Natural resources in an urbanizing world
The College of Natural Resources and Environment is leveraging research, innovation, and sustainable solutions to shape the cities of tomorrow.
Leave the cooling shade and birdsong of Virginia’s forests behind. Forget about the lifecycles of our interior rivers and streams, the arteries of our landscapes. Skip the coastal marshlands teeming with life, the shorelines of migrating birds forging for nesting materials.
Instead, imagine the commonwealth's cities.
Picture the century-old brick factories being converted to a new purpose in Roanoke. See new spikes rising on skylines of Alexandria or Arlington, new foundations for construction projects in Richmond. Imagine a different kind of flow altogether: one of materials and resources, of energy and waste. Imagine life in that place: people moving toward urban centers and the ecosystems of plants and animals that call our cities home.
“When we talk about cities, we often get caught up in talking about built forms or social questions or the politics of land use or economics,” said Virginia Tech Associate Professor Robert Oliver of the College of Natural Resources and Environment, who researches urban mega events such as this summer’s Olympics in Paris. “What our college is good at is reminding people that all of those questions are ultimately questions about resources.”
As world populations move toward urban spaces, understanding the interplay between the flow and utilization of natural and human resources is critical to ensuring a sustainable future for our cities. Researchers in the college are participating in critical work that will lay the foundation for our urban landscapes of tomorrow.
Where wildlife meets the streetlight
Assistant Professor Willandia Chaves’ research on the human dimensions that impact wildlife conservation takes place in two urban spheres. In the U.S., she is exploring questions of access and connection to natural spaces for people living in urban communities. In her home country of Brazil, Chaves researches how the movement of people between rural and urban areas impacts the harvest, trade, and consumption of wildlife.
“There is a big difference in terms of the demand for wildlife in places that are still developing toward urbanization,” said Chaves, who teaches in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. “In some places in Brazil, the process of urbanization is still recent and that affects how people access and use wildlife. The rural-urban transition also has implications in terms of the cultural loss of traditions and identities as well as some more immediate concerns about food security.
“We know that wildlife is important for many rural residents, but it is not yet clear how much wildlife contributes to the food security of urban residents. Given how fast the world is urbanizing, understanding wildlife use by urban residents will be important for the sustainable and equitable use of these resources.”
Assistant Professor Willandia Chaves (at left) researches the human dimensions impacting wildlife conservation in the urban environments of Brazil and the U.S. Photo courtesy of Cristiano Pires.
Chaves also is conducting and fostering research on outdoor participation and the social assets that marginalized communities utilize to access natural spaces.
“I study various social resources that people and communities use to maneuver through spaces and structures that were not created with them in mind,” said Chaves, who is an affiliate faculty member of the Global Change Center and the Center for Emerging Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens. “I am looking into what types of assets or cultural capital people can bring and rely on to create community and engage with spaces that they might otherwise feel left out of.”
Chaves is not the only professor exploring the global dimensions of human and wildlife interactions in urban environments. Elizabeth Nyboer is exploring the importance of inland fisheries to global nutrition in cities, while Luis Escobar researches the biogeography of disease transmission from animals to humans. Kathleen Alexander is utilizing a One Health vision to better understand the dynamics of an increasingly urbanizing Botswana, while Mark Ford is coordinating with federal agencies to understand and protect North American bat populations around Washington, D.C.
“Understanding the intersection of urbanization and natural resource use is critical to conservation,” said Chaves. “Urbanization fundamentally changes our relationship with the natural resources we utilize and consume, and that, in turn, impacts human well-bring.”
Seeing the tree in a concrete forest
Associate Professor Eric Wiseman belives that if you want to understand life in the city, you could start by considering the trees.
“In urban ecosystems, a lot of the critical ecosystem functions are mediated through trees,” said Wiseman, who teaches urban and community forestry in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation. “Trees have a significant influence on the cycles of water, carbon, and nitrogen. They mitigate extreme heat by casting shade and capturing solar energy, and they are the scaffolding habitat for the flora and fauna that occupy the natural spaces in cities.”
Wiseman’s research and teaching focuses on understanding the ecology and physiology of urban forests, and how they can be managed to enhance ecosystem processes while also improving life for city dwellers.
“There’s a great deal of systems thinking in urban forestry,” Wiseman said. “The field has its roots in traditional forestry, where we’re aiming to understand the basic geographic and ecological characteristics of a landscape to better cultivate trees for a desired outcome, often production of lumber and pulp.
“In urban spaces, instead of a stand of trees in a forest, we might be managing numerous individual trees in a park or a neighborhood or even an entire city. Our management interventions are aimed not at maximizing the product value of a tree, but instead on trying to sustain trees for their non-commodity ecosystem services.”
Associate Professor Eric Wiseman (at left) leads the urban forestry program in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation. Photo by Krista Timney for Virginia Tech.
Wiseman said the subject of urban green and forest space is increasingly merging with social science conversations about inclusivity and access for underserved communities.
“Increasingly, we’re having students enter our program with interests in addressing questions of environmental justice and tree canopy equity for underserved and vulnerable populations,” said Wiseman. “For people in a city, urban forests are one of the primary mechanisms toward addressing environmental justice issues.”
Wiseman is not the only researcher looking to trees to enhance life in the city. In the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials, Daniel Hindman, Joe Loferski, and Brian Bond, the college’s associate dean for Extension, outreach, and engagement, are researching the potentials and capacities of low-carbon wood composites such as cross-laminated timber for sustainable solutions to building construction.
Virginia Water Resources Research Center Associate Director Daniel McLaughlin is conducting research with The Nature Conservancy and the City of Virginia Beach to explore how the urban forests of Virginia Beach can mitigate stormwater challenges while also providing ecosystem services to the booming coastal region.
“Urban forests serve a disproportionate role in services like water removal from storm events,” said McLaughlin. “It’s really important to realize that even small patches of forests within an otherwise urban landscape can provide important services to a community, and the response from citizens has been overwhelmingly supportive.”
A wide-scale vision of urban challenges
As Paris braces for the Summer Olympics, Robert Oliver is preparing to add one more data point to his research exploring large-scale events and how cities manage rapid urban change.
“My work has long been about mega events,” said Oliver, who teaches in the Department of Geography. "I look at things like the Olympics and say, ‘All right, what was the visioning plan for a city, how did it unfold, and what sticks around after the event is over.'”
Oliver, who teaches urban sustainability and human geography dynamics in cities, said large-scale events provide geographers the chance to explore an intersection of concepts, from political motivations to public space uses to resource allocation and land utilization.
“One of the central themes of my introduction to human geography course is human-environment interaction,” said Oliver, who said students taking that course come from a range of majors around Virginia Tech. “That interaction requires us to think about how humans adapt, modify, and depend on their environment, and how we can think about smarter solutions for the challenges of urban living.”
Associate Professor Robert Oliver – who teaches on the subjects of urban sustainability and human geography dynamics in cities – is an expert on urban megaevents like this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris. Photo courtesy of Robert Oliver.
Oliver, who utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to develop broad-scale perspectives on urban outcomes, said an event such as the Summer Olympics presents an opportunity for cities to make improvements that align with multiple ambitions.
“A number of years ago, the International Olympic Committee tried to realign the priorities of the Olympic movement to be more in line with the urban goals of host cities,” said Oliver. “The 2024 Olympics in Paris will be the first benchmark of the new agenda. The city is being very deliberate about the adaptive reuse of existing facilities while striving to locate new infrastructure in previously underserved areas.”
The broad perspective view that Oliver applies to cities echoes throughout the college. Fellow geographer Anamaria Bukvic is merging community surveys with geospatial data to better understand how coastal communities can react and adapt to the challenges of rising seas, while Junghwan Kim is exploring human mobility questions while leading the Smart Cities for Good research group that explores how to leverage technology to solve environmental and social challenges in urban locations.
Finally, Jennifer Russell and Kiara Winans, both in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials, are blazing a new trail to transition industry and society toward economic models that prioritize sustainability and a circular economy.
“Humans have the ability to make or break the possibility of sustainable cities,” said Russell. “We have the technology, the data, and the ability to adapt and innovate, and what we’re working toward now is collective alignment and understanding.”
Understanding the flow and utilization of resources such as trees and water, the interplay between humans and animals, and the broad-scale dynamics of life in urban spaces are critical drivers for the coming century, a priority of the United Nations Sustainable Cities and Communities goal to make cities inclusive, safe, and resilient.
Researchers in the College of Natural Resources and Environment will be at the forefront of understanding, building, and adapting today’s natural resources for the demands of tomorrow’s urbanizing world.
