Five Reasons to Incorporate Biodiversity into Your Green Infrastructure Designs and How To Begin Doing It
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Overcoming the Great Disconnect
Let’s face it - biodiversity is a hard concept to relate to in our modern world. In the not-too-distant past, when we gathered our very sustenance from the plants, animals, and waters around us, we all shared an intimate relationship to and understanding of the natural world. We were connected! Within many native languages, there is simply no term for ‘the environment,’ which inherently implies something that is disconnected from humanity. Yet we remain, fundamentally, inseparable.
In the 21st century however, there are millions of people who rarely, if ever, go outside, who never feel the cool breeze of a summer night, or hear the sweet notes of bird song in the morning or even feel the earth beneath their feet. They don’t know where their food or drinking water comes from, or even that the clouds move across the sky. Many have never seen a starry night! And when they do travel outside, they are often moving at speeds that do not enable them to truly experience nature, let alone begin to understand her. So often we have our headphones on and our bicycles in high gear, or we are travelling along the highway at 60 miles an hour with the radio on and our children are watching movies in the back seat, or we are sailing through the air in a cylinder at 650 miles per hour. Then there is social media, our latest creation. Social media, with its many addictions pulling us into its programmed world of instant gratification entertainment tailored to our personal likes and dislikes, all the while stealing our attention and rewiring our minds and behaviours in the process.
Supporting plant diversity and the use of native species is key to having more biodiverse and productive green roofs and walls. Photo: Steven Peck
How does ‘biodiversity’ fair in this new world of our own creation? Biodiversity. It is the complex variety of plant and animal life that encircle the planet or exist within a specific ecosystem, such as a mature rainforest or coral reef. Yet most of us are, disconnected to some degree, from the very ecosystems that ultimately sustain our lives: by providing a wide range of ecosystem services – from the pollination of the foods we eat and the health of the water we drink, to providing materials for our shelters, regulating surface temperatures, processing our waste and much, much more. All life on earth, one could argue, has an intrinsic right to exist, regardless of its relationship to humans. Biodiversity is critical to our health, our social and economic well-being now, and there is so much more we have yet to learn. (Listen to our podcast with Scott MacIvor) Yet we have been destroying biodiversity at an alarming rate. More than one million species are now on the brink of extinction, because of our ever-expanding buildings and parking lots, unsustainable pollution and resource exploitation and extraction.
In addition to providing food and shelter for everyone, building bridges between ourselves, and the people we love and the natural world is one of the most fundamental challenges of our time. As individuals, there are many things we can do to protect and restore biodiversity, starting by becoming more connected to the living world around us.
Five Things You Can Do to Better Connect with The Living World
Walk to the nearest park, ravine or other natural area and just sit for 15 minutes if it is safe to do so, and take in the sights, sounds and smells. Three hours of time outside per week is a bare minimum for your health.
Download one of the many apps that help you identify the living world of plants and animals around you. How many bird species live in your area? Can you identify any of the bird species around you. See this article on species identification apps you can use.
If you are able, plant native species in your garden or on your balcony and only buy products that are from recycled feedstocks. Use plants that support pollinators. Convert your lawn to a natural meadow and encourage the city to support more meadowlands in your local park.
Go on an organized hike with a naturalist, or someone who practices forest bathing. Just go on a hike.
Volunteer, become a member, or donate to organizations working to protect and preserve biodiversity in your area. Get involved in local restoration and rewilding projects.
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Plant diversity in green walls helps to maintain our interest as the various plants change over time and are more resilient. Photo: Eric Durnford
Building Industry is Both the Problem and A Solution
Currently, the development industry paves over 390 square miles of land every year in the United States. By using living architecture and other types of green infrastructure, the design community and the building industry have a unique opportunity to play a key role here, by bringing biodiversity back to our communities and onto our buildings. Living architecture involves the use of inanimate technology combined with living systems to cover the sides and roofs of buildings with living systems – green roofs and outdoor green walls essentially. Of course, educating clients about biodiverse green roofs and walls, which are not highly landscaped and often scraggly looking at times, is often the key to success.
Biodiversity Supporting Design Features for Living Architecture
Many insects, like this Ailanthus Webworm Moth, require plants, like Goldenrod, which bloom in the fall for their survival.
Designing and maintaining biodiverse green roofs and walls require specialized knowledge of the plants and animals in the bioregion where the project is located. Here are five important design features that can help you to improve the biodiversity of your living architecture projects and how they will increase the value they bring to your clients.
Plant diversity. Use a diverse plant palette which includes natives, suitable to the context you are working with. Several green roof nurseries are offering modular green roofs and sedum mats that have greater plant diversity than before. It is also possible to order the growing of specific native plants, be they modular, or plugs and cuttings. Greater plant diversity holds more interest for building occupants and thus conveys more biophilic health benefits. Mono-cultures quickly become boring and we lose interest. They are also less likely to retain stormwater and are more susceptible to diseases. Some jurisdictions have even introduced incentives, or requirements for biological diversity that can be met by having a diverse plant pallet.
Consider seasonality and insects. What will the plants look like throughout the year, and have you designed to incorporate plants for every season? Have you also selected plants that support local insect life, such as goldenrod for the fall season, which in the Great Lakes ecosystem supports many different species of insects. Insects are key to providing food for many species of birds, which in turn provide health benefits for people. Bird song has been shown to help reduce stress levels in humans.
Growing media composition and depth. On green roofs, varying the depth and granularity of the growing media can help support insect life and plant diversity. Where structural loading is sufficient, such as over load-bearing columns, deepen the growing media, while in other areas only use an inch or two. This will help support heterogenous green roofs, ones with many micro-climates. The use of mycorrhizal fungi in the growing media can also help re-establish a healthy soil microbiology which is great for plants and insects.
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Use rocks and logs to create micro habitats for insects on green roofs. Photo: Steven Peck
Consider bird habitat in your design, making sure that resident and migrating birds have opportunities to rest, feed, and possibly nest. A source of water, as simple as a bubbler, provides birds and insects with much needed water in summer months. A place to perch, on a log or a rock, adds complexity and micro-climates that support a more diverse flora and fauna.
Develop a thorough and detailed maintenance plan, with images of all the plants within it, and clear instructions for plant maintenance and replacement. Maintenance is essential to the evolution of your green roof or wall project and how it is carried out will determine how the project evolves and performs over time. See this article by Cynthia Pohl for more information.
In addition, consider making green roofs and walls accessible, or at least partly accessible to the public and/or building occupants. This allows for the opportunity for the biodiversity on the roofs and walls to provide a connection with people and the chance for learning. With some projects, this connection is further strengthened when occupants have a role to play in the maintenance of these systems.
Many of our feathered friends, like this Eastern Kingbird, need lots of flying insects to survive on a green roof.
Outside your door, there is an amazing and wondrous story unfolding every day. It is a story of birth and death, growth and decay, cooperation and competition, ugliness and beauty. It is the story of the ecosystem where you live playing out. By building connections between you, the ones you love and particularly children and nature, you will support your health and well-being. Living architecture has an unrealized role to play in re-establishing the weakened connections between all of us, and the very systems which ultimately give and sustain our lives and the lives of the countless species we share these moments with.
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Steven W. Peck, GRP, is the founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the editor of the Living Architecture Monitor magazine. He can be reached at: speck@greenroofs.org.
Resources
About biodiversity and why we need to conserve it.
Biodiverse design guidelines for green roofs – City of Toronto.
Check out biodiversity design and maintenance lectures on The Living Architecture Academy
