Revealing Climate Change Mitigation in the Landscapes of the Future

Revealing Climate Change Mitigation in the Landscapes of the Future: Retrofitting Residential Neighbourhoods, A Burnaby Case Study

Ellen Pond

Faculty supervisor: Dr. Stephen Sheppard
Second mentor: Dr. Patrick Mooney 

Climate stabilization will require 80% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  This project researched how to retrofit existing residential neighbourhoods to reduce emissions by 80% from household energy, transportation and food, while allowing for population increases.  Working across scales and using site-specific solutions led to adaptive, localized energy systems, an innovative urban agriculture system, and a transportation system retrofitted for pedestrian/transit.  The project demonstrates the critical contribution of Landscape Architecture to climate change mitigation.

The research focused on finding solutions that can be spatialized and applied to a specific neighbourhood, and developing a process for site-adaptive climate change mitigation in local neighbourhoods.  Working within a Low-Carbon future scenario, the project assumed intensive, immediate and ongoing climate change mitigation out to 2050, with resultant fewer climate change impacts such as water shortages than under a Business-as-Usual scenario.

The study area is located within the Still Creek watershed in Burnaby, British Columbia.  As a suburb of Vancouver, the existing low-density residential neighbourhoods are car-serviced and rely on 100% imports of food and energy (natural gas and electricity).  Steep slopes separate the neighbourhoods from an elevated Light Rapid Transit system (Skytrain).  The climate is a mild maritime one, with wet winters and cool summers.

This project is the first holistic neighbourhood study of how to achieve a low-carbon future. With the site system plan, each block can be located within site adaped and specific systems.  Climate change mitigation has been spatialized and localized.  Each block has multiple-functions and a landscape structure that reflects its agricultural potential, its energy source (with careful tree placement for PV and passive solar), and the movement system. Together, they form a holistic set of systems that should be able reduce GHG emissions by over 80%.

The landscape of our cities has a very significant role to play in climate change mitigation.  Density increases need to be linked not only to transportation and services needs, but also to local energy production sites.  Energy sourcing for heating can be solved with technical changes that can be embedded into neighbourhoods without large behavioural changes.  Agriculture/food will require larger behavioural/visual changes.  Transportation will be the most difficult to directly control through design solutions: enhancing the pedestrian realm, and moving resources away from cars provide the most direct changes, which, according to Gehl, can result in significant quantitative increases in pedestrian usage (2008).

This project found that there is no need for extraordinary solutions.  All of the solutions are quite simple, using current and existing technologies, although sometimes in new ways.  It is the combination of ordinary actions that can create extraordinary results, a series of small moves that can significantly alter the landscape of our cities and our capacity to both mitigate climate change and increase local resilience.  The solutions are both incredibly simple, and yet require a 180 degree change of thinking – a lack of vision remains our biggest barrier.