Dyson, Karen; Dawwas, Emad; Poulton Kamakura, Renata; Alberti, Marina; Fuentes, Tracy L. (2023). Say Where You Sample: Increasing Site Selection Transparency in Urban Ecology. Ecosphere, 14(3).
View Publication
Abstract
Urban ecological studies have the potential to expand our understanding of socioecological systems beyond that of an individual city or region. Cross-comparative empirical work and synthesis are imperative to develop a general urban ecological theory. This can be achieved only if studies are replicable and generalizable. Transparency in methods reporting facilitates generalizability and replicability by documenting the decisions scientists make during the various steps of research design; this is particularly true for sampling design and selection because of their impact on both internal and external validity and the potential to unintentionally introduce bias. Three interdependent aspects of sample design are study sample selection (e.g., specific organisms, soils, or water), sample specification (measurement of specific variable of interest), and site selection (locations sampled). Of these, documentation of site selection—the where component of sample design—is underrepresented in the urban ecology literature. Using a stratified random sample of 158 papers from 12 major urban ecology journals, we investigated how researchers selected study sites in urban ecosystems and evaluated whether their site selection methods were transparent. We extracted data from these papers using a 50-question, theory-based questionnaire and a multiple-reviewer approach. Our sample represented almost 45 years of urban ecology research across 40 different countries. We found that more than 80% of the papers we read were not transparent in their site selection methodology. We do not believe site selection methods are replicable for 70% of the papers read. Key weaknesses include incomplete descriptions of populations and sampling frames, urban gradients, sample selection methods, and property access. Low transparency in reporting the where methodology limits urban ecologists' ability to assess the internal and external validity of studies' findings and to replicate published studies; it also limits the generalizability of existing studies. The challenges of low transparency are particularly relevant in urban ecology, a field where standard protocols for site selection and delineation are still being developed. These limitations interfere with the fields' ability to build theory and inform policy. We conclude by offering a set of recommendations to increase transparency, replicability, and generalizability.
Keywords
external validity, field ecology, generalizability, internal validity, replication, reproducibility, sampling design, site selection, theory building, transparency
An interdisciplinary research team led by University of Washington Chemistry Professor Alshakim Nelson received $2 million in funding from the National Science Foundation’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program. The funding will be used to combine engineered microorganisms with 3D printing to create materials for sustainable built environments. This grant will provide funding to researchers at UW, the University of Texas at Austin, and University of California Davis over four years. In addition to Nelson, the team also…
Wu, Shuang, Abramson, Daniel B., & Zhong, Bo. (2022). Digital Governance in Rural Chengdu, China: Its Potential for Social-ecological Resilience. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 4.
View Publication
Abstract
In this study, we echo the call from the UN to interpret Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their regional context—in this case, the linpan (wooded lot) landscape of the Chengdu Plain, in Sichuan, China, where the shocks and stresses of recent, rapid administrative-economic urbanization are testing the resilience of some of the world's most sustainably productive and long- and densely-settled agrarian environments. In recent years, fine-grained information and communications technology (ICT) governance tools in Chengdu, such as “grid management”, present opportunities to sustain and scale up the collection of data necessary to validate and refine indicators of landscape resilience, and use them to regulate development, in accordance with SDG goal 11 to enhance legislation, governance, and capacity via information gathering and sharing. ICT-based governance in combination with traditional place-based knowledge can play a critical role in ensuring the resilience of urban-rural co-development. To realize this potential, however, ICT-enabled governance needs to incorporate greater transparency and more local feedback loops and enable greater participation from older farmers and women, to inform household and community-level land-use choices and initiatives. It also needs to link regulatory functions with marketing and pricing functions so that farmers may benefit from the sustainable practices they are encouraged to adopt.
Complex structures jointed like origami. Office walls and ceilings that swoop and bend over enormous open spaces. Experimental pavilions made with robotic fabrication techniques. This is a world of architecture made possible by mass-timber framing. And, it’s a world that’s becoming more environmentally and acoustically sound through the work of UW College of Built Environments, Department of Architecture Assistant Professor Tomás Méndez Echenagucia, UW Master of Science in Architecture/Design Technology student Nathan Brown, and other collaborators. Mass timber is a…
Rottle, Nancy, Bowles, Mason, Andrews, Leann, & Engelke, Jennifer (2023). Constructed Floating Wetlands: A “Safe‐to‐Fail” Study with Multi‐sector Participation. Restoration Ecology, 31(1).
View Publication
Abstract
The Duwamish River Floating Wetlands project designed, built, and deployed constructed floating wetlands in the estuary of the urban Duwamish River in Seattle, Washington, during the 2019 and 2020 outmigration seasons for juvenile salmon. Using a “safe‐to‐fail” methodology and adaptive management strategies, these innovative floating wetland prototypes were custom designed to provide the native plants, invertebrates and slow water habitat that juvenile salmon require during their transition from fresh to salt water, and were monitored for these outcomes. This paper will provide insight into the prototype designs, adaptive management strategies and plant performance, and unique public‐private‐academic‐community partnerships that supported 2 years of design and research.
Keywords
community science; cross‐sector collaboration; designed ecosystems; Duwamish River; ecological restoration; green infrastructure
The College of Built Environments launched a funding opportunity for those whose research has been affected by the ongoing pandemic. The Research Restart Fund, with awards up to $5,000, has awarded 4 grants in the second of its two cycles. A grant was awarded to Manish Chalana, faculty member with Urban Design and Planning to help support his efforts to carry out archival research and fieldwork in India for his new book exploring the history and memory of non-dominant groups…
Feng, R., Wang, F., Liu, S., Qi, W., Zhao, Y., & Wang, Y. (2023). How Urban Ecological Land Affects Resident Heat Exposure: Evidence from the Mega-urban Agglomeration in China. Landscape and Urban Planning, 231.
View Publication.
Abstract
Resident heat exposure (RHE) is becoming more severe in the coming decades owing to rapid urbanization and climate change. Urban ecological land (UEL) provides important ecosystem services, such as mitigating the urban heat islands effect. However, the impacts of UEL on RHE remain poorly understood. This study quantifies the effects of UEL and its interaction with the natural-anthropogenic environment on RHE in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a mega-urban agglomeration in China. The results showed a tight spatial–temporal coupling between the UEL and RHE: UEL transitioned from degradation-fragmentation in 2000–2010 to recovery-agglomeration in 2010–2020, while the RHE distribution evolved from intensification-expansion-inequity to mitigation-contraction-equity. The average explanatory power (q value) of UEL and its structure on RHE also increased by 75.99% and 70.79%, respectively. UEL patch diversity gradually dominated the RHE distribution, and the spatial marginal effect of UEL dominance increased by 234.97%. Moreover, RHE shifted from being dominated by UEL and anthropogenic heat emissions interactions to being jointly driven by UEL and natural-anthropogenic factors (especially the interaction of patch fragmentation with topography and built-up land expansion). The results of this study provide valuable information for nature-based (i.e., UEL) landscape planning and management to develop “human-centric” RHE mitigation strategies.
Keywords
Urban ecological land; Resident heat exposure; Spatial-temporal effects; Natural-anthropogenic factors; Interaction effect; Mega-urban agglomeration
Oshima, K. T. (Ed.). (2016). Kiyonori Kikutake: Between Land and Sea. Lars Müller Publishers.
View Publication.
Dannenberg, A. L., Frumkin, H., & Jackson, R. (Eds.). (2022). Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability (2nd ed.). Island Press.
View Publication.
De Almeida, Catherine. (2019). Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 13(3), 64-77.
View Publication
Abstract
Materials and landscapes associated with waste are perceived as objectionable. By reactivating and embracing waste conditions as desirable opportunities for diverse programmes rooted in economy, ecology, and culture, designers can form hybrid assemblages on waste sites through the exchange of waste materials—a landscape lifecycles approach. This frame-work is applicable to not only design research, but also as a critical lens for evaluating the landscape performance of existing projects that engage with waste reuse. The Blue Lagoon in southwest Iceland materialized as a spa industry out of geothermal waste effluent from the adjacent Svartsengi Geothermal Power Station, reusing undesirable materials and transforming a waste landscape through diversified material recovery strategies. Featuring an industrial by-product turned economic generator, this case study reveals the opportunities for reusing geothermal ‘waste’ in these emergent landscape conditions, which hybridize economies with recreation, research, and ecology, and shift the conventional relationship with waste from passive to performative.
Keywords
Waste reuse; Blue Lagoon; material lifecycles; Iceland; landscape reclamation