We are in a Climate Crisis.
As studied in our resilient urbanism precedents, other cities are grappling with these very issues with questionable success. Copenhagen Cloudburst events: multiple 100-year storm events in under 10 years. In New York City, devastation from Hurricane Sandy in 2013 prompted the Resilience By Design competition to better adapt to our changing climate. Our hope with this project is to better to understand the relationship of water as infrastructure versus water as life, since ultimately, both the natural and built systems exist symbiotically within our urban environment.
Capitalist modes of production, such as urban development, have also touched our natural environment. These modes of production primary occur through the ways in which we manage land, with the constant shaping and reshaping of our natural systems being at the core of urban design and planning.
Ecosystem services, a capitalistic production of nature, is our current path dependency, leaving us entrenched in patterns of commodifying, exploiting, and dominating nature. Reactionary, large-scale urban development projects framed as 'resilient urbanism' are often promoted as solutions to the growing ecological crises.
Is there a better way?
Urban resiliency is more than just the provision of robust ecological networks; the environment cannot be perceived or treated as an apolitical entity that we as humans can morph and mold endlessly. Social ecology calls for a dismantling of the capitalist tendency to dominate nature and instead encourages a more mutual and interdependent relationship with nature.
Ecosystem services, a capitalistic production of nature, is our current path dependency, leaving us entrenched in patterns of commodifying, exploiting, and dominating nature. Reactionary, large-scale urban development projects framed as 'resilient urbanism' are often promoted as solutions to the growing ecological crises. The large-scale nature of these solutions require an equally large sum of money to not just implement but also to maintain. The lack of realized projects indicates serious barriers, particularly financial restrictions as most cities do not have the funds to carry out such massive infrastructure projects. An important risk associated with the perpetuation of current modes of urban development is the resulting 'green gentrification,' leaving already marginalized and disenfranchised communities at even greater risk as cycles of disinvestment continue.
Living in Rockliffe-Smythe
Mapping Rockliffe-Smythe
