ASLA 2023 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. St Pete Pier: Revitalization of Waterfront and Historic Pier Site. St. Petersburg, Florida. KEN SMITH WORKSHOP / Rich Montalbano, RiMO
The guides will be released at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan
The ASLA Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization, has announced a new grant to the University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center (EFC) in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation to create two new resource guides on the economic benefits of landscape architecture and nature-based solutions. The lead developer of the guides is Dr. Jennifer Egan, PhD, program manager, EFC.
Landscape architects maximize the benefits of nature-based solutions through design. Their work on nature-based solutions creates economic benefits in five key areas:
Improved Human Health and Livability
Expanded Investment and Sustainable Jobs
Increased Biodiversity
Going Beyond Net-Zero
Strengthened Resilience
Dr. Egan will develop guides that outline the economic benefits of landscape architecture and nature-based solutions across these areas:
One guide will make the economic case for nature-based solutions and the added value of landscape architects’ planning and design work to broad public audiences.
Another guide will introduce the tools landscape architects can use to make the economic case for their climate and biodiversity projects to clients.
ASLA’s Climate Action Plan identified the need for these guides, which will be published on ASLA.org in advance of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. ASLA is an official observer of the COP process and its representatives will attend COP29. Last year at COP28, five delegates represented the landscape architecture community.
“Landscape architects bring nature-based solutions to where people live – to their streets, parks, plazas, and recreational areas. With Dr. Egan’s research, we will be able to show the economic benefits of this important work to policymakers and the public,” said Torey Carter-Conneen, ASLA CEO.
“We know that landscape architects design nature-based solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises. But how they do that is key: they design them to be even more effective and inclusive and to provide even greater benefits.”
Her doctorate is in water science and policy from the University of Delaware Department of Applied Economics and Statistics in the College of Agricultural and Natural Resources. Her doctoral research involved a legal and economic analysis of policy interventions for nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.
She also teaches sustainable development and agricultural and natural resource economics at the University of Delaware Department of Applied Economics and Statistics.
You have said the dangers of the biodiversity crisis are equal to or even greater than the climate crisis. Can you elaborate?
If we stop emitting carbon dioxide, climate change could be stopped or reversed. But if we lose species, they’re gone forever.
We’ve seen species extinction and the degradation of ecosystems proceed at a rapid pace. We’re losing species at a rate of about anywhere from 100 to 1,000 times faster than the background rate, based on previous extinctions. Addressing climate change will remove one threat to biodiversity, but it won’t stop its decline. If we fix climate change tomorrow, we still are dealing with a massive degradation of nature and biodiversity.
Nature is infinitely more complex than a molecule of carbon. We’re coming up with ways to deal with carbon. But nature is more complex, so we’re still learning a great deal.
When we lose ecosystems or genetic diversity, that impacts our ability to survive as a human species, not to mention all the other more-than-human species that inhabit the planet with us. The food we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the medicines we use are all directly related to nature. If we lose nature, we’re going to severely impact all the things that keep us alive and thriving.
While we look to the sky trying to figure out what to do with climate change, nature is being pulled out right from under us.
Conserving and managing at least 30 percent of the world’s lands, inland waters, and coastal areas is something we’re directly involved in and we take to heart every day.
The targets include four overarching goals, including: the “integrity and connectivity and resilience of all ecosystems are maintained, enhanced, or restored, sustainably increasing the area of natural ecosystems by 2050.” This is where landscape architects can have the greatest impact. We’re all involved and can help make sure this goal is met.
The 23 targets can be put into four categories. One is on-the-ground action targets. The other is policy initiatives. The third is financing and capacity building. The fourth deals with inclusion and equity.
At Biohabitats, we’re really focused on the on-the-ground actions. That’s conserving habitat and species. It’s restoring ecosystems, managing invasive species, and adapting and mitigating to climate change. We deal with these on all our projects. But you can’t think of any of these global targets independently. They’re all connected to one another.
Our work also falls into the inclusion and equity batch of targets. We think about Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and underserved communities and make sure these communities not only participate in the work we do, but have the ability to make decisions, deciding what’s going to happen in their neighborhood, communities, and on their land with their consent.
How can landscape architects better design projects to achieve the 2030 biodiversity targets? What are the top three actions landscape architects can take to increase biodiversity in their work?
First, protect and conserve the biodiversity within your sphere of influence.
Second, restore biodiversity, which can take many forms. Look at how the site is connected to the rest of the landscape from a landscape ecology perspective. Seek to understand how nutrients cycle and flow through the site, how water interacts with the site, how species move across the site or inhabit the site, and how that’s all connected to the regional landscape. It’s really hard to increase biodiversity on a site if we don’t understand these connections and relationships.
Third, once you have an idea of what you’re going to protect and conserve, develop ideas and ways to restore and enhance biodiversity. This can take the form of many different strategies and measures.
Landscape architects have a tremendous influence and impact on the way biodiversity is protected, conserved, restored, and enhanced.
Biodiverse landscapes provide a range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration. But with growing climate impacts like wildfires, landscapes can also become major sources of emissions. Biohabitats analyzed the carbon storage capacity of a fire-prone landscape for the City of Boulder, Colorado. What did you learn?
We were commissioned by the City of Boulder to look at whether their annual carbon sequestration in their open spaces and mountain parks would help them offset the carbon they emit as a city. We inventoried the carbon stock, and annual flux of their landscape, and projected what the loss may be based on fire or another land disturbances, and what the landscape’s potential is in terms of sequestering carbon under a changing climate and with the application of nature-based solutions.
We looked at over 36,000 acres. We found these lands had a really large existing carbon stock. 2.8 million cubic tons of carbon were already being stored in those landscapes.
Map illustrates areas with the greatest carbon density based on soils and landcover. Biohabitats. City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. Sustainability Solutions Group / Biohabitats
The grasslands had the greatest existing carbon storage, mostly in their soils. Wetlands actually had a greater carbon density per acre, but they cover relatively small areas. While the forest and grasslands can store significant amount of carbon in the landscape, our modeling of fire scenarios found that they were also a potential source of carbon emissions due to the risk of loss under certain scenarios.
We found that nature-based solutions could help draw down carbon and reduce loss. For example, prescribed burning can be used to improve landscape resilience. Because when fire-evolved ecosystems aren’t burned, the fires burn with more intensity and typically burn the soil as well. With frequent fires, you get less intensity, and they produce less carbon emissions.
This fell in line with other studies around the world. It also emphasized why developing or tilling greenfields is destructive in terms of carbon emissions. Protecting and conserving wild lands and parks is really important in reducing carbon emissions.
To the untrained eye, some of your firm’s projects look natural, like nothing has been done. Your beautiful project at Teaneck Creek Park in Bergen County, New Jersey, restored 46 acres of freshwater wetlands. Big Marsh Park on the South Side of Chicago restored a dumping ground and treats wastewater, but looks pristine. Is that one of your measures of design success — for your work to read as nature?
A quick story: We worked on a stream and riparian restoration project in Columbia, Maryland, which sits between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. in the 1990s. A reporter contacted us and said “I want to go out and take some pictures of the site you restored.” We told them where it was, and they went out. We got a call the next day saying they couldn’t find it. They were standing exactly at the point where we did the restoration.
With a lot of our restoration work, we hope it blends back into the existing landscape. But it goes a little bit deeper than that. We think about how to restore ecological processes, like food webs, hydrologic or nutrient cycles, ecological succession or disturbance regimes like fire. That’s what we focus on, not necessarily what the landscape’s going to look like.
It’s really place dependent. Every place has these processes, but they operate at different levels, scales, complexities, and relationships. A long grass prairie, an eastern deciduous forest, or a Gulf Coast tidal wetland are different. We’re trying to first understand those processes and design to protect, restore, enhance them.
If we start doing that, then that manifests itself into what the landscape is going to look like; what the plant community is going to look like; how water flows through, over, under the site; how species interact with the landscape; and how the site evolves. We’re trying to mimic ecosystem processes within landscapes that are relatively stable and intact. Much like architects or landscape architects use precedent images, we use reference landscapes.
Sand seepage wetlands at Teaneck Creek Park provide stormwater attenuation and water quality filtration while enhancing local biodiversity. Biohabitats. Bergen County Dept. Of Parks. Teaneck Creek Conservancy. Rutgers’ Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability / David Ike PhotographyTeaneck Creek Park. Biohabitats. Bergen County Dept. Of Parks. Teaneck Creek Conservancy. Rutgers’ Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability / David Ike Photography
For us, there’s an inherent beauty in natural systems. We’re trying to create the building blocks that allow natural systems to regenerate. For a landscape to be sustainable, robust ecological processes need to be in place. Otherwise, the system is going to fall apart.
The Ford Calumet Environmental Center in Big Marsh Park, designed by Valerio Dewalt Train, is home to Chicago’s first decentralized wastewater treatment and disposal system. The system, designed by Biohabitats, includes constructed wetlands, which demonstrate environmental stewardship while serving and improving access to nature. Biohabitats. Chicago Park District Valero Dewalt Train Associates. DbHMS Engineering. Jacobs/Ryan Associates / Tom Harris
We also work in highly disturbed landscapes that are disconnected from natural processes — for example, brownfields or high-density urban areas. While our goal is to restore the full suite of ecosystem processes and functions, many times we are quite limited in what we can do.
Scientists are calling these novel ecosystems. It’s the idea that we can use these reference landscapes as an analog but knowing that we’ll never be able to replicate many of the ecological processes that sustain these landscapes. What can we restore that has a semblance of ecological integrity and provides value to the life of that landscape? That’s where we begin.
It goes back to our tagline: “We’re in the business of restoring the future, not the past.” We can’t go back to the past because there have been so many changes to our landscapes, ecosystems, and planetary systems. We need to look forward.
Your firm works with the Army Corps of Engineers, which has a large contingent of landscape architects. What do you think that the Corps needs to do to fully realize its vision of Engineering with Nature?
We’ve been working with the Corps of Engineers for almost 30 years. I will give a shout-out to Dr. Todd Bridges, who, with his cohort of researchers and other practitioners, developed the Engineering with Nature initiative while he was at the U.S Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Todd is now with a team of researchers at the University of Georgia, working in collaboration with the Corps and others to advance the idea of nature-based solutions for infrastructure projects all over the world.
In 2022, the ERDC contributed to The White House roadmap for accelerating nature-based solutions. This roadmap lays out five recommendations that the Corps and all federal agencies need to do. For the Corps, this will require Congress to change Corps policies, reallocate funding, and shift priorities. It’s not that the Corps is necessarily trying to make things more difficult or put-up roadblocks. Literally, they can’t do many of the changes we want to see or do until Congress gives them authorization. It’s up to all of us to advocate to our representatives in Congress to make these changes happen.
For example, the Corps has specific guidelines on how they evaluate project alternatives, which give overwhelming preference to damage reduction and business loss reductions. These are worthy benefits, but for the most part they completely ignore ecological and social benefits. It’s hard for the Corps to justify the use of nature-based solutions if the benefit is not quantifiable.
But just this past February, the Corps released a final rule to change that policy. If this rule is adopted, the Corps will be able to develop project alternatives that maximize environmental and public benefits. This allows both quantitative and qualitative data to be used in determining the highest benefit to lowest cost ratio. This alone will accelerate the application of nature-based solutions and aesthetic and context sensitive design considerations in infrastructure projects throughout the country. This could be a game-changer.
Your firm also integrates nature into dense urban environments, like a green street in downtown D.C. How do these small projects provide opportunities to increase biodiversity?
We’ve been working with the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District in D.C. for several years. We’re designing and retrofitting bioretention facilities into the streetscape. Obviously, as landscape architects, we are excited to see bioretention as a stormwater quantity and quality management system being designed and installed all over the world.
The idea of bioretention was developed by Larry Coffman in Prince George’s County, Maryland, a suburb just outside of Washington, D.C. in the early 1990s. Biohabitats was fortunate enough to have worked with Larry on that research, the design specifications, and proof of concept for the very first bioretention facilities in the world. So, this is sort of the homecoming for us.
Stair-stepping bioretention cells provide opportunities to showcase native diversity in the Golden Triangle neighborhood of Washington, DC. Biohabitats. Golden Triangle Business Improvement District. DC Department of Energy & Environment. Triangle Contracting. TCG Property Care. Timmons Group Insight LLC / Biohabitats
There are many benefits. Bioretention systems improve water quality by removing pollutants through soil microbes and uptake by plants. They infiltrate stormwater into the ground and help replenish groundwater. They reduce runoff off from impervious surfaces, particularly when designed with trees. They help reduce the heat island effect. And they also provide micro-habitats for pollinator species and migratory song birds, among other species. Bioretention facilities are wonderful ways to benefit nature and biodiversity in urban areas.
Lastly, in 2023, Biohabitats transitioned ownership from being a privately-held company to a perpetual purpose trust, much like Patagonia did. How did you decide this was the best way to achieve your long-term goals for your team and the planet?
Yes, on Earth Day, 2023, Biohabitats sold all its shares to the Biohabitats Purpose Trust (BPT), which is a non-charitable trust with the explicit purpose of “restoring nature, protecting and conserving biodiversity and inspiring love for wild places.”
I began looking a different options for ownership transition about seven years ago. I looked at selling Biohabitats to our team members, another firm, or private equity. I also considered an employee stock ownership plan, a co-op, and a variety of hybrid business models. Eventually, I came across the concept of a perpetual purpose trust through a business group I belonged to. The idea of locking in our purpose and mission in perpetuity really appealed to me and our team.
With the BPT, Biohabitats’ purpose, mission, and values are locked in for the next 100 plus years and cannot be bought or sold. Under the BPT, Biohabitats operates as a for-profit company trading as C-corporation, with a Benefit Corporation overlay. We are also B-Corps certified, a JUST company, and 1% for the Planet Member. The profits Biohabitats earns are no longer extracted by shareholders, because the BPT is the only shareholder and doesn’t need profits. Instead, profits get reinvested back into our team members, stakeholders, and nature.
The BPT is governed by a board of trustees within the Trust Earth Stewardship Committee, which is responsible for making sure that Biohabitats is meeting its purpose and objectives. There are five seats on this stewardship committee, and we have designated and legally codified one seat for nature. Nature, represented by a nature guardian, has a seat at the table and more importantly, agency in making sure that Biohabitats is meeting its purpose and objectives. We believe it’s the first time in the U.S. that nature has been legally assigned as trustee. For the wild!
ASLA 2020 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Native Plant Garden at The New York Botanical Garden. New York, USA. OEHME, VAN SWEDEN | OvS / Ivo Vermeulen
New Research from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Fund Shows Benefits of Nature-Based Solutions
The ASLA Fund has released new peer-reviewed research on landscape architecture solutions to the biodiversity crisis.
The research was developed by Dr. Sohyun Park, ASLA, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut. Dr. Park and her team won a competitive national grant from the ASLA Fund in 2023 to conduct the research.
“The biodiversity crisis is on par with the climate crisis. An estimated one million out of eight million species on the planet are threatened with extinction. Our research demonstrates that landscape architects play a significant role in designing and preserving green spaces that enhance and restore biodiversity and promote human well-being,” Dr. Park said.
“ASLA supports the global 30 x 2030 goals, which calls for preserving and restoring 30 percent of the world’s ecosystems by 2030. Sohyun’s research shows that landscape architects’ planning and design work is central to this global effort,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “The research demonstrates that we can design for biodiversity and start to restore the planet.”
LAF 2023 Landscape Performance Series Case Study Investigations. Cortex Commons. St. Louis, Missouri. SWT Design, Inc. / Jim Diaz
Dr. Park and her team reviewed nearly 70 peer-reviewed studies focused on planning and designing nature-based solutions to biodiversity loss published from 2000 to 2023. They synthesized the findings in an executive summary, which includes case studies and project examples, and a research study.
Park and her team found that:
Heterogeneity and diversity are critical components of healthy ecosystems. This goes beyond the diversity of animal and plant species to include built forms, landscapes, and water bodies.
Landscape architects can design diverse landscapes and restore plant communities that mimic nature in both functional diversity and complexity of structure.
These design strategies enhance insect, bird, reptile, and mammal biodiversity and improve the water retention capabilities of soils and green infrastructure.
It is critical that stakeholders appreciate how everything connects within a socio-ecological system.
Planners and policymakers should take a holistic view when setting biodiversity objectives and planning local or national initiatives.
Park and her team found empirical research points to the success of these strategies in increasing and enhancing biodiversity:
Design for Biodiversity
Incorporate Native Plants
Support Pollinators
Enable Integrated Pest Management
Include Allelopathic and Companion Plants
Incorporate Protected Areas
Transform Grey to Green
Retrofit Grey Infrastructure to Be Green
Design for Slope and Pitch
Design for Building Height and Architecture
Create Bio-solar Roofs
Build Strong Community Coalitions on Biodiversity
Create community partnerships that build trust with stakeholders
Use participatory design processes to build social-ecological communities defined by a shared sense of bio-cultural heritage
Include Indigenous groups and other community stakeholders in the design, biodiversity monitoring and stewardship, and decision-making processes
ASLA 2022 Professional General Design Honor Award. From Brownfield to Green Anchor in the Assembly Square District. Somerville, Massachusetts. OJB Landscape Architecture / Kyle Caldwell
New Research from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Fund Shows Benefits of Nature-Based Solutions
The ASLA Fund has released new peer-reviewed research on landscape architecture solutions to extreme heat, the deadliest climate impact.
The research was developed by Dr. Daniella Hirschfeld, ASLA, PhD, Assistant Professor of Climate Adaptation Planning, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department, Utah State University. Dr. Hirschfeld won a competitive national grant from the ASLA Fund in 2023 to conduct the research.
“Extreme heat is expected to impact more people and places in the U.S. and across the globe in coming decades, with the greatest impacts to marginalized and underserved communities. An estimated 250,000 excess deaths are expected per year by 2050. Our research demonstrates the importance of maximizing the benefits of nature-based solutions to extreme heat. And landscape architects do that every day through their critically important planning and design work,” Dr. Hirschfeld said.
“While we were developing our Climate Action Plan, landscape architects told us what they needed most was authoritative evidence that demonstrates all the great benefits of their work. We are thrilled Daniella brought the research together to make the strongest case to policymakers, community groups, allied professionals, and the public,” said ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen. “We now have the best science on landscape architecture strategies for extreme heat on hand.”
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. University of Arizona Environment + Natural Resource II. Tucson, Arizona. Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture / Marion Brenner
Dr. Hirschfeld and her team reviewed more than 100 peer-reviewed studies, looking at planning and designing nature-based solutions that reduce the impacts of extreme heat published from 2007 to 2022. They synthesized the findings in an executive summary, which includes case studies and project examples, and a research study.
Hirschfeld and her team found from the research that:
Increasing the number of nature-based solutions within a community, the size of these solutions, and the amount of greenery or trees will decrease temperatures. While there is not a direct relationship between every tree and degree of temperature reduction, it’s clear from the literature that more greenery produces greater temperature benefits.
The way nature-based solutions are distributed throughout a neighborhood or city makes a difference. Research shows that the more green spaces are connected to one another the greater temperature reductions benefits they provide.
Hirschfeld also found four key landscape architecture strategies reduce heat impacts:
Increase tree percentage in parks and green spaces
Provide shade on sites
Use plant materials and water instead of hardscape
Switch to green ground cover, including grasses and shrubs
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The University of Texas at El Paso Transformation. El Paso, Texas. Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc. / Adam Barbe
By Roxanne Blackwell, Caleb Raspler, and Matthew Gallagher
On March 11, the White House released the Budget of the U.S. Government for fiscal year 2025. The proposal includes several increases compared to the fiscal year 2024 budget for climate change, biodiversity, parks, water, and transportation.
While these investments can help advance the goals of landscape architects, ASLA believes there are still more resources needed so landscape architects can continue to shape the built and natural environment of tomorrow.
In advance of this release and following the State of the Union, ASLA sent recommendations to the administration to continue deep investment in nature-based infrastructure solutions as part of its forthcoming budget priorities. ASLA’s recommendations are based on member-reported most accessed federal grant programs, ASLA strategic partnerships, and previously requested federal funding.
Here’s how the President’s budget compared to ASLA’s recommendations:
Climate Change: ASLA recommendations regarding federal climate change initiatives closely aligned with the administration. For example, ASLA suggested $25 billion to address climate impacts affecting communities like floods, wildfires, storms, extreme heat, and drought. The administration proposed a total of $23 billion in 2025 to facilitate climate adaptation and resilience across the federal government that landscape architects can take part in, including the American Climate Corps (ACC) and reducing the embodied carbon of construction materials.
Biodiversity: The President’s budget included funding support for biodiversity initiatives like environmental planning and habitat restoration activities. However, the budget did not include ASLA’s specific request for funding to help state and territorial wildlife agencies implement their Wildlife Action Plans and Tribal National conservation efforts. ASLA will continue to work with Congress to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would provide much-needed funds for state biodiversity efforts.
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The Meadow at the Old Chicago Post Office. Chicago, Illinois. Hoerr Schaudt / Scott Shigley
Active Transportation: Notably, several of the President’s surface transportation budget requests mirror’s ASLA’s recommendations. The fiscal year 2025 President’s budget recommends more than $78 billion to carry out the Federal Highway Administration’s programs, including for surface transportation, roadway safety, transit formula programs, active transportation, and more. The President recommends $14.7 billion for the Surface Transportation Block Grants (ASLA recommends $14.68) and $75 million for the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program (ASLA recommends $75 million).
ASLA 2023 Professional Residential Design Award of Excellence. The Rain Gardens at 900 Block. Lexington, Kentucky. Gresham Smith
However, the President recommends $800 million for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants. This falls short of ASLA’s recommended $2 billion. This program invests in infrastructure projects like active transportation, Complete Streets, Transit-Oriented Development, and more.
Water Management and Infrastructure: The President’s budget did not include as much funding for water investments as ASLA requested. ASLA asked for more than $9 billion in funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to enhance critical water infrastructure compared to the President’s $7 billion, and more than $3 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) compared to the President’s $1.24 billion.
National Parks and Public Lands: The President’s budget recommends $3.6 billion for the National Park Service (NPS) compared to ASLA’s suggested $5 billion. The budget includes $125 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund’s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Program, $11 million to support new sites that preserve the stories of the cultures and history across America, and $11 million to strengthen co-stewardship of Tribal lands.
Equity and Environmental Justice: As ASLA suggested, the President’s 2025 budget prioritized federal investments that address underserved populations through the Justice40 Initiative. Additionally, the budget included funding for STEM education and workforce development programs emphasizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Now that landscape architecture is a STEM discipline, these programs can help advance the profession.
ASLA 2023 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. PopCourts! – A Small Plaza That Turned Into a Movement. Chicago, Illinois. The Lamar Johnson Collaborative / Shelby Kroeger
Community Development: ASLA suggested $3.3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to revitalize American neighborhoods compared to the President’s $2.9 billion. Increased investments in this program are needed for landscape architects to continue to support communities and stimulate economic development.
The President’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal serves as a blueprint for his vision for the upcoming fiscal year. However, Congress is ultimately responsible for developing and passing a budget and appropriations measures to fund the federal government’s functions and activities.
ASLA will continue its efforts to work with congressional leaders and coalition partners to pass spending measures that favor the work of landscape architects.
Roxanne Blackwell, Hon. ASLA, is managing director of government affairs at ASLA. Caleb Raspler is manager of federal government affairs at ASLA. Matthew Gallagher is grassroots coordinator at ASLA.
At COP28 in Dubai, negotiators from nearly 200 countries reached a historic agreement to “transition away” from oil, gas, and coal in a “just, orderly, and equitable manner.” In 28 years of UN climate meetings, this is the first time countries have specifically targeted fossil fuels.
The agreement also called for tripling the amount of renewable energy like wind and solar and doubling the rate of energy efficiency worldwide by 2030. And countries committed to dramatically reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
But scientists say countries need to commit to a much faster phase-out of coal, gas, and oil. Greenhouse gas emissions need to be slashed by 43 percent by 2030 if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F).
According to the UN global “stocktake” at COP28, countries are falling far behind in achieving this goal. The world is now on track to cut emissions by only 5 percent this decade. The planet has already warmed by more than 1.2°C.
Amid the discussions on how to move forward, one important thread appeared: the need to scale up nature-based solutions.
The agreement recognized that “conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems” is critical to achieving climate mitigation and adaptation goals.
It called for “halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030,” using more landscapes as carbon sinks, and increasing protection of biodiversity.
To help more communities become resilient to climate impacts, world leaders also saw the need to set global goals on adaptation and leverage nature-based solutions to achieve them.
This way, more communities will not only be protected from harm but also experience the health, biodiversity, carbon drawdown, and economic benefits of nature-based solutions.
Landscape architect delegates at COP28 in Dubai. From left to right: Pamela Conrad, ASLA; Dr. Siddharth Narayan; Lisa Richmond; Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA; Torey Carter-Conneen, ASLA CEO
Conrad said the meeting resulted in progress, but much more work is needed. “Countries acknowledged fossil fuels are the problem, but it is not enough. The agreement did not include the phase out commitment that is required to stay within the 1.5°C threshold and avoid the worst effects of climate change.”
“Attending COPs always gives me hope for humanity and what I do as a landscape architect. Climate change has become our collective ambition. It is the first time in human history that we are working towards one goal,” Voraakhom said.
“But there is also our past collective karma in the air. We are not on track to meet the Paris Agreement goals. And where are the benefits for those who are vulnerable and will soon be displaced? What about the millions of climate migrants who will experience loss and damage from climate impacts?”
Conrad said “gaining traction on the loss and damage fund was an important moment on the first day of COP28. While the $700 million pledged — and the $17.5 million from the U.S. — is not nearly enough to cover our historic emissions and damage to many developing countries, it is the first step in recognizing those harms and doing something about them.”
“Without a global adaptation strategy, there will be more severe loss and damages for communities worldwide,” Voraakhom said. “We need to raise more funds for measuring the performance of nature-based solutions. People are now convinced about their benefits more than ever. But it’s now back to us — landscape architects — to make them solid, measurable, and able to be financed.”
Kongjian Yu, FASLA, who attended COP28 as part of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) delegation and spoke at IUCN and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) events, reached a similar conclusion.
At this year’s meeting, “nature-based solutions became widely accepted and discussed among financial institutions.”
But he argued that “landscape architects need to speak louder about these solutions, which is the core of landscape architects’ past and future practice and research.”
“Landscape architects need to demonstrate their performance. This is urgently needed to make landscape architects more visible and consolidate our ability to transition communities away from conventional gray infrastructure.”
Conrad also sees the need to “leverage carbon markets to increase financial support for the work landscape architects do. And we need to expand our current metrics and tools to go beyond carbon and quantify biodiversity, health, heat, and water.”
In her discussions with policymakers and other delegates at COP28, Conrad found “there was great support for nature-based solutions for all; the rights and wisdom of Indigenous peoples; the use of bio-based low-carbon materials; and linking the climate and biodiversity crises. These were all topics we included in the ASLA Climate Action Plan. It was great to see them recognized on the global stage.”
Pamela Conrad, ASLA at COP28 in Dubai, UAE
Carter-Conneen said “landscape architects were out in force at COP28. I saw firsthand the passion and expertise of our member leaders. And as a delegation, we made real progress by engaging and educating global policymakers, private sector leaders and peer climate advocates about the value of nature-based solutions as critical components of any mitigation or adaptation strategies.”
“As a landscape architect and designer with a focus on equitable adaptation of cities, I have been keenly interested in traditional ecological knowledge, and the role this knowledge will play in decarbonization and a just transition,” said Seavitt, who attended as part of the University of Pennsylvania delegation and whose research is focused on the Amazon rainforest.
At COP28, “Mary Lyons, an Ojibwe Elder and wisdom keeper of North America, said succinctly in reference to indigenous land stewardship: ‘Ours is not the old way, but the right way.'”
“I came away from COP28 with the thought that landscape architects are key to supporting the ‘how’ of climate policies. What does a just transition look like? How do we incorporate indigenous knowledge in a way that is equitable for all human and more-than-human species? What does that look like?”
“That’s where landscape architects come in with our skills in ecology, interconnectedness, transborder thinking, and visualization of what our futures might look like,” Seavitt said.
Looking ahead to COP29 next year in Azerbaijan, Carter-Conneen said: “we will build on our engagement this year, providing more data on the environmental, social and economic benefits of green infrastructure and emphasizing the strategic importance of including landscape architects in the global effort to stabilize our climate.”
Conrad sees the need to build relationships with policymakers, technology companies, financial institutions, and philanthropists.
“We also need to strengthen our relationships with our allies — civil engineers, architects, planners, and ecologists — so we can represent one collective voice for the built and natural environments. This is a ‘link arms’ moment. We are stronger when we work together, and the future of our planet depends on it.”
Yu said “we need to increase collaboration with policymakers to change business as usual. We need to work with civil engineers to more aggressively integrate ecology and nature-based solutions.”
“We also need to work with the media to change the culture and educate the public that these solutions are key to adapting cities and regions. And we need to work with financial institutions to make them understand that good landscape architecture will bring benefits. Together, we can find a way to create projects that can be financed.”
Robert Searns, a trails and greenways planner, offers a fresh take on how to make cities more walkable. He calls for designing “grand loops” on the edges of cities and shorter “town walks,” which are “branded, in-town walking loops” that tie parks, civic spaces, and neighborhoods together. These kinds of trails support good urban design that puts pedestrians’ access to nature and street life first.
The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small / Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023
Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell transformed a 3,500-acre dairy farm in Sussex, United Kingdom into a haven for wild plants and animals, including rare nightingales, turtle doves, and purple emperor butterflies; reintroduced beavers and storks; and free-roaming longhorn cattle, pigs, and ponies. With this vivid 560-page book, they offer a how-to manual on how to increase biodiversity in landscapes of all sizes — from a small backyard to a grand park.
Botanical print lovers will swoon over the hundreds of rare nature impressions depicted in this immersive, oversized book. Matthew Zucker and Pia Östlund have curated prints of leaves, flowers, ferns, seaweed, and even snakes dating from the 1700s to the 1900s. “The value of these illustrations lies in the fact that the plants, often depicted with flowers and roots, show their natural habitat, their bends and twists, their branches and ramifications, their hairs, spines, and thorns in a fidelity to nature that the greatest artist had not been able to reproduce,” writes Ernst Fischer, in one of the book’s essays.
The Darkness Manifesto: On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms that Sustain Life / Scribner, 2023
A study in the journal Science earlier this year found that between 2011 and 2022, light pollution on Earth increased nearly 10 percent. In this book, Swedish bat scientist and writer Johan Eklöf explores the impacts of light pollution on ecosystems and human health and well-being. He calls for incorporating motion-sensors into lighting in parks and on streets to reduce risks for insects, birds, and bats. Eklöf also looks at how Flagstaff, Arizona became the world’s first International Dark Sky City, and France instituted a national policy imposing curfews on outdoor lighting.
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration / Simon & Schuster, 2023
Journalist Jake Bittle tells the stories of people who have already experienced displacement from floods, fires, hurricanes, and droughts brought on by climate change. He finds that federal, state, and local governments and the insurance industry aren’t prepared for the coming migration and are even enabling further loss of lives, property, and livelihoods. The Great Displacement calls for reforming the national flood insurance system, expanding affordable housing, and increasing post-disaster aid and climate adaptation. Landscape architects and planners can learn about the expected demographic shift northward and inland.
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet / Little, Brown and Company, 2023
This book is a gripping account of the growing danger of extreme heat, which is already the deadliest climate impact. Author and journalist Jeff Goodell outlines what more of the planet’s population will experience in coming decades — and how heat will affect underserved communities the most. From Phoenix to Paris, he looks at how cities are starting to adapt. While clear-eyed about the challenges of planting millions of trees across cities, Goodell sees great hope in what landscape architects do.
Land Art as Climate Action: Designing the 21st Century City Park / Hirmer Publishers, 2023
Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Perry are co-founders and co-directors of the dynamic Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), which is guided by the idea: “renewable energy can be beautiful.” Since 2010, LAGI has organized global art and design competitions that explore ways to weave renewable energy into our landscapes and create the infrastructure of the future. Featuring 300 color images from past competitions, the book inspires readers to “embrace the beauty, abundance, and cultural vibrancy of a world that has left fossil fuels behind.”
Justice and the Interstates: The Racist Truth About Urban Highways / Island Press
In her review, Diane Jones Allen, FASLA, director and professor of landscape architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington, writes: “This book exposes the intentional methods to remove citizens from their homes and level neighborhoods in the name of progress. Importantly, it also reveals methods for reconciliation, healing urban scars — literally and figuratively — and planning a path forward. In this effort, landscape architects can play a major role.” Read the full review.
Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City / Doubleday, 2023
“Every day an area of land the size of Manhattan gets urbanized,” writes author Ben Wilson, in this historical overview of cities and nature. He argues that the smart way to reduce the damage of global urbanization is to restore the ecological functions of cities. From New York City to Berlin and Singapore, he looks at how inventive cities are leading the way to bring nature back to urban life. Amsterdam “aspires to perform at least as well as a healthy ecosystem.”
Wisdom of Place: Recovering the Sacred Origins of Landscapes / ORO Editions, 2023
“Every day of our lives we are in the presence of genius — what our ancestor called the genius loci, or spirit of place,” write husband and wife co-authors Chip Sullivan, FASLA, professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Berkeley, and Elizabeth Boults, ASLA, landscape architect and lecturer in human ecology at the University of California, Davis. Through 78 beautiful drawings of tarot cards, they guide readers in rediscovering the “sacredness of everyday landscapes” and reconnecting with the “creative forces” of nature. They view the images in the book as “pathways to enchantment” and a means to reinvest landscapes with spiritual values.
Buying these books through THE DIRT or ASLA’s online bookstore benefits ASLA educational programs.
Many events featuring landscape architects at COP28 in Dubai will be livestreamed via the UN Climate Change website or YouTube. Recordings will also be available.
Events featuring landscape architect delegates at COP28:
Finance, Data, and Capacity Building: Which Accelerator Frameworks to Build Water-Smart Cities?
Tuesday, December 5
12.30 AM EST – 2:00 AM EST / 9.30 AM -11:00 AM GST
Water Pavilion, Blue Zone Livestream
This discussion will explore “opportunities for cities to overcome barriers to the implementation of water-smart systems to fast-track adaptions to climate change and rapid urbanization.”
Speakers:
Emrah Engindeniz, UN-Habitat
Dieter Rothenberger, Urban Water Catalyst Initiative
Sabine Stuiver, co-founder of Hydraloop
Hon. Elizabeth Naa Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey, Lord Mayor of Accra, Chief Executive, Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Ghana
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA
Water Pavilion
Enhancing Urban Water Resilience through Nature-based Solutions in Public Places
Tuesday, December 5
6.30 AM EST – 8:00 AM EST / 3:30 PM -5:00 PM GST
UN-Habitat Water Pavilion, Blue Zone
This workshop focuses on “empowering local stakeholders to enhance urban water resilience through nature-based solutions in public space.” The goal is to “combine insights from local experiences and existing methodologies and toolkits.”
Co-Moderators:
Pamela Conrad, ASLA
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA
Architecture2030
Driving Higher Education for Global Action
Tuesday, December 5
5.30 AM EST – 6.30 AM EST / 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM GST
Thailand Pavilion, Blue Zone Livestream; Meeting ID: 845 1635 5789; Pass code: 300886
“Students are demanding it. Our world needs it. How is higher education responding to changing curriculum that addresses climate change? What are new methods and techniques for pedagogy, and how should it evolve? Which approaches can be translated for all parts of the world?”
Speakers:
Pamela Conrad, ASLA
Beth Martin, Washington University in St. Louis
Harleen Marwah, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Pisut Painmanakul, Chula Engineering
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA
Nature-Base Solutions and Climate Finance Mechanisms
Wednesday, December 6
7.00 AM – 9.00 AM EST / 4:00PM – 5:00 PM GST
Thailand Pavilion, Blue Zone Livestream; Meeting ID: 845 1635 5789; Pass code: 300886
“Cities in the Global South are continuously growing, and all strive to enhance adaptation and nature-based solutions. One obstacle is the lack of financial incentives for implementation. Experts from all sectors will highlight how public and private-sector leadership can mobilize action and re-direct financial flows towards nature and climate.”
Speakers:
Eugenie Birch, University of Pennsylvania
Torey Carter-Conneen CEO, ASLA
Mauricio Rodas Ecuadorian lawyer, social policy consultant and politician
Kotchakorn Vorraakhom, International ASLA
Anna Wellenstein, Sustainable Development Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific, World Bank
Architecture2030
Scaling Up Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Environments
Wednesday, December 6
4.15 AM – 5.15 AM EST / 1:15 PM – 2:15 PM GST
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pavilion, Blue Zone
Hosted with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Livestream
“Cities are an overlooked but critical opportunity to deploy nature-based solutions. Urban infrastructure built with nature supports biodiversity, builds resilience, and accelerates carbon mitigation.”
Speakers:
Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO, American Society of Landscape Architects
Pamela Conrad, ASLA
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA
Claudia Robles, Presidential Advisor & Former First Lady, Costa Rica
Lisa Richmond, Senior Fellow, Architecture 2030
Nature-based Solutions and the Built Environment: Designing for Resilience, Drawdown and Biodiversity
Friday, December 8
7.45 AM – 9.15 AM EST / 4.45 PM – 6.15 PM GST
Official COP28 Side Event, SE Room 9, Blue Zone
“Nature-based infrastructure solutions support resilience, equity, public health, and biodiversity, and accelerate carbon mitigation. Designing with nature can help global communities reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and protect and conserve 30 percent of ecosystems by 2030.”
Speakers:
Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO, American Society of Landscape Architects
Pamela Conrad, ASLA
Dr. Siddharth Narayan, Assistant Professor, Integrated Coastal Programs, Eastern Carolina University
Dr. Sandeep Sengupta, Global Coordinator for Climate Change, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA
Moderator: Lisa Richmond, Senior Fellow, Architecture 2030
ASLA 2012 PRofessional General Design Award of Excellence. A Green Sponge for a Water-Resilient City: Qunli Stormwater Park. Haerbin City, Heilongjiang Province, China. Turenscape
Investing in Nature
Saturday, December 9
2:00 AM – 3:00 AM EST / 11:00 AM – 12:00 AM GST
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Pavilion, Blue Zone
“Nature plays a critical role in providing valuable resources and services that underpin and support sustainable development and the well-being of people and the planet. Well-functioning and diverse ecosystems regulate the Earth’s climate, build resilience to the impacts of climate change, and enhance the sustainable management of water and land. Forests, wetlands, coral reefs can effectively provide infrastructure functions while delivering additional climate and biodiversity co-benefits.
To achieve the goals and targets of the Kunming – Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, both increasing nature-positive financial flows and reducing nature-negative flows will be needed. International financial institutions play a key role in closing the $700 billion annual global biodiversity finance gap and helping countries meet their commitments.”
This high-level side event will “bring together representatives from international financial institutions, governments, the private sector, think tanks, and academia to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with scaling up nature-positive and biodiversity financing.”
Speaker:
Kongjian Yu, FASLA
Accelerating Finance for Nature-based Solutions: Unlocking Opportunities for Sustainable Development
Saturday, December 9
5:30 AM – 6:45 AM EST / 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM GST
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pavilion, Blue Zone
Co-hosted by the French Development Agency (AFD) and The International Development Finance Club (IDFC) Livestream
“Despite increasing global interest in nature-based solutions, lack of financing remains a major barrier to implementing these solutions at scale. This event will bring together development partners and government officials at the ministerial level alongside IUCN to discuss and launch initiatives that could potentially accelerate financing for nature-based solutions to implement plans at national and sub-national levels.”
Keynote speaker:
Kongjian Yu, FASLA
Innovative Governance for Flood and Drought Risk Management
Sunday, December 10
1:00 AM EST – 2:00 AM EST / 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM GST
Thailand Pavilion, Blue Zone Livestream; Meeting ID: 845 1635 5789; Pass code: 300886
“Rising sea levels, more extreme storms, and increased drought risk are impacting people now. Societies have long struggled to prepare for and respond to floods and droughts — two hydrological extremes that can happen to the same country at the same time. Better management of water resources can help reduce climate change risks and adapt to its impacts.
While climate change is compounding many challenges, it also presents an unprecedented opportunity. We have a chance to leverage these investments towards green, resilient, and inclusive development that reduces rather than further exacerbates our societies’ vulnerability to climate risks.”
Speakers:
Allison Lassiter, University of Pennsylvania
Simon Richter, University of Pennsylvania
Jennifer Sarah, Global Director, Climate Change Group at World Bank
Kotchakorn Voraakhom, International ASLA
Water as Leverage for Worldwide Urban Resilience: Through Multilevel Climate Action
Sunday, December 10
4:00 AM EST – 5:00 AM EST / 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM GST
Multilevel Action and Urbanization Pavilion, UN-Habitat Livestream
This session will bring together “cities, towns, regions, and representatives from the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) constituency organizations” and individuals and groups dedicated to supporting local action in achieving Paris Climate Agreement goals.
Speakers:
Amgad Elmahdi, Senior Water Expert, Green Climate Fund
Meike van Ginneken, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, The Netherlands
Mark Harbers, Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, The Netherlands
Asok Kumar, Director General, National Mission Clean Ganga, India NMCG
Michal Mlynár, Deputy Executive Director, UN-Habitat
Susana Muhamad, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Republic of Colombia
Amit Prothi, Director General, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)
Susan Kihika, the Governor, Nakuru County Government, Kenya
Solar Strand, University at Buffalo. Hood Design Studio / Douglas Levere, University at Buffalo
In 2023, temperatures were the hottest on record. This is because the current level of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hasn’t been seen in 3-5 million years. A slew of United Nations (UN) climate reports released over the past few months tell the same story: the world’s governments are taking action to reduce global temperatures but are not moving fast enough. The lack of progress is only increasing climate risks.
The latest Emissions Gap Report from the UN Environment Program (UNEP) finds that current pledges by countries that signed on to the Paris Agreement will lead to a 2.5°C (4.5°F) to 2.9°C (5.2°F°) temperature rise this century, far surpassing the goal of a 1.5°C (2.7°F) temperature increase. And last year, global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 1.2 per cent to reach a new high of 57.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2e). This means governments, particularly the largest historical polluters, need to dramatically scale up their emission reduction efforts.
World leaders are looking to the upcoming global climate summit — COP28 — in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to build new momentum. There, countries will confirm the “global stocktake,” which analyzes emissions data from the past five years, and set new targets in 2025 to be achieved by 2035.
“Every fraction of a degree matters, but we are severely off track. COP28 is our time to change that,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change. “It’s time to show the massive benefits now of bolder climate action: more jobs, higher wages, economic growth, opportunity and stability, less pollution and better health.”
Unfortunately, countries are only taking “baby steps” in this direction, Stiell has said. The UN analyzed the nationally determined commitments (NDCs) of 195 countries that signed on to the Paris Agreement. They found that if current commitments are met, global greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 2 percent by 2030 in comparison with 2019 levels, which is very far from the 43 percent drop needed.
To speed up the peaking process and start making more dramatic cuts, countries need to invest more in transforming their economies and communities, particularly the transition to renewable energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says $4.5 trillion of investment in renewable energy is needed each year by 2030 to keep the 1.5°C temperature increase goal in reach. In 2023, renewable energy spending is anticipated to be $1.8 trillion, less than half what is required.
Greater investment in renewable energy also means more planning and design work will be needed to appropriately site the expansion of wind and solar power across landscapes. As Hood Design Studio demonstrated with the Solar Strand at the University at Buffalo, it can be done in a way that reduces impacts on wildlife and supports ecological restoration.
The risks of slow progress on reducing emissions are only becoming clearer. A report published in The Lancet by 114 scientists contends that “climate change continues to have a worsening effect on health and mortality around the world.” The New York Times reports: “One of the starkest findings is that heat-related deaths of people older than 65 have increased by 85 percent since the 1990s.”
The U.S. government also recently released its fifth national climate assessment. It states: “Across the country, efforts to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions have expanded since 2018, and U.S. emissions have fallen since peaking in 2007. However, without deeper cuts in global net greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated adaptation efforts, severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow.”
The assessment finds that states, tribal authorities, and cities are taking advantage of new adaptation measures, including “nature-based solutions, such as restoring coastal wetlands and oyster reefs.” It also points to the growth of green infrastructure to tackle increased stormwater; efforts to manage vegetation to reduce wildfire risks; and the rise of urban heat plans, which leverage expanded tree canopies to reduce dangerous heat islands.
ASLA 2023 Professional General Design Honor Award. The University of Texas at El Paso Transformation. El Paso, Texas. Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc / Bill Timmerman
But they still conclude that even in a wealthy country like the U.S., “current adaptation efforts and investments are insufficient to reduce today’s climate-related risks and keep pace with future changes in the climate.”
Extreme weather events — longer heatwaves and droughts, worse floods and wildfires — have grown in number. In the 1980s, the U.S. experienced approximately 3 billion-dollar disasters per year. But over the past four years, that has skyrocketed to more than 22 billion-dollar events annually, and many of these events are highly costly. “Extreme events cost the U.S. close to $150 billion each year—a conservative estimate that does not account for loss of life, healthcare-related costs, or damages to ecosystem services.”
In this new era of increased climate impacts, landscape architects, planners, engineers, and architects are needed more than ever to envision new climate-resilient infrastructure that keep communities safe, and also pragmatic climate migration plans where this isn’t feasible.
Climate policymakers also see the need for new global goals for adaptation, an area where landscape architects can provide leadership and effective strategies.
A range of adaptation targets, rooted in nature-based solutions, are needed to not only reduce damages from flooding and sea level rise, but also extreme heat, drought, and other climate health impacts.
Nature-based solutions are smart because they provide many additional benefits — increased biodiversity, greater carbon drawdown, improved health, and economic growth. At COP28, landscape architect delegates will press global leaders to increase investment in these solutions.
Close watchers of the climate negotiations expect to see progress at COP28 on developing new adaptation goals. These targets can help drive the creation of more accurate climate financing goals, and spur wealthy countries to donate more loss and damage funds to the people and communities already experiencing impacts.
Justice and the Interstates: The Racist Truth About Urban Highways / Island Press
By Diane Jones Allen, D.Eng., PLA, FASLA
Highways, in their inanimate state, cannot be racist. However, the forces that located them and the consequences of their placement are inextricably connected to race. Deborah Archer, a law professor and civil rights lawyer, captures the central concept: “Highways were built through and around Black communities to entrench racial inequality and protect white spaces and privilege.”
The editors explain the mechanisms used in concert with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, including federal, state, and local housing legislation, that limited housing and economic opportunities for Latinos and Blacks. They outline how racial zoning maps adopted by municipalities across the U.S. in the early twentieth century established legal boundaries of segregated neighborhoods, making it easier to target these neighborhoods for disinvestment, demolition, and highway location.
The first part of the book brings together three chapters that explore the myths constructed by politicians, transportation planners, builders, and engineers to support building the interstate highway system despite the high costs to communities. One significant myth — the marginalization and destruction of Black and Latino communities were unpredictable consequences of highway development.
Case studies in the book show that the interstate highway system’s negative impacts on urban neighborhoods were known. And any legislation enacted to lessen the adverse effects provided little help to Black and Brown communities but often privileged the interests of their white counterparts.
Sarah Jo Peterson states that the common perception was highways were a system for interstate travel. Unintended impacts on cities were caused by their misuse for travel within cities. And everything terrible that happened in cities due to the development of interstates was the fault of city leaders and urban renewal.
Peterson offers a firm counter argument: racial injustices and the process of transforming urban transportation into highways are connected. Furthermore, these forces still influence American transportation policy and practice today. So it is imperative to articulate what occurred in the past to examine how the past still impacts current transportation development.
There has been a historical accounting of transportation in the U.S. — Edward Weiner’s Urban Transportation Planning in the United States: A Historical Overview, written in 1997. But Peterson points out that this history ignores the impacts of transportation planning and urban expressway construction on Black communities, offering little social analysis. Weiner’s book attributes the clearing of communities and the negative impacts of highway development to federal programs that had unintended consequences.
But contrary to previous historical accountings, impacts of highway development were anticipated by urban leaders. Highways weren’t developed for urban commuter travel demand; they were more suited for rural to urban commutes, especially as car ownership increased. Urban residents moved to the expanding bedroom communities of the suburbs. Urban communities were in the way. The massive acts of eminent domain required for urban expressways were barely acknowledged.
Peterson reveals a significant point: the Federal Highway Administration and highway industry knew. They anticipated the problems for urban transportation, including the dismantling of neighborhoods and the relocation that came with highway expansion, and claimed that these issues were outside of the highway planning process.
Additional citizen participation, which could have provided communities a voice in solving these problems, was mainly used to support highway projects, especially in the 1960s during the height of highway development.
In another chapter, Retzlaff and Jocelyn Zanzot, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at Auburn University, look to Alabama to explore the complexities of highway removal in the face of their racist legacy.
They view interstate highways as monuments to the American racist past, similar to the confederate statues being removed. However, unlike this public statuary, highways cannot quickly be taken down because they underpin the automobile-oriented American transportation system.
How could highways been built without awareness or concern for negative impacts? Impacts include: higher asthma rates, heart disease, mental health risks, noise pollution; increased risk of premature death, neighborhood instability, and community trauma.
Highways were placed to create convenience for some groups at the expense of others. Through the political process, highways were planned in direct alignment with urban areas, near downtowns, and through low-income and minority neighborhoods. State and local highway directors and engineers had significant input into these decisions as they were familiar with local communities, land use, and social and economic conditions.
These local decision-makers found it politically beneficial to avoid white neighborhoods when possible and route highways through neighborhoods lacking political power, which were most often those of color. Using the excuse of removing urban blight, this dark destruction was allowed as it coincided with other tools of oppression, such as redlining and urban renewal.
Alabama provides Retzlaff and Zanot the opportunity to explore a case where the legacy of interstate planning is reckoned with, resulting in reconciliation, transportation access, and community health equity.
Under Sam Englehardt, who was director of highways in Alabama in the late 1950 and early 1960s, race was a critical factor in highway planning. The Montgomery, Alabama, interstate system designed by Englehardt and the Alabama highway department offered no off-ramps from I-65, disconnecting thirteen streets of the neighborhood from the rest of the city. In 1972, African American business people on the west side of Montgomery requested that their community be declared a federal economic disaster zone due to urban renewal projects and interstate construction.
The construction of Interstate I-65 and I-85 in Montgomery displaced 1,596 families and dismantled 74 small businesses. The highway system also impacted African Americans in rural areas of Alabama as they were excluded from gaining access to the services and economic development that freeways connect to.
Retzlaff and Zanot lay out a way forward in repairing the harm caused by interstates.
Transportation and urban planning professionals who design and route interstates need to be on the side of reparative justice for neighborhoods that continue to be harmed by destructive planning and engineering of highways. Planners must actively seek policy and funding opportunities provided by government agencies that address infrastructure investment, holistic revitalization, capacity building, historic preservation, affordable housing, and economic opportunity.
An example of reconciliation: in 2021, West Jeff Davis Avenue in West Montgomery, named after the president of the Confederacy, was renamed Fred D. Gray Avenue in honor of the African American Civil rights attorney who fought against and overturned Montgomery’s segregated public bus system.
Mayor of Montgomery Steven Reed stated at the dedication that the renaming of the street was symbolic. However, concrete reconciliation would be reinvestment in the community, resulting in community health, economic opportunity, and joy.
The book then delves into how the tools engineers, planners, and civic officials used to construct the interstate highway system led directly to racial impacts.
Politicians’ planners and engineers knew the political targets of highway routing; they were communities of color. They created methods that ensured targeting and the predicted consequences.
These methods included leaving democratic and meaningful public engagement out of the highway planning process, segregating highway planning from local land use planning processes, and connecting slum clearance with highway planning and development.
As described by Ruben L. Anthony Jr. and Joseph Rodriguez, communities also used tools to fight freeway expansion. Today, freeway opponents in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are strategically using history to oppose freeway expansion.
The history of freeways in this city is long and devastating. Between 1960 and 1971, urban renewal and highway development destroyed 20,000 homes in Milwaukee. Much of this displacement happened before the federal government instituted programs to assist communities with housing raised by highway expansion. These communities also lost jobs that went to the suburbs.
Suburbanization affected working-class Black residents who needed public transportation to access to suburban employment and other services. Those who remained in the community saw their property devalued. And the health of those remained were also affected. Many suffered lead poisoning and respiratory conditions from the building of freeways near their homes.
Gilbert Estrada and Jerry Gonzalez describe the displacement of thousands of ethnic Mexicans from their homes. The authors tell a history of forced relocation, neighborhood loss, and disregard for communities by civic officials in greater Eastside neighborhoods throughout Southern California. As with impacts on other communities, consequences were due to cold, technocratic planning.
In the case of Mexican communities, highway development displaced them from their segregated neighborhoods. It pushed them into a local suburbanized housing market, expanding the geography of Latinos in Los Angeles. The authors posit that this phenomenon resulted in delayed redress for displacement.
This demographic shift — or submerged migration, as author Michael Eric Dyson termed it — resulted in more Spanish-surnamed residents in the suburbs surrounding East Los Angeles than in East Los Angeles by 1970. A significant migration of Latinos from Mexico and Central America also contributed to this demographic shift.
Although Latinos live across Los Angeles, they have been most linked to the Eastside. During freeway construction in East Los Angeles in the 1950s and 60s, approximately 2,844 dwelling units were removed, displacing 10,966 residents. The freeways have also increased travel time for residents and restricted movement of Eastside pedestrians through 35 new barriers to local streets.
Why did such targeted destruction occur in Eastside? Estrada and Gonzalez cite a lack of financial resources, little-to-know political representation, gerrymandering, and voter suppression.
One byproduct of the new freeways was the diversification of suburban Los Angeles, like the way many urban communities were before segregation and devaluation methods were employed. Another product was the adoption of Eastside highways as their own canvas for expressing their identities, similar to how New Orleans Tremé and Seventh Ward communities have adopted the space beneath the I-10 freeway in New Orleans.
The editors of Justice and the Interstates describe community-led efforts to restore torn communities and address the harm and injustices of freeway building. Amy Stelly eloquently describes the beauty of the Tremé neighborhood and the devastation and racial injustice that it endured with the building of the Claiborne Avenue Expressway.
Stelly describes her efforts to have the freeway removed and stop the Claiborne Corridor Innovation District, a plan to stabilize the uses that community members currently undertake beneath the freeway. She provides valuable techniques in this chapter for community action, including:
Galvanizing like-minded allies to coalesce around a shared mission
Publishing position papers
Connecting to other organizations with needed expertise
Working with political representatives
Using effective lobbying
And, most importantly, communicating with impacted residents through public awareness campaigns.
The District is in its first phase of construction. It doesn’t run counter to Stelly’s goal of removing the freeway and restoring Claiborne Avenue. It activates the space beneath the freeway, claiming and defying this structure in preparation for the time when the freeway comes down. It also forces planners of a post-freeway future to recognize this land as the community’s own.
Claiborne Corridor Innovation District / Diane Jones Allen, FASLA
Justice and the Interstates challenges readers to grapple with the problematic history of interstate development in America. It calls upon citizens, scholars, planners, lawmakers, and all concerned about urban infrastructure, mobility, health, and the equity of our cities to look at the unjust past so as not to repeat it.
The book exposes the intentional methods to remove citizens from their homes and level neighborhoods in the name of progress. Importantly, this text also reveals methods for reconciliation, healing urban scars — literally and figuratively — and planning a path forward. In this effort, landscape architects can play a major role.
Landscape architects dwell well in the space of community healing. We can lead and contribute to environmental and social-cultural reclamation and the renewal of places once devastated by highway infrastructure. Biden-Harris administration funding of highway removal signals that federal and state agencies are now working with local governments. There is a need to remove highways and increase climate mitigation and resilience. Landscape architects can use their unique skills and expertise.
