ASLA 2024 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. The Wharf’s 7th Street Park and Recreation Pier. Washington, District of Columbia. Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd. / The WharfExtreme heat, flooding, drought, sea level rise, wildfire, air and water pollution, and ecosystem loss and degradation transcend state and national borders and demand collective solutions.
ASLA and its 16,000 members will remain a leader in shaping science-based climate and biodiversity solutions that protect American and global health and well-being.
ASLA is committed to increasing investment in nature-based solutions locally, nationally, and internationally – action that is required to ensure the health of future generations and ecosystems.
The Value of Nature-Based Solutions
Nature-based solutions are infrastructure that use, restore, or emulate natural ecological processes and can be created through a design process.
Examples include:
- Floodplains
- Living shorelines
- Beaches
- Dunes
- Wetlands
- Reefs
- Islands
- Green roofs
- Tree canopies
- Rain gardens
- Bioswales
- Retention basins
- Permeable and pervious pavements
Their construction costs can be up to 30 percent less and their maintenance costs up to 25 percent less than conventional gray infrastructure. They are crucial to creating healthy communities that are better prepared for long-term heat, flooding, and other challenges and natural disasters.
Landscape architects are the only design professionals specifically educated and trained to develop nature-based solutions that address a range of community health, biodiversity, and economic challenges.
ASLA has produced important research – Landscape Architecture: Maximizing Economic Benefits of Nature-Based Solutions – that documents the economic effectiveness of designing with nature.
These solutions have been proven time and again to strengthen local economies, encourage new development, increase property values, reduce insurance risks and costs, and create good paying jobs that can’t be outsourced – in all communities across the nation.
ASLA research has found that in the United States:
- Sustainable design can create nearly 20 million jobs in grounds maintenance, sustainable urban planning development, renewable energy, construction, and green technology.
- Investments in parks and green space can generate between $4 and $11 for every dollar invested, due to increased tourism, improved property values, and enhanced community health.
- Every dollar invested in ecosystem restoration returns $5 to $28 in benefits.
- Ecosystem services from urban green spaces provide value — from $500 to $1,600 per acre per year.
ASLA will advance nature-based approaches that increase our collective resilience, create economic benefits, and protect public health, safety, and welfare:
Community Resilience: Landscape architects play a critical role in mitigating the effects of storm severity, implementing nature-based solutions in communities to reduce billions of dollars in damages annually. These proactive measures lessen the financial burden on federal disaster aid programs while safeguarding communities.
Thriving Economies: Landscape architects design nature-based solutions that generate substantial economic returns for rural, suburban, and urban communities. These solutions also reduce risk and therefore insurance costs.
Public Health, Safety, and Welfare: Landscape architects design safe solutions that improve public health by protecting our air, water, and natural resources; cool our communities; and provide access to nature and recreation.