Weekend in Seattle

Lisa and I went to Seattle to explore some landscape architecture projects. We saw some things that inspired and some things that did not. Here are photos of a couple of exciting projects:
Street Cistern

Artful Stormwater pipes
Meadow Brooke Stormwater Pond


McCaw Hall

Midterm Review

My midterm review was last week. I received some good critical feedback from my committee. Some of the main points were:

- show more context
- be more explicit about goals and assumptions
- choose 3 different sites to explore in further detail

Critical Constraints

While it is easy to draw a line on a map, the realities of a functioning corridor are much more complex. I have come up with two factors that are critical constraints to the corridor functioning: intactness and barriers.

The corridor is 85% vegetated or intact.
It is 50% publicly owned.
There are 20 minor barriers and 12 major barriers.

The next steps of the project deal with solutions for these constraints.

Segment 6

The corridor was divided into segments for ease of work. For each segment, four factors were mapped: existing vegetation, habitat types, zoning, and barriers.

Proposed Corridor For Further Examination

Network Delineation

Criteria for Network DelineationCritical Corridors Only

Process diagram

I have create a flow chart to document my process through this project. It outlines the steps at each stage and the criteria used to make decisions.

Ecosystem Services

Ecosystem, also known as ecological or nature’s, services are
those processes and conditions provided by nature that enable
human survival. They are in the form of goods such as food and
raw materials (trees, minerals, etc.) and services (nutrient cycling,
cycling of water, pollination of crops, soil generation, climate
moderation, etc.). These services are mostly taken for granted
but have been estimated to be worth over $33 trillion US per year
globally (Daily, 1997).

Concept

Habitat fragmentation and destruction are the leading causes of biodiversity loss (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment , 2005). Biodiversity loss is problematic because it leads to the reduction of ecosystem services on which humans are dependent for survival. Maintenance of connectivity in the landscape is important to halt this biodiversity loss and hence preserve ecosystem functioning. This project is a proposal for a network of ecological corridors for the Greater Vancouver Region that acts to connect significant open space in order to enhance the diversity of animals and plants in the region. One corridor is examined in further detail in order to determine the feasibility and suitability of an ecological corridor in an urban landscape.