As part of learning about the complexity of environmental problem-solving in cities and suburbs, each semester students in Dr. Patrick Hurley’s “ENV-332 Urbanization and the Environment” course work with a community partner to examine their approach to a specific environmental problem. In the process, students are specifically asked to consider how the solution pursued by their partner meets the goals of biophilic design, a design approach that seeks to minimize the negative impacts of the environment on humans, while also making visible the diversity of ecosystem processes to people living nearby and creating space for diverse species of native flora and fauna to coexist with their human neighbors. Case study examinations of community partners and their projects requires students to analyze through interviews, field visits, and document analysis the specific strategies implemented by the community partner, including any associated actors, and how their approach improves the environmental quality of a given area for residents and to what extent the project potentially gives residents and nonhuman nature greater access to nearby ecosystems as a result. By completing case studies of real-world examples, students wrestle with the role that regulatory and land-use decision-making, considerations of public and private property, social-cultural dynamics, and budgetary and technical constraints as well as different design approaches play in shaping the inclusion of nature in everyday places where we live, work, eat, and recreate.
-
Biophilia and Civic Engagement at Ursinus College Food Forest
Lexi Fowler, Kaitlyn McGinley, Grace Harris, and Marie Gazzillo
This Story Map discusses the history of conventional suburban development such as tract housing and the cultural norms of lawn care in suburban U.S. neighborhoods. It provides suggestions for increasing biophilic areas and details garden design choices of students planting in the Ursinus Food Forest.
-
Biophilia in the Suburbs: How we can Redefine Suburbia for a Biophilic Future
Diana Burk, Catherine Leahy, Austin Mickles, and Hannah Traub
This Story Map examines the traditional designs of suburban neighborhoods and discusses ways to alter these designs to help promote biophilia. It also shows ways to introduce native species to lawns, detailing ecosystem benefits for each plant.
-
Biophilic Gardens in Suburbia: A Visual Representation of Biophilia in Society
Amy Parzanese, Zach Berry, Sarah Fisher, and Trevor Mislan
This Story Map discusses various ways to implement biophilia in suburban environments, including biophilic buildings, pollination yards and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. It also provides a biophilic garden design layout that explains the ecosystem benefits of the native species planted.
-
Reimagining Suburban Nature
Sabina Villegas-Zwerg, Jagger Clapsadle, Annabel Baldy, and Jenna Lozzi
This Story Map examines the history of housing development in suburban spaces, including lawns and communal green spaces, and looks at ways to reintegrate nature in urban and suburban settings. Issues with implementing native gardens is also discussed.
-
Working Towards the Homegrown National Park
Natalie Jump, Jennifer Ronzoni, Tim Holzapfel, and Jake Nowacki
This Story Map discusses the history of conventional suburban development such as tract housing, neighborhood design and the cultural norms of lawn care in suburban U.S. neighborhoods. It provides suggestions for introducing biophilic areas in these spaces and notes the barriers hindering their adoption. Finally, it details the components of a proposed biophilic garden design and an example placement in a local neighborhood.
-
Restoring a Zacharias Creek Tributary: Stormwater Management in Upper Gwynedd Township
Sarah Becker, Cole Connelly, Heath Hidlay, Nick Kirk, Anna Lee, and Shawn Waldron
The Gwyneddere subdivision (off of Morris Road) in Upper Gwynedd Township is a suburban development constructed in the mid-1980s. The development is located in the Zacharias Creek, a subwatershed of Skippack Creek. The land on which Gwyneddere is currently located was formerly farmland, but is now characterized by single-family detached housing developments. This is a pattern that has repeated itself through much of Upper Gwynedd, with suburbanization in the township resulting in higher density development patterns than in nearby Worcester township.
Suburban housing developments are often interspersed with some open spaces, either owned and managed by the township or by a homeowners' association. In the case of Gwyneddere, the township owns key lands adjacent to and including small streams. Taking advantage of this land ownership, the township recently has undertaken diverse stormwater management efforts on these township-owned open spaces. At Gwyneddere and just off Morris Road, this management has predominantly taken the form of a stream realignment project and associated riparian buffer tree plantings. Both elements of this stream restoration are intended to reduce high sediment delivery and nutrient loads to the stream, minimize adverse stormwater effects, and mitigate flood risks to neighboring properties.
Information for the creation of this Story Map came from interviews with township officials, local residents, and non-profit representatives as well as through consulting state and federal agency websites related to stormwater issues in the U.S. Historical context about suburbanization came from academic works cited on the main Biophilic Suburbs Story Map.
