According to Robert Ricklefs, in his wonderful book appropriately titled Ecology, the study of the science of Ecological Design has two goals: to learn and to apply.

What will learning about ecological design bring to the table? How will we apply what we learn? Ecological design is rooted in attention to context and scale. As our cities grow and become massive conglomerated entities, we are losing sight of context and scale. Solutions to particular problems are best when they are localized, use existing and appropriate resources, and are both predictive and prescriptive.

Consider the tremendous problem of storm-water run-off. Impermeable city streets with aging and often inadequate sewer connections mean that water falls on the city, mixes with the blinding volume of toxins around us every day, and drains not to the water table, which is holding the ground up, but to the rivers, bays, estuaries, lakes, and oceans around our cities. Where is it going to go but back to us in spades?

Chicago, a city with a massive resource appropriate in its context and scale- alleyways- has come up with an ecological design solution for storm run-off: 1,900 miles of alleyways in the city are being sustainably retrofitted by the Chicago Department of Transportation. The Green Alley Program outlines a multi-pronged approach: permeable concrete (made of recycled materials) that allows storm water and snow melt to seep through the pavement into infiltration basins under the alley and then into the water table beneath the city; energy-saving street lighting (which incidentally is safer, as alleys are now better lit); and "high-albedo" pavers which reflect sunlight rather than absorbing it, reducing the city's heat island impact.

The Department of Transportation estimates that the green retrofits cost roughly twice as much as a "traditional" street retrofit. Since none of Chicago's alleys are connected to the sewer system and storm run-off therefore collects in people's backyards and basements, the city figures that the cost of the green retrofits offsets the cost of sewer hook-ups and homeowner insurance claims. That's ecological thinking- an emphasis on long term processes rather than on short term crisis-reaction models. The multi-faceted element of the green alley design speaks to Johnson and Hill's comment about the necessity for interdisciplinary approaches to design problems. What's to stop any city from applying the same kind of thinking?

Speaking of scale, what's to stop you and me from applying the same kind of thinking? We as citizens of one of these countries on the planet are constantly influencing decisions made by politicians and experts through our very actions. Knowing and understanding ecological design principles and processes makes a big difference when you stand before the Board of Supervisors or the city council or the state Senate or the Planning Commission.

Learning and applying ecological knowledge brings us closer to our environment and each other as we begin to understand our interdependence. Interdisciplinary design approaches mean more collaboration between people in various fields: ecologists working with history professors; city planners working with permaculture garden designers; scientists working with philosophers. There isn't an "other" in ecological terms, there is only "us." Humans are animals too, a keystone species, with tremendous capabilities; our only boundaries are ourselves.

For more information about ecological design:

Ecological Design Institute: http://www.ecodesign.org/

Ecology; Robert Ricklefs, 1973; Chiron Press, Massachusetts

Ecology and Design: Frameworks for Learning; ed. Bart R. Johnson and Kristina Hill, 2002; Island Press, Washington DC

More Books: http://www.ecobooks.com/catalogs/ecodesign.htm