Garden Cities in the New Millenia

This paper posits that the synergistic ecosystem benefits of urban biodiversity and human wellbeing through contact with urban nature are often overlooked in urban development and that they will become critically important as cities, around the planet, densify in the next three decades. A review of the history of gardens reveals that gardens have historically been idealized representations of the natural world that have provided food, aesthetic enjoyment, socialization, respite and wellbeing. Gardens and estates were intended to stimulate and to restore the mental capacities of their users and city parks were intended as a means of extending the healing effects of gardens to the lowest socio-economic members of society. In recent decades, researchers have confirmed the multiple mental and physical benefits that accrue from contact with nature and the especially beneficial results for children and people of lower socio-economic status. Unless current trends are reversed, urban densification, in the coming decades, will lead to loss of both gardens and urban green space and a concurrent loss of biodiversity and the cultural ecosystem services that support human well-being. Worldwide, loss of biodiversity is now estimated to be up to 1,000 times greater than normal levels. This is important because loss of biodiversity is linked to loss of ecosystem services. However, some cities have demonstrated urban development and loss of urban green space are not inevitable. Cities like Singapore have increased public green space while increasing population and density. Other dense cities have added more green-roofs, walls and buildings. Cities like Detroit are replacing urban blight with new public green spaces. The paper reviews the attributes of more biodiverse, more preferred and more restorative landscapes and closes with a number of normative principles that may be incorporated in urban planning to make New Garden Cities that support both biodiversity and human wellbeing.