In Praise of the Gourd

Yesterday I submitted an abstract to the Living Future unConference happening in the Spring, 2019. Each year I submit one or two proposals to promote my urban ecology concepts. It was a bit disturbing to know that my first presentation on this topic was in 2004 at a SER conference in Victoria, B.C., Canada.  If I were to trace back the seed of these ideas it would be 1988 when I first started to contemplate my thesis topic, groundwater movement in the vadose zone. So it is a bit concerning that 30 years later I am still trying to get practically the same projects in the ground, would this classify as madness? Only on a few occasions during these years did I come close to building a pilot project. The closest was in 2017 with a project proposed for Downers Grove - which was foiled by Pruitt taking control of the EPA whose grants the work depended on. Each time though, the process followed a similar path, first an in-depth conversation with the client on the necessities of doing something novel to address the problems, since all they tried is not working. Followed by a short period of euphoria, when everyone is excited about breaking new ground, this is when you get the most compliments. Inevitably, it turns to an all too familiar dissection of the proposal through value engineering, a code phrase for cost-cutting. Then we enter into the phase of having to convince the engineering departments and the maintenance department and the village manager, all who have vested interest in not doing anything out of the routine that would cast any doubt on their own work and change the way they approach a problem, ‘turf wars’. If by chance, you are able to maneuver the landmines and convince everyone to give it a go the wall of maximum resistance is encountered – who will pay for this – ironically, there is never room in the budget for the new. The question that always seems to stop people in their tracks is:  “Has this been tried before?” Of course not, otherwise it would not be new. Now you are faced with all kinds of doubters coming out of the woodwork from top-level engineers to the maintenance staff. If by chance you manage to pass this ordeal, a list of cuts is inevitably presented to you so that the project can pass through the scrutiny of the board or the council who are usually business minded and rarely have a scientist or an environmentalist among them. OK, you met all the obstacles and finally there it is, the plans finished, ready to be built. NO, wait a minute, now all the plant lists and materials will be scrutinized to the last detail once again because now that it is a go everyone must stake a claim on something.  You have too many plants, 18” on center is the standard we use here! – yes, I know but then you have to spend lots of energy and money combatting weeds and nature does not follow such rules – too many species, we usually only use ten or fifteen – really?! The aim is to create an ecosystem, not a garden – people won’t like that, maintenance won’t like that – perhaps you can enlist volunteer groups like the Wild Ones to take care of it – No !! that won’t do, we need to have control and so on and on.  There are places in the world of course that do take chances and try new ideas like Singapore and the more progressive European countries, perhaps cities like Portland, OR and New York might be up for some risk but in the majority, it is a repeat of what has been tried somewhere first. For example, the green roofs that everyone is familiar with now took about forty years to make their way into Chicago building code. Chicago truly is a second city – of second-hand ideas, a far cry from the time it claimed many bold innovations. ‘Make no small plans’ is the motto as long as they reflect what has been tested elsewhere.

So, this time around, if my abstract is selected, I will be speaking in a venue that requests inspiration, innovative strategies, and cutting-edge technique, most creative ideas to inspire the audience. This is what I submitted:

SESSION DESCRIPTION

My presentation focuses on transforming existing urban core infrastructure into fully functioning ecosystems beyond the current LEED and BMP criteria, green roofs, and living walls. I will use examples of my regenerative design work to illustrate the process of creating vertical watersheds to achieve this transformation. The designs are scalable from a small site to a neighborhood level. 

Examples include:

•                    creation of biogeochemical cycles for treatment and recycling of black and grey water, the creation of habitat niches, food, and energy production, and sufficient biomass for percolation to recharge aquifers and evapotranspiration for modulating air temperature.

•                    vertical watersheds that mimic riparian corridors along urban core river corridors.

•                    water quality improvements of buried creeks trapped within storm runoff systems.

I base my presentation on the premise that we as a global human population have missed our window of opportunity to halt climate change, a conclusion many scientists have reached. Given the accepted 40-year time lag between cause and effect, we are now only feeling the consequences of emissions up to 1978. Therefore, the climate will continue to warm in response to emissions since 1978. If we were to stop all emissions today there will be 40 years, up to 2058, of a warming trend to contend with. Since it is obvious this will not happen, we can expect the acceleration of climate change to extend well into a century. Given natural feedback loops, this places us in an unpredictable and dire situation. Climate change catastrophes are stochastic in nature - they will not manifest in unison or spread evenly across the planet. Theoretically, this situation gives us opportunities to create regional oases for biodiverse life to persist. Given this premise, how would we deal with the built and social context? The crisis requires us to take bold leaps.

There is a boom of megacities occurring worldwide where each one has the equivalent of a small country’s population. For example, the estimated hourly growth according to UN World Urbanization Prospects is Lagos +85 inhabitants, Delhi +79, Mexico City +22 and New York +10. The available open spaces are no longer sufficient to biologically balance the quick pace needed for human habitation. Many natural systems design proposals that aim at meeting climate change challenges are confined to the horizontal plane - the traditional view of terrestrial ecosystems demonstrated in bioswales, rain gardens and below surface linear solutions for stormwater runoff and sewage disposal and treatment systems.  Expected sea level rise exposes the vulnerabilities of the existing below surface sewage and stormwater infrastructure, as well as cable and electrical services and transportation. I propose an additional focus, from a horizontal interpretation of natural systems to a vertical one, to incorporate into the urban context and create fully functioning, biodiverse ecosystems where each of the five kingdoms of nature, as described by Lynn Margulis, are present. The green build industry has already accepted green roofs and living walls as part of its vocabulary; ‘il bosco verticale’ – vertical woods- has contributed additional possibilities. I propose we take a further leap and establish above ground watershed ecosystems capable of treating black and grey water on site, provide geothermal, solar and biogeochemical energy production and create the necessary eco-habitat to influence microclimatic conditions. This will reduce dependence on high maintenance and energy-wasteful centralized grid systems, thereby empowering communities to govern their own interests and resulting in communal abundance and security.

Beneficial outcomes of green building criteria are now measured in percentages - 10%, 20%, 50% - usually in the lower ranges. These percentages reflect the benefit compared to a damaged state rather than an optimal state of biological health. The problem is that we are not framing the questions properly. We now ask how much we can afford, based on a failing market economic model. We should ask what we need to do? What are the benefit percentages we must attain to stem the tide of decline? Then create a market model to accommodate those needs.

The Living Future2019 unConference includes the arts in the topic area. As an artist, I am glad to see this recognition and will illustrate how I use artistic elements in my work to beautify, educate, explore and advocate for environmental and social awareness.