<
https://theconversation.com/what-if-urban-plans-gave-natural-systems-the-space-to-recover-from-the-cities-built-over-them-it-can-be-done-199388>
"Our cities have altered their original landscapes so greatly that their
natural systems are profoundly compromised. These systems – such as swamps,
rivers, creeks, aquifers and bushland corridors – need more space to function
properly. Sometimes they assert their underlying presence through land
subsidence, floods and fires. As Margaret Cook wrote in her history of Brisbane
floods, the Brisbane River is “a river with a city problem”.
In Australia, Melbourne in particular has been hugely altered. Historian James
Boyce wrote:
Of all Australia’s major cities the natural environment of Melbourne before
British settlement is perhaps the most difficult now to imagine. This is in
part a product of the city’s size and flat topography, but it also reflects
the extent to which the region was dominated by swamps and grasslands – the
two ecosystems that were most comprehensively transformed by the conquest.
In response to climate change threats, cities around the world are making space
to restore natural systems such as creeks, rivers, wetlands and vegetation on a
larger scale. But this is an enormous task. These systems have been concreted,
filled in or built over since the industrial revolution."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
