ecological regionalism: sustainable urban environments within a regional framework
DESCRIPTION
This project explores the creation of a sustainability framework that assesses environmental, social, and economic conditions within the region centered on the Greenville - Spartanburg - Anderson metropolitan area of South Carolina and identifies critical locations for design or policy decisions that directly respond to sustainability needs.TRANSCRIPT
© William A. Aultman, 2012
Ecological Regionalism���Sustainable Urban Environments within a Regional Framework
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Introduction���
✤ This project explores the creation of a sustainability framework that assesses environmental, social, and economic conditions within the region centered on the Greenville - Spartanburg - Anderson metropolitan area and identifies critical locations for design or policy decisions that directly respond to sustainability needs.
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Background���
✤ The Upstate of South Carolina is comprised of the ten counties in the northwest corner of the state
✤ Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, and Union.
✤ The region is one of the fastest growing areas in the Southeast and as of the 2010 Census it’s population is close to 1.4 million, having experienced nearly a 20% increase between the 1990 and 2010 Census.
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Objectives���
✤ The growth of the region makes it a suitable candidate for a study that relates environmental, social, and economic conditions.
✤ The datasets draw from nationally served sources and offer scalability from the regional to the neighborhood level.
✤ The results are sustainability index maps of the region and related discussion of the natural and urban environments, as well as urban design solutions.
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✤ Frederick Steiner- Human Ecology: Following Nature’s Lead (2002)
✤ Understanding and mimicking the “nestled complexity” of our natural systems is an obvious and resource conscious way to address how humans impact and augment their environment.
✤ Carl Steinitz- Alternative Futures for Changing Landscapes (2003)
✤ A model of landscape change that considers alternative scenarios of planning and design and selects the one that provides the most appropriate solution. A continuous feedback loop that mimics the dialogical process.
Precedent���
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✤ David Owen- Green Metropolis (2009)
✤ The pragmatic realization that living in more dense settlement patterns with the consolidation of shared resources and infrastructure is inherently more resource efficient than the current model of suburban sprawl and separate, low density land uses.
✤ Tom Low- Light Imprint Handbook : Integrating Sustainability & New Urbanism (2010)
✤ Assessing the performance of existing or proposed urban design from a watershed perspective and the goal of maintaining watershed performance by preserving biodiversity and water quality.
Precedent���
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Richard T.T. Forman- Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions (1995)
✤ A quantifiable method of defining the ecology of landscapes and regions.
✤ The use of the Patch-Corridor-Matrix method of describing landscape ecology at multiple scales.
✤ Ecosystem characteristics: Function, Flow, and Change.
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PROPOLIS- Planning and Research of Policies for Land Use and Transport for Increasing Urban Sustainability (2002)������
✤ A European Union research experiment that sought to address urban sustainability.
✤ Defines measurement criteria from Land Use and Transportation models.
✤ Seeks to address the Environmental, Social and Economic aspects of human activity.
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Analysis���
✤ Define a sustainability criteria that merges aspects of Environmental, Social, and Economic data through a process of public input and stakeholder involvement.
✤ Create a framework that classifies and weights the individual criteria and merges each part into an overall composite for analysis.
✤ Implement the composite output as a guide for discussion on the nature of sustainable urban environments and subsequent urban design solutions.
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Environmental���Analysis���
✤ VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) as an indicator of CO2 emissions.
✤ Landcover valuation that assigns a dollar value to certain landcover classes as a ranking of ecosystem services.
✤ Species richness as an indicator of environmental quality.
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Environment Analysis
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Social Analysis���
✤ Social equity as related to household income, educational attainment, poverty status, and race.
✤ Social accessibility as related to traffic congestion, proximity to urban centers, and proximity to recreational opportunities.
✤ Social health as related to traffic fatalities, air quality, and water quality.
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Social Analysis
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Economic Analysis���
✤ Economic status as related to median household income.
✤ Employment status as related to percent unemployed.
✤ Affordability of housing for home owners and renters as a percent of household income.
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Economic Analysis
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Sustainability Analysis���
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Sustainability Analysis
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Design Recommendations���
✤ Though certain rural jurisdictions of the Upstate are the most distressed as indicated by the Sustainability Composite, the notion of change requires the social and political will to do so. The design recommendations here are based off of real initiatives and projects in downtown Greenville, SC as transit oriented urban design solutions.
✤ The overall rural issues can rarely be addressed exclusively by design solutions and, just like the urban counterparts of any particular region, require local policy and educational programs to improve holistically.
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Greenville- Existing Conditions
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Business as Usual Population Footprint
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Proposed Urban Corridor Population Footprint
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Greenville- Proposed Urban Corridor Infill Development
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Greenville- Proposed Urban Corridor Character
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Conclusions���
✤ The Sustainability Composite presented here is a snapshot of the complexities of the urban region as well as a point of comparison to known trends. It also allows an inherent scalability toward the city and neighborhood scale for policy makes, planners, and designers to offer innovative design solutions that holistically relate to the overall urban region.
