Landscape ecological urbanism: Origins and trajectories

Landscape offers a complex way of seeing, understanding, and shaping environments. In its Dutch origin, landschap meant to adapt cultural and natural processes to create new territory. As the word moved into English and other languages, it took on visual meaning as well. In several ways, landscape ecology helped return the word to its root meaning. Developments in urban ecology and landscape urbanism open new possibilities to restructure ecosystem understanding and city design. This essay will explore the concepts and evolution of landscape urbanism and urban ecology, as well as a possible synthesis—landscape ecological urbanism. Such a synthesis is important, given global trends in urbanization, population growth, climate change, energy use, and water availability.