Urban Experience: Babcock Ranch
For this weeks field trip our class engaged in a virtual tour of the Babcock Ranch. The
Babcock ranch is a sustainable city constructed on state road 31 in Southwest
Florida. The urban infrastructure is designed to create an eco-friendly, safe,
and functioning environment for all whom inhabit the area.
In Sustainability, Principles and Practice, we have discussed the concept of natural capital. Humans have already overshot Earth’s carrying capacity and are living by depleting its natural capital and overfilling its waste sinks. Natural capital consists of the resources and services provided by ecosystems. Renewable resources can support human activities indefinitely as long as we do not use them more rapidly than they can regenerate
The Babcock Ranch engaged in this concept when developing this estate which is home to native wildlife and agriculture by providing many resources for sustainability in the process. For example, there are water aquifers, solar panels, educational institutions, health facilities, and job opportunities within its 18,000-acre living facility.
In Sustainability, Principles and Practice, we have discussed the concept of natural capital. Humans have already overshot Earth’s carrying capacity and are living by depleting its natural capital and overfilling its waste sinks. Natural capital consists of the resources and services provided by ecosystems. Renewable resources can support human activities indefinitely as long as we do not use them more rapidly than they can regenerate
The Babcock Ranch engaged in this concept when developing this estate which is home to native wildlife and agriculture by providing many resources for sustainability in the process. For example, there are water aquifers, solar panels, educational institutions, health facilities, and job opportunities within its 18,000-acre living facility.
In class readings, we have discussed the topics of ecosystem conservation and restoration being an important focus of sustainability work. Conserving or restoring ecosystem health involves three broad fields of endeavor: Conservation refers to protecting biodiversity; it is about minimizing damage. Restoration is about repairing damage, returning the condition of an ecosystem to a state of health. Reconciliation involves acknowledging that humans are part of the natural world and finding ways to live together, weaving into the fabric of the biosphere the activities of its most visible and ubiquitous species, Homo sapiens.
Babcock Ranch provides its community with the opportunity to participate in something bigger than the individual experience. This promotes civic engagement between the population, the environment, the ecosystem, and prosperity. This can be exemplified through job opportunities, recreational activities, educational prospects, and more!
A
conclusion we have come to in our class readings is that within the modern era
of growing human population, urban development, habitat destruction, and
changing climate, we need to find ways to integrate ourselves with the rest of
the biosphere, to fuse the bits and pieces together into a larger, coherent
living whole. The use of solar panels, flat road infrastructure, the founders
square is the MVP of the Babcock Ranch design.
Social sustainability is important because there is no sense in creating a perfect living space in which the citizens must travel away from to experience life. Whether that experience is monetary, educational, or recreational. In the state of global warming that we all currently inhabit, social sustainability is essential to the lowering of greenhouse gas emissions, recycling of natural elements, and more!
No comments:
Post a Comment