Bringing Nature Back To The City

I still remember my surprise watching chef Jamie Oliver quiz a group of schoolchildren on different types of fruits and vegetables. He held up a tomato and asked the children what it was, only to be met with confused looks and silence. The first child to hazard a guess said “potato.” When Oliver mentioned its relationship to ketchup, one said, “Oh, I know tomato ketchup,” easily recognizing the processed food.


Modernity and urbanization have afforded us many luxuries, such as the possibility of getting food on our table without having to deal with food production processes like farming or even cooking. At the same time, there are increasing public awareness and concerns about how we manage our natural resources, triggered by events such as the Flint water crisis, prolonged droughts in various parts of the country, and recurring flash floods. Many of these issues require long-term and participatory care by community members to mitigate and prevent. Unfortunately, the connection between these events and people’s daily lives is not obvious to many, and this makes it a challenge for people to care about and participate in improving their own environments. Why would anyone care about local fish conservation when the only times they face such fish is out of their natural habitat, most likely at supermarkets or on dinner plates? Why would anybody think twice about hacking down all the trees to build something more glamorous and profitable if the benefits the trees provide to air quality, food security, and the hydrological cycle are unknown to them? Why would someone advocate for preserving an urban stream when the alternative of cutting it off and building over it can provide additional income and business opportunities in the immediate future?

The starting point in addressing these questions might be recognizing the illogic of expecting someone to care about something that is not within his or her experience. Urban waterways can play an important role in instilling the interrelationship between urban vibrancy and the sustainability of natural environment in people’s minds. I’d like to offer a couple examples of how urban waterways can be put to such a use.

Ballard Locks, Seattle, USA

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, also known as Ballard Locks, is a place residents of Seattle visit when they feel like getting a taste of being on a quick vacation without having to go too far. It is also a popular attraction among visitors to the city; overall, over one million people visit the locks each year. The two locks in the complex offer visitors quite a spectacle, especially on sunny days when a lot of people are out in boats and kayaks. The locks allow vessels to move between the Puget Sound and Lake Union by changing water levels to essentially serve as elevators for the boats. There are often cheerful interactions among the boaters, kayakers, and the visitors looking down from the elevated walkways.

In addition to the feel-good factor and the somewhat entrancing sights of boats moving up and down and then through the locks, Ballard Locks presents a multitude of educational lessons to its visitors in a way that feels organic and effortless. The elevated walkways take visitors through a route with views that make it easy to understand the role of the locks as an important gateway on the route from Puget Sound—and the ocean beyond—to Lake Union and a connected series of freshwater lakes. The locks, by providing an adjustable, intermediary zone, ensure that the water level of the lake is maintained at a range that won’t affect the floating bridges, moorages, or boat clearances under bridges, regardless of the tidal behavior of the ocean side. They also prevent the salt water from the Puget Sound from mixing with the fresh water of the lakes. Even on a cursory visit, the relationship between the two major water bodies that encompass the city is made quite clear. The navigational and economic value the locks provide the city is illustrated by the frequent passages of both commercial and non-commercial vessels. For those curious to learn more about the engineering and history behind all these, several signs are peppered around for viewing as well as a visitors’ center.

Past the two locks, visitors cross the spillway dam, which controls the water level of the freshwater lakes, and make their way to the fish ladder viewing room. The experience of observing a group of fish climb the 21- step fish ladder through a series of large glass windows often piques visitors’ curiosity to learn more about what is going on. The room contains helpful graphic signs, illustrating that the fish on view are sockeye salmons in June and July, chinook or coho salmons in September and October, and steelheads later in the year through the winter. The signs then transition to salmon conservation and watershed cleanup efforts in the area (starting with a graphical description of what a watershed is), partially motivated by the water quality requirements for the survival of the migratory fish population. Through this brief but experiential journey, Ballard Locks brings its visitors closer to the natural world. The combination of an engaging, memorable experience and a series of supplementary information delivers a message of conservation and stewardship that resonates in an approachable, non-preachy way.

Cheong-gye-cheon, Seoul, South Korea

Cheong-gye-cheon in Seoul, South Korea, is another example of an urban waterway that provides the city’s residents and visitors with an experience tying urban ecology to the city’s overall sustainability. A thriving urban park running 3.5 miles across the center of one of the densest cities in the world, Cheong-gye-cheon provides a way to connect to nature for an average 64,000 visitors each day.

Until its reintroduction to the public as an urban park in 2005, Cheong-gye-cheon was a sewage-ridden creek encased underground to make way for an elevated highway and a retail zone, part of a postwar economic development effort. In the 1990s, structural issues and associated safety concerns about the elevated highway led to a series of discussions about the area’s future. As in many capital projects, the revitalization of Cheong-gye-cheon was not without controversy. That said, today, even the harshest critics would have a difficult time arguing against its role as an urban sanctuary where people retreat from their daily grind in the concrete jungle. Seoul is a very dense city—twice the population density of New York City—and that means most people live in condominiums and apartments with no outdoor spaces or gardens of their own. An accessible urban park featuring numerous plant and animals serves as an educational medium that keeps urban dwellers in tune with the ecological cycle in a way that was not possible before.

Located at a lower elevation than the surrounding built environment, Cheong-gye-cheon is designed to handle excess stormwater in cases of severe and/or prolonged rainfall up to a 200-year flood event. The changing water levels along the creek during rainy seasons serve as a visual marker for local precipitation patterns and raises awareness on ways stormwater can be managed in an urban setting. Cheon-gye-cheon is also a home to over 300 plant species, 25 fish species, 36 bird species, and almost 200 insect species, an over 600% increase in biodiversity compared to the area’s elevated freeway days. In the fall, it’s easy to spot children chasing after dragonflies around the creek, which was an unlikely sight in Seoul before the park came along.

Over a decade after its opening, Cheong-gye-cheon is an especially popular destination on hot summer evenings, as the temperatures around the creek during the summer months can be up to 36°F lower than just five to seven blocks away, according to a study by Seoul Metropolitan Government. The urban area around the creek previously harbored twice as many patients of respiratory diseases. Now, the area has 35% less small particle air pollution. An increase in wind speed of up to 7.8 percent through Cheon-gye-cheon’s corridor helps further with mitigating air pollution.

Many of the park’s benefits are obvious to its visitors, but its educational value has been magnified by the city’s proactive work to publish data on the environmental and health benefits provided since 2005. These benefits include improved air quality and reduction in both traffic volume and heat island effect in the area. The number of fish and wildlife species in and around the park increased over six times after the reconstruction, from 98 to 626. This information was published on the Seoul Office of Planning website and in international journals and news articles. Seoul’s communication of the post-reconstruction impact has helped to motivate several cities around the world—including Yonkers, New York, Los Angeles, and Singapore—to consider similar opportunities to include ecology features when developing or retrofitting urban infrastructure, especially along the water. Development has already taken place at the Yonkers site along the Saw Mill River, and the benefits include new local jobs, increased native vegetation, and the creation of a natural habitat and passage for migratory fish. While some issues—such as flood risk management and zoning—must be addressed to ensure the project’s long-term success, as of today, careful planning, community engagement, and implementation have helped the project succeed in bringing nature back to the city.

To see the original article on Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum’s Urban Waterways Newsletter (pp.5-9), click here.