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Phytoremediation-by-design: Community-scale landscape systems design for healthy communities
Abstract
Since the Industrial Revolution humans have introduced hazardous compounds into the environment. Interest has grown for combining urban planning/design processes with phytoremediation as a systems-based approach to environmental remediation. Phytoremediation has potential to transform traditional urban infrastructure processes thereby enhancing the formative structure of the urban context. A historic view of integrating ecosystems within urban planning and design processes is provided, and an ecologically based approach to creating urban contexts through environmentally responsive community planning and design is proposed. Evidence supports incorporating phytoremediation into the community-wide urban planning and design process to establish and sustain communities, environment, human health, and prosperity. Conclusions are drawn from historic and emerging urban planning and design theories, practices, and present and past successes in creating environmentally responsive sustainable communities. Conclusions are supported by a review and analysis of case studies focused on this topic. Based on these processes this research supports a hybrid approach to phytoremediation-by-design, which borrows from past efforts and builds on current urban planning theory and ecological principles.
... Phytoremediation has been introduced and developed for the treatment of urban leachate, domestic and industrial wastewater, and remediation of polluted soils in the last three decades (Figure 1). Phytoremediation is not only recognized as an effective tool for improving water, soil and air quality, but also provides beauty and wildlife habitat [17][18][19]. Vegetation treatment systems are generally simple, affordable and have no harmful effects on the environment. The most important factor in the implementation of biological treatment systems is the selection of appropriate plant species, which must have unique characteristics such as high absorption of organic and inorganic pollutants, adaptation and proper growth in polluted environments, and easy and fast reproduction. ...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) that allows others to share and adapt the material for any purpose (even commercially), in any medium with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Abstract With the increase in the world's population and the subsequent increase in housing density, we are facing the problem of water, soil, and air pollution. On the other hand, the use of physical environmental purification methods is very expensive and can even cause environmental pollution. Phytoremediation is a cheap and accessible method that uses the potential of plants to remove or destroy dangerous contaminants from water, soil, and air. One of the major problems in Phytoremediation is that the process is time-consuming. This can be overcome by adding compounds such as nanoparticles in order to increase the speed. Special care must be given to using the correct doses of nanoparticles because they pass through cells and biological membranes, which may cause contaminations. Therefore, the use of appropriate doses of nanoparticles will eventually accelerate the phytoremediation process. The purpose of this study is to assess the recent discoveries in the Phytoremediation process and its methods.
... Una parte significativa de los contaminantes arrastrados por la escorrentía superficial de la CAM, que sería absorbida y trasladada a través de la IAV propuesta, podría ser neutralizada a partir de la capacidad de fitorremediación de vegetación seleccionada por su función de hiperacumulación (Smith, 2015). Los principales contaminantes en la escorrentía urbana suelen ser decantación de emisiones y residuos de aceite de motores de combustión interna, partículas de neumáticos y suciedad de la calle en general. ...
El abordaje tradicional de la infraestructura hidráulica se ha concentrado históricamente en el volumen de agua a desplazar –lo más rápido y lejos posible de la ciudad– sin priorizar su calidad ni capacidad inherente para construir espacio público y amenidad urbana. Las respuestas contemporáneas al manejo de los desagües pluviales apuntan a un cambio sustancial a partir de la aplicación de sistemas que procuran replicar los mecanismos naturales de absorción del suelo, junto al despliegue de estrategias de retención, con el objetivo de resolver el drenaje pluvial más cerca del sitio de origen. Este tipo de intervenciones se enmarcan dentro de la nueva Infraestructura Azul y Verde (IAV), que puede incluir también proyectos de desentubamiento de cursos de agua, entre otras iniciativas. Esta investigación examina hasta qué punto la IAV es factible en el entorno denso de la trama urbana de Buenos Aires como una forma más sostenible de gestionar el drenaje pluvial urbano, complementariamente a las soluciones convencionales de infraestructura gris. La viabilidad de soluciones IAV es analizada aquí en detalle a través de criterios técnicos, financieros, socioambientales e institucionales. Partimos del estudio de proyectos antecedentes en los que la disminución del riesgo hídrico y las mejoras en el espacio verde público produjeron incrementos en el valor del suelo, con el fin de modelar el comportamiento esperable del mercado inmobiliario local a partir de la implementación de medidas IAV en la Cuenca del Arroyo Medrano (CAM), nuestro caso de estudio. Finalmente, evaluamos la implementación de herramientas que permitirían recuperar parte de esta valorización inmobiliaria. Nuestros resultados sugieren que incluso en cuencas urbanas muy densas e impermeables, como la CAM, es posible implementar IAV con un efecto significativo en el logro de objetivos de sostenibilidad urbana.
... The focus of this paper is investigating a toolkit of landscape restoration for designers and planners. Landscape restoration is a key implementation strategy to reclaim these damaged landscapes as components of the natural system (Smith 2015). The selection of plants or planting design is an essential part of this landscape restoration effort as a mechanism to adapt to the local climate, cleanse or purify water, improve soil quality, and other enhancements. ...
... environmental friendliness, energy-saving properties, and aesthetic value (Luo et al., 2016;Markou et al., 2018;Ting et al., 2018;Vymazal, 2011). Phytoremediation via ornamental plants is a novel approach for ecological reconstruction, improvement of the water environment, and landscape beautification in both cities and rural areas, as these plants are the most important components of urban and rural landscapes (Mendes and Pina, 2017;Smith, 2015). Moreover, surface water and landscapes provide important social and economic benefits, such as tourism and recreation, which make aesthetically pleasing ornamental hydrophytes particularly important (Rai, 2018). ...
The use of phytoremediation technology in urban and rural landscapes can permit both aesthetic and water purification functions to be achieved sustainably. Here, the ability of three ornamental aquatic plant species (Lythrum salicaria L., Sagittaria trifolia L., and Typha orientalis C. Presl) to remove nutrients from simulated contaminated water over 35 days and the structure of their rhizosphere microorganism populations were evaluated to examine their potential to be used for landscape phytoremediation as well as determine the mechanism of nutrient removal. L. salicaria had the highest nutrient removal ability (86.91–96.96% removal efficiency of total nitrogen and 46.04–66.70% removal efficiency of total phosphorus). The population structure of rhizosphere microorganisms was mainly affected by plant species and not the nutrient level of the water body according to principal coordinates analysis and non-metric multi-dimensional scaling. Betaproteobacteriales and Chitinophagales were highly correlated with the content of nutrients in water according to redundancy analysis. The accumulation of the two orders by L. salicaria and higher biomass might explain the stronger removal ability of L. salicaria. The findings of this study indicate that these plants could enhance urban and rural water landscape design; our results also shed new light on the mechanism of phytoremediation by rhizosphere microorganisms.
... It involves the landscaping design, strategic selection of plant species and planting, remediation life-cycle previsions, establishing regeneration and management plan of the sites and prospecting potential cascading value chains. The post-implementation stage involves maintenance, monitoring and evaluation (Smith, 2015;Todd, 2016;Verga et al., 2020). ...
For the last few decades there has been a growing interest in transforming post-industrial sites into public spaces with new programmatic contents. However, contamination in such sites poses challenges to the transformation process. In such cases remediation has become not just a technical issue requiring solutions through remedial actions but a design tactic that offers different solutions for the development of ecologically and functionally well-grounded spatial design schemas.
The main aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between design and remediation and offer a research matrix and typological classification that show how remediation methods can be interpreted as a landscape design tactic through an examination of ten high profile landscape design cases. As a result of detailed investigation on the cases, eight different landscape typologies were offered, namely: multi-layered landscapes, topo-landscapes, adaptive landscapes, structured landscapes, emergent landscapes, superficies landscapes and traced landscapes.
Use of demonstration plots showcasing native forbs and grasses in public greenspaces or along well‐traveled paths can be helpful in increasing awareness of beneficial plant species. Signage can be used as an educational delivery method ‐ such as is used in arboretums and museums ‐ to bring awareness of the importance of biodiversity, pollinators, and native species. Additionally, using species that are considered aesthetic, or which create positive feelings in the viewer, may influence local trail users to further incorporate the same plants in their community. This study evaluated the process and efficacy of installing a demonstration plot along a multi‐use trail in southeast Kansas to educate the community on rehabilitative plots. While many demonstration and community gardens use an active approach to learning, evaluating more passive or informal techniques is also useful. The greatest perceived challenges for this case study were the allotment of time and money for initial costs of the demonstration plot as well as addressing methodology for plant blindness in viewers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Development of the human society has a conspicuous negative influence on water resources and causes serious environmental contamination that is nowadays reaching a critical level. The quality of water is one of the vital components of the overall environment. Thus, water pollution can lead to human health issues, poisoned wildlife, and to long-term ecosystem damages. Plants are the first organisms that react to negative environmental changes and they are often used as bioindicators of water and air pollution. In addition, a significant number of plant species have the ability to accumulate harmful pollutants from soils and water. Recently, special attention has been paid to investigating the potential of plants to absorb toxic substances and reduce their negative impact on water resources. Besides, proper management of water resources depends upon understanding how plants regulate the use and retention of water. Environmental pollutants such as heavy metals can cause disturbance in root structure and function, thus having a negative effect on the water uptake. This chapter will review and discuss the role of the plants in water regulation and the control of water pollution in urban and mining areas. Information presented in this chapter will provide better insights into the plant-based technologies aimed at contributing to the purification and remediation of polluted water resources.
The idea of reconciling landscapes through remediation is not new to the discipline of landscape architecture. However the potential of using transformative remediation to build urban form as a large-scale landscape network and that makes the process of remediation part of an urban landscape experience is still underdeveloped in theory and practice. This paper examines how a remediation process could be exhibited and become a staged design element, and how landscapes of cleaning can become part of the urban infrastructure to create new neighborhoods for research, education, working, and living. The example of two adjacent sites on the contaminated Elbe – Island in Hamburg, Wilhelmsburg Germany demonstrates how the purification process of water and soils can be showcased and experienced by the public and how the landscape framework becomes part of the urban infrastructure. The paper proposes a structural landscape framework for how remediation could become an artistic, aesthetically pleasing intervention with environmental value.
Ecological urbanism aims to advance this goal. It weds the theory and practice of urban design and planning, as a means of adaptation, with the insights of ecology and other environmental disciplines. Ecological urbanism is critical to the future of the city: it provides a framework for addressing challenges that threaten humanity (climate change, environmental justice) while fulfilling human needs for health, safety, and welfare, meaning, and delight. This overview describes the roots of ecological urbanism, with an emphasis on the Anglo-American tradition, and identifies fundamental concepts and principles. The literature is vast, and a detailed review is impossible here (for more references, see Spirn 2012). This introduction provides historical context and a framework to guide more focused research and more comprehensive reviews of the literature and to advance the practice of ecological urbanism.
In The Landscape Urbanism Reader Charles Waldheim—who is at the forefront of this new movement—has assembled the definitive collection of essays by many of the field's top practitioners. Fourteen essays written by leading figures across a range of disciplines and from around the world—including James Corner, Linda Pollak, Alan Berger, Pierre Bolanger, Julia Czerniak, and more—capture the origins, the contemporary milieu, and the aspirations of this relatively new field. The Landscape Urbanism Reader is an inspiring signal to the future of city making as well as an indispensable reference for students, teachers, architects, and urban planners.
This two-part paper superimposes current landscape urbanist theory onto practical suburban master planning experience so as to help landscape architects play a more influential role in shaping contemporary patterns of suburban sprawl. The theory and practice described are predicated upon a sense that the incipient movement of landscape urbanism is well suited, but not yet practically applied to suburban conditions. It is argued that the discourse of landscape urbanism needs to define itself more clearly in relation to dominant socio-political and aesthetic movements such as smart growth, green urbanism, and new urbanism. Via the discourse of landscape urbanism, the practice of landscape architecture in suburbia can shift from one of relative superficiality to one of structural influence. The paper first positions landscape urbanism in the context of a wider array of (sub)urban planning and design theories. It then describes and reflects upon a three-year master planning project of a suburban residential development for 40,000 people in Perth, Western Australia. This project suggests that the status of the master plan in relation to landscape urbanism’s emphasis on indeterminacy is a key issue.
Incluye bibliografía e índice
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