Landscape engineering is a powerful tool for reconciling the needs of communities and healthy ecosystems. By designing corridors that facilitate the movement of wildlife through human developments, landscape architects can create public parks that benefit both humans and wildlife. In addition, they can design plant communities and ecosystems that are both aesthetically pleasing and provide valuable ecosystem services. Biophilic urban planning approaches can also be used to adapt these designed ecosystems to the tensions of urban life. When it comes to residential plans, areas of open public space and gardening provisions can provide some benefits to nature.
Different types of habitats have different “values” for nature conservation, so landscaping proposals must be designed to meet the objectives set out in national planning policy frameworks (NPPF) and effectively comply with the principles of net biodiversity gain. By understanding the role of urban biodiversity as a crucial element of urban ecosystems and an important component of a region's ecological and cultural identity, landscape designers and planners are incorporating more native species into landscape and park designs. To support native biodiversity, landscape architects, conservation biologists and other groups are linking landscape design with the structure and function of ecosystems to create and restore habitats and reintroduce native species to cities. The English landscape style of the 18th century followed the fundamental designs of the Picturesque Movement, an approach to landscape design formulated and based on the variety and irregularity of nature. The Gardenesque style, which succeeded the Picturesque Movement, had an even greater influence on the style of Western landscape architecture than the English landscape style. Current knowledge of ecosystem patterns and processes related to landscape design allows people to build sustainable landscapes for humans, flora and fauna. The predominance of non-native species in urban landscapes has led to the evaluation of species traits to identify why invasive species are so successful in urban landscapes.
Frederick Law Olmsted, the famous American landscape architect who is often referred to as the “father of landscape architecture”, literally created parks around the world that followed the English style. In their landscape design and management, many cities, gardening companies and nurseries are moving away from non-native species and becoming native (Ignatieva et al.). In general, the adaptability of a species to human infrastructure and to the mosaic of the landscape often determines its ability to survive in the urban landscape. The most influential landscape architecture styles, recognized worldwide, are simplified versions of English landscape and gardenesque styles. Landscape engineering is a powerful tool for promoting biodiversity. By designing corridors that facilitate wildlife movement through human developments, creating plant communities that increase ecosystem services, adapting designed ecosystems to urban life, incorporating native species into landscapes and parks, linking landscape design with ecosystem structure and function, evaluating species traits to identify why invasive species are successful in urban landscapes, and using simplified versions of English landscape and gardenesque styles, landscape architects can help create sustainable landscapes that benefit both humans and wildlife.
