Midwest as a Sustainable Region???

                In order to create a regional design that faces many of the challenges that designers have, the habits and opinions of the citizens has to be changed, or modified. This is linked to suburban sprawl because much of the negative aspects of sprawl have to do with the habits of the people that live in these areas. No matter how good a design may be, it’s the people that will use the design that will ultimately determine whether or not it is good for the environment, or if it has positive social and economic effects. All the porous pavement in the world can’t make a design “green” if residents are driving two blocks to drop their kids off at school and then driving a quarter mile to work every day. Designers have to change how people use their designs, and education is one step that we should take. People should know about paths and trails, and should be able to find out how far they live from certain amenities, and that they could, and should be walking or riding their bike places. The design of a region should allow people the most opportunities to make environmentally and economically beneficial decisions. Shopping at small businesses and family owned shops can greatly benefit local economies, so rather than planning a community around ease of accessing the Wal-Mart, communities should function around these small retail shops, and the communities should be walk able.

                Perhaps the most important environmental issue in my own opinion, is how we will adapt and merge wildlife habitat with inhabited land, or if we will continue to destroy and leave the country a barren, asphalt wasteland. Biodiversity is an incredibly important thing ecologically, but also economically, and socially. It creates stability and resiliency to ecosystems, and it can be valuable to economies that use eco-products. The number of species that can live in an area is directly influenced by the size of the habitat; this phenomenon is why islands have relatively low species diversity as compared to their mainland counterparts. By developing we are constantly decreasing the amount of habitat, and the habitat that is left is left splintered and only truly exists as small islands. This has destroyed ecosystems, biodiversity, and the number of native plants and animals in the Midwest. When designing regions, special attention should be paid to linking habitats and making these links substantial enough to allow animals to move through a larger network of habitats. Attention should also be paid to the smaller scale spaces that can act as habitat for certain species. The book “Brining Nature Home” by Douglas Tallamy talks about how we are taking away so much habitat to build more suburbs, and the only way to retain biodiversity is to allow our suburbs to act like habitat. Utilizing native plants is an important part, but the overall design and layout of spaces can also affect how much wildlife a region can support.

                Regional planning in the Midwest today has to deal with many challenges. Regions aren’t the same as they were decades ago, and many of the regions that are being designed are actually being redesigned. The best designs aren’t happening in undeveloped areas, and the designs have to respond to the existing infrastructure and residents. Our new landscapes will have to face the challenges, and if new designs can respond to the challenges, and solve the multitude of problems that we face on a regional scale in the Midwest, the environmental, social, and economic benefits would be immense.   

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