Designer Ecosystems: Incorporating Design Approaches into Applied Ecology
Abstract
To satisfy a growing population, much of Earth's surface has been designed to suit humanity's needs. Although these ecosystem designs have improved human welfare, they have also produced significant negative environmental impacts, which applied ecology as a field has attempted to address and solve. Many of the failures in applied ecology to achieve this goal of reducing negative environmental impacts are design failures, not failures in the science. Here, we review (a) how humans have designed much of Earth's surface, (b) the history of design ideas in ecology and the philosophical and practical critiques of these ideas, (c) design as a conceptual process, (d) how changing approaches and goals in subfields of applied ecology reflect changes and failures in design, and (e) why it is important not only for ecologists to encourage design fields to incorporate ecology into their practice but also for design to be more thoroughly incorporated into ours.
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Researchers have an opportunity to positively influence ditch design, use, and management.
“Given that people will continue to construct and maintain ditches, we as researchers have an opportunity to positively influence their design, use, and management 26 .”
From Lines in the landscape (2025) · cites this paper as [26]
Ditches will require ongoing adaptive management.
“Therefore, ditches will require ongoing adaptive management 26 .”
From Lines in the landscape (2025) · cites this paper as [26]
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- Authors
- Ross, M. R. V., Bernhardt, E. S., Doyle, M. W., & Heffernan, J. B.
- Affiliations
- Trinity College (CA)
- Duke University (US)
- Venue
- Annual Review of Environment and Resources
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2015-11-04
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 419-443
- ISSN
- 1543-5938 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-2050
- OpenAlex
- W2159007659
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 151
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 0.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annual Review of Environment and Resources (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Sustainable Design and Development
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Urban Planning and Landscape Design
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Environmental Philosophy and Ethics
- Keywords
- applied ecology, ecosystem design, design failure
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