Socio-Ecological Systemsof Urban Landscape: As A Governing Factor of Sustainability and An Aspect of Conservation

Socio-ecological systemsof urban landscape: As a governing factor of
sustainability and an aspect of conservation.
Abstract: Sustainability and conservation both the necessity for future development to stop and none of
them have been studied by considering cultural and social values as an important aspect of achieving
them. This research paper focuses on Urban Landscapes as a social-ecological system as factors of
sustainable cities, sustainable design as they make the cities or place in which human live and interact
meaningful,cultural and social values in conservation and the importance of ecological factors in
governing both of them.
Introduction:Cultural landscape research may enrich ecosystem services research as it builds on a long
tradition of interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary environmental studies. It provides different
perspectives on the interactions between man and nature, and deepens the understanding of the role of
humans in landscapes and ecosystems. Nonmaterial landscape values can be determined qualitatively,
quantitatively, or in a spatially explicit way, and can thus be integrated into accounting schemes for
ecosystem services.From a self-sufficiency point of view there is no such thing as a sustainable city.
Cities have always been dependent on their hinterlands for food and other ecosystem goods and services.
The regional or even global impact cities thus have stresses the important pedagogical role of
functioning ecosystems in cities, especially as urbanization is increasingly disconnecting people from the
nature that supports them.
1. Urban landscapes associo-ecological systems:
 Urban landscapes are socio-ecological systems where natural and social processes together shape
ecosystems.
Forces of socio-ecological systems
Natural Cultural
 Guided by human ideas and preferences and it is important to control these

as they are likely to cause deviating system behavior such as arrested
successions or changed seasonality.
 The ecosystem services approach has become prominent in conservation science and practice.
There is an abundance of data, indicators, and models for assessing provisioning and regulating
ecosystem services. However, the concept of ecosystem services has not been successful in
capturing cultural ecosystem services in any detail. Research in the two fields “cultural landscape”
and “ecosystem services” should be conducted jointly to enhance the understanding of cultural
ecosystem services in social and ecological systems and to develop methods of assessment.
2. Culture as an important factor:

 Culture changes landscapes and culture is embodied by landscapes. Both aspects of this dynamic
are encompassed by landscape ecology, but neither has been examined sufficiently to produce
cultural theory within the field. Four broad cultural principles for landscape ecology, under which
more precise principles might be organized are:
1. Human landscape perception, cognition, and values directly affect the landscape and are affected
by the landscape.
2. Cultural conventions powerfully influence landscape pattern in both inhabited and apparently
natural landscapes.
3. Cultural concepts of nature are different from scientific concepts of ecological function.
4. The appearance of landscapes communicates cultural values.
 Both the study of landscapes at a human scale and experimentation with possible landscapes,
landscape patterns invented to accommodate ecological function, are recommended as means of
achieving more precise cultural principles.
 Culture can change when people begin to recognize different landscape patterns as material
evidence of long held values.
 Culture not only helps to explain landscape structure, it helps to suggest the enormous array of
possible human actions and constructions in the landscape, including landscapes that do not exist
now but might be designed to promote ecological function.
3. Role of socio-ecological systems in achieveing sustainability:

 To gain much needed support for ecosystem preservation as well as more sustainableconsumer
demands, the places where people live and work should be designed so as tooffer opportunities
for meaningful interactions with natural world also including theservices that are essential for
human well-being; forming important aspects of liveablecities.
 Landscapes reflect human activities and are imbued with cultural values; they also combine
elements of time and space, represent political as well as social and cultural constructs. Culture
is a shaping force of landscape and its character reflects the values of the people who continue
to live in it.
 When necessary, optional and social activities take place together and compete with each other
and collective spaces of cities become meaningful and attractive and which affects the well-being
of users intensely. Responding human needs is the main duty of an urban landscape/environment.
 Establishing the sustainability paradigm as a cultural discourse points to a more holistic foundation
for architecture that encompasses and expands on vital benchmarks already established in current
sustainable practice models. Herein lies architecture’s potential, transforming from a contributor to
the bedevilling problems of human impact on the global ecosphere, to being part of a sustaining
solution to its, and our, on-going viability.
4. Role of socio-ecological systems in conservation:

 The goal of conserving a landscape should be ensuring that all interventions and
actions meet the test of authenticity in all respects and the retention of authenticity is the aim
of good conservation practice.The diversity of the intangible knowledge forms of cultural landscapes
must be mapped, evaluated and protected in order to support other preservation initiatives.
 The combination of ecological and social information should be able to capture important processes
in the landscape and determine their origin and implications for sustainability, e.g., how citizens’
access to different ecosystem services affects their choices and actions.It is not the form of the city
that is sustainable or not but the processes that create it are in turn shaped by the form.
5. Sustainable Urban Development:

 The expanding notion of cultural heritage to incorporate associative values and multiple
perspectives. The concept of landscape gained importance in the urban planning and development
discourses. It started to be part of many disciplines that call for the application of a landscape
approach that integrates distinct theoretical perspectives, which are usually discussed separately,
to address the complex layering of the various aspects of the landscape, including landscape
archaeology landscape urbanism and landscape ecology. These trends towards a landscape approach
to urban management are of great interest to urban conservation as they would allow the integration
of cultural heritage in the wider goals of sustainable urban development.
 The practice of sustainable architecture has largely been understood as an issue of technology and
energy performance. Consequently the discourse surrounding it has remained separate from the
broader discussion of architecture as a cultural project.
 However, for sustainability to fully take hold and bear fruit, it must be understood within the broad
cultural scope it clearly embodies. This is done in the context of regional responses to sustainable,
examining the relationship between sustainable building practices and regional architectural and
material cultural traditions. The examination of contemporary green building design, using the
analytic framework of three reference terms culture, process and assembly; to explore parallels
between the current practice of sustainable architecture and other contemporary cultural discourse.
 Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without
compromising the ability to meet those of future and also being sensitive with nature and the culture
related to context.
6. Relation of the identity concept:

 Identity is the extent to which a person can recognize or recall a place as being distinct from
otherplaces and can vary in different situations in different people and societies hence a city’s
publicidentity is intertwined with our imagination of urban landscape. City is recognized as a product
of the complex relations between humans and nature, disrupted ecosystems and can be studied as its
structures, functions and processes; main elements being patches, corridors and the matrix.
Conclusion:
References:
RESEARCH IN ARCHITECTURE
KEJAL VIREN THAKKER

FOURTH YR. B.ARCH
DIV: B

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Socio-ecological systemsof urban landscape: As a governing factor of

sustainability and an aspect of conservation.

 Guided by human ideas and preferences and it is important to control these

2. Culture as an important factor:

3. Role of socio-ecological systems in achieveing sustainability:

4. Role of socio-ecological systems in conservation:

5. Sustainable Urban Development:

6. Relation of the identity concept:

KEJAL VIREN THAKKER

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