This book applies the Total Human Ecosystem as a guiding concept in
coastal urban communities to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship
between industrial parks and their surrounding wetlands. The early 21st
century has been shaped by a need for economic recovery, and by climate
change. Consequently, new development models that promote both economic
growth and environmental preservation are urgently needed.
In turn, the book puts forward an innovative proposal to achieve the
shift from a hard path to a soft path through landscape architectural
interventions, one that will help industrial factories and their
surrounding wetlands coevolve toward sustainability. Through the
incorporation of science and design, the proposal for the Total Human
Ecosystem on Blakeley Island integrates industry with its surrounding
environment. The design scenarios for this new living system are based
on scientific principles of landscape ecology that take into account
both the human and nonhuman environments as components of the land
mosaic.
Sustainability is not a final status that is achieved once and for all;
it is an ongoing challenge. As a case study, this proposal outlines the
urgently needed reconciliation between industrial parks and their
surrounding natural ecosystems, and promotes the evolution of both
components toward sustainability.