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This practicum investigates the application of ecological literacy theory to the practice of landscape architecture. Ecological literacy can be defined as the ability to comprehend the complex relationships of one’s surrounding environment and live life with greater environmental sensitivity. The Lake Winnipeg watershed is home to over 5 million people, and draws its water from four Canadian provinces and four American states. With the anthropogenic manipulation of the landscape, native watershed functions like water retention and filtration have been compromised. Each year, increasing amounts of phosphorus enter the lake from agricultural and urban fertilisers and effluents. This nutrient loading creates algal blooms toxic to humans and other species that rely on the lake for survival. The proposed programmatic framework and design interventions are intended to address these impacts by fostering watershed sustainability and ecological literacy, while engaging citizens in the processes associated with increasing local ecological integrity.

En este artículo panorámico se muestra cómo se está abordando hoy la relación entre ciudad y naturaleza entre los estudiosos y profesionales de Estados Unidos. En el contexto de una "ciudad sin límites" se ordenan las ideas en tomo a cuatro conceptos: ecología urbana, sostenibilidad, nuevo regionalismo y urbanismo del paisaje, asociados a una comprensión más abierta de los ecosistemas urbanos. La "ecología urbana" emerge como una aproximación interdisciplinar para comprender las "reglas, patrones, procesos y resultados" asociados a los paisajes urbanizados. Desde el liderazgo de algunas ciudades como Nueva York, Chicago, Seattle y Portland, se han desarrollado esfuerzos por mejorar lo elementos de la naturaleza en la ciudad desde principios de sostenibilidad. La nueva perspectiva regionalista se manifiesta en los esfuerzos asociados al concepto de mega-región y de megalópolis: una nueva unidad de análisis geográfico y una nueva escala para la planificación. Este nuevo regionalismo representa un movimiento liderado por arquitectos y urbanistas implicando a geógrafos, demógrafos y legisladores. Finalmente, el "paisajismo urbano" es un enfoque más proyectual. Frente a la naturaleza en la ciudad comenzamos a comprender la ecología de las ciudades: los sistemas urbanos son ecosistemas. Como resultado la naturaleza no puede ya utilizarse como algo decorativo sino como algo esencial que pertenece a la salud y a la resiliencia de los asentamientos humanos., This panoramic view shows how are focused today the relationships between Nature and the City by research scholars and practitioners in North America. In the American context of an "endless city", it develops four key ideas for a better approach to urban ecosystems: urban ecology, sustainability, new regionalism and landscape urbanism. Urban ecology has emerged as an interdisciplinary approach for understanding the "drivers, patterns, processes, and outcomes" associated with urban and urbanizing landscapes. With the leadership of several American cities, as New York City, Chicago, Seattle and Portland, urban greening efforts based on principles of sustainability are developed. The new perspectives on regionalism are evident in different efforts associated with the megaregion/megapolitan concept: a new geographic unit of analysis and a new scale for planning. This new regionalism represents a movement led by architects and planners involving geographers, demographers, and policy makers. Finally, landscape urbanism is a more design-based approach. Instead of viewing nature in the city, we have begun to understand the ecology of cities: the urban systems are ecosystems. As a result, "nature cannot be used as exterior decoration, but rather as integral to the health and resiliency of human settlement".