An ecological design approach to urban landscape reconstruction

Urban development has led to a cumulative loss of ecological function and a subsequent interest in ‘restoring’ ecological features in urban environments to offset this loss. Conventional ecological restoration does not provide the means to address the human environment and ecological function. Landscape ecology states that function can be enhanced and created with the physical structure of the landscape. Ecological design synthesizes scientific knowledge with the physical creation of form to create new landscape forms with ecological functions. In this way, it was proven that ecological design (using landscape ecology) is an appropriate approach to enhancing function in an urban setting. As a demonstration, a seven-step process was applied to a severely degraded urban site in the Transcona region of Winnipeg, Manitoba to provide the infrastructure to increase the potential for increased biodiversity and ecological function.