Urbanisme et biodiversité: Vers un paysage vivant structurant le projet urbain

The consideration of nature in cities, and the integration of human settlements into a natural context is not recent. These efforts have been gradually strengthened in France throughout the twentieth century. The evolution of landscape practices in this country has contributed to this, transforming the art of the garden into a practice indispensable to urban design, as it contributes to a better understanding of the environmental dynamics inherent to cities. The book Urbanisme et biodiversité: Vers un paysage vivant structurant le projet urbain (Urbanism and Biodiversity: Towards a Living Landscape Structuring the Urban Project) looks at the results of this evolution at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The book is the result of a collaboration of nearly fifty scientists and practitioners who explored the points of convergence between a societal demand for nature in cities, a sense of environmental and climatic urgency, and scientific and technical knowledge in the fields of urban planning, ecological engineering, architecture and landscape design. The landscape is approached here as a natural and anthropogenic concept, but above all as a ‘living’ entity, in order to examine the convergences mentioned above. The living landscape legitimizes ecological processes and biodiversity, which are then placed at the heart of the planning and design process. The objectives of the book are therefore: 1) to contribute to the creation and preservation of urban ecosystems; 2) to give a legitimate place to the natural, ‘non-built’ environment in cities; and 3) to allow the emergence of a ‘biodiverse urbanism’ thanks to specific design, planning and construction processes. In the French context, these processes are still struggling to find their place for several reasons. On the one hand, there is sometimes a gap between the discourse and actions of politicians and other stakeholders from the public and private sectors to implement such processes. On the other, the lack of scientific, technical and methodological knowledge about the pragmatical development of ecosystems in urban settings contributes to a need for skills that are necessary to develop biodiversity-friendly urban projects. The work of Philippe Clergeau and his various co-authors responds to this last need, and contributes to the renewal of knowledge on biodiversity, landscape and urbanism in the French context. The book is divided into five distinct parts, themselves divided into chapters. The first part deals with the different definitions and issues related to ‘biodiverse urbanism’. It highlights concepts from the disciplines of ecology, landscape, sociology and even philosophy, and remains essentially conceptual and theoretical. The next two parts, on the other hand, are more operational in nature, and focus more on the design and planning processes related to biodiversity and landscape, first at the local level and then on a larger scale. At the local scale, the questions mainly addressed are related to the choice of plants, soil types and building materials that can host biodiversity. At the territorial scale, the issues related to the management of eco-corridors, urban morphology and urban planning regulations are predominantly raised. The fourth part of the book proposes a series of tools and methodologies to assist professionals in their planning, design and construction practices. These tools and methods concern, among other things, biomimicry, citizen participation, the development of urban planning laws and regulations integrating biodiversity, assessment tools related to the built and nonbuilt environment, the use of digital technologies, management methods, and artistic and sensitive approaches used for landscape design. This is undoubtedly the richest part of the book, or at least the most interdisciplinary, which will best satisfy pragmatic professionals. The last part offers some practitioners’ feedback on projects in which they have been involved, mainly on the French territory. These projects, known or less known, concern public spaces and parks (Rives de la Thure in Cernay, Saint-Ouen park), as well as real estate and architectural developments (ZAC 1 de Monges, Toulouse Métropole), and the implementation of urban planning regulations (PLU 2 de Bouc-Bel-Air). Some projects, such as the École de la biodiversité in Boulogne, are also cited as examples in other parts of the work. While the final part focuses on practitioners and specific urban projects only, each chapter in the previous sections is also accompanied by oneto two-page supplements on specific aspects of a particular project. Finally, each part concludes with factsheets on some French municipalities that have been awarded the title of biodiversity capital, in order to reward them for their biodiversity preservation efforts. While the superimposition of these chapters, supplements and factsheets contributes to the richness of the book, it sometimes tends to make the reading uneasy, as the reader can sometimes lose the thread of the argument. The book is therefore more appropriate in the context of targeted reading on a specific subject related to biodiversity and urban planning. In terms of content, it should be noted that certain notions are still little discussed, particularly in the economic field, which could nevertheless be of interest to urban project managers. While the book presents the advantages of urban ecosystem services mainly from an environmental and social point of view, it does not deal much with the economic valuation of such services, which could encourage project managers to use the approaches and methods presented. This is undoubtedly due to the selection of authors who are mainly ecologists, landscape designers, urban planners and architects, and not sociologists, economists, politicians and real estate developers; the latter could have brought a different perspective to the issue of ‘biodiverse urbanism’. In spite of these minor shortcomings, the book makes a real contribution to opening up new perspectives in the field of urban planning in France, Philippe Clergeau (ed.) Urbanisme et biodiversité: Vers un paysage vivant structurant le projet urbain ISBN 978 2843986420 Rennes: Apogée, 2020 328 pp., 172 illustrations 30 € (cloth)