The Urban-Ecological Interface in Stockholm, Sweden.
1. Background
The term ecological infrastructure denotes an interconnected network of ecological systems that promote a healthy environment through biotic and abiotic processes. These ecological systems maintain natural balances of water, energy, nutrients and biodiversity,[i] and have the capacity to impart these balances to an urban environment in the form of ecological services. By considering the ecological services provided by such systems, ecological infrastructure has recently been incorporated into contemporary land use planning. The conceptualization of ecological systems as infrastructure suggests an argument for sustainable infrastructure that not only requires the preservation of existing natural environments, but mandates the extension, reclamation and restoration of these environments as well.
The term ecological infrastructure also connotes important values such as sense of place and ecological literacy. Ecological literacy allows one to develop a deeply rooted sense of place where subtle patterns such as the change in flow of a stream are recognized alongside larger patterns such as the turning of the leaves in autumn. Writers like Barry Lopez and David Orr contend that there is an intrinsic, psychical link between our mind and our environment. “‘The interior landscape,’ in Barry Lopez’s words, ‘responds to the character and subtlety of an exterior landscape; the shape of the individual mind is affected by land as it is by genes.’”[ii] These values suggest that there are metaphysical aspects to the experience of our environment beyond the physical environment itself. Ecological infrastructure not only supports ecological functions, but supports us psychically as well. With this in mind, it seems appropriate to ask how the role of the natural environment can be expanded in urban settings through the implementation of ecological infrastructure.
Stockholm’s National Urban Park provides an exemplary case of ecological infrastructure. The historical use of the Park as a royal hunting ground contributed significantly to the preservation of its ecological integrity for hundreds of years, and in 1995 the Park received legal protection in the face of unprecedented development pressures. The Stockholm Resilience Center has been studying both the ecological and socio-cultural aspects of the National Urban Park for the last decade. These studies acknowledge the interdependent relationship between urban and natural networks that surround the Park. The studies also comment on existing development pressures, noting that “the park is nested within a larger ecosystem,” in which, “over the last fifty years, former connected habitats in, and bordering, the NUP have been fragmented,”[iii] threatening the resilience of the Park. The same study calls for “an understanding of when and where it is possible to intervene and coordinate in management” in order to support a “resilient social-ecological system.”[iv] This tension between development pressures and preservation goals in Stockholm presents an ideal setting for my proposed research. While urban development often infringes on the natural environment, I’m curious how this relationship may be inverted in certain situations in order to allow for the extension of ecological infrastructure back into the urban fabric.
2. Proposal
I propose to study the ecological-urban interface in Stockholm from the perspectives of both landscape ecology and ecological infrastructure under the supervision of Stephan Barthel at the Stockholm Resilience Center. By examining relationships between patches of green space in Stockholm, and the relationship of those patches to the urban fabric, I will begin to study long-term strategies for re-establishing critical ecological infrastructure that can support resiliency in Stockholm’s natural and urban spaces. I will consider two cases: inner Stockholm adjacent to the National Urban Park, and peripheral municipalities such as Rinkeby, Upsala, and Tentsta to the north of Stockholm and their relationship to the green fingers. Here, ecological infrastructure may be more than connective tissue, realizing the potential to intervene within the urban fabric ecological infrastructure ties urban and social processes back into ecological systems. This re-integration of ecological systems into the urban fabric addresses contemporary issues of sustainability as well as civic identity and differentiation on a global stage. Re-integration also provides a means to reconnect urban dwellers with the latent landscape processes that continue to work at the periphery of their urban environments, and provides a means by which immigrants may become connected with their new landscape.
Stephan Barthel’s research supports this trajectory in several ways. First, he recognizes the ecological fragmentation affecting the National Urban Park. Secondly, his personal research of local actor groups indicates varying degrees of sense of place based on individuals’ relationships to their work in allotment gardens or other activities and indicates room for growth of individual awareness with regard to larger ecological networks. Thirdly, Barthel’s other research addresses the intervention of ‘ecologized’ architecture into the National Urban Park as a socio-ecological imbrication that serves as a gateway to the Park as well as additional curricular space for Stockholm University. Additionally, Stephan has put me in touch with Jeff Ranara, who has suggested several synergistic projects on which I may collaborate during my stay. These observations all indicate that Stockholm is an optimal location to site my research into the development of ecological infrastructure as urban intervention, and that Barthel is both an interested and appropriate advisor.
Understanding how ecological infrastructure functions in an existing, complex urban environment where a large portion of the infrastructure has already been preserved informs how ecological infrastructure might be extended in these environments as well as introduced into other places where it has not been so well preserved. For example, in Copenhagen, the city’s canals have all been armored and the stormwater system is already at maximum capacity after twenty years of development and an expenditure of $3 billion dollars. Or, in the case of post-industrial Detroit, the vast majority of native wetlands have been filled and paved over, leaving a bleak and economically depressed urban center surrounded by an equally deprived suburban landscape. The breadth of research already conducted by the Stockhohlm Resilience Center provides a more-than-adequate foundation for my investigation. The study of multiple conditions—center and perimeter—allows for the development of case studies with transferable outcomes to other locales. This research will serve as preliminary, independent study that will contribute to the formulation of my thesis next year, which will investigate ecological infrastructure as intervention.
The research I wish to conduct at the Stockholm Resilience Center will build upon the work I have done thus far at UW. In our Urban Landscape studio this past fall, I completed a design proposal for ecological infrastructure in the form of a native beach and upland restoration along Seattle’s Central Waterfront that was based on bathymetric analysis, ecological performance, and historical considerations. This winter, I will be studying advanced GIS analysis techniques through Ecological Land Use Planning, a course taught jointly between the Forestry Department and the Planning Department in the College of Built Environments. This course will prepare me in part for the analysis I wish to do in Stockholm. Implementing these analytical tools under the guidance of the Stockholm Resilience Center will help me hone these tools and develop my ability to apply these techniques in various urban and non-urban settings in the future. In addition to analytical techniques, my time at the Stockholm Resilience Center will expose me to interdisciplinary modes of inquiry and expand my repertoire of research techniques as well as contribute critical underpinnings for my thesis and future professional work in which I plan to engage the urban-ecological interface at multiple scales. Additional time will be spent attending courses at Stockholm University in the Biodiversity and Conservation Program as well as learning Swedish.
[i] Quinn & Tyler; “Integrating ecological infrastructure in regional planning: a methodological case study from the Calgary region of western Canada,” in Sustainable Development & Planning III, © 2007, WIT Press, South Hampton, UK.
[ii] Orr, David; Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World, © 1992 SUNY Press, NY. p86.
[iii] Barthel, S. “Sustaining urban ecosystem services with local stewards participation in Stockholm (Sweden)” in Tress, ed et. al. Landscape Research to Landscape Planning, Aspects of Integration, Education and Application, Wageningen UR Frontis Series, Vol. 12 © 2006 Springer. p314.
[iv] Ibid.
Proposed Structure of Study
My stay will begin in mid-summer with an on-foot survey of Stockholm’s green fingers, using hand drawing and mapping techniques to analyze the character of both the central and peripheral conditions as they relate to the urban-ecological interface. At the end of August, I will attend Stockholm’s international World Water Week conference, which is an exceptional opportunity to further explore the role of ecological infrastructure as it relates to the world water supply from the perspectives of science, business, and policy. Classes commence at the end of August, and formal collaboration will begin at this time.
SRC Advisor Stephan Barthel – Researcher, Beijer Institute, SRC
Collaborators Jeff Ranara – PhD Candidate, SRC
Henrik Ernstson – SRC Theme leader, Urban social-ecological systems and globalization
Thomas Elmqvist – Professor in Natural Resource Management at Stockholm University
Jon Norberg – PhD Research Fellow
UW Advisors Thaisa Way – Associate Professor & Graduate Program Advisor
Ken Yocom – Assistant Professor
Stephan Barthel and I have discussed both independent directed research as well as the potential for collaboration on related, concurrent projects within the SRC, and in close cooperation with Jeff Ranara. This cross-platform approach will allow me to advance my own objectives while contributing to and learning from other research projects at the SRC. This course of study will be complemented by attending classes in the Biodiversity and Conservation Program at Stockholm University, as well as learning Swedish.
1) Scope of Study
a) Stockholm Center – Spatial distribution of significant green spaces
i) National Urban Park
ii) Allotment Gardens
iii) Inner Green Fingers
iv) Surrounding Landscape Patches
b) Stockholm Periphery – Spatial distribution of minor green spaces
i) Cemeteries
ii) Solna
(1) urban middle class community, metropolitain Stockholm
iii) Rinkeby –
(1) semi-rural immigrant community, 10km from center
(2) Product of 1960’s social housing program
iv) Tentsta – semi rural immigrant community, 70km from center
c) The problem of scale – ecological infrastructure: urban parks, allotment gardens, green roofs and bio-swales
i) Nested infrastructures
ii) Local vs. regional strategies
d) Connectivity and distribution of green spaces in & around Stockholm
i) Critical connections
ii) Recent fragmentation
iii) Corridor analysis
e) Ecological Services
f) Development of green space augmentation framework plan
g) Proposal for ecological infrastructure as intervention
2) Identified projects for potential collaborative research, (from Jeff Ranara (PhD, SRC))
a) Mapping of Social-Ecological Values in Stockholm (SRC, SU)
b) User-Managed Green ER Roofs and Walls: Integrated Network Analysis of Urban Social-Ecological Systems Providing Quantifiable Expanded Ecosystem Services (SRC)
c) Design development of green roofs & urban spaces for the Speckled Wood Butterfly, Pararge aegeria tercis
d) Ecological infrastructure retro-fit, w/ the School of Architecture at KTH (SRC, KTH)
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