High-Performance Landscapes: Re-Thinking Design and Management Choices to Enhance Ecological Benefits in Urban Environments

A growing body of research indicates that urban landscapes can support biodiversity and provide multiple ecosystem services. However, we still have limited knowledge about how specific design and management choices impact environmental benefits within highly modified landscapes. Furthermore, we know relatively little about the potential tradeoffs and synergies encountered when managing for multiple ecosystem services within urban landscapes. In this study, we address knowledge gaps in both research and practice by leveraging a 'designed experiment' approach that included a diverse team of researchers and practitioners to evaluate the impacts of designed landscapes on several focal environmental outcomes essential for urban sustainability. Specifically, we evaluated small-scale designed-landscape research plots that varied in plant richness, origin of vegetation, and drought tolerance, and we simultaneously quantified impacts on water conservation, pollinators, and maintenance-related impacts, as well as their intersection with aesthetic appeal for residents. Our results indicate that key landscape choices such as the selection of drought-tolerant plants and a diverse native plant palette can simultaneously enhance water conservation, increase resources for pollinators, and reduce maintenance impacts. Importantly, the designs that rated more highly in terms of visual quality were also those that supported higher pollinator biodiversity and required relatively little water for irrigation, indicating that synergy across multiple benefits is achievable in designed landscapes. In urban landscapes, aesthetic appeal is often a top priority, and our results indicate that visual quality does not need to be sacrificed in order to design landscapes that additionally support water conservation and provide resources for pollinators.