Urban nature at the heart of contemporary ecological issues

Bibliographical resource

2024

Agence nationale de la cohésion des territoires (ANCT)

On the occasion of the launch of the Fabrique Prospective ‘Nature in priority neighbourhoods: what levers for the ecological transition, employment, social cohesion and territorial cohesion?’, Veille & Territoires offers a selection of bibliography co-developed with Elodie Bourgeois, head of foresight and innovation at ANCT.

What place for nature in the city? How can construction and renaturation be reconciled? What tools should be used to promote nature? The services provided by nature and the responses it offers to climate change - cooling, well-being, infiltration of rainwater and restoration of biodiversity - are now well established. However, this nature that is essential for a resilient city has yet to find its place in urban development projects and planning documents. publications.cerema.fr/webdcdc/les-essentiels/nature-ville-demain/datas/pdf/ville-demain.pdf

While the idea of integrating biodiversity into the design of development projects has become widespread, the method of thinking of the urban environment as an evolving ecological system remains little known. Here, the authors outline the central principles. metropolitiques.eu/Projets-urbains-regeneratifs-de-l-idee-a-la-methode.html

The National Assembly’s Sustainable Development and Town and Country Planning Committee has entrusted Sophie Métadier, MP for Indre-et-Loire (UDI et Indépendants) and Valérie Petit, MP for Nord (Agir ensemble), with a ‘flash mission’ devoted to the issue of nature in the city. At a time when the health crisis has heightened the French people’s need for nature, the place and role of nature in urban areas deserve to be improved because of the many environmental, economic, social and health benefits it brings, not to mention its contribution to urban biodiversity. Urban nature also contributes to individual well-being and to combating the effects of climate change. The communication (22 p.)

www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/content/download/462222/4510458/version/3/file/Communation+MI+flash+nature+in+cities.pdf

The summary: www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/content/download/462219/4510434/version/1/file/Synth%C3%A8se+MI+flash+nature+in+cities.pdf

Video replay: event.assemblee-nationale.fr/video.11901904_62150554757ef.commission-du-developpement- durable--conclusions-des-missions-flash-sur-la-nature-en-ville-et-sur-l-22-fevrier-2022

The city certainly transforms nature, but does nature transform the city? At a time when the issues surrounding nature in general are becoming more widespread, this book provides an answer by analysing new forms of nature in the city: urban green spaces, urban agricultural areas and their antonyms, urban wasteland. Looking beyond the superficial consensus that nature in the city inspires, the authors examine the reality of public action in this area. To what extent is nature renewing urban policies? Are semi-natural spaces in cities conceived and implemented as urban infrastructure? Are the informal uses of these spaces by residents, which reflect the diversity of functions of urban land, simply taken into account by public action? The study follows eight case studies from France, Brazil and Tunisia. halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03316103

From the same authors and same collection:

In many local and regional authorities, ecological skills are on the rise and are providing upstream support for urban projects to take account of plants in developments and enhance biodiversity. Analyses, examples and testimonials on the growing and desired role of nature in the city. www.lagazettedescommunes.com/777733/la-ville-redonne-enfin-une-place-a-la-nature/?abo=1

An interdisciplinary survey of the intertwined dynamics of the greening of the city and the urbanisation of ecology. After long neglecting the city, ecology has now entered the city and is seeking to make the urban ecosystem its own. The stakes are high in an increasingly urbanised world. This collective work examines the different facets of this ecology that is becoming urbanised, offering a cross-section of perspectives from the human and social sciences, the natural sciences and urban managers. The aim is to answer two main questions. Firstly: What is the city doing to ecology? How is it changing its concepts, practices and imagination? And secondly: What is ecology doing to the city? How is it influencing contemporary urban management and design?

www.uga-editions.com/menu-principal/collections-et-revues/toutes-nos-collections/ecotopiques/quand-l-ecologie-s-urbanise-877113.kjsp?RH=1536914714291

Contents: www.uga-editions.com/medias/fichier/tdm-quand-lecologie-surbanise_1638090006687-pdf

The rapid expansion of urbanised areas is affecting biodiversity, homogenising landscapes and transforming lifestyles by rarefying sensitive experiences of natural environments. This dossier explores the responses that urban space designers can provide to the ecological and political urgencies. metropolitiques.eu/L-urbanisme-ecologique-un-nouvel-imperatif.html

With more than 80% of the French population living in cities, and environmental concerns on the rise, the French are yearning for a new form of closeness to nature, a need confirmed and reinforced by the successive confinements during the Covid-19 crisis. As a result, cities are becoming greener and more respectful of the environment and biodiversity. This publication, aimed primarily at local authority elected representatives and technicians, aims to provide the keys to deciding, designing and implementing a resilient territorial project based on nature in the city. www.mission-economie-biodiversite.com/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2021/06/N17-COMPRENDRE-FR-MD- WEB-2.pdf

What place does urban planning give to ecological thinking? Describing the uses of plants in the city since the 19th century, Charles-François Mathis examines the historical development of planning approaches and the foundations of the advent of ‘ecological urbanism’. metropolitiques.eu/L-emergence-de-la-pensee-ecologique-en-ville.html

Among the questions posed by the authors: how can we think about the city’s capacity to host the richest possible biodiversity, without knowing how it unfolds within the built matrix? What organisation of space, on the scale of the neighbourhood, is most conducive to its inclusion in the network of habitats and ecological corridors needed for species to complete their life cycle and disperse? www.urbanisme-puca.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/morgane_flegeau_baumwebv3.pdf

Despite the introduction of nature protection policies in France at the beginning of the 20th century, many natural habitats are now severely degraded. Human activities are putting pressure on natural habitats and disrupting ecosystems: climate change, soil sealing, dwindling stocks of non-renewable natural resources, air, water and soil pollution, etc. The resulting erosion of biodiversity is extremely worrying. This observation calls for a renewal of nature protection policies. In addition to strengthening and networking protected natural areas, biodiversity issues need to be systematically integrated into development projects and urban planning operations, including in towns and private areas (gardens, shopping areas, industrial estates, etc.). agence-cohesion-territoires.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2020-11/0202_anct-transition-eco_tome-2-web_0.pdf

With the disappearance of so many species, researchers are now talking about the 6th extinction. Urbanisation and development are partly to blame for this situation: pollution, excessive consumption of resources, destruction of natural areas, fragmentation of habitats, sealing of soils, etc. But they can also help to solve the problems. Nature-based solutions and environmentally-friendly land-use planning methods do exist. As social demand for these solutions continues to grow, responses are emerging. The challenges we face today call for a new way of looking at things, and for us to consider that the living world is just as important as the built environment, and that they can even coexist or merge. All that remains is to be inventive, to rethink urban forms and develop knowledge of environments in all their diversity and interactions. Without losing sight of the fact that there is no single model. diagonal.hypotheses.org/files/2022/03/Diagonal208.pdf

The greening of cities is one of the recurring themes of the 2020 municipal election campaign, with a general trend towards greening the programmes of the various candidates. But is this enough? What kind of nature should we have in the city, what species should we favour, and why should the debates take greater account of the need to preserve biodiversity? Interview with Philippe Clergeau, professor of ecology at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, consultant in urban ecology and specialist in these issues. tnova.fr/notes/verdir-ne-suffit-pas-quelle-nature-en-ville

Today, a new relationship seems to be emerging between the city and nature. This article identifies the factors underpinning this new interest in nature in the city. It explores several avenues: the rise in ecological awareness, the effects of the urbanisation process and the spread of new information and communication technologies, and the growing awareness of the benefits of nature, particularly for human health. It examines the pluralistic nature of nature in the city, highlighting the various functions performed by plants in the city and their positive effects on the living environment of city dwellers. It concludes with the quest for a new harmony between the city and nature, and the unthinkable aspects of public policies on nature in the city. www.cairn.info/revue-d-economie-regionale-et-urbaine-2019-5-page-893.htm

Initiatives to reintroduce nature into the city are flourishing at different levels (political, civic) and from different perspectives (food, biodiversity). Does this development symbolise a more global reconciliation between our society and nature? This article attempts to show the complexity of the various forms of interaction between the city and nature, in the sense that this issue cannot be considered in isolation from the dependencies and effects of the city on nature both near and far. Against the backdrop of the globalised capitalist model, nature is ultimately destined to be mobilised, controlled and exhibited for social ends, to impose or criticise the dominant model. At the same time, nature retains its own dynamic, which is beyond human control, even in the city. www.cairn.info/revue-du-mauss-2019-2-page-95.htm

Nature in the city’ is at the heart of contemporary issues. By providing major ecological services (reducing pollution, heat islands, run-off water, etc.) in an increasingly dense and mineral urban environment, nature in all its forms is essential for tackling the environmental challenges of global warming and the erosion of biodiversity, but also for contributing to a more pleasant living environment and meeting human health challenges. To speed up the process of ‘renaturation’ of cities, this opinion stresses the need to include nature in all public policies and to make it a structuring element of urban development. Cese stresses the social importance of ‘nature in the city’, which must meet the needs of residents but also contribute to the solidarity of cities with the countryside, which continues to be artificialised by urban sprawl. www.lecese.fr/sites/default/files/pdf/Avis/2018/2018_21_nature_ville.pdf

In the quest for a better quality of life, both material and immaterial, man is becoming aware of his essential role. The utopias of yesteryear, such as that of Ebenezer Howard (1898) and his garden cities (which sought to combine nature and urbanity), are now becoming the inescapable reality of urban planning. Man seems to be becoming a homo qualitus. Aware of the constraints that weigh upon them, Western city dwellers are reintroducing nature into their living spaces in small ways. A metamorphosis is taking place within cities: the plant world is re-emerging. But what is this nature, the object of the city-dweller’s desire? This desire is difficult to grasp, because of its very essence and the complexity of the idea of nature. However, the majority of city dwellers want nature to be comfortable, shaped by and for them (section 1), and the way in which they satisfy this desire takes very different and constantly evolving forms (section 2). City dwellers are rediscovering the benefits of nature and seeking to enjoy them. Nature is becoming a marketing tool, used to reduce certain urban nuisances. halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01930353

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