Society of Landscape Architects releases guide to resilient design
By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor
A recently released online guide from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) explains how communities can better protect themselves from natural disasters through resilient landscape planning and design.
The goal of resilient landscape planning and design is to retrofit communities to recover more quickly from extreme events in the near future and over the long term. The guide is organized around disruptive events: drought, extreme heat, fire, flooding, and landslides. Biodiversity loss is also addressed.
The guide includes hundreds of case studies and resources demonstrating large multi-benefit systems as well as small-scale solutions. It explains landscape architects’ role in planning within design teams to make communities more resilient.
“In an age of rising waters and temperatures and diminishing budgets, the best defenses are adaptive, like nature,” according to ASLA. Some solutions help boost quality of life, as well. For example, green infrastructure designed to control flooding also provides community space and creates jobs.