Ecological Landscape Design

Land degradation represents one of the biggest threats to the environment. The destruction of natural habitat by uprooting forests and grasslands disrupt carbon recycling and storage. New housing developments break up wildlife habitats, cloud streams with excess silt, and cause soil erosion. Even the best-planned developments disrupt nature’s landscape. Single houses built on undisturbed land produce similar harms to ecosystems, including the ecosystems that are almost invisible to people, such as soil ecosystems, the species living in foliage, and the microscopic life in nearby streams. Few people could miss the irony that comes from building an energy-efficient solar-powered home on a hillside that has been denuded of trees, bushes, and earth. In order to mesh the innovations of energy-efficient homes with nature, environmental engineers have begun to pay special attention to a new structure’s surroundings. For this reason, environmental engineering incorporates a component that considers land topography, climate, and natural vegetation. Ecological landscape design combines the task of coordinating a new building with its natural surroundings and remodeling the landscape to fit the new building in a natural way.

Today’s ecological landscape design has three main objectives: (1) minimize the disturbance done to the land during and after construction; (2) minimize all health risks to people and the environment due to the new construction; and (3) reduce construction wastes. At the end of a construction project that has worked within these guidelines, the new structure should function in harmony with the environment. As the theme of this book stresses, environmental engineering seeks to work in cooperation with nature rather than to find ways to subdue nature.