Papers by Mary-Ellen Tyler
Ecological planning in an age of myth-information
Mary-Ellen Tyler emphasizes the ecological context of future planning. Warning us about the "... more Mary-Ellen Tyler emphasizes the ecological context of future planning. Warning us about the "myth-information" that can all too easily mislead us in this new age, Tyler highlights the question "What are we planning for?" We must now plan not so much for an urban "environment" as for an urban ecology, and we must make this kind of planning "human nature." Tyler focuses attention on innovative demonstration projects that embody the necessary type of "how" in response to her primary interest in "why."
Sustainable Development and Planning III, 2007
The Calgary region of south western Alberta, Canada, like other areas of western North America, i... more The Calgary region of south western Alberta, Canada, like other areas of western North America, is experiencing dramatic population growth. The cumulative effects of rapid urbanization and land use intensification, specifically related to water use in a semi-arid region, are poorly understood. But, this needs to be considered in sustainable land use planning and policy development at a regional scale. There is a growing awareness among the municipalities in the Calgary area that a coordinated inter-municipal 'partnership' approach is needed to address long term regional growth management. We present an innovative methodology to incorporate landscape ecology and ecological infrastructure into strategic policy planning for regional development. Our approach involves the identification of critical ecological infrastructure related to landscape hydrology, the development of ecological performance criteria and preferred spatial development patterns related to landscape heterogeneity and connectivity and ecological infrastructure capacity. The methodology incorporates current urban ecology and landscape ecology thinking and encompasses both the 'gray' and 'green' infrastructure needs necessary to support regional population growth patterns. Three methodological tools are used to spatially 'link' ecological infrastructure performance, landscape heterogeneity and land use change over time. The methodology will be coupled with cellular automata scenario modelling at a watershed scale. The paper demonstrates key principles by focusing on two critical ecological facets of the Calgary area's regional landscape: landscape connectivity and landscape hydrology.
Ecology and the Environment, May 27, 2013
Regional planning for sustainability is predicated on an ability to create and maintain resilient... more Regional planning for sustainability is predicated on an ability to create and maintain resilient social-ecological systems that are adaptable in the face of surprise and change. One of the central challenges is to understand, articulate and manage the connections between social systems and the physical environment. Over the last fifty years economic 'booms' associated with abundant oil and gas resources have driven rapid regional population growth and large scale landscape change in the Calgary region. However, the region is a semi-arid and temperate area where growth-related land use planning is quite literally water dependent. Climate change modeling suggests even warmer and drier conditions in the region making the critical relationship between land-use and water increasingly acute. A voluntary regional partnership of local municipal governments has emerged over the past six years to address common land use planning concerns emerging from the rapid anthropogenic and natural changes affecting the region. In this paper we explore some of the critical socialecological couplings that have emerged as drivers for sustainability and resilience in the Calgary region of southwestern Alberta, Canada. We posit critical social-ecological and spatial couplings involving: 1) the intersection of built infrastructure (transportation, irrigation and utility corridors) and ecological infrastructure (landscape connectivity), and 2) regional ecohydrology and human water use.
Modeling a Rapidly Urbanizing Regional Landscape to Assess Connectivity of Natural Integrity for Ecological Flows
Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and ExtraUrban Studies, 2014
ABSTRACT Multifunctional periurban landscapes generally constitute the most extensive interface b... more ABSTRACT Multifunctional periurban landscapes generally constitute the most extensive interface between nthropogenic infrastructure and ecological infrastructure. Within such areas, resilience and sustainability of essential ecological flows are predicated on maintaining or enhancing connectivity among remnant natural areas. However, the establishment of built infrastructure and metropolitan growth‐related land use change often results in fragmentation, habitat loss, and threats to ecological goods and services at a regional scale. We employ a non‐species‐based approach to landscape connectivity to assess spatial patterns of relatively natural areas in a rapidly urbanizing, multifunctional, periurban landscape in western Canada for the purpose of regional land‐use planning. We conducted a GIS spatial analysis based on “human footprint” data applied to land cover. Land‐use types were weighted according to their assumed relative impact on ecological function and the inverse of this human use layer provided a spatial index of natural integrity. We calculated ecological connectivity as a continuous gradient of permeability based on percolation theory and least‐cost distance methods for network analysis. Our results identify compelling patterns of connectivity flow) assessment for the surface of a regional landscape level. This information is being used in a transdisciplinary, applied research and practice partnership between researchers and regional planners to strategize spatial resilience and land use sustainability. The final maps represent a graphic ecological connectivity index for the region.
AMPS Proceedings Series 22.1, 2020
This is Manchester: We do things differently here Manchester, once the 'Industrial Capital' of th... more This is Manchester: We do things differently here Manchester, once the 'Industrial Capital' of the world, has long been a test bed for architectural and urban experimentation. From the early settlements that challenged the resilience of the Romans, and then the Vikings, through the massive boom of the industrial period, when such was the frenzy in the city that it earned the sobriquet Cottonopolis, beyond the economic melancholia of the late 20th century, to the unbridled optimism of the 21st. As a progressive city, Manchester has continually reinvented itself. The present reincarnation was led through cultural regeneration facilitated by the adaptive reuse of those great redundant industrial structures, it is a city that encourages smart technologies and embraces a community of 24 Hour Party People. Where better then to hold a conference that explores progressive architectural pedagogyespecially a virtual one! The architectural, landscape, and design studio is a laboratory for experimentation where students are encouraged and expected to question and disrupt the status quo, to explore possible different futures, and to propose radical solutions to unsolvable problems. The need to fuel this move away from more traditional tabular rasa education is the responsibility of academics, and this conference was a wonderful vehicle to explore, expound, discuss, and debate the future of architectural education. During the pandemic we have had to learn to do things differently, not to be down heartened by the difficulty of interacting solely through the computer, but to embrace the nearness that digital communication provides. We have adapted methods of teaching and learning to accommodate this extraordinary situation, we have creatively responded to the pandemic and developed strategies that encourage endeavour, promote wellbeing, and support scholarship. Extraordinary strategies are needed for an extraordinary situation. It was a great pleasure to be able to host the AMPS Teaching-Learning-Research: Design and Environments conference at the Manchester School of Architecture. It was lovely to welcome so many virtual guests to the city. The great success of the online event was the demonstrated by the enthusiasm with which speakers engaged with the conference, the quality of the post-session debate combined with the international dialogue and collaboration, (especially in this time of uncertainty) created by such global citizens. It is an honour to introduce the conference proceedings, presented here as collection of well argued, forward thinking, deliberately controversial, and valuable papers.
4. The Ecological and Political Landscapes of Alberta’s Hydrocarbon Economy
A Systems framework for environmental planning
Sustainable Energy Mix in Fragile Environments: A Transdisciplinary Framework for Action
The concept of “energy mix” is a function of context, scale, and energy source availability. To d... more The concept of “energy mix” is a function of context, scale, and energy source availability. To date, renewable energy sources (such as wind, solar, micro hydro, and biofuels) have been viewed as technical solutions primarily for local and regional needs although renewable energy production has the potential to be expanded at much larger scales and in much larger markets. Regardless of the type of energy source, there are always a variety of contextual factors affecting source selection, production, distribution, demand and price. A long-term sustainable approach to designing energy mix in fragile environments needs a strategic approach to identifying factors affecting energy choice limitations and opportunities. Therefore, understanding energy mix alternatives in the context of dynamic interactions among social, economic, and environmental systems is key to implementing sustainable energy mixes in fragile environments. A transdisciplinary approach for integrating knowledge from mul...
Adaptation and transfer of remote sensing technology to a native tribal group for resource management
Water Resources Management X, Jul 16, 2019
The Bow River Basin Council (BRBC) functions as both an environmental governance network (EGN) an... more The Bow River Basin Council (BRBC) functions as both an environmental governance network (EGN) and a bridging organization for watershed management in the Calgary region of southwestern Alberta, Canada. BRBC's structure and function are examined to understand its role in inter-jurisdictional, cross-sectoral watershed management. EGNs such as BRBC emerge in complex social-ecological systems, and influence policy development and municipal participation in watershed management activities, manage information flows, and close functional cross-scalar "gaps" in government policy and regulation. Self-selecting and voluntary, BRBC stakeholders reflect multiple and sometimes competing sectoral interests in water and watershed management. EGNs such as BRBC may be structured to function as bridging organizations, brokering between actors in the watershed to achieve common watershed management objectives. The BRBC performs valuable functions for social learning, co-creation of knowledge, and collaborative and adaptive watershed management planning. Reflexive legal processes may provide the necessary procedural mechanisms to legitimize BRBC's decision-making processes and co-created watershed management plans.
Climate Change Policy as a Catalyst for Sustainable Energy Practice: Examples from Mainland Ecuador and the Galapagos
Ecuador’s comprehensive policy approach to diversify energy mix and reduce net emissions though i... more Ecuador’s comprehensive policy approach to diversify energy mix and reduce net emissions though increased energy efficiency is the primary driving force behind the following two case studies. The first illustrates a sustainable (social, economic, environmental) planning process for two large-scale solar energy projects in mainland Ecuador. The second case examines the potential for increasing energy efficiency through energy audits in the Galapagos Islands.Both cases illustrate lessons learned in shifting toward sustainable energy development planning and energy management. These two examples illustrate that even with a supportive national policy framework, there are still a number of social, economic, environmental, technical, political, and operational challenges that need to be addressed at different scales and in different contexts to improve sustainable energy practice.
Sustainable Energy Mix + Fragile Environments in Canada’s Northern Coastal Zone: Is Technology Enough?
Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands
Bridging organizations and strategic bridging functions in environmental governance and management
International Journal of Water Resources Development
An approach to maintaining hydrological networks in the face of land use change
Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
Ephemeral drainage patterns in the prairie pothole region of southern Alberta are not well unders... more Ephemeral drainage patterns in the prairie pothole region of southern Alberta are not well understood at the landscape level. Municipal land use planning generally places very few constraints on development, which can leave the existing landscape topography and drainage patterns highly modified and engineered. Few if any features that exist within the pre-development landscape remain post-development. Part of the residential or industrial land development process is the creation of master drainage plans which focus on collecting and moving precipitation or snow melt away from roads and buildings through drainage ponds and piping systems. However, in prairie pothole landscapes, there is a landscape hydrology system that connects wetlands and sub-surface soil moisture flows and involves significant ephemeral components. These existing landscape flow systems provide ecosystem services in both flood and drought conditions. However, conventional land conversion processes do not generally...
A Normative Model for Urban Ecology Practice: Establishing Performance Propositions for Ecological Planning and Design
Urban Ecology, 1998
A Social-Spatial Approach to Ecological Governance
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review
The authors are involved in regional land use planning and water management in the Calgary region... more The authors are involved in regional land use planning and water management in the Calgary region of Southwestern Alberta in Western Canada. Calgary exists in a semi-arid temperate region with significant water availability constraints. Over the last three years ...
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Papers by Mary-Ellen Tyler