314 Gathering the pieces
Extensive canal irrigation system.Bangkok, Cairo, Fresno (USA)
Aquaculture areas in proximity, as source of food and water pollution.Bangkok
City located on coast without a major bay or natural harbor.Barcelona,
Chicago, Toronto, AlgiersTransportation, industry, and pollution
Large number of major airports in urban region. London, Moscow, San
Diego/Tijuana
Nearest major airport relatively far from city center.Stockholm, Kagoshima,
Cuttack, Milan
Access to outside world limited to air or boat travel.Iquitos
Several prominent concentric ring highways.Beijing
Commuter rail system essentially restricted to metro area. Beijing, Cairo,
Portland,Edmonton
Shipping/ferry port for nearby offshore oil field. Samarinda, New Orleans
(USA), Maracaibo (Venezuela)
This array of good, bad, and interesting patterns for urban region ecology and
planning is, of course, incomplete. No summary is perfect or complete, and each
reader is likely to note controversial items. A perusal of the figures through this
book underlies how many more patterns could be added. Nevertheless, what can
be done with such highlighted patterns?
Put them right to work improving urban regions. Two points are important.
First, the patterns do not point to a single big best solution for shaping cities or
urban regions. No magic solution or cookie-cutter approach exists. Who would
want to visit Europe or Asia and find cities all look similar or the same? Putting
principles to work helps avoid pitfalls, but most importantly creates solid foun-
dations. From these, distinctiveness and glory can evolve and persevere.
Second how do we proceed? In simplest terms for a particular city, sort
through the good and bad patterns and select a good batch. Perhaps evaluate
different combinations, gradually discarding the least useful items. The enjoy-
able weaving process begins when a few of the collected patterns mesh nicely
with the existing mosaic in the urban region of interest. Try roughly outlining,
or sketching, or model-building the evolving mosaic, as items are continually
added and discarded. Keep the changing outlines to marvel at the progress. The
resulting tapestry should certainly transcend today’s urban region. The Barcelona
Region plan (Chapter 10 )emergedfrom a primitive version of this process.