Urban Regions : Ecology and Planning Beyond the City

Land-mosaic perspective 17

Figure 1.3Landscape structure, function, and change altered by outward

urbanization from a metropolitan area. Relative to regional urbanization patterns,

thecentral patch of multi-unit housing is compact development, the older group of

house lots on right was sprawl when built, and, at a broader scale, the residential

developments in the landscape represent a sprawl, rather than compact or

contiguous, arrangement. Northwest of Baltimore, Maryland (USA). Photo courtesy

of US Department of Agriculture.

approach. Landscape ecology is at exactly the right spatial scale for effective
planning. It explicitly integrates nature and people. Its principles work in any
landscape, from urban to forest and cropland to desert. Its spatial language is
simple, facilitating easy communication among land-use decision-makers, pro-
fessionals, and scholars of many disciplines. Centered on spatial pattern at the
human scale, landscape ecology is directly usable.
Like a cell or human body, the landscape exhibits three broad character-
istics, structure, function, and change (Forman1995). Landscapestructureor
patternis simply the spatial arrangement of the elements present, the natural
areas and human land uses (Figure1.3). Landscapefunctioningis the movement
or flows of water, materials, species, and people through the pattern (Harris
et al.1996, Forman 1999, 2002b). Andchangeis the dynamics or transformation
of pattern over time, somewhat analogous to sequential images seen by turning a
kaleidoscope.
Conveniently, the land mosaic or structural pattern may be modeled or under-
stood using only three types of elements: patches, corridors, and a background