The well-being of human communities depends on the resources nature provides. These include raw materials, food, water, fuel, and fertile soils that help clean and recycle waste from human activity. Nature also offers vital “ecosystem services,” such as forests absorbing carbon dioxide, converting it into biomass, and helping combat climate change.
However, nature’s ability to supply resources or absorb waste isn’t limitless—this capacity is known as biocapacity. Some regions, like the Amazon, have high biocapacity and relatively low human demand. Others, like cities, demand far more resources than their ecosystems can provide. Cities rely on vast surrounding areas to supply food, water, and materials, as well as to absorb waste, including carbon emissions.
In the past, cities could only grow as much as local ecosystems allowed. But with the rise of fossil fuels and advanced transportation, urban areas began importing resources from farther away, enabling rapid growth and higher living standards. Unfortunately, this also created global environmental problems. Over the past 150 years, the overuse of natural resources and reliance on fossil fuels have improved living conditions but at the cost of rising global temperatures and declining ecosystem health.
Nature-Based Solutions (NBS)
One way to design these hybrid landscapes is through Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). These strategies use natural processes and elements to solve human challenges like climate change, food security, and biodiversity loss. For example, planting a forest can absorb CO2, boost biodiversity, regulate water, and provide shaded areas for recreation.
Unlike traditional land use, which often focuses on a single purpose (like farming), NBS aim to deliver multiple benefits from the same area—such as food production, water management, and pollinator support. For these solutions to work, they must enhance biodiversity, ensuring ecosystems are robust enough to adapt to changes over time.
When combined, NBS can create green infrastructure—a network of natural and semi-natural spaces designed to provide a variety of benefits, from cleaner air and water to more livable cities. By focusing on sustainable, multifunctional landscapes, NBS allow communities and the environment to thrive together.
Biodiversity and Hybrid Landscapes
Biodiversity—essentially the variety of life in an area—is a key indicator of ecosystem health. It supports the services that ecosystems provide, from carbon storage to food production, and makes systems more resilient to changes. Sadly, climate change and biodiversity loss are interconnected: rising temperatures and altered water cycles harm biodiversity, and this loss, in turn, weakens ecosystems’ ability to mitigate climate change.
Modern development has fragmented natural landscapes into isolated patches, making it harder for plants and animals to adapt to environmental changes. Without connected habitats, species face limited chances of survival. Even small disruptions can threaten the survival of isolated populations.
To counter this, we need to reconnect and expand natural spaces. Parks, green corridors, urban gardens, and even green roofs can help. These interconnected “hybrid landscapes” support both nature and human life, offering a balance between urban development and ecological preservation. By creating such spaces, we can foster biodiversity, adapt to environmental changes, and improve life for both people and wildlife.
The challenges we face—climate change, biodiversity loss, and the overuse of natural resources—are daunting, but they also present an opportunity to rethink how we live and build. By working with nature rather than against it, we can design spaces that sustain both people and the planet.
Nature isn’t just a resource to be exploited; it’s a partner in creating a healthier, more resilient future. Whether it’s reconnecting habitats, supporting biodiversity, or embracing Nature-Based Solutions, the choices we make today can shape a better tomorrow.
It’s time to demand greener cities, protect our wild spaces, and champion innovative solutions that put life—human and non-human—at the center of our designs. Because when nature thrives, so do we. Let’s build a world where sustainability isn’t just a buzzword but a way of life.
