Landscape as Infrastructure

Landscape as Infrastructure
Author: Pierre Belanger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 572
Release: 2016-11-10
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 131724317X

As ecology becomes the new engineering, the projection of landscape as infrastructure—the contemporary alignment of the disciplines of landscape architecture, civil engineering, and urban planning— has become pressing. Predominant challenges facing urban regions and territories today—including shifting climates, material flows, and population mobilities, are addressed and strategized here. Responding to the under-performance of master planning and over-exertion of technological systems at the end of twentieth century, this book argues for the strategic design of "infrastructural ecologies," describing a synthetic landscape of living, biophysical systems that operate as urban infrastructures to shape and direct the future of urban economies and cultures into the 21st century. Pierre Bélanger is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Co-Director of the Master in Design Studies Program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. As part of the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Advansed Studies Program, Bélanger teaches and coordinates graduate courses on the convergence of ecology, infrastructure and urbanism in the interrelated fields of design, planning and engineering. Dr. Bélanger is author of the 35th edition of the Pamphlet Architecture Series from Princeton Architectural Press, GOING LIVE: from States to Systems (pa35.net), co-editor with Jennifer Sigler of the 39th issue of Harvard Design Magazine, Wet Matter, and co-author of the forthcoming volume ECOLOGIES OF POWER: Mapping Military Geographies & Logistical Landscapes of the U.S. Department of Defense. As a landscape architect and urbanist, he is the recipient of the 2008 Canada Prix de Rome in Architecture and the Curator for the Canada Pavilion ad Canadian Exhibition, "EXTRACTION," at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale (extraction.ca).

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems

Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems
Author: Peter Newman
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2012-09-26
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1597267473

Modern city dwellers are largely detached from the environmental effects of their daily lives. The sources of the water they drink, the food they eat, and the energy they consume are all but invisible, often coming from other continents, and their waste ends up in places beyond their city boundaries. Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems shows how cities and their residents can begin to reintegrate into their bioregional environment, and how cities themselves can be planned with nature’s organizing principles in mind. Taking cues from living systems for sustainability strategies, Newman and Jennings reassess urban design by exploring flows of energy, materials, and information, along with the interactions between human and non-human parts of the system. Drawing on examples from all corners of the world, the authors explore natural patterns and processes that cities can emulate in order to move toward sustainability. Some cities have adopted simple strategies such as harvesting rainwater, greening roofs, and producing renewable energy. Others have created biodiversity parks for endangered species, community gardens that support a connection to their foodshed, and pedestrian-friendly spaces that encourage walking and cycling. A powerful model for urban redevelopment, Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems describes aspects of urban ecosystems from the visioning process to achieving economic security to fostering a sense of place.

Soil-based Wastewater Treatment

Soil-based Wastewater Treatment
Author: Jose A. Amador
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2020-01-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0891189688

Our book addresses the needs of practitioners, engineers, scientists, regulators, resource managers, planners, and others with a need to know about septic systems. It arose after discussions about the need for a text that integrated current understanding of the hydrologic, physical, chemical, and biological processes involved in the treatment of wastewater using soil. In our experience, people working with septic systems – ourselves included – have a fragmented understanding of what these systems are, how they function, how wastewater moves through soil, how and which pollutants are removed, and how these systems impact the environment and public health. The relevant information is scattered across disciplines, information sources and audiences. This book is an attempt to collect and integrate this information in one place, and provide a scientific framework for understanding soil-based wastewater treatment.