ABSTRACT
If health can be described as the ability to withstand stress, then ecological diversity also implies health. Odum has commented: ‘the most pleasant and certainly the safest landscape to live in, is one containing a variety of crops, forests, lakes, streams, roadsides, marshes, seashores and waste places – in other words, a mixture of communities of different ecological ages.’22 Diversity makes social as well as biological sense in the urban setting since the requirements of an infinitely diverse urban society implies choice. The quality of life implies, among other things, being able to choose between one place and another, between one lifestyle and another. It implies interest, pleasure, stimulated senses and varied landscapes. The city that has places for foxes and owls, natural woodlands, trout lilies, marshes and fields, busy plazas, markets, noisy as well as quiet places, playing fields and formal gardens is more interesting and pleasant to live in than one that does not have such places. The city also needs well-defined, identifiable districts that determine many different kinds of place throughout the urban area and that reinforce the changing social, business, commercial and environmental character of the city on a larger scale. This is particularly significant in urban renewal projects such as waterfronts that have developed a unique sense of place through years of neglect. Outdoor storage areas, rusting cargo ships that once plied the waterways and oceans, lift bridges, rail spurs, storage silos, regenerating vegetation and naturalized road verges all speak to their unique history and character. The temptation to renew such areas without recognizing their inherent personalities is a recipe for missed opportunities to celebrate the city’s diversity.
