Cultural Aspects of Urban
Biodiversity
Dr. Andy Millard
Leeds School of Architecture, Landscape & Design
Leeds Metropolitan University
UK
[email protected]
What is culture?
Bird Sculpture
by Botero
Albrecht Dürer. The Great Piece
of Turf. 1503. Watercolor, 161/4
x 123/8 inches
What is culture?
Bird Sculpture
by Botero
Albrecht Dürer. The Great Piece
of Turf. 1503. Watercolor, 161/4
x 123/8 inches
♫♪
♪♫
That certain night,
The night we met,
There was magic abroad in the air.
There were angels dining at the Ritz
And a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square
♪♫
♪♫
Café culture
Yob culture?
Dictionary Definition
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The arts and other manifestations of human
intellectual achievement
A refined understanding of human intellectual
achievement
The customs, civilisation and achievements of a
particular time or people (Concise Oxford
Dictionary)
Culture is a normative term i.e. both
descriptive and carries implication of value
Cultural evolution in a (very small) nutshell
Agriculture
Urbanisation
Industrial
revolution
Hunter/
gatherer
Global population trends
Forecast to rise from current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050
From: United Nations (2008)
Regional trends in urbanisation
(From UNEP, 2007)
% change in global export and import volumes of goods,
2001–2006.
14
% change on previous year
12
10
8
Export volume
Import volume
6
4
2
0
-2
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Year
(Derived from UNCTAD 2007)
Cultural impacts on urban
biodiversity
Unintentional & deliberate species’
introductions
Unintentional additions to urban
flora
Datura ferox
Toni Corelli
Xanthium spinosum
Calalaunica
Cerberilla
Medicago polymorpha
Fig trees along urban rivers in the industrial north
of the UK – a possible explanation
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e.g. River Don
Only mature specimens
Deliberate introductions – collecting exotic
plants
1495 BC - Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt
collected incense trees (Commiphora
myrrha) from Somalia
Romans probably brought
Aegopodium podagraria to UK as pot
& medicinal herb – common garden
pest, naturalised in some urban areas.
An era of concerted global plant collecting
Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) sailed with
Captain Cook
1769 – collected Phormium tenax from
New Zealand
David Douglas (1799 – 1834), of Douglas Fir
fame, collected Ribes sanguineum from Pacific
Northwest
William Lobb (1809 – 1864), collected Berberis
darwinii from Chiloe Island, Chile, around 1845
Alien plant invasion !!
Over 4000 neophyte spp of ferns, conifers & flowering plants
in UK; more than double the native spp (Clement & Foster,
1994; Ryves et al., 1996).
Stages of colonisation
Arrival
Establishment
Spread
Persistence
Stages of colonisation
Arrival
Adventive aliens – can appear established
but only due to persistent re-introductions
Establishment
Spread
Persistence
Panicum miliaceum (bird seed species)
Stages of colonisation
Arrival
Aided by
reduced
competition
Establishment
Spread
Persistence
…or selected
for particular
horticultural
conditions
Stages of colonisation
Arrival
•
•
•
Establishment
Spread
Persistence
Senecio squalidus introduced to Oxford
Botanic Gardens around 1690
All across Oxford by 1800
Spread across much of UK along railway
lines during 19th century
Stages of colonisation
Arrival
•
•
•
Establishment
Spread
Persistence
Buddleja davidii introduced to Europe
from China in 1890s
Colonised railway ballast, waste ground,
walls etc.
Widely distributed in southern England,
more scattered north to northern Scotland
Persistant & problematic
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e.g. Fallopia japonica
Introduced to UK from
Japan between 1825 &
1840s for gardens
From 1885 rapid spread
Extremely aggressive
Vegetative propagation
Colonises newly
landscaped verges,
urban amenity areas.
Damages rural, seminatural habitats
Can support diverse
ground flora (Gilbert
2001)
Alien plant problem exaggerated?
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Hipkin (2003) – need for classifying established
neophytes according to impact on areas of
conservation importance
Fallopia japonica - example of high impact
neophyte
Anaphalis margaritacea – garden escape found
on coal tips, along railways & upland forest
tracks – example of low impact neophyte
Williamson (1996) outlines ’10s’ rule:
„ 10% aliens become established & 10% of
those become pests.
But – indigenous New Zealand biota
substantially displaced by introduced exotics?
New fungal communities?
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Since late 1980s increased use of
woodchips as low
maintenance mulch
Seems asociated with
rapid global spread of
some fungal species
e.g. Clathrus archeri –
Australian native well
established in North
America, occasionally
in UK & around the
world
Stored-product beetles
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Complete life cycles in stored food
materials
e.g. Oryzaephilus surinamensis (grain
stores); Palorus ratzeburgii (flour);
Lasioderma serricone (tobacco)
Some now distributed worldwide with
majority requiring warm temperatures all
year
• Cryptophilus integer
• Found in UK in
beans from Kenya,
sago flour from
Taiwan & rice from
Thailand.
• Never found outdoors in Britain until
2006
• Climate change?
K.V. Makarov
Cultural impacts on urban
biodiversity
Approaches to urban green space
Early concepts
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Quest for humans
and nature to
exist in harmony
Paradise – from
pairidaeza in old
Avestan
(language
predating
Persian): royal
park, enclosure or
orchard.
Fabled Hanging Gardens of
Babylon
Japanese gardens
„
Shintoism – worshipping gods of nature in all their forms
Conceptualised entire
city:
‘…whose
neighbourhoods,
dedicated to peace
and happiness, would
be planted with
gardens rivalling
Eden.’
Claude-Nicholas Ledoux
(French architect
1736-1806)
William Robinson (The Wild Garden – 1st
published 1870):Pursued ecological and patch design for
naturalising flowers
The Manor House, Upton Grey,
Hampshire Gertrude Jekyll 1908
Ecological approaches to urban design &
public space
„ Reaction to poverty
& pollution of
industrial revolution
„ Joseph Paxton’s
Birkenhead Park
(1844)
1st public municipal
park
„ Rural atmosphere
„ Open access to the
public.
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Inspired by
Paxton
Took advantage
of site’s natural
diversity
(topography, soil
& vegetation)
Employed native
trees in great
numbers
Considered longterm ecological
development of
design
Recognised
physical & mental
health benefits
New York Central Park
- Frederick Law Olmsted
Interested in:
„ City design
„ Social improvement
„ Decentralisation
„ Transcendentalist
relationship of man
and nature
„ Melding urban and
rural in idealised
way (3 magnets
diagram)
„ Advocated evolution
rather than
revolution
Wrote:
Ebenezer Howard
& Garden Cities
„
Garden Cities of
Tomorrow (1902)
Howard’s
framework for
a garden city
Letchworth Garden City
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Studied biology
(under T.
Huxley)
Knew Haeckel
(coined term
‘ecology’)
‘Valley Section’
emphasises
importance of
rural hinterland
to the city
Fore-runner of
concepts like
city region &
ecological
footprints.
‘Valley Section’
Patrick Geddes (1854-1932)
UK New Towns
• 11 designated
between ’46 & ’55
• Inspired by Howard
• Emphasis on green,
open quality
Bancroft Park, Milton Keynes
Unintended habitats - brown field sites
e.g. Canvey Wick
Impacts of the foregoing on urban
biodiversity – the example of plants
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Urban areas support higher species diversity
than surrounding rural areas
Possible reasons: higher numbers of alien
species available; greater landscape
heterogeneity
Temporal studies show increasing proportion of
alien species
Evidence for homogenisation in native and
archaeophyte species but opposite in neophytes
Cultural perceptions of urban
biodiversity
Cultural perceptions of urban biodiversity vary with
time….e.g. Kite in Elizabethan London
“The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed;
but match to match I have encounter’d him,
And made a prey for carrion kites and crows
Even of the bonny beast he loved so well.”
[Henry VI Part 2, V, 2]
UK Red Kite reintroduction
programme over
past 20 years
© Northern Kites 2008
© Northern Kites 2008
Peregrine on St Andrew’s Spire, Worcester
Wildlife societies in the UK
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RSPB alone – over 1 million
members.
Butterfly Conservation 1968
Woodland Trust 1972
Dragonfly Society 1983
Plantlife 1989
Buglife 2000
1980 – Birmingham & Black
Country Wildlife Trust
Attitudes to alien species
• Variable
• Conditioned by personal
psychology & social/cultural
background
• Difficult to predict
Perceptions of urban green spaces influenced by
geography and cultural history….
The urban woodland paradox?
• Preference for
natural woodland
• Concerns over antisocial behaviour &
threats to the person
• Compensation
culture
39% women & 18% men feel unsafe in London’s
green spaces; 66% mothers would not let children
play unsupervised
“Give me a child until he is 7 and I will
show you the man” (Jesuit saying)
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Applies to children &
urban green space
Lack of contact in
childhood →lack of
interest &
enthusiasm as adult
Factors:
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Over-protection
Consumer/designer
culture
Rise of the virtual
social network
Getting the right balance between
maintenance & benign neglect
‘Poor maintenance & management’ ranked top as a
characteristic of bad parks & spaces
© Crown Copyright 2007
From: The Urban Environment. 26th Report of the Royal
Commission on Environmental Pollution.
Direct cultural impacts
Deliberate actions
with/on species
Cultural context
Political
context
Attitudes of
commerce &
industry
NGOs &
community
action
Unintended effects
on species
Individual
behaviour &
priorities
Urban biodiversity
today
Antipathy
Deliberate
habitat creation
Indifference
Anxiety about
urban green space
Unintended
habitats
Positive associations
(fresh air, exercise,
relaxation, sociability)
Inherent
interest
& pleasure
Cultural
perceptions
Thank you for your attention
Dr. Andy Millard
School of Architecture, Landscape & Design
Leeds Metropolitan University
UK
[email protected]