Ashwani Vasishth

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Urbanizing Habitat Conservation Planning, Using
Landscape Ecological Interventions An Ecosystem
Approach

• Ashwani Vasishth
• vasishth_at_csun.edu
• California State University, Northridge
• 2008 Joint ACSP-ASEOP Conference, July 8, 2008,
  Chicago, Illinois

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A central objective of ecological planning is

• to enhance the resilience
• of systems with which we are concerned

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The question is

• how do we better integrate humans with nature,
  in regional urban planning?

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We begin by recognizing two facts
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Dirt

• is organic!!!

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Lawns

• are synthetic!!!

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Evolution of Habitat Conservation Planning

• The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is written in
  1973 as part of the effort to block trade in
  endangered species and in animal products
• The phrase and also the ecosystems on which they
  depend is added, almost as an afterthought,
  during development of the ESA
• The critical habitat designation provision of
  the ESA grows into the Habitat Conservation Plan
  (HCP) process

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Habitat Conservation Plans are the product of an
additive piece-meal and patchwork legislative
process

• No serious effort has ever been made to design a
  legislated habitat conservation planning process
  from the ground-up,
• based on ecosystem ecology!!!

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We Need a Law Based In Ecosystem Ecology and that
Addresses the Concerns of Urbanizing Mega-regions

• We need an Endangered Ecosystems Act

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Habitat Conservation Relies On the Designation
of Set-aside Reserves

• We agree to protect some parts of the region in
  exchange for permission to do what we want
  everywhere else

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Administrative Jurisdictions In Southern
CaliforniaClose to 190 Cities
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Habitat Conservation PlansIn Southern California
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In Places Where Urbanization is Regionalized,
the Endangered Species Act Is Necessary but
Insufficient

• The urban-suburban-rural divide is increasingly
  ill-defined
• Fragmented landscapes disallow contiguity
• Multiple, overlapping and conflicting
  jurisdictions and boundaries limit the
  reserve-design approach

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In Cases Where Urbanization Has Permeated the
Region Quite Thoroughly

• habitat conservation must do the same

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We Need to Better Integrate Habitat Conservation
Planning and Urban Land Use Planning

• Habitat conservation planning must urbanize
  itself
• Urban land use planning must ecologize itself

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We Need to Move from Habitat Conservation
Planning To Eco-regional Management

• Beyond setting aside wilderness habitat for
  preservation, and besides designating habitat for
  conservation, we need to identify functionally
  critical habitat elements which can then be
  extensively percolated throughout the regional
  landscape

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An Ecosystem Management Approach to Nature
Conservation Would

• Urbanize habitat conservation planning
• Ecologize land use planning
• Promote wildlife-friendly native vegetation
• Plan for bio-geo-chemical processes
• Aim for ecological resilience

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Urbanization does three things to the land
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It lays down copious amounts of impervious
surface

• completely disregarding the fact that dirt is
  alive

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It lays down broad swaths of lawn grass

• completely disregarding the fact that
• lawns are synthetic

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It transforms the land for an exclusively human
purpose

• completely disregarding the fact that we are
  inextricably a part of nature

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If we do nothing else, we must do these three
things
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Minimize impervious surfaces

• Permeable and porous paving material
  technologies are quite well-developed and readily
  available for wide-spread use
• Green roofs have proven themselves to be
  effective in Europe and in the US
• Bioswales and underground cisterns allow the
  gradual percolation of retained stormwater back
  into the soil

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Maximize native trees, plants and vegetation

• Particularly in semi-arid regions, we must begin
  to reculturate ourselves to better appreciate
  nature for what it is, rather than for what we
  idealize it to be
• Conventional urbanization displaces many native
  species, and the use of native flora may help
  bring them back

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Manage land use for ecosystem values

• While human purpose is properly central to the
  built environment, we have enough room to be
  considerate of nature
• Ecosystem services are grossly underutilized, and
  green infrastructure technologies can save us
  significant costs

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Transcending the Paralysis Induced By the
Existing Built Environment and its Extreme
Fragmentation

• Habitat connectivity is less important than
  habitat quality
• Patch dynamics give rise to robust mosaics

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We must learn to think like an ecosystem

• Begin to value processes and functions over
  objects and entities
• Begin to plan for enhanced resilience
• Think adaptive management, not problem solution

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Such an ecosystem-based approach to eco-regional
management

• would show us the way to an effective
  ecological planning

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Ashwani Vasishth vasishth_at_csun.edu Department
of Urban Studies and Planning California State
University, Northridge [phone] http//www.
csun.edu/vasishth