Involving Ecologists in Shaping Large-Scale Green Infrastructure Projects

The article examines a large-scale green infrastructure project that integrates hypothesis-driven experimental research and baseline monitoring with park design, implementation, and maintenance. Drawing on this case study, the authors recommend strategies to facilitate the inclusion of research ecologists in green infrastructure projects.

In a nutshell, this resource offers:

•  Additional skills and practices needed to develop new relationships and improve credibility, to define project roles, to identify new funding, and to integrate multidisciplinary knowledge.
• Evaluations of embedded research project design to provide a mechanism for both evaluation and development of the ecological knowledge needed to improve infrastructure for services provision and its long term efficacy.
• Recommendations to enhance the professional certification process, establishing research ecologists as consultants, and integrating ecology and design in graduate programs.

How to use this resource:

• Developa more formal methodology for the inclusion ofecologists as essential components of large-scale green infrastructure projects.
• Propose a formalized framework that should expedite the translation of scientific knowledge into the construction of ecosystems and services for urban areas
• Recommend ways to promote the involvement of ecologists in green infrastructure projects, primarily by improving the interdisciplinary dialogue between designers and ecologists, formalizing relationships between professional societies, and focusing on interdisciplinary education.

Author:Alexander J. Felson, Emily E. Oldfield, and Mark A. Bradford

Date published: November 2013

Point of contact: Alexander J. Felson, Professor and Elisabeth Murdoch Chair of Landscape Architecture, The University of Melbourne, alex.felson@unimelb.edu.au

Citation: Felson, A.J.; Oldfield, E. E.; Bradford, M. A. 2013. Involving Ecologists in Shaping Large-Scale Green Infrastructure Projects. Bioscience Magazine, 6p.

Resource is available online here.