1 Votes in favor of the idea “to green the earth”

“We must learn to green the earth, to restore the earth, and to heal the earth. I long to live to see it.” writes the late American ecological scholar-practitionerFootnote 1 and educator Ian L. McHarg (1920–2001) in his 1996 autobiography A quest for life (McHarg, 1996, p. 374). “I would love to be here when this process (of greening, restoring, and healing the earth—the author) is apace…In my mind’s eye I see myself with a group of scientists, looking at the earth from space, viewing the shrinking deserts, the burgeoning forests, the clear atmosphere, the virgin oceans, smiling at the recovery, anticipating the day when a successor will announce, ‘the earth is healed, the earth is well.’” (Ibid., p. 375)

23 years later, on February 11th, 2019, McHarg would had been euphoric to see the following news from NASA on twitterFootnote 2:

“Good news for green thumbs: The world is a greener place than it was 20 years ago. Data from @NASAEarth satellites shows that human activity in China and India dominate(s) this greening of the planet, thanks to tree planting & agriculture. Get the data: https://go.nasa.gov/2N10aW6” (NASA 2019, italic by the author).

This is, however, not the first time that history voted in his favor.Footnote 3

2 Votes in favor of “unsuitability for urbanization,” Staten Island, New York

In his 1969 landmark book Design with nature (McHarg 1969, pp. 103–115), McHarg presents an “intrinsic [land] suitability” assessment projectFootnote 4 he directed in 1968 on Staten Island in New York City for the New York Department of Parks. Among the 39 maps he includes is one titled “Unsuitability for urbanization” (Ibid., p. 113). It delineates areas on the island that are intrinsically unsuitable for urban development because of the predominant restricting factors, such as high flood risk, poor surface and soil drainage, and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. In particular, he calls attention to the foreseeable detriment of hurricanes and associated deluges—“Hurricanes (could—the author) sweep up over the oceans and bring tidal inundation (to the island—the author).” (Ibid., p. 104)

Nearly half a century later, the proof of “Unsuitability for urbanization” came in an unfortunate, devastating way. On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy hit the New York City area, including Staten Island. It dealt a punishing blow to the Atlantic side of the island, causing severe damages and 23 deaths (Wagner et al. 2016, p. 34; Yates 2016). An aftermath assessment reveals a remarkably high degree of overlap between the areas on the island that were evacuated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a result of Superstorm Sandy and the areas McHarg designated in his 1968 study as intrinsically unsuitable for urban development (Steiner et al. 2013, pp. 357–358; in particular, on page 358 is a telling juxtaposition of McHarg’s map “Unsuitability for urbanization” and a map of FEMA evacuation zones). Tragically, the 23 victims were all found in or near those unsuitable-for-urbanization areas along the east shore—the Atlantic side of the island [Wagner et al. 2016, p. 34; for a map showing the 23 death locations, see Yates (2016)]; and 86.6% of the damaged buildings located in the unsuitable-for-urbanization areas across the island (Wagner et al. 2016, pp. 42–43).

Further proofs were found in the subsequent actions socio-ecological practitionersFootnote 5 took on the unsuitable-for-urbanization areas. Since the early 2014, a New York state voluntary home buyout program—NY Rising Buyout Program—has been in place to rectify the demonstrated “incongruity of coastal risk and residential land use” along the east shore (NY Rising Community Reconstruction (NYRCR) Staten Island East and South Shores Planning Committee 2014, p. 67). Two different buyout zones were demarcated on the unsuitable-for-urbanization areas the 1968 study delineated (New York City Department of City Planning 2017; Wagner et al. 2016, p. 44) “with the objective of returning extreme risk areas back to a natural wetland state” (NY Rising Community Reconstruction (NYRCR) Staten Island East and South Shores Planning Committee 2014, p. 67).Footnote 6 New and more restrictive zoning regulations were established on the designated “special coastal risk district” along the east shore, including the two buyout zones (New York City Department of City Planning 2017).

Evidently, “McHarg had it right,” to borrow a phrase from American ecological planner and educator Frederick Steiner (2012, in “Appendix” of this article).

3 Votes in favor of “a profoundly simple concept”, The Woodlands, Texas

In the early 1970s, McHarg led an ecological planning project for The Woodlands New Community in Texas, USA. He and his colleagues first conducted a thorough intrinsic land suitability assessment with the same method they employed in the 1968 Staten Island study (McHarg 1996, p. 258; Yang 2019, p. 69; see also footnote 4 in this article). Based on the assessment results, they developed a novel yet “profoundly simple concept” for building ecological resilience—”to determine densities and land use from the geohydrological properties of the soils.” (McHarg 1996, p. 260)Footnote 7 Manifesting this central tenet, in the ecological plan they crafted, development is allocated primarily on the nonporous soils so that “the addition of asphalt, concrete, and housing … would have no appreciable (ecological—the author) effect” (Ibid.); detention and retention ponds and swales are “designed to accommodate extreme events” (Ibid.), and all concentrated on the more permeable soils so that surface water can percolate down into the underground and recharge the aquifer; and the richness of flora and fauna communities on the more penetrable soils is intact. (For more details about the implementation of this concept, see Lyle 1999, p. 103, p. 237; McHarg 1996, pp. 259–264; Xiang 2016, pp. 56–57; Yang 2019, pp. 69–75; Yang and Li 2016, pp. 24–29.)Footnote 8

It did not take long before the town began to receive what American research psychologist Judith Rodin (2014) calls “the resilience dividend” (Rodin 2014) against urban flooding that McHarg and his colleagues promised in the ecological plan (McHarg 1996, p. 264). According to American landscape planning scholars Bo Yang and Shujuan Li, “The Woodlands survived storms that exceeded a 100-year level in 1979 and a 500-year level in 1994 with little property damage, while Houston (50 km away) was severely flooded during both events… In a tropical storm in 1987, two adjacent communities (Oak Ridge North and Timber Ridge) were awash, while The Woodlands survived unscathed.” (Yang and Li 2016, p. 24) During Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, while Houston’s flood management system was overwhelmed, “there were very few flooded streets in The Woodlands, and almost none existed in the early-built villages that were more faithful to McHarg’s (ecological—the author) plan.Footnote 9 It is evident that The Woodlands demonstrated a greater level of resilience to flood than its adjacent communities and Houston … The sharp contrast of flood resilience is a result of The Woodlands’ comprehensive ecological plan, which Houston lacks.” (Yang 2019, pp. 213–214)

Besides the dividends of ecological resilience, the town also enjoyed economic and social benefits the implementation of this “profoundly simple concept” provided. “The Woodlands now has a population of 30,000 with 10,000 jobs,” wrote McHarg in 1996, “[t]he forest is intact, the hydrologic system is in balance… the population is very gratified, as is the developer. Woodlands continues to attract an ever-increasing proportion of the Houston housing market. But best of all is the demonstration that it is not only possible, but profitable, to design with nature. Nothing beats the combination of righteousness and profit.” (McHarg 1996, p. 264, italic by the author)

This “profoundly simple concept … has worked very well indeed,” he concluded in 1996 (McHarg 1996, p. 260), and would restate it 23 years later in 2019 with the backing of Yang’s comparative assessment on The Woodlands’ performance during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 (Yang 2019, pp. 213–214).Footnote 10

4 Why did history vote these many times in McHarg’s favor?

There are more instances of McHarg’s effective, time-honored socio-ecological practice research. In addition to those above showcased, for example, a recently documented “Ian McHarg and ‘the ecology of the city’” can be found in Xiang (2019b).

This question is the focus of a knowledge I&I (implementation and impact) research article the author is developing for this journal (Socio-Ecological Practice Research—SEPR), and will be in the article’s title for sure.