Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 24

V EGETATION AND S ITE P LANNING

P LANTS AND P EOPLE

The human race could not exist without plants, yet their importance is persistently ignored by government, their officials, developers and individuals when they make decisions about what should happen on individual sites.

Plants are vital to human life because:

They provide oxygen we need to breath


They provide food we eat They provide the habitats to support wildlife and domesticated animals They provide the soul from erosion They control the rate at which rainwater is made available to the soil and underground water supplies They make soil fertile by providing humus and returning nutrients to the soil and influencing soil structure They make the climate more moderate locally and they also have major impact through the great forest on world and regional climates

Plants are fragile living organisms and if too many are removed it can lead some areas to environmental catastrophies.

Until recently plants were given a low priority by those involved in site development. Now, it is at least partly recognized that the conservation of plants where possible, should apply on all sites.

Particularly in cities it has been regarded as justifies to eradicate plants totally from a site.

Only recent have site planners and developers begun to understand that plants are more than decorative elements in cities for they have too often been seen as useful in improving the visual quality of the city. Now people are becoming aware that plants have an even greater influence over environmental health in the city than they have over the visual environment.

They perform many functions which make life in the city more bearable. For instance they modify:

Microclimate Reduce glare They create shade They influence the movement of air through the city and through its unbuilt areas They remove dust particles and cleanse the air of other impurities And increase the possibility of privacy

In addition, through the wildlife they support, plants provide signs of the link between man and nature which, as the Urban Wildlife movements of many European countries attest, is seen as of growing importance by city dwellers in the developed countries. Perhaps because in the modern industrial city populations are furthest removed from ultimate man or nature interface of having to work the land for food, they seem to be seeking to renew the link with nature in a new way within the city.

P LANTS AND S ITE P LANNING

Site planner must collect very detailed information about the plants that grown on and around the projects area so that they can understand the role that plats do and could play in the site layout proposal. The site planners has to understand the role of plants in the environment:

That plants can never be neglected by any site planner intent on producing an environmentally sensitive layout. That plants selection can never be arbitrary because all plants are site specific in their requirements for growth and survival.

There are sites where the use of plants is inappropriate but, to be able to identify where these are, the planner has to understand how plants are used in a wider areas than that covered by the project and, therefore, must always look beyond the immediate area of the site. The decision to preserve existing plants or to induce new ones should be arbitrary. It should relate to the area in which the site is located as well as to the character of the project. The positioning of the planted areas, the species used, whether the plants are native or exotic, will be determined by the site plan design. The choice should be guided by the information about site assessed in relation to the needs of the user.

P LANTS

ARE

L IVING T HINGS

Within development projects plants have rarely been understood as living elements in the landscape. Too often trees are regarded as sculptures, which will survive whatever happens around them. It appears probable that this lack of understanding of the trees, as a living elements requiring certain conditions for survival, is a reason for every high death rate among newly planted trees in recent development schemes.

Planting is often carried out in totally unsustainable soils, wit no proper preparation of the ground and with no aftercare. Perhaps due to the increasing public understanding of the natural environment, the way site planners and developers regarded plants to be changing. Public and political attitudes, however, need to change faster, if the continued erosion of natural vegetation and particularly decline in the number of mature trees is to be halted.

P LANT C OMMUNITIES

To those unfamiliar with plants is often appears that plants grow haphazardly. this impression of randomness is emphasized in Britain where, because of the mild climate, plants from all over the world flourish in parks and garden. In is generally only when, as site planners, we become concerned to conserve nature and the integrity of a landscape, or to keep the cost of landscape maintenance to a minimum that we realized the importance of using native and not exotic species.

Where it is the intention to conserve nature or produce a naturalistic landscape, it is necessary to work with plant communities. Native vegetation will support the greatest range of native wildlife. It also has the added advantage that if fits the local landscape, it looks right-its form(shape) is characteristic of local landscape, its colours blend with the local landscape, it is appropriate to use the native species of plants.

In addition, native vegetation has the advantage of being more resistant than exotic species to the plant growth problems associated with local fungi, aphids and plant disease. It is, therefore, sensible to use it where possible to minimize the long-term management cost associated with the care of all landscapes.

Major Factors influencing the characteristics of plant community

In a small country like Britain there are distinct vegetation changes in different parts of the countryside. These vegetation changes are because plants only tolerant of a certain range of conditions, some a wide range others a narrow range. Survival are determined by local climate and soil and influenced by the way in which people have tended the land in the past and present.

Plant Communities are change by the past and present actions of urban and rural populations.

Woodland felled

Wetland drained
Agriculture has been mechanized Artificial fertilizes used Grazing regimes change Towns built Bogs drained

In order to produce natural-looking landscapes and to conserve the local wildlife, the site planner has to know:

the range of plants that are locally important and to understand how they can be grouped together in communities, to function as support for different types of wildlife.

Needs to recognize the scarcity of natural and seminatural vegetation in various parts of the world and to ensure that any areas worthy of retention as a scarce resource occurring within the project site are conserve.
Also need to consider the impact of development within the project area on any adjacent or nearby areas of rare vegetation or plant communities.

For these reasons a detailed survey of plants immediately around the site is required. This information also gives the site planner who is working on the plantless site an idea of which plants might be appropriate in relation to the local natural environment.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi