Ecoregion-Based Design for Sustainability

by Bailey, Robert G.; Ropes, Lev; Ropes, Lev

• ISBN13: 9780387954301
• ISBN10: 0387954309
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Copernicus Books

Summary

This richly illustrated volume completes Robert G. Bailey's celebrated study of ecoregions, begun in the landmark Ecosystem Geography (1996) and further articulated in Ecoregions (1998). In this third installment, the author expands his system for defining large-scale ecological zones to encompass principles of land management, regional planning, and design. In an engaging, nontechnical discussion, he shows how larger patterns and processes that characterize a region--its climate, topography, soils, vegetation, fauna, and human culture--provide essential keys to the sustainability of ecosystems. Ecoregion-Based Design for Sustainability will be welcomed by land and resource managers, landscape architects and urban planners, ecologists, students, and anyone interested in ecology-based design."Bob Bailey [is] the man behind the ecosystem mapping of the world." -Lingua FrancaReviews of Ecoregions:"The book provides easy access to the geographic distribution, characteristics, and processes operating behind every major ecosystem in the world." -Geoscience Canada"Ecoregions offers an invaluable source of description, interpretation and analysis of global patterns of ecosystem distribution and successfully provides the reader with a means of making sense of these patterns." -GeographyRobert G. Bailey is a geographer with the United States Forest Service in Fort Collins, Colorado. Formerly the leader of the agency's Ecosystem Management Analysis Center, he is currently in charge of ecoregion studies at the Inventory and Monitoring Institute.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(20)
Understanding whole systems
Sustainable design
The need for regional ecology
Rationale for land management in an ecoregional context
The gap
Nature's Geometry	21	(12)
Linking across scales
An organizing principle for ecologically compatible design
Out of context
Reliance on technology
Regional-Scale Ecosystem Units, Ecoregions	33	(26)
Ecoregions versus other land divisions
Analysis of natural cycles
Process of differentiation
Ecoregional mapping
Pattern within regions
An Ecoregional Approach to Sustaining Ecosystems	59	(40)
Ecology-based design
History and a sense of place
New Urbanism
Understanding pattern
Maintaining the functional integrity in ecoregions
Maintaining biodiversity by leaving connections and corridors
Honoring wide-scale ecological processes
Significance to Ecosystem Management	99	(34)
Local systems within the context of larger systems
Spatial transferability of models
Links between terrestrial and aquatic systems
Design of sampling networks
Landscaping and restoration
Regional environmental problems
Transfer knowledge
Enhancing vegetation maps
How Land-Management Agencies, Conservation Organizations, and Others Use Ecoregion Maps	133	(20)
Current applications
Future possible applications
Summary and Conclusions	153	(6)
Spatial pattern matters
Context is usually more important than content
Matching development to the limits of the regions where we live
What is the next step?
Appendix A Ecological Climate Zones	159	(2)
Appendix B Climate Diagrams	161	(6)
Appendix C Resource Guide	167	(8)
Appendix D Common and Scientific Names	175	(4)
Appendix E Conversion Factors	179	(2)
Glossary of Terms as Used in This Book	181	(12)
Notes	193	(2)
Selected Bibliography	195	(14)
Index	209	(14)
About the Author and the Illustrator	223