Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
still not well understood, both in theory and in practice. If we want to make progress in
implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992), this conceptual gap
needs to be closed. This is increasingly urgent being that more than half of the world's
population lives in cities today, and this proportion will grow in the future.'' Several
initiatives are underway to help understand and manage cities, e.g., Urbis Initiative
(2013), supported in part by UNESCO (2013), with the aim to connect social and
ecological systems for sustainable development.
Innovative building concepts consider buildings as dynamic and interactive struc-
tures. After the net-zero energy buildings, also called “living buildings,'' which
produce as much energy as they use, the concepts of “regenerative,'' “restorative,''
and “adaptive'' buildings have been introduced. The holistic building design integrates
architecture and natural restoration with a sustainable outcome. Regenerative and
restorative buildings are able to improve the surrounding environment by restoring
natural hydrology, wildlife or remediate damaged surrounding environments. Their
result is no emission to air, water and soil. Adaptive buildings are designed to adapt to
changing needs and conditions, including environmental conditions or new purposes.
Regenerative restorative and adaptive buildings apply several innovative and durable
materials and environmental bio- and eco-technologies, such as electrochromic win-
dows (controlling light and heat moving through the window and saving energy at the
same time), passive solar heating and natural ventilation, rainwater harvesting systems,
cisterns, and closed loop water systems, green roofs for capturing and filtering rainwa-
ter and reducing cooling needs in a warm climate, on-site filtration, living machine-type
treatment systems for graywater and compostable toilets (WBDG, 2013).
Ecovillages are urban or rural communities of people, who strive to integrate a
supportive social environment with a low-impact way of life. To achieve this, they
integrate various aspects of ecological design, permaculture, ecological building, green
production, alternative energy, community building practices. People in ecovillages live
in communities that are connected to the earth in a way that ensures the well-being of
all forms of life into the indefinite future (GEN, 2013).
Interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engi-
neering examine the effect of urbanization on the ecosystem and vice versa. Urban,
suburban, and exurban (ring of prosperous communities beyond the suburbs) envi-
ronments are important ecosystems and their share and size are increasing all over
the word. The conversion of natural ecosystems to urban ecosystems results in drastic
changes but the outline of a homogeneous urban ecosystem is under development, with
similar systems of roads, residential lots, commercial areas and aquatic features. This
homogeneous new ecosystem has its characteristic ecological structure and function,
element cycling, carbon and nitrogen dynamics and balance, etc. Urban land use is
more and more dominating on the earth and the characteristic data on its ecological
properties—similar to other land uses—are not yet available. In the US, a project was
started for the collection of data on six metropolitan areas that cover the major climatic
regions of the US (Phoenix, AZ; Miami, FL; Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; St. Paul,
MN and Los Angeles, CA) to determine how household characteristics correlate with
landscaping decisions, land management practices, and ecological structure and func-
tions at local, regional, and continental scales. This research will transform scientific
understanding of an important and increasingly common ecosystem type (suburbia)
and the consequences to carbon storage and nitrogen pollution at multiple scales. In
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