Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
to our furry, scaly, and slippery neighbors also add distinctive character and
charm to cities, forming what Frederick Law Olmstead called the Emerald
Necklace in Boston, for instance—a park system that includes gardens, fens,
ponds, and waterways. Such things are literally the ecological lungs of the
city that provide stress relief, natural resources, clean water, pleasant climate,
and noise abatement to urban people. Unfortunately, many cities do not have
an Emerald Necklace in their jewelry box, or do not formally recognize the
one they have. Working with planning authorities is an important way that
builders, developers, and concerned citizens can provide what much of na-
ture requires.
In 2008, Harvard professor Richard Forman assessed the “emerald net-
works,” as he called them, of thirty-eight regions that included representative
cities around the world. Only one-quarter of these regions, those surrounding
cities such as Barcelona, Spain; Canberra, Australia; Iquitos, Peru; and
Stockholm, Sweden, had a fully interconnected emerald network, which For-
man interpreted as a set of large natural patches that ef ectively connected at
least one hundred square kilometers (sixty-two square miles). Three urban
regions, those that included London, Chicago, and Bucharest, were entirely
devoid of natural landscapes. But the majority of regions had several, often
including substantial wooded areas near the city center and many small,
linear forests elsewhere. Gaps between upland natural areas were common;
in  one-third of the regions at least one natural land parcel was isolated by a
single major gap, often a highway. The lack of wetlands within urban regions
was prominent. Major wetlands were absent from urban regions with cities of
more than eight million people and generally scarce in regions hosting cities
of two to eight million. Urban regions around smaller cities, those with fewer
than half a million people, typically supported numerous wetlands.
Beyond assessment, Forman of ered a set of widely applicable strategies
to create and maintain a region's emerald network. These provide starting
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search