated at the beginning of the design process.

Climate Positive Neighbourhood

A neighbourhood that captures and offsets more greenhouse gas emissions than it produces.

Urban Heat Island Effect

A phenomenon in cities where high amounts of heat-absorbing materials like concrete and asphalt increase temperatures, which can be mitigated by vegetation and shade.

Green Street

A street that integrates soil, vegetation, and systems such as bioswales, permeable pavements, and trees into its design.

Complete Street

A street that responds to the local context and balances the needs of all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, and drivers of all ages and abilities.

Bioswales (Rain Gardens)

Vegetated sections along street boulevards designed to slow down runoff, filter pollutants, and recharge groundwater systems.

Permeable Pavement

Porous surfaces used instead of hard concrete to help minimize flooding and keep pollutants out of streams and rivers.

Urban Ecological Design

A process where ecology serves as a foundational lens to understand cities as dynamic living systems with complex interactions of energy, water, and species.

Honest Brokers

The role of urban designers who synthesize technical, cultural, and environmental knowledge to mediate between stakeholders and seek regenerative outcomes.

Leading with Landscape (Case Study Metric)

An urban approach exemplified by the Toronto waterfront redevelopment involving $800$ hectares ($1977$ acres) and approximately $1.5$ billion in infrastructure.