Biophilic Cities Are Sustainable, Resilient Cities
1
Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
2
Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Curtin University, Fremantle, WA 6160, Australia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2013, 5(8), 3328-3345; https://doi.org/10.3390/su5083328
Received: 5 June 2013
/
Revised: 12 July 2013
/
Accepted: 16 July 2013
/
Published: 5 August 2013
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Cities)
There is a growing recognition of the need for daily contact with nature, to live happy, productive, meaningful lives. Recent attention to biophilic design among architects and designers acknowledges this power of nature. However, in an increasingly urban planet, more attention needs to be aimed at the urban scales, at planning for and moving towards what the authors call “biophilic cities”. Biophilic cities are cities that provide close and daily contact with nature, nearby nature, but also seek to foster an awareness of and caring for this nature. Biophilic cities, it is argued here, are also sustainable and resilient cities. Achieving the conditions of a biophilic city will go far in helping to foster social and landscape resilience, in the face of climate change, natural disasters and economic uncertainty and various other shocks that cities will face in the future. The paper identifies key pathways by which biophilic urbanism enhances resilience, and while some are well-established relationships, others are more tentative and suggest future research and testing.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
biophilic cities; sustainable cities; resilient cities
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
MDPI and ACS Style
Beatley, T.; Newman, P. Biophilic Cities Are Sustainable, Resilient Cities. Sustainability 2013, 5, 3328-3345. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5083328
AMA Style
Beatley T, Newman P. Biophilic Cities Are Sustainable, Resilient Cities. Sustainability. 2013; 5(8):3328-3345. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5083328
Chicago/Turabian StyleBeatley, Timothy, and Peter Newman. 2013. "Biophilic Cities Are Sustainable, Resilient Cities" Sustainability 5, no. 8: 3328-3345. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5083328
Find Other Styles
